She was back in Hamps.h.i.+re, in the cottage where Darryl spent six years mourning for her. It was rather odd how Darryl was able to drag her back to the loch after the meeting this morning but she was just too tired to protest and so she stayed nonchalant about everything even when Darryl took his private plane off just to get them both to the south.

"Go and take your shower" Darryl emerged at her back and patted her shoulder gently. She hasn't said a word to him since this morning yet Darryl's patience for her never ran dry. Coming with Darryl was not a part of the plan but then inside her, she knew she somehow needed to talk to him so that they can all move on.

"Hey," Darryl repeated gently when he saw she isn't moving at all but when his hands on her shoulder started caressing it, something fired up and Xhemin had to get up to stop whatever was it. 

She hastily went inside the shower and dragged the curtains to hide away from the beast. Soon, her body was already under the heat of the running water, pouring into her raw bare skin. However together with the water, the memory of her dead son find its way in, just like how it did this morning when Darryl mentioned him and once again her loneliness ate her up.

Xhemin didn't know how long she stood under the water crying, but her tears were still falling when she felt Darryl's arms around her naked body. 

"I'm sorry I should have not mentioned him this morning," Darryl whispered apologetically in her ears and Xhemin flinched immediately knowing she was all naked and she could feel Darryl's heat burning under her skin. Wanting to resist the rising sensation, she stopped the shower and moved to free herself from Darryl's embrace.

She walked naked into the bedroom, droplets of water falling from her and stained the floor she walked into. She thought of finding something to cover her body, like a towel or anything but she remembered the towel must have been hang near the shower where she left so she went back for it yet saw Darryl at bathroom's door looking at her fervently. 

Xhemin retreated, refusing to look at her husband's hazel eyes. It was hard to tell whether it was she he was looking particularly or her naked physique that glowed crimson under the Lagdameo heir's stare.

"Here," Darryl extended to her the towel whom he brought from the shower. Xhemin hesitantly accepted the towel and immediately covered herself, however despite the thick linen, she still felt very naked under Darryl's eyes.

"I'm afraid you have to take mine," Darryl told her referring to the clothes folded on the bedside table. "I'll have your clothes wash and dried up for tomorrow,"

Xhemin understood what he meant and without sparing a moment, she grabbed the clothes and carefully dressed up turning her back against her husband. She went for his plaid s.h.i.+rt and trunks, and although she had reservations about wearing his estranged husband's intimate clothes, she definitely has no choice at the moment.

"I'll have dinner ready," Darryl told, in a casual voice, so casually that irritated Xhemin.

"Can you just stop this?" She gathered her strength to look at him in the eyes. "I don't even know why were are here with you playing this everly affectionate husband,"

Darryl only look at her in response and in a minute after, decided to lean on the wall, crossed arms, "So now finally were talking….but…. let me just point out something my dear wife. I am not here playing as an everly affectionate husband because I had always been an affectionate husband in the first place. Secondly, you barely ate something for lunch so I this everly affectionate husband of yours suggest that you eat milady,"

Without waiting for her reply, Darryl left the room and head to the small dining area in the Loch cottage and sat patiently with a hard expression in his face. In just a minute, Xhemin emerged from the room and sighed, "I don't really want to eat,"

Darryl's expression dimmed a bit more when he heard her and so he lifted his head toward her, digging his hazel eyes to her pool of ink and said, "Should we move on to sleeping then? You are very well aware this everly husband of yours turns a little rough at sleeping time, would prefer that instead?"

"I came with you willingly because I felt that it's just right for us to talk," Xhemin tried to sway off Darryl's point, but she could not deny the streaming hotness that run down her spine when she understood what he meant.

"That was never on your plans let me guess," Darryl expressed and guilt suddenly consumed Xhemin's eyes, "You thought you could just shoo me away just like that. Have you taken me for a fool milady?"

"Fine I admit. You got me," Xhemin confessed but her pride and resolved haven't wavered just yet. "But I did not take you for a fool. It was me who was fool enough to believe you had already moved on…after all it had already been six years and your marriage was on the news everywhere,"

"That was the lamest answer I head from a Rivendell graduate," Darryl told not believing her words. He knew her far too much that he was aware there was more to her cutting him off completely in her life than the fact that perhaps he had moved on and her lies was making him mad. He wanted her honestly but his wife had sure grown to become a woman far from being the innocent one she once was. "You sure knew I cannot moved on especially when our boy is in that grave,"

"I told you not to speak of him again!" Xhemin's rage was unexpected and Darryl himself was sorry for speaking of him again when he had seen her crying the whole day just because she remembered the child they lost. 

Xhemin looked at Darryl with mockery as her eyes instantly turned wet, "I'm so surprise you people can talk about him as if you all have the rights of his memory." 

In just a second, tears flooded from her eyes again and she let go of a bitter laugh as she expressed, "When he died, all of you talked about him as if he was all yours, even branding him as the new Lagdameo heir. What a shame… you all feasted on him, you, the Lagdameo's, the media and the whole country feasted on the dead memory of my son as if you had been a part of his little life when in reality no one, among you even knew he existed ! How dare all you speak casually of a memory of someone whose life you never celebrated in the first place!"