Wednesday, November 19, 2014

Chapter 121-The Hands of Time



Mulo stood propped up in the doorway wearing his signature smug grin.

“What are you doing here?”

“Come now Love, you already know why I’m here,” he smiled and strolled past me into my hotel room.

Seeing him again after the last few weeks, left me conflicted. I had told myself I wasn’t going to go to him. I had to handle this on my own for the sake of my marriage, I had to, but he was here. He came to me…but I couldn’t let him…I couldn’t accept his help.


“You can’t stay. You…I…you have to go.”

“You seem nervous, Love,” Mulo said crossing the room to stand in front of me. “Why are you so nervous?” His voice dropped down as he let his fingers trace the contour of my jaw.

“Mulo, don’t.”

He ran his thumb across my bottom lip and inhaled deeply. “I know that scent well,” he said with a smirk.


I shifted my weight from leg to leg, ignoring his comment. “How did you know I was here?”

“We may not be bonded like before, Love, but I always know where you are.”

I narrowed my eyes and frowned at him. “You do know that stalking someone is against the law.”

He laughed. “Are you going to turn me in?”


He stood in front of me, smiling. Something was off, different. Mulo had always been serious, but he seemed relaxed, almost playful. He leaned forward, his clean spicy scent swirled around me. Our time on the island came barreling back, all the feelings, emotions and primal urges threatening to take over. I moved away needing to distance myself. Wrapping my arms around my body, I thought about Marcus. I’d told him this was done. We were married, we took vows. Mulo couldn’t be a part of my life anymore. When I looked up, Mulo was studying me intently.

“That look tells me you’re worried about the husband.”

“You said you respected my choice. You said you’d stop this pursuit of me and let me live in peace with the man that I love.”


“One of the men you love,” he corrected, “and I did when I thought he was worthy of you. However, any man that would make you choose between his frail ego and your child gets no respect!”

I opened my mouth to refute his claims but came up empty. How could Mulo know that’s how I’d felt? “He’s…that’s not what he’s doing. He wouldn’t.”

“He may not have said it out right, but that’s exactly what is happening. Our son came to me. Our son! The boy that has all but disowned me, came on your behalf because you are scared to because of how he would ‘feel’.” Mulo’s tone was harsh and awash with sarcasm and contempt.


“That’s not…that’s not why. It wasn’t about him.”

“No?” he asked cocking his head to the side. Challenging my lie.


“No. It’s me. I…I need to not always use you as my crutch. I can’t always depend on you. I can’t always come to you when there’s an issue. I need to stand on my own two feet.” I hoped my words sounded more convincing than I felt. It was true; I needed to not always run to Mulo. Marcus was right in that statement.


“That’s great, Love, and I would respect that if it wasn’t total bullshit.” He crossed the room, pulling me into his arms. “Tell me that when you got that first call your first thought wasn’t about me. Tell me you didn’t want me instantly to come and save Ceula, save you from whatever Marisol is doing. Tell me that and I’ll walk out of here right now and leave you to it.” His voice was gruff, his words harsh, but truthful. And he knew it.



I pushed him away. “It doesn’t matter Mulo! You…you are just as guilty of bringing her into my life as my father. Now you both want to scramble to clean up the mess you made!”

“He threw you to the wolves. I’m just trying to keep you from being eaten.”

“Keep me from being eaten? What?! No Mulo that’s not what you’ve done to me. You…you know what you’ve done to me. You’ve felt the pain you’ve caused me.”

“And I’ve apologized for that. You felt my remorse! You’ve forgiven me.”


I let out a heavy sigh. “You’re right, I have, but…this trip down memory lane her game has lead me on has made me reflect on a lot. I’m left with so many what-ifs it kills me!”

“Like what, Love?”

“Like what if my father had made a different choice? What if I’d never left Riverview? What if you…” I stopped myself on the last one. This would get me no-where. Questioning the past couldn’t change my current situation. What was done, was done and I just had to find a way to survive it like everything else.


“What if I what?” Mulo pressed. He stood closer to me, those feelings from earlier worming their way back into my consciousness.


Our eyes locked, his features were soft; caring. There was something between us that Marcus didn’t understand and hated. If I wanted to be honest with myself, I didn’t fully understand it either. Mulo had hurt me in many ways, yet I was pulled to him. The connection we had was one of the great mysteries of the world. Even now as he stood in front of me part of me was happy to see him.

“Have you ever thought about what our lives could have been like if you weren’t such an ass?”

He smirked. “I suspect we would have traveled a lot and spent quite a bit of time in bed,” he answered.


I rolled my eyes. “Always comes back to sex with you doesn’t it? I’m being serious, Mulo.”

“I am too.”

“So the only reason you wanted me was for your personal concubine?”

His arms wrapped around my waist. His presence was overwhelming like always. “That is a divine idea,” he whispered into my ear, “but you know you mean more than that to me.”


I turned my head to look at him. Our lips were mere centimeters apart. If either of us moved, they would connect, and if that happened all hell would break loose. The desire pulsated around us thick and hot. The warm heat of his slow exhales tickled my face. We stood close, the arm around my waist held our bodies pressed together. My body temperature rose and there was a tingling of excitement between my legs as my arousal grew. He waited; waited for me to make the first move, to let him know that it was okay. I closed my eyes, inhaling deeply.


“Do I know that?” I asked, my voice barely above a whisper.

Mulo’s free hand caressed my cheek, his thumb slowly ran across my lips. “Yes, Love.”


“Then why? Why make me suffer? Why cause me pain and heartache? Why not stand beside me through this crazy thing Marisol inflicted upon me instead of making it worse? All you had to do was love me Mulo. Was that too much to ask?”

I was alone. The heat of his body taken away as he pulled from our embrace.

“I do, but I’m not a traditional man, Love, therefore what you get from me won’t fall into the same category as the everyday man. Would you want me any other way?” 


There was anger in his voice. Mulo was never a man that liked his faults being pointed out, but I needed closure. I couldn’t keep living in this state of limbo. I loved him. I desired him, but something had to give. He couldn’t keep toying with my emotions and I couldn’t let him.

“No Mulo, you are who you are and I do love you for that.”

“But?”

“When things changed for you, when you started to care about me, to love me, your actions didn’t reflect that. Instead you acted like that kid on the playground pulling my pigtails because he liked me. You chose to be angry, and make things harder on me instead of just stepping up and admitting how you felt and acting accordingly.”


“We’ve been over this!” he yelled.

“Yes, we have but that doesn’t change how I feel Mulo! I am tired, and angry, and confused, and conflicted on a daily basis. I am married to a man that has had his life so fucked over simply because he loves me. Anyone in their right mind would have run away screaming given the chance but he hasn’t! He is so angry with me and when this is all over I don’t know if he’s going to stay. I sure as hell don’t make it worthwhile for him to do so.”

“His fragile ego is not my problem!”

I dropped down onto the bed, burying my face in my hand. “You’re right, it’s not. It’s mine. This thing with us…it’s a betrayal to him. Marcus doesn’t deserve this and I’m starting to think I don’t deserve him.”


“You have put that man up on some sort of pedestal and in doing so you are beating yourself up with misplaced guilt,” he said coming to kneel in front of me.

“Misplaced? Mulo a few minutes ago I was ready to kiss you. I wanted to kiss you and more…how can I not feel guilty over that? And you don’t make it easy. You said you would back off, that you would give me the space I needed to make this work with Marcus, yet at every turn you’re here. You prey on my weakness, on the feelings I have for you. You’re still causing me heartache, Mulo.”

He moved to sit beside me on the bed. “That is not intentional. I want you; I have no shame in saying that. What would you have me do, Love?”


“Walk away. Stay away.”

“What’s the saying…absence makes the heart grow fonder. I have gone away, that didn’t make you love me any less or I you.”

I let out a heavy sigh. He was right, we’d been apart before and my feelings for him were always there, but I could hope this time things would be different. I could hope that with him out of my life, I could prove myself worthy of Marcus’ love.

“You’re right. If my marriage fails, I’m sure you’d be the first one to help me pick up the pieces and at that point I wouldn’t fight it anymore, but…”


“You want the chance to find out?”

I nodded. “I love Marcus. He’s a good man and a great father and he deserves to be happy. To have a wife dedicated to him and only him. I will probably always love you Mulo, but our time has passed. I need to move on. You need to move on.”


We sat quiet for a while digesting the fact that this was the end of an era. If I could turn back the hands of time and do things over, I'm not sure if I would or not. The suffering I've endured hasn't been without its high points. My children, each of them I was blessed to have. Had things turned out differently with Mulo and I they wouldn't be here. I could no longer live in the land of what-if. My life was with Marcus now, he was my future. Mulo needed to be my past.

“You never said why you were here.”

His hand covered mine and he pressed his lips to my forehead. “To tell you how we're going to kill Marisol.”

22 comments:

  1. Cool! Killing Marisol going to be so good...

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    1. LOL yeah it's what you all are waiting for. :)

      thanks for reading

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  2. Mulo and Amari. They'll never be rid of one another. It's best they just stop trying. Amari is hopeless when it comes to these two men. She can't seem to really live without the other and that has been proven a great deal. Although, honest opinion, Marcus seems way more forgettable to her than Mulo. She seems to want things to work out for Marcus simply because she doesn't want to hurt him. At least that's the way it seems.

    With Mulo things seem way easier. She doesn't have to think much about what she wants/needs because he already knows how to please her. But with her husband, everything is a chore she's trying to prove that she loves him when it's not something you should have to prove. Love is a natural thing and should come off easily to the person you're in love with. I don't see things working out for her in the future. Although Marcus seems to be trying to get back to normal with Amari, this new thing, making her choose between her child's life and him is going to cause irreparable damage to their relationship. It would certainly make me resent him...just saying.

    Don't ask me why this got preachy/ranty. I was mostly only gonna comment about how I wanted to see Marisol die but...things changed.

    Anyway, YAY for killing Marisol! I can't wait to see that :D

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    1. They try, but it's hard for both of them. :( Amari is stuck in the middle and doesn't know what to do. She loves them both and would love to figure out a way to have them both in her life, but she knows that is not possible. Awww....you think he's forgettable to her? :( No that's not the case, the bond is just different with them. She doesn't want to hurt him, but in most cases nearly everything she does, does hurt him in some way.

      Mulo doesn't have the same expectations that Marcus has. Marcus wants to be the only man in her life, the only one she's in love with, he doesn't want to share her heart and especially not with Mulo. Mulo seems to have a better grasp on how she works when it comes to that. He knows that she loves him and that love isn't diminished by the love she has for Marcus. She works harder to prove that to Marcus because he can't see things like Mulo does and with good reason. Mulo has been the central cause for the destruction of his life and that's not something Marcus can easily put behind him. Amari doesn't help matters when she was running to Mulo in times of need even after Marcus had returned. It's a bad situation for them both as neither wants to hurt the other but can't see a way around the issue. Marcus has not and never would force her to make that choice. Amari took it upon herself to attempt to solve this problem without resorting to going to Mulo for help. The argument she and Marcus were having before that fated phone call pointed out how that was always her response so it's fresh in her mind. She doesn't resent him for how he feels or for pointing out how her actions make her words null and void in most cases. Her attempting to stand on her own two feet is just really bad timing. Marcus doesn't know that she's not calling Mulo because of him. :(

      It's okay. This situation is bad and there are lots of feelings involved.

      yay for killing Marisol

      thanks for reading

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  3. I can't tell you how much of a tease it is to see them both standing so close to one another in one picture, then scrolling down to see them miles apart in the next picture :/ I also agree with Daijahv above. Mulo and Amari need one another and can never truly be apart... unless one of them died. But who knows, maybe even death itself cannot keep them away. She is always talking about what Marcus deserves (a normal wife, normal family, normal life in general) but she deserves happiness as well. That happiness could be with Mulo.
    Great chapter! I can't wait to see how they kill Marisol

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    1. Sorry...didn't mean to be a tease (well maybe a little) LOL I addressed DJ's comments in my reply to her. The bond with Mulo and Amari will always be there, there is no denying that. They could be fools for thinking otherwise (well Amari is, Mulo knows the deal).

      She feels terrible for the loss Marcus suffered because of her and wants to make it up to him. He could have had all those normal things in life had she not dragged him into her world, even though she did try to stay away. He showed back up at a low point in her life and the feelings she had for him were still there only not as deep. It has been that way since the beginning and she has tried and tried to forget Mulo, but she can't. She does love Marcus, she really does, but she also loves Mulo. Mulo can accept that, Marcus can't. :( Her guilt is compounded because she sought him out after learning he was alive and she pulled him back into her world selfishly because she wanted 'normal' she wanted that feeling of being grounded that he offered her. Marcus has been willing to stand by her side, Mulo wasn't ready to step up to the plate in the same way in the beginning. She wants different things from both men and she can only have one.

      working on how to kill Marisol :)

      thanks for reading

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  4. WOW, Brilliant end to the chapter, did not see that coming... :P

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    1. Thanks...it's what we are working towards. The only way Amari can be free is for Marisol to die.

      thanks for reading

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  5. The ending to this update is music to my ears! It's about time they dealt with Marisol.

    I'm glad both Amari and Mulo have come to some sort of understanding about their relationship, but I don't think things between them will ever be truly over.

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    1. LOL I knew a lot of people would like hearing those words. Now to just make it happen.

      Things won't ever be over. They will always have a connection, a love they can't deny that. Amari wants to make things work with Marcus. She feels she owes him that and Mulo is at a new point in his life where he understands that need she has and is trying to abide by it. However, when they are together, the more they try to fight it the stronger the pull becomes.

      thanks for reading

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  6. I agree with one of the comments I read. Such a tease. Whenever I see Mulo that close, I keep thinking (hoping?) that this is the moment she'll slip. And then the next picture has the Grand Canyon between them.

    I love Marcus, you know which team I'm on... But to be honest, these two make more sense. Like Deej said, love shouldn't be a chore between two partners. And though he didn't and, I know, never would let a woman choose between a man and her child, if he knows she went to Mulo, or in this case he went to her, he will break it off. He won't see it as her seeking help to find her daughter, you know "whatever it takes. She's my daughter". He'll only see, you chose him over me.
    That thought alone, or better yet, the possibility of that thought arising, tells me that she and Marcus won't survive. No matter how long they try...

    I wish it wasn't so, Love them together!!!
    But whenever I get a glimpse of her and Mulo the fog is lifted and I see clearer.

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    1. Wow!!!! You want her to slip???? You want her to betray Marcus more than she already has????

      The love isn't the chore, it's the every thing else. As I explained to DJ Marcus has expectations in their relationship that Mulo doesn't which makes things hard. Amari knows and understand why Marcus feels the way he does towards Mulo and she tries to soften that blow as best she can, but you can't help who you love. She has tried to not love Mulo, she's tried to hate him, but it never works. Finally she stopped fighting it and just accepted it as a part of life. That was much easier before Marcus came back now she's conflicted and shoulders a shit load of guilt. :(

      She's going to have to tell Marcus about this visit, to hide it would make matters worse! How he reacts to the news will say a lot. They are trying, lord knows they are, but Mulo will always be a factor.

      aww...This love triangle was NOT planned (but hell most of this story wasn't 'planned') and each time I try to figure a way out, things get messier. That struggle you feel with Amari when it comes to Mulo and Marcus all comes from the struggle I feel.

      thanks for reading.

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  7. Oh Boy where do I start here, she truly loves both of them and that is a fact. I only see her saying that Marcus deserves to be happy but what about Amari being happy? After everything she has been through she deserves to be happy too. Obviously she will be happy with both, the question is which one is better, this is the trouble with love triangles.

    Marcus is the good guy and the safe choice, but because of Mulo he gives her conditions. I can understand how he feels about Mulo but true love has no conditions especially in this situation. Cuela is in trouble and as a mother she should be pulling out all the stops to save her child, even if it upsets Marcus.

    On the other hand Mulo is still there to help her even after she told him that they were over and she chose Marcus. This is unconditional love as we know they will still both love each other after they go their seperate ways. I'm not sure Marcus would have done the same.

    More important Marisol is going to be dealt with! She needs to die. She has been asking for this right from the beginning, can't wait to see her get her comeuppance :)

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    1. Yeah she does and that fact causes her a lot of grief. Amari...well she would be happy with either but she feels like she owes Marcus something. She has a ton of guilt over what happened to him because of her. I HATE love triangles for this very reason and never intended to have one LOL The best laid plans right...

      Marcus is the good and safe choice but his love does come with conditions. Well one condition, no Mulo. It's a biggie and it's a hard one for her to meet. True love should be unconditional and Marcus is trying but he's struggling and I don't see him ever being accepting of Mulo. Amari is trying to balance both and she shouldn't have to make a choice.

      Mulo will always be there, even when she doesn't know she needs him. Marcus has let his anger get in the way. In a situation like this Marcus may have still come to help even if she had picked Mulo but not sure he'd really be needed, not in the way Mulo is. :( Marcus has loved Amari since high school, what they have runs deep but something with Mulo is just stronger.

      LOL that is the line everyone has waited on. She has to be taken care of in order for Amari to be free.

      thanks for reading

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  8. Yay for killing Marisol! Mulo does have his uses, haha. He has caused Amari a lot of pain and grief, but it didn't surprise me that he'd step up and help deal with Marisol.

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    1. LOL he does have his uses. He's always stepped up when needed no matter where they are in their relationship. Not sure where they will end up, but he will get her free of Marisol regardless.

      thanks for reading

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  9. Mulo is right. Marcus did place that choice in front of her. I am still not so happy with Marcus.
    Marcus is the kid in the playground, and Amari's guilt is making her choose the one she thinks she loves but really pities, I think. Dunno, maybe Amari just needs to be alone with her children and learn not to rely on anyone but herself. She has change a lot. I don't see her as very strong anymore, but I guess the constant playing with her emotions has made her a jelly. Therefore, her best choice might be to drop them both hehe. After they kill Marisol :)

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    1. yes, Marcus' attitude did put that choice in front of her even if he didn't realize it.

      LOL kid on a playground? That is more Mulo in his actions towards her. She does have guilt but she loves Marcus although a lot of her choices are based off that guilt. :( She won't cut Marcus out of the kids lives. He already lost time with the twins and triplets no way would she deny him anytime to the quads.

      She is worn down. There's only so much a person can take before they get tired of having to fight all the time. She may need some time on her own, but with the kids to consider that might be easier said than done.

      thanks for reading

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  10. I am not too happy to see Mulo..but if his presence means that Marisol is going to die, then hey..I'll deal with it.

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    1. LOL it's so funny how the lines are drawn. Some still love Mulo while others want him to die in a hole. We are heading towards the end and a final choice will have to be made.

      He is here to take care of business this time.

      thanks for reading

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  11. What can I say? They both fucked up. How can Mulo insult Marcus' ego when anyone in their right mind would be jealous and suspicious? She's always run to Mulo, made her vows to him when they should have been to Marcus, and worst of all she still keeps going to him despite everything he's done to her family. Of course Marcus has an issue with that. If his ego was as frail as Mulo makes it out to be Marcus would have been gone a long time ago.

    But killing Marisol? Yeah, let's go do that!

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    1. Oh yeah, Amari full admits her wrong doings. hahaha Well Mulo wants the prize so he's gonna look for the weakness in the competition. Marcus has put up with a hell of a lot from Amari where Mulo is concerned. You are correct, any one in their right mind would be jealous and suspicious given what's gone on. That is the point Marcus can't get past. Mulo has done a ton of shit, caused all kinds of pain and trouble yet Amari loves him. Not only loves him, still runs to him. Marcus can't wrap his head around it. :(

      LOL Killing Marisol yep, time for that

      thanks for reading

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