Chapter 127

Aldo

I felt my heart crack as I watched Eli retreat to the safety of his room. But I knew that whatever I was feeling was nothing compared to what Layla was. Her entire body went stiff until she visibly began shaking.

She buried her face in her hands and broke out into a devastating sob. “Oh my God,” she cried. “I’ve lost everything.”

I wanted to pull her into my arms and assure her that Eli’s feelings would pass once he calmed down. While Layla was down at the police station, I immediately stayed with Eli and made sure that he was alright.

He, thankfully, hadn’t sustained any injuries but there wasn’t much that could be said for his mental state. The poor kid was very shaken up. Eli wasn’t much in the mood for chatting when I tried to speak with him.

I couldn’t blame him. In my own defense, my mind had been very much wrapped around the fact that Agent Carter had taken Layla to the police station. I had half a mind to follow her down there and snatch her back from the asshole’s clutches.

For nearly an hour, my mind had been swirling with various possible scenarios as to why this agent had singled her out. It had to have been because of the fact that Layla was my wife. Had he been following her? What sort of file had he gathered on her?

The longer I waited in suspense, the more my mind was reeling. However, now was not the time for such an inquiry. Layla was falling to pieces.

We all watched her sway back on her heels. She lost what little color was left in her face and she looked as though she was on the verge of passing out.

“Layla?”

Her face pinched into a pained expression. She shook her head and tore herself away from the rest of us. She stormed down the hallway toward the direction of our bedroom.

“Oh, shit,” I muttered under my breath.

“You need to find out what happened with that investigator,” my mother said.

Layla’s grandmother reached out to rest her hand on my arm. “Just take it easy on her, yeah? Poor looks like she’s been through hell.”

Something definitely happened. Before she noticed Eli, I took in Layla’s depressed and saddened demeanor. I needed to find out exactly what happened and then find a way to deal with this federal agent.

When I reached the bedroom, I opened the door and felt my heart stagger in my chest. What the hell?

My eyes grew wide while my mind failed to comprehend what I was seeing. I partly expected to find Layla lying on the bed with her head between the pillows or even standing under the shower. But no.

Layla was pacing the length of the entire room, flinging several pieces of clothing—her clothing into a large suitcase that was laid open on the bed. She hadn’t bothered to even glance at me as she went about rummaging through the closet and dresser.

“What are you doing?” I asked, not really wanting to find out the answer.

“I’m moving out of this room,” she said quietly.

What the actual fuck?!

If someone had literally struck me across the face, I would have been less surprised. My mind slipped into a daze and all I could do was watch her move. Everything that belonged to her was getting tossed into some kind of suitcase or duffle bag.

A horrible high-pitched ringing filtered through my ears, causing my head to spin.

My own voice sounded far away to me. “And just where the hell are you planning on going?” I asked.

“A different part of the house. There’s a ton of empty rooms. I’m sure I’ll find one that suits me in this damn prison,” she muttered darkly.

It took several long seconds to blink back the second wave of the shock that hit me. Prison??

Since when was our home considered a prison for her?

I couldn't bear to watch the manic show of her flinging her life around the room any further. Clearing my head, I stepped in the path of her excessive packing and grabbed for her arms.

“Would you stop for a single moment—Stop it!” I shouted. “What the hell is going on? Tell me.”

I frantically searched Layla’s face for any given sign of some kind of explanation. Her eyes were what struck me first. I couldn’t believe how I managed to miss it before...They’d lost the light in them.

Before the whole mess with Vanessa, Layla’s eyes persistently held that unsettling look of darkness. As unnerving as it was, it still possessed far more emotion than what I was seeing now. Now, she looked entirely void of all feelings.

Layla parted her lips but nothing came out. Again, her features pinched in that same anguish look from earlier.

“No,” she said softly. “I don’t have it in me to talk.”

I let out a deflated breath. “Layla...Alright, I won’t ask about Agent Carter, but will you at least tell me why the hell you're moving out of our room?”

“I need a break,” she said. Her voice cracked toward the end as though she was struggling to keep the pain out of her voice.

My brows pulled together as the strenuous ache in my chest continued to spread. “A break?”

“I’m not going to pretend that what’s been going on around here, between us, is okay,” she said. “I am not okay...And neither are we.”

The lower my heart sank, the higher my anxiety began to climb. This was not the Layla I knew and loved. When things got difficult, she wasn’t one to simply give up and quit. She was persistent.

Layla was someone who’d always fought and argued for the things she cared about and the things that mattered.

But it was like she’d reached her limit. She’d run out of fight and all the energy and drive had been sucked out of her. I never thought I would ever see the day when something like that would've happened.

“Tell me why we’re not okay,” I pressed.

“Aldo,” she breathed.

I sensed her tone of warning but I had to know. This wasn’t just about her, it involved us. While she may want her space, I still deserved to know what was going on. I could tell there was a lot she wasn’t telling me.

Layla turned to head toward the door but I was faster. Right as she turned the handle to open the door, I threw my hand out to slam it closed.

“This conversation is not over.”

“It is.”

“Layla—”

“Move out of the way before I decide to leave this house rather than just this room,” she said threateningly. Her voice filled with a dry malice that nearly made me flinch. “If you’re so eager to want to talk to someone, why don’t you call up Ethan?”

Fucking hell. I should have known that was destined to come to bite me back in the ass.

“You have every right to be mad about my working with Ethan.”

She scoffed. “Oh, believe me, I am. I hope you think that involving the actual fucking police was worth it in the end.”

“The only known casualty was Michael Rossetti,” I pointed out. “Considering things were planned to end a whole lot worse. Vanessa is lucky to have walked away with her life intact given her own losses.”

Layla’s expression filled with disgust. “Somehow I feel as though I’m the one who ended up losing a lot more than she did.”