Chapter 5 Becoming A Savior?

"Get these impure steps out of my home!" Greg roared. "She is no longer welcome here!"

Amid my relief and happiness of saving her. I perceive everyone would prefer that too. 

Instead, I watched Greg Whitlock- a man I once respected- shove his daughter back so hard she collided with my chest. 

"What are you doing, Greg?" I demanded, my voice tight. I caught her instinctively sensing her body trembling and whimpering.

"She’s your daughter. She’s free of that bastard."

The display of cruelty by her father was unforeseen, it was not part of my plan. 

"She was free the day we told her not to marry him!" Greg hissed, the sheer look of disgust on his face turned things blurry for me. 

"She chose him over our name, our money, and our love. She cursed us for trying to protect her.” He informed me.

I glanced at Alyssa who looked down in shame, tears smeared across her cheek, silently crying over her life choices. 

The remorse of her blind love came crashing on her.  

“She got what she wanted. She’s his problem now."

"Papa, please..." Alyssa’s voice was rough. She clutched at her dress, looking at him with tears, "I was wrong. I made a mistake. Don't abandon me."

"The doors of this house closed the day you said 'I do,' Alyssa." Greg announced, his voice devoid of mercy. 

"I walked you down the aisle. That was my last duty. Don't expect another." He turned to leave, eyes narrowed.

"Where will I go?" she wailed, "I have nothing left!"

"Go back to your husband. Or sleep in the street. You aren't my family anymore."

I stepped forward, my finger pointing at Greg’s chest. "You’re a monster. If you won't accept her, who will?"

Placing his hand in between dominantly, Greg refused any contact. Ignoring the resonance of painful wailing, or the need to embrace glimmering in those eyes.

She needed her family the most. 

Weren’t parents supposed to forgive their children for mistakes? 

Where was the compassion? And especially, what was her fault? That she was blinded by love? 

“You don’t meddle in our family matters, Vince, she made her choices. She died for us the day she chose Ken.”

Her steps stumbled at the cruel enunciation. It took her minute to contemplate the heaviness of his words. 

The very people she loved- they left her.

Her world shattered in one night. 

Nodding weakly, she sniffled to gather her ravaged condition, “Fine…” 

Wiping her tears and retreating her steps, her features hardened as she declared her separation as well.

“I won’t come to you people even on the verge of dying…!” 

“Alyssa, no-” 

I held my hand out but shouting amid her crying, she ran out of the mansion without any intention of returning after being deserted.

“You will regret it. How can you do this to her?” 

“She is the one who should be regretting. This is her lesson, let her learn, Vince,” He muttered, gritting his teeth. 

“I am not heartless like you. I won’t abandon her.” 

All my plan was going downhill, that instead of helping, I doubled her tribulations. Everything was in shambles.

Fuck!

I was searching for her through the streets and saw her almost jumping in front of a truck to end her life. 

Horrified at the sight, I sprinted towards her senselessly to grab her.

“ALYSSA!” 

Fortunately, pushing her out of the way, I saved her at the last moment but we both fell on the sidewalk.

Panting, I was on top of her, keeping her pinned down on the footpath by her wrist, staring at the razed woman hopelessly as she was crying badly. 

“What the fuck you were thinking!? What the hell is wrong with you!?” 

“What else am I supposed to do, huh!?” Screaming, she pushed me away and stood up. “Can’t you hear what he said!? 

Panicking, trembling, I held her elbows the second we stood up, scanning her worriedly, not letting her do this stupidity again.

“Tell me what place I have left now!? It’s better to die than to die on the fucking streets!”  

“You are not dying on the streets, dammit!” I shouted back, breathless, my hair sticking to my forehead due to sweat of anxiety. 

Disturbed to fathom what could have happened if I was two seconds late.

I'd be cursing myself for eternity.

“I shouldn’t have taken that divorce. What was I thinking? I left everyone for Ken.” 

“Don't say this. This isn't your fault,”

Sobbing, her body lost its strength as she sat down, covering her face in her hands to conceal the shame. I looked down, powerless. 

“What is going to happen to me now? Who will shelter me? I have no roof over my head anymore, Vince,”

I watched the woman express her grief. My attempt to shelter her ended up devastating her. I was struggling on what to do to save her before the darkness consumed her.

“I have made myself notorious because of that stupid love… I am disgraced… people will laugh at me… I have no respect, no home, no family left…” 

I sat beside her, hanging my head low. Fists clenching and unclenching to perceive what I must do next. Her words were pricking me too much. 

Shit, what have I done?!

“Alyssa, hold yourself, please.”

“How can I, dammit?!” She growled, rejecting my touch when I tried to hold her shoulder.

My lips parted to reply but nothing came. Curling my hand in a powerless fist, veins became visible, impotent to find a way to help her.

Roughly wiping her tears with her sleeves, she hugged her knees, whimpering softly to herself.

“Who will accept me now, Vince?”

I blinked, as if I had found my path, “Come again?”

The silence of the street stretched between us. I looked at her- broken, beautiful, and haunted. I looked at the path I had carved for her and I must take accountability for it. 

“Who will accept me now, Vince?” She repeated more weakly.

“I will.” 

“What…?” 

“I will accept you,” Facing her firmly, I declared unwaveringly. 

“...By which right?”

Placing her hand in between, her body quivered at the unpredictable suggestion, never once in her life, she pictured us together.

Neither did I.

“Who- Who are you to shelter me? Why should I come with you? To increase the talks and be more humiliated? No thanks.” 

Uttering quietly, she averted her gaze, declining any further reason to face insult.

To that, I had another thoughtless idea.

“Then come with me respectfully, eradicate all reasons for degeneration. Stand beside me.” 

Perturbed about where this was leading, she shifted back, “H-How?”

My heart is pounding rapidly, my mind screaming to decline this idea. My soul rejected the words I was going to speak.

Marriage was at the bottom of my priority list. Yet to redeem. I saw no choice.

“Marry me, Alyssa.” 

Overflowing with determination to fix this problem for her since I was the one who created it, I offered wholeheartedly.

“I am willing to become your safe-shelter. Let me save you.”