His Beautiful Addiction

\'\'Please, Diana, stay and hear me out, you heard wrongly. \'\'

Exactly what she had expected him to say. The anger in her heart tripled and she struggled to get herself out of his embrace but to no avail;

\'\'Michael let go of me this minute or I\'m going to scream. \'\' She scolded angrily but it seemed Michael was not having any of it.

\'\'Diana, please listen to me, I promise you\'ll understand once you listen to me. \'\'

Michael said in a calm voice but all it did was triple her anger.

\'\'I don\'t want to hear anything you have to say! I told you it will not change anything, I know you\'re going to tell another lie, so I beg you, let me go, I won\'t listen. I won\'t! \'\'

\'\'I\'m an adopted child; Catherine is not my real mom. \'\' Michael cut in before she would actually scream; and as though a bucket of water was just emptied on her body, Diana stilled instantly.

\'\'Catherine has a son, Liam, whom she had been protecting from Nicklaus for a cause I don\'t know of. She adopted me to stand in his place, so in case Nicklaus comes after her son, he would only be coming after me. I was a lamb for the slaughter but I didn\'t know. \'\'

Diana\'s eyes widened and her ears still vibrated from what she just heard;

\'\'I just found this out when I overheard their conversation, but I kept mute about it, because the moment Catherine knows that I know, she would end me. And once she is done with whatever she has with Nicklaus she would still kill me because I\'m a threat to her son\'s inheritance. \'\'

Diana\'s heart was slamming against her chest now; she couldn\'t believe that he was in so much trouble but always looked so calm;

\'\'That day when she called, she said she had noticed that I have been going out with you a lot; and she asked me if I was having anything serious with you, and that if there was anything, I should end it quickly before it got out of hand unless I didn\'t want you alive anymore, and that was why I lied, I told her you were a fling and nothing more so she would not come after you, because I know Catherine Wills, she\'s no human, and coupled with the fact that she feels I don\'t know anything about her son, she did not think too much about it.

 I\'m sorry for even using that word to describe you even though I didn\'t mean it. I\'m sorry for making you worry all these while, it was never my intention, if I knew that it was the reason you were sad, I would have told you sooner. \'\'

Diana gulped as she felt guilt overwhelm her. Even when she tried to find a lie in this, she knew it was the truth. He wouldn\'t lie about being an adoptive son. She felt a pang in her chest as she wondered how confused he must have felt with her actions;

What if she had walked out that door without telling him the cause of her decision? She would have lost a friend?

Diana remembered all the times he had cared for her and how he continued to check up on her even when she was acting distant and she couldn\'t help feeling sad.

\'\'I\'m sorry… \'\' she apologized, her voice meeker than a lamb.

\'\'I\'m sorry for not being communicative and wanting to end things without even talking about it. I didn\'t want to look weak, but ironically it showed how weak and shallow I am. I\'m really sorry. \'\'

Her hands raised and she hugged him back.

\'\'It is okay, you\'re not weak and shallow. You just did what anyone would do in your position. And I\'m really happy that you told me, I was really scared that I was about to lose you. \'\'

Michael hugged her closer, nestling his head in the crook of her neck.

Diana didn\'t even realize how intimate they were, she just let herself enjoy the moment.

\'\'I was sad, every word that left your lips stabbed my heart, anytime I look at you, I become angrier. And now when you apologized, I couldn\'t take the pain anymore. I\'m so happy I talked things with you; I would have lost a friend now. \'\'

She heaved a sigh of relief. She didn\'t realize how happy she was with him until now she found out that what she had overheard was not true. Every bitter emotion had vanished away and she was so happy. It was just then she realized why she had been moody for weeks and kept getting \'NG\' in almost all her scenes, he had been in her heart.

\'\'Yeah, I\'m happy that you told me. \'\'

Naturally, he was meant to let her go at this juncture, but Michael didn\'t want to. He liked how she smelt, like peaches; intoxicating, he just remained there, breathing in the scent of her hair.

Diana didn\'t want to let him go either; this was the first time she had been hugged so dearly in real life. She didn\'t know a hug could give so much comfort until now.

\'\'You need to talk to Nicklaus about this; you need to side with Nicklaus in order to win your step mother, there\'s no other way. You can\'t fight what you don\'t know about. \'\'

Before Michael could think of how to say it, Diana beat him to it. He lifted his head to stare in her eyes;

\'\'I need your help Diana, I don\'t know if Nicklaus would even want to speak with me, I\'ve been in the warfront of a fight I know nothing about, but that does not change the fact that I was there. I need you to make him understand that I knew nothing about it, please. \'\'

He wasn\'t sure if she wanted to get tangled with all these, so he was a little scared that she would turn him down.

\'\'don\'t worry, I\'ll speak to him. What are friends for? \'\' She smiled brightly, and Michael didn\'t even know when he leaned close and kissed her forehead, then hugged her tightly;

\'\'Thank you, thank you so much Diana, you\'ve just solved a huge part of my problem. \'\'