JJ HART
Human
Posts: 59
Played by:
Ange
Last seen Nov 17, 2024 18:04:49 GMT
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Post by JJ HART on Jul 18, 2022 19:01:03 GMT
Frowning, JJ pinched the corner of the brown paper bag again and tugged it an inch to the right. Like there was an angle that just screamed ‘I’m so sorry I might have been part of the reason you lost your baby.’ He wasn’t taking the full blame for it, no sodding way – he hadn’t even published the article until Destiny had been on ‘leave’ for more then two weeks. Grunting low, he gave it another tug and just left it lined up with the front edge of her desk instead. It didn’t matter, Destiny wasn’t likely to take this as a mea culpa and forgive him in an instant. She’d lost her child after all and there was no making up for that.
For a moment he stood with his head down, his lips pressed together. It was what he’d worried about the first time he’d put the story forward. Destiny had pressed her hands to her bump then, like she was holding it together as the tears had started running. He’d passed her tissues, offered up his chair, all the useless shit that didn’t help a bit.
Fuck. He turned away, shutting the door quietly behind him as he scurried out of her office. A dozen set of eyes were on him, nosy, judgy, probably disgusted in some cases, although most of the assholes in the office would’ve sold their own grandmothers for a story like the one he’d gotten on Grey Maddox.
JJ scowled, lifting his chin towards them all in encouragement to keep their beaks out of it all. ”You’ve all got something to do, haven’t you? There’s still a newspaper to publish.” It’d carried on without Destiny at the helm, although there’d been that shift in mood while she’d been gone. The whispers growing every day, some of the gossip bad enough to have his gorge burning its way up the back of his throat. It wasn’t just his diet of black coffee and take out either. Guilt was a bitch.
It had his shoulders creeping up around his ears as he retreated to his office and shut the door to. When Destiny arrived the shit was gonna hit the fan anyway, there wouldn’t be a door or wall thick enough to block out the yelling then – hers, not his, he didn’t have a leg to stand on this time around. He’d defied a direct order, one that had gotten Destiny’s blood up the first time, this time JJ knew he’d be lucky if he could walk out of here without his balls being lodged somewhere up around his larynx. Pride would have him walking straight though, he might’ve been an asshole, but he was one who stood by his beliefs at least. Mystic Falls had needed to know about the threat Grey Maddox posed to people here – Destiny had needed to know.
The chair squeaked as he settled back in it. Yesterday, hearing that the boss lady would be back in the day after, he’d started to box his things back up – his files, the chipped enamel mug he’d dragged across the world and back, the weathered Goethite he’d picked up in the Sahara, the brass pen that bore his teeth marks from that time he’d had a splinter the length of his whole hand picked up out of one cheek in Sri Lanka when he’d gone scrambling into a half downed house during a monsoon to try and get the two kids buried in it out. All that really mattered, least as much as he’d admit did.
If the ding of the elevator wouldn’t have sounded like as Big Ben, he would’ve known Destiny was back anyway. As the elevator doors swooshed open the whole place went silent. The calm before the storm. For all of five minutes it felt like he was at the centre of it. Was she in her office, opening up the bag of pastries and fresh squeezed orange juice he’d left – it’d been a ham fisted attempt at something nutritious, like that’d make all the difference – or tossing it straight in the trash? Was the printer in her office rattling away to produce official walking papers? Maybe she was composing herself to storm in here and claw his eyes out.
When the door swung open again JJ didn’t turn. He stared at the blank screened laptop on his desk – the one that had come with the job, not his personal one with the NASA level encryption on it that he kept in his apartment. Teeth raked over his lower lip, waiting for the blow to come. ”Welcome back,” he rasped tightly. The sigh that slipped out of his nose was heavy, his shoulders dropping like a huge weight had just come down on them, as he crossed his arms. He could see her flatter stomach in his peripheral vision. It’d been an easy bet before, but seeing the lack of bump for himself just added to the weight and that sick feeling.
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DESTINY BACCARI
Darach
Posts: 180
Age:
25
Occupation:
Mystic Daily Owner
Status:
Engaged
Partner:
Grey Maddox
Played by:
Julia
Last seen Nov 17, 2024 17:51:44 GMT
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Post by DESTINY BACCARI on Aug 1, 2022 14:52:48 GMT
 ━ i'll stay awake at night with just my skin and bones ━
Her blood boiled as her eyes skittered over an email’s subject line, trying to catch up in the handful of days before she planned to head back to work. In Destiny’s absence, JJ had gone ahead and sent his article through to publishing, and now it was ready to make its debut. She planned to try and stop it, print a redaction, anything to save Grey. After all they’d been through, this was the last thing he needed to worry about. She didn’t tell him about it to spare him the bullshit drama━one mouthy journalist and his opinion didn’t make a fucking difference in the grand scheme of things. Or, well, he shouldn’t have.
Now, staring at herself in Grey’s bathroom mirror, she painted a wing on each eye, unblemished by red rings or dark bags. It wasn’t to hide what she’d been through, or to pretend Petyr’s loss wasn’t significant━it was for her. Showing up looking broken would never make her feel strong enough to get through the day.
Pecking Berlioz on the head, she said a soft goodbye, made sure his bowl was filled with water, then left. Before she’d even reached the doors to the hotel, she was calling Grey.
Destiny didn’t tell him. She tried to sound normal. Nervous, sure, but that was to be expected. She wasn’t lying; she’d shut this down today and Grey wouldn’t have to bother with it. But she’d tell him when she got home, over dinner, just so he knew━just so she wasn’t lying by omission. They’d lost Petyr between then and now; the minuscule threat of JJ and his slanderous article had become completely irrelevant.
Until they weren’t.
Parked and striding through the doors, Destiny said a light, “Okay, I’m inside and about to head into the elevator. I’ll text you later. Love you, bye,” A thousand different emotions fluttered in her chest as she hung up━affection, hope, anxiety━and she prayed that today would work out in her favour━in their favour━hers and her family’s.
The office, very suddenly hushed, as if that wasn’t suspicious at all, wasn’t warm or welcoming. Destiny’s eyes swept over the space, catching nobody’s eye━especially not JJ’s. She saw the back of his head and wondered if he’d fit into any of the sacrifice categories━she practically dreamt about it. Killing him wouldn’t bring Petyr back, but it might aid in avenging him. JJ had to get his bullshit story somewhere.
Huh. She’d never thought of that. He was just a blip on the radar before, but now… God, now she had to scrape up the pieces of herself and stick them together in something that resembled a functioning human. All so she could come to work and deal with some idiot she’d already reprimanded.
Destiny had promised Grey she’d protect him, and she meant it.
Moving into her office, she frowned at the bag on her desk, wandering around the surface's edge as if it were a live bomb. Destiny dropped her purse on the ground and stood between the desk and her chair, stealing glances at the paper bag as she signed into her computer. Once it was booting up, she grabbed the sack and rifled through it, pulling out its contents and dropping them on the desk. It could’ve been a well-meaning present for her first day back, but it was more likely from JJ. Or, perhaps it was from Leah and, in that case, probably poisoned. Her eyes stung at the fact that that was even a real possibility now, and she sniffled, sucked in a breath, and tried to calm herself. She’d never survive the day if she couldn’t get through the first five fucking minutes.
Destiny pulled up her email and found a response from the printer. She opened it with hope, though they were quickly dashed. It was basically a Sorry, everything’s already done; any changes now will be incredibly expensive. AKA, even if you had the money, we wouldn’t do it. The papers were likely about to be distributed throughout Mystic Falls━everybody would pick up their newspaper today and read something about Grey that wasn’t true. They’d form opinions of him based on slander, on bullshit, and anybody who knew them would think it’d come from Destiny. She could only hope that made it seem less credible━as if she was some scorned girlfriend looking to whine after a bad breakup.
Would he leave her for this?
Charging out of her office (instead of lingering on that thought for too long), Destiny went straight to JJ’s desk, arms crossed over her chest━it was for self-soothing more than anything else. She grit her teeth, desperately holding in the fuck you that begged to be spat back at him. His desk looked bare━good. At least he wasn’t completely fucking brainless.
“My office. Now.” Destiny hissed, keeping her chin up as she turned and strutted back to her little room, wordlessly pointing to the door once they were inside, and then to the chair opposite hers. Destiny slipped into her seat, barely glancing at the line of things he’d left as a peace offering, set up like a barrier on the desk between them.
Grey had sat in that exact chair a handful of times. He’d laid her out on the desk, too, but he’d been across from her during little lunch dates way before Petyr was even an idea to be entertained. Love had twinkled in her eyes then, and in the laughs and smiles given so freely once. Everything became so serious so quickly. Suddenly they’d been having a baby, and were okay to co-parent, then to be a family, and then, all at once, they’d lost everything. JJ was just salt in the wound.
“I want to know why you thought any of this was a good idea.” Her voice was surprisingly level, gaze ticking over to find his. “Did you seriously think you were doing something good? Or did you just not give a shit that it might be stressful to have a journalist working directly below me to make up stories about my partner?” Petyr wasn’t his fault, not really, but she wanted everyone to feel just a fraction of the sting she did. “I’m beginning to think I figured out who your source is, by the way, and you should know she’s not nearly as trustworthy as you seem to believe.” It was a shot in the dark, but Destiny wanted to see the emotions cross his face━she wanted to catch any indication that it was, in fact, Leah who perpetuated this. As if taking her baby wasn’t enough.
“Why’d you do it?” She held desperately to the reins controlling her emotions, nails digging into her palms. She didn’t want to start crying again. “I specifically told you not to, and you still did. Why?” The last word was a croak, but Destiny held her ground, dragging in a shuddered breath and slowly releasing it.
JJ HART | no notes. |
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JJ HART
Human
Posts: 59
Played by:
Ange
Last seen Nov 17, 2024 18:04:49 GMT
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Post by JJ HART on Aug 11, 2022 14:53:45 GMT
You didn’t cross the wire until you were ready. Every grunt and his great nan knew that. Rushing out across it put your arse in danger and everybody else’s too. Alright, in this case it was probably only his own career that could get gutted by it, but the idiom still stood. You didn’t go sticking your neck out unless you were prepared for your head to be lopped off.
JJ felt that squirminess worm through him as he pictured Destiny heading into her office. She’d warned him not to do it the first time he’d wiggled the toe of one boot across the line. The story had no legs, it fact it was both libellous and utter bullshit - worded only slightly more politely than that. It wasn’t running, people weren’t being lied to by the Daily - like their sense of integrity was the right sticking point here. Simply put, don’t. Only he had and it wasn’t until he’d felt that real vacuum of her not being there that he’d realised there was a bigger reason for not starting into that minefield.
The bulk of a belly approaching popping point wasn’t there.. Fuck.
He’d juggled those pros and cons before he’d sent the story on to the printers - bypassing Destiny’s email and the editor altogether - what this was going to cost, what he’d get out of it (certainly not a Pulitzer, even if it was a story worthy of some Hollywood melodrama with one of those pretty boy heartthrobs playing Maddox), how far the ripples were going to flow before something stopped them. The squirming got worse, like snakes writhing around in his gut. Really he hadn’t wanted to let the blame fall too squarely on his shoulders but now it was a weight that almost held him down in his chair.
Nope, wasn’t all him. She’d gone off sick before he’d even dug the story back out to start adding another layer of proof to it. Maybe Maddox had put his hands on her the way he’d done to the sister. A man who hadn’t entirely reinvented himself when he’d hopped across the pond. Maybe it had just been a tragedy, one of those horrible things that happened. He’d compounded it though and that was what had driven him with the desk. He wasn’t getting to step back over the wire when he’d been vindicated here and someone had Maddox locked up for what he’d done, he’d be swinging from it.
Eye make-up perfect, her arms across her chest, Destiny looked perfectly poised to wrap it around his neck as she glared down at him. Not like a woman broken by a man, or a grieving mother, although it was there, he fully believed that given what she’d been like with her bump before. JJ stood slowly, shoving his chair back under his desk as he trailed her out of the room, her order dragging him along. Blue eyes swept the bullpen as he turned to close the door behind him. He might’ve been getting his just desserts but he wasn’t letting the bloody vultures watch while it happened.
He eased himself down in the chair she’d indicated. The pastries and juice were now lined up like little soldiers ready for the firing squad, and there he was, the bigger target just behind them. ”Wanted to get you a little welcome back …” he muttered, running his tongue along his lower lip as he jerked his chin towards them. Wanted to apologise in what was now obviously a piss poor way.
Wearily, JJ dragged his hand over the bottom half of his face as Destiny started in on him - as civil as you liked, despite the screaming he probably deserved. He rolled one foot, set the other on top of it, all the better to have his knee jiggling up and down. ”Do you think I’d have done it if I didn’t?” he asked, his hand automatically going up like he’d have to ward the answer off. ”Oi. There was no making up about it, partner or not. I don’t fabricate stories just for a headline.” He’d never been one of those vultures, even when a little gilding would’ve got a story the added attention it deserved. The truth had been his Holy Grail for too long for that.
JJ pressed his lips together for a minute before he looked up at her from the regiment of viennoiserie, his brow furrowed. She still thought she knew exactly where he’d gotten it, she was maybe wrong, at the very least she was underestimating it. ”Needs an S. Sources.” He emphasised the end of the word with a little hiss. ”There’s more than one. You didn’t hire me because I was a shitty journalist - not backing up my sources with evidence would’ve been sloppy and I’m not. Multiple people - including the coppers back home - backed up what I heard. You going to tell me they’re all liars?” Leah maybe had it out for the bloke - he hadn’t gone into the reasons as much as he should’ve done, but Lucky and his connections in the Met had no reason to go trying to bury the hatchet in the bloke’s back.
And there it was, the bite of the wire around his throat as he slipped and strangled himself with it. Destiny didn’t have to physically garrote him, her emotions were gonna do it for her. JJ scooted forward, his elbows pressed to the edge of the desk. ”I had a duty to protect people. You read the story, obviously, you knew how many bodies had dropped or ‘vanished’ around him. Would you want more on your conscience? Did I want you on my conscience if something happened and I hadn’t spoken up? I’m … sorry that it did.” There was a sincerity there in his voice, one that almost pained him on its way out of his throat. He didn’t have to look down at the flat plane of her stomach to make his point. Destiny Baccari might’ve been blind when it came to the bloke she’d tangled herself up with but she wasn’t stupid.
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DESTINY BACCARI
Darach
Posts: 180
Age:
25
Occupation:
Mystic Daily Owner
Status:
Engaged
Partner:
Grey Maddox
Played by:
Julia
Last seen Nov 17, 2024 17:51:44 GMT
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Post by DESTINY BACCARI on Aug 14, 2022 22:14:46 GMT
━ i'll stay awake at night with just my skin and bones ━
Destiny bit back the scream that wanted to emerge. She clenched her teeth together, hands shaking in her lap as anger coursed through her body. It was hot and consuming, like a warm wave starting at her toes and setting every piece of skin ablaze until she was fully immersed.
Never in her life had she been so poised. This wasn’t her, she was incredibly emotional and often led with that in her daily life, though she’d taken steps to ensure her work stayed professional. Unfortunately, JJ kept getting under her skin over and over again, and she was losing the will to remain calm.
Sources. Who the hell else could it be? More people from the pack Grey’s family had been a part of? There couldn’t be━he was private and efficient, if nothing else, and he wouldn’t have let anything like that slip free. And JJ wasn’t letting anything out that might’ve confirmed whether or not it’d been Leah━her little trick didn’t work. She wasn’t built for this.
“I’m not saying they’re liars.” Destiny snapped, feeling the heat pool in her cheeks and a thickness building in her throat. “I’m saying that there’s two sides to every story, and you have no idea what the other is. Do you honestly think I don’t know about all this? That I could be with someone, want to have a baby with someone, and have no fucking clue about who they are or where they came from?” She hadn’t known the truth until they were already planning for Petyr, but still━she wanted to know, and she’d asked. She wasn’t getting the wool pulled over her eyes. “It’s not your business, but everything in your article has a reasonable justification, ones I’m satisfied with━and not just because we’re together. I’m telling you you’re wrong; I’m not fucking stupid, or so desperate that I would overlook something like this because I want some fairytale fucking romance.” Not anymore. She believed Grey, believed in him, and JJ was making a mess of it━under her name.
Destiny scoffed wetly as he continued, the tears beginning to fall from the pool built in her glassy eyes, though her expression didn’t change to that of a broken woman. “A duty.” She repeated, interrupting him and smiling sourly. He went on, spewing bullshit that said he was desperate to play the hero, and Destiny went rigid when he alluded to Petyr.
“I told you before that you’re just feeding your bias with this information, and you are; you can’t seem to see the bigger picture━or even an alternate one. They all have an explanation,” She shook her head, for once not worrying that she sounded like a broken record━she had to drive the point home. He wouldn’t believe her, though. He’d think she was stupid enough to consume whatever stories Grey had told her without question. Maybe she was, but she’d been on the receiving end of Leah’s violence and the way she twisted shit, she’d seen Grey’s scars from his own sister, and she knew what it was like to have your family life distorted beyond recognition. There was no way JJ would understand even if she could explain it to him.
She had bodies on her conscience. With Grey, she’d added three more to the list, and a big part of her wanted to keep going. “Last time, I said not to talk about my baby.” Destiny sobbed now, though her voice was hard; she was desperate to look away and hide this, but instead she kept staring at JJ. She wasn’t━wouldn’t be ashamed of her emotions. “I’m the safest I’ve ever been when I’m with him, so don’t pretend to give a shit about me now. You might’ve ruined that with this fucking stunt, so congratulations. If you actually care, then you did the exact fucking opposite of what you set out to do.”
Drawing in a shallow, shaky breath, she tried to continue before he could cut in again, finally shifting her gaze to her computer screen. “And I’ll have to organize a retraction or a counter-opinion piece, so you didn’t really do anything except fuck up my life.” Her shared life with Grey. And that wasn’t entirely true, because people loved gossip and, once it was out, there was no reeling it back in. “I should fucking fire you,” Honestly, the biggest reason she didn’t was because of how it might look. “But I’m putting you on an unpaid suspension. I’ll email you the documents and whatever other shit you have to sign; I don’t want to look at your fucking face anymore.” With one shaky hand, she pushed a few stray hairs behind her ear, desperate to keep a few shreds of composure. “Now I have to go home and make sure that, after everything I’ve lost, I don’t lose him, too.” Her eyes sliced back to JJ once more, driving that knife deeper, knowing he could read between the lines just as she had with his condolences. “Pack your shit and get the fuck out of my office.”
JJ HART | no notes. |
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JJ HART
Human
Posts: 59
Played by:
Ange
Last seen Nov 17, 2024 18:04:49 GMT
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Post by JJ HART on Aug 27, 2022 16:37:41 GMT
This was clumsy and he’d never been that.
JJ sat that uncomfortable chair – did they do that on purpose in all newspaper offices, like they did in cop shops? Make ‘em as uncomfortable as possible and maybe they’d talk – feeling like his size 9s were suddenly clown shoes. Stomping all over everything, kicking it aside without any control over it. Nope, that was bullshit. He’d had control and it’d been a conscious choice to go against his orders. Saying he didn’t was a cop out and he didn’t do that any more than he did clumsy. Forceful, yeah, purposeful, dogged. He’d take it all, but not clumsy, or evasive. If he did something, he’d put his hands up.
And if he’d necessary he’d choke out the apologies his actions deserved, as though they were as dry as the pastries in half the bloody places he’d looked since he’d come to town. Would it kill ‘em all to chill their dough before they shoved their croissants in the oven? Bone dry pastry wasn’t an apology.
Even the good stuff wasn’t much of one.
If he sunk much lower in his seat, his chin would’ve drilled a hole right through that hollow where his collarbones met. He could practically feel the vibration of Destiny’s anger rolling off of her, all that tension crackling in the air like thunder would crack if she let it go at him. They said lightning never struck twice, but they didn’t say how fucking miserable that first strike was, if you managed to survive it. Right now it didn’t look like his career in Mystic Falls would – not unless the Courier was willing to take on the Daily’s scraps of course.
Trying to clamp down on his own nerves, JJ settled his hands in his lap, his jiggling leaving them twitching as he laced them together. Fingers knotted tight, thumbs digging into his knuckles as he tilted his head slightly. With the way her cheeks were heating – slowly rising towards a Vesuvian red – opening his mouth at all might not be a good idea. He wasn’t gonna have his journalistic scruples raked over the coals though, like he was some glory hunting twat whose only aim was getting his headlines on the front page. ”Two sides to every story, but theirs is the wrong side,” he adjusted. That was the gist of it, weren’t it? They weren’t lying but somehow what they’d told him about Grey Maddox and his murderous tendencies was wrong. Like there was a good reason for people to turn up dead around him.
Forget the gist. Fuck. JJ sucked in a deep breath, little lines springing up between his brows as he looked at her across the stretch of her desk. Lucky had been right then, Destiny had maybe known more about it all than he’d given her credit for and he’d been right too – want to have a baby, not be having a baby. That took the wind out of his sails, slumping him down an inch further in his seat as that sick feeling sum higher. ”I think …” he started before he paused. ”Sometimes it’s the people closest to us we go blind to.” Probably not something she wanted to hear, especially from someone whose business it wasn’t but he wasn’t about to believe that this woman condoned killing people whenever you felt like it.
There was that implication again – he was the idiot. He’d listened to bullshit from multiple sources and he was too dumb to see what Destiny could. JJ peeled apart hands that ached now, holding them up to ward her off. ”I didn’t say that. I don’t think you’d do any of that.” She was smart, she had some vision, and she definitely had more backbone than some would’ve given her credit for but this was love and people in love did stupid fucking things.
She had no reciprocal sort of love for him. Even the respect he might’ve had coming in had been ripped into little shreds like he imagined every copy of this paper she could get her hands on would be. JJ hovered there on the edge of his seat, shoulders tense beneath his shirt as she smiled sourly. ”There is one that comes with the job and I take it seriously.” Whether or not he took other parts of the job seriously were debatable, but that, that he focused on and didn’t like thinking he’d fucked up. He’d appreciated his sources, sure, but neither one had flashed him a little flesh just to blind him. He'd tried to do the right thing and it was backfiring on another wave of tears.
JJ cursed under his breath, tugging at the emptied bag to see if he could fish napkins out. He pushed one across the desk, anticipating getting his hand slapped the other way. A huff of disbelief rolled out, leaving him poking the desk top with a finger. ”Why on earth would I have a bias towards him? If you’ve got an explanation. Give it to me. Like they did. If I’m wrong, I’m wrong, but you can’t tell me that and keeping it all locked tight at the same time.” Evidence. Destiny had demanded it, he’d given her what he could, but not the sources she wanted to drag out of him – if he was gonna turn the whole thing around, surely he deserved the same.
Just as he deserved the fucking guilt that swam up the back of his throat and almost spilled out onto her desktop to really do away with the fucking croissants. JJ clamped his lips together against it, biting back a response that surely wasn’t gonna help anything. Destiny was already breaking on this and it’d been his hand on the hammer that’d put the first cracks through her again. ”That wasn’t my intention,” he spoke hoarsely. His blow had sure as hell landed fucking wrong, like an inept DIYer hitting everything except the fucking nail.
Worry started to claw through the nausea, hardening the lines of his face. He’d always picked apart what people said, trying to find the actual truth in the subtleties but doing that now left him uneasy. Safe Destiny might’ve been but if he’d ruined that safety with his so-called fucking stunt what did that actually mean for her. Fuck, fuck, fuck. The words echoed through his head as he slid back, propping his elbows on his knees to drag his hands through his hair. More blame on his shoulders, ready to choke him.
Blue eyes, marred by that fleck of brown, rolled up to look at her while Destiny looked at her computer. JJ licked his lips, let a long breath out through his nose while he gripped the short crop of hair hard. ”I can …” Write the retraction if you give me the other half of the story. That wasn’t just dancing on the knife edge, it was trying to do the splits on it. Wasn’t like he had much safe ground with the threat of firing shoved at him. The Courier it was then, since he wasn’t about to crawl out of town with his tail between his legs leaving his brother and whatever fucking trouble he’d find himself in behind.
Or not.
JJ dipped his head, half hiding that face she couldn’t stand to look at. Somehow it felt like he was getting off easy for supposedly ruining Destiny’s life. She wasn’t all razor blades though, not like her boyfriend. A slap on the wrist on the surface, but what was going to come with that sucker punch later. He pushed himself up out of his seat slowly, body stiff, like that blow could come at any moment. It did, just a little swing, as those tear filled eyes met his and the ghost of the child she’d lost floated there between them. ”I’m already packed. To be honest, I wasn’t expecting the second chance.” He wasn’t about to say thank you, like there was anything to be grateful for in the situation.
Slipping around the arm of the chair, JJ started to head for the door, but he stopped halfway there. His lips pursed, his expression flattening back to those sympathetic lines. ”I really am sorry for your loss. Nobody deserves that, not even him.” Maddox had some sort of justice coming to him, but no matter what the situation was the sins of the fathers shouldn’t be laid upon their kids. He nodded slowly, like he was accepting the slap on the arse he’d taken for this, and slipped out. Two minutes later he was heading out of the building, the whispers and judgy glances of everyone else in the office following him like the cloud of stink that should’ve been wrapped around Maddox.
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hope to see you in the discord! 
