- Chapter Forty-Nine -

Sweet Dreams, Dear One

Cigarette still burning in the crystalline ashtray on the honey oak nightstand, only one of the shaded lamps had been left on to help set the mood (and probably so that she could find her way to the bed without breaking something). Path angled a mere hair for modesty, the young woman probably could have found her way in the dark; game of Marco Polo a tempting idea in another life, it was kind of great of him to think ahead.

Room the baby bear to her Goldilocks, there was only just enough space to host a pair of beds, two small dressers, a television, and a pretty decent bathroom. As such, it hadn't taken long for the swirling smoke to fill the air and cast a choking coal cloud that was scarcely visible in the dim light.

Biting the inside of her lip as she imagined all the ways he might have entertained himself while he waited, the heiress had stripped off her sweater in the hall. Checking first that the path was empty so that no one else was there to see the battle scars, the cozy pearl material that had been sloppily folded in her arms came completely undone when it was discarded on the floor. She hadn't been so bold as to do more in a public space, but considering they both knew that she wasn't wearing any underwear...

"I'm back." Wiser than she had been the day before and far more tired from the talk with Elena than anticipated, Daniella wasn't entirely sure if she was up for anything, but she wasn't against it either. "Sam...?"

Grown old from waiting, the grizzled brunette was propped up against the dimpled headboard in a way that suggested he had actually slid down a fair ways. Sound asleep, he probably hadn't even heard her coming in. Yeah, I don't blame you. Noting that he had done away with his shoes and socks already, the heiress covered him up with the solid sea-blue blanket so he didn't get too cold in the middle of the night. Cautious of waking him up, she had also did what she could to yank him down and into a more comfortable position so that he didn't royally screw up his neck.

Unzipping her skirt so that it puddled at her feet, she thought about the comfy cotton pants waiting in the dresser, but the sticky heat was too much for so much fabric, so then she considered at least getting a new pair of underwear. She considered it. Fingering the hem of her top tentatively, instead the young woman unhooked the double latch of her padding and tossed the bra to the floor. It felt strange being so naked, but for the part of her brain that wasn't too beat to care, it made no sense to dirty more clothes when she was in desperate need of a shower still.

Yeah, that was why she was getting so comfortable, not because she was experimenting with her theory about closeness...

Walking over to his side of the bed to stamp out the smoldering line of ash, Daniella noticed an assortment of at least three different kinds of condoms laid out, one of which she recognized and knew to be watermelon flavored. Two empty glasses waited besides a bottle of cheap scotch, sweat pooling around the bottom. Oh, what could have been.

Menial tasks over and done with, Dells pulled back the covers just enough to curl up next to the thief. Granted it would have been really nice to finish the day on an even better note, but by that point she was just too sleepy to muster the energy required, so the heiress settled with snuggling up close to Sam. She'd wanted to have that talk Elena encouraged, but they could do that later.

Yawning, Daniella closed her eyes and contemplated that maybe going to bed half-naked and sleeping without a pillow to divide their bodies was too ambitious to tackle in a single night... Oh well, maybe she would wake up first, and he would be none the wiser.

Drifting off, it wasn't long before the two of them were asleep like nothing had happened, like they were fine, like there weren't killers after them, like they hadn't changed a single damn thing in their dynamic.

[A Bad Dream From Years Ago]

On the eighth anniversary of Rafe's death, Bai stood beneath a larger-than-life and immensely flattering portrait of the deceased. Hair tousled and glasses back on the nightstand with half a bottle of Ambien and a tumbler of tequila, the woman had risen from a nightmare and had spent the better part of the AM hours just staring up at her lost love. Ordinarily she was what bad dreams had, and the gallery was the last place she would spend her spare time, but today was special.

Rather, today should not have existed, and in a better world, it didn't.

Daniella must have agreed, because the girl was silently watching her father as the sun peered nosily through the lofty windows and bathed the room in a rosy gold hue. Her first instinct when seeing the girl was to scream at her to get out, that she couldn't possibly understand what it was like to live without Rafe, but the truth was that she was the only other person in the whole world that did get it.

Instead of punish the girl further, she wrapped her arm around her daughter and they mourned together. Jun would likely be expecting their presence for breakfast, and the school might ask after her baby if no one had remembered to call them at any point in the week leading up to today, but none of that mattered. Not today.

Unable to forgive herself for how things had ended between the two of them, knowing what she knew now, the businesswoman wished she could do it all again so that she wouldn't make the same mistake. Fuck the company, he could keep it and their daughter if it meant that she could have just one more day in his arms. Nothing in this life had made up for losing Rafe, nothing could even come close. What they had had been special, had been worth the fight, and it was her deepest regret that she hadn't fought harder to keep him.

On the verge of tears, Bai had looked down at the only thing that remained of their love, and she seriously contemplated snapping the girl's pretty little neck and downing the rest of her sleeping pills. Was it really worth keeping their child when he wasn't there? The question came every year, and every year the woman was less convinced that keeping an imperfect clone was the right answer. The bespectacled beauty didn't hate the girl, but Daniella wasn't her father - she was just a painful reminder.

Rafe had grown bored when the baby came, and that had been one of her biggest fears. The billionaire made it no secret that he wasn't thrilled about the accident, yet for just a moment, he'd entertained the idea of playing house. Honestly Bai had no clue what might have swayed him to even toy with the notion, but for those few minutes, she was happy, because they were together, and what had happened in Vegas hadn't been just words.

He really had loved her.

Kissing her daughter's head, the woman was angry with herself for even entertaining the idea. Something else they had in common, they would irrevocably hate anyone that would dare to harm their little girl, even one another. Daniella was their greatest treasure, even if he had never realized it.

Breakfast just the distraction she needed from her thoughts, the duo made their way to the dinning room to be served whatever was on the menu that day. Ignorant of what had almost happened in the gallery, of what might be waiting for her in her future, Daniella held her mother's hand the entire way. Across an empty expanse of marble, jewels, masterpieces, and a number of hollow artifacts that could have made anyone fabulously wealthy if they'd managed to get their paws on only one, the girl hadn't let go until they found the current husband waiting for them. Even then it had been hesitant, as if she might lose her mother too.

Paper up like it was every morning, he scanned the international pages presented on his tablet and only looked up at the two when reaching for his morning coffee. Duty first, he gazed at his wife and muttered something in Cantonese about her looking tired. Examining the teen more closely, Jun's eyes lingered on the girl longer than anyone would have liked, but nothing was said or done. It never was.

Praying for the old bastard's blind spot, Daniella had seated herself at the middle of the table, below an arrangement of overflowing blue blooms in a vase with slices of fresh blood oranges. Edible art, although who would be eating them later was a mystery to the head of the house. Frankly she didn't care. Nor was she being extra careful about how she slumped down in her own chair, all traces of elegance lost for the next twenty or so hours. For Rafe, she would just be herself.

Neither of her fake husbands could ever hope to hold a candle to the man that had originally owned the house, however the one thing she could give the first was that he had been decent at the least. Showing up on the continent hours before the wake, Shen had remained by her side the whole day, bracing her every time she'd had to speak and holding her up so that she hadn't fallen to her knees from the pain.

That had been the first and only time anyone that mattered had seen her really cry.

Respecting the grief of a widow, he had played the part of a friend, remaining close in the following days. Of course Baba had been impatient to see the bargain upheld, so the wedding hadn't been long after the grieving period ended. Shen had offered to wait a little longer if she needed, but after half a year, Bai knew that there was no point in procrastinating - Rafe was gone, and nothing was going to bring him back.

In terms of how the little bitty heiress had seen the transition, it hadn't exactly been like her parents were close in the traditional sense - in fact the argument could be made that they had acted more like a divorced couple passing the offspring back and forth than anything. Rafe had Nadine, Sam, Shoreline, and Avery. Bai had... well, she was too busy working to dwell on the little details.

Thankfully for all parties involved, it hadn't occurred to the girl to treat her new step-father like enemy number one. Shen had always been nice to her, was one of the few to even remember that she was even alive during that period, and he seemed to care about her mother in some capacity. In her head obviously there wasn't a man alive that could ever replace her Daddy, but he was a good friend.

Jun? Not so much.