6

KATHERINE

My heart threatened to burst out of my chest as I struggled to look at him. The difference in our heights made me feel so irrelevant. It made me feel so small and at the end of the day.

There was nothing that I could say or do about it. I couldn't tell if it was fear or if it was intrigue, but my heart clenched with something that I couldn't entirely decipher as he towered over me effortlessly.

I was tempted to beg him to just give me a few minutes. But apparently, my pride was more than my desperation as I looked at him, and at the end of the day, the word

‘Please’ remained lodged in the back of my throat.

I closed my eyes and sighed as I tried to gather my thoughts together.

“What is it? Cat suddenly got your tongue,” he leaned in further. He made no effort to conceal the mockery in his voice.

Even though it stung, he didn't need to know that. I fought very hard to maintain a neutral expression.

“I'm not sure I know what you're talking about,” I leaned my head to the side, and some of my hair fell across my shoulders with the movement.

In the space of a short minute, I could have almost sworn that his eyes lingered on my cleavage. His face gave nothing at all. It remained blank, his eyes twinkled with amusement.

“I'm not trying to have an argument. I'm not trying to tell you what to do either but I have to attend to my guest in the living room. When he leaves, I'll come back. I have no intention of escaping or making a run for it,” I said. I made a conscious effort to maintain the firmness in my voice as I looked up at him.

Maybe I did plan to escape, but again, he didn't need to know that.

“i’m not worried about you escaping. I assure you. I can easily find you even if you do, and I'm not worried about the police either,” he said.

The certainty in his statement made my brows furrow in worry as I stared at him. He sounded so unbothered, so uncertain.

It made me question if it would even be a wise decision to escape. My eyes fluttered for a brief moment. So maybe I needed a plan b.

Regardless of how difficult my present predicament was, I need to make some sort of effort to escape this man. I couldn't keep enduring his arrogance.

“Will you let me out now?” I said. Awkward silence lingered between the both of us for a moment before he pulled away completely, casually stuffing his hands in his pockets as if nothing had happened.

I was slightly disappointed by the distance that was created. I had no answer as to why. I ignored it entirely.

“Don't take too long. I'll try to keep myself entertained here,” he said as he walked away from me and headed to the other side of my bed, picking up the picture frame like he belonged here.

What an entitled piece of shit. I glared at him, but he ignored me entirely as he glanced around my room and touched things, unbothered.

At the end of the day. There was nothing that I could do about the situation. I closed my eyes and sighed.

I rolled my eyes and finally unlocked my door.

I considered locking him inside, but I knew it was going to backfire, and he would cause a scene. I hated this.

I hated that even though I had managed to escape him for just a few minutes, there was still no tangible way out of this situation.

My eyes fluttered, closed almost immediately. This was the wrong time to have a hangover.

Especially when I needed to think. I walked down the wide expanse of the short hallway and headed into the living room.

Silas stood at the window, observing, with a cup of tea in his hand. The sight made my heart clenched painfully as I found myself suffocated with different memories of him just being in here.

It was almost as if he was back here to stay, like he belonged here again, but at the back of my mind, I knew it wasn't true. He wasn't mine to keep anymore.

He was getting married to another woman and breaking the promises he made to me.

My delusion didn't even let me forget that. As if he sensed my presence, he turned around to look at me.

The corners of his lips tilted up into a familiar smile as he stared at me. His eyes darkened with awe and lust, and his gaze lingered shamelessly on my cleavage for longer than necessary.

I resisted the urge to finally smirk. I guess it should feel accomplished that I had gotten the reaction that I wanted. Show him what he was missing, what he could have.

And yet, even after all that, you know he's not coming back. He's still getting married to her.

That was a painful crack in my delusion, and at the end of the day, I guess there was absolutely nothing that I could do about it.

Well, trying was better than not trying at all. I cleared my throat awkwardly as I finally walked past him.

“I didn't expect to see you here. What are you doing here?” I tried to keep the tremor out of my voice. Somehow, I managed to sound controlled, so I must be doing a hell of a good job.

The only thing was that I had no idea how

long I would be able to last before I finally broke down in front of him. I was definitely not looking forward to it at the end of the day.

“I wanted to see you. Decided I needed to bring you some coffee and hot breakfast from that place you liked,” he said calmly.

I turned around and raised an eyebrow at him in silent question.

“Good morning, Katty,” he smiled at me. I didn't know if I even liked that name anymore.

I didn't know if I still wanted him to call me back. But at the end of the day, as long as he's called me or addressed me by that name.

There had to be something there, or maybe I was simply trying to give meaning to things that were not there.

My gaze travelled to the breakfast that he arranged on the centre table in the middle of the room.

I could already perceive the aroma of the coffee. It was exactly what I needed.

Especially for this headache. There was no explanation as to why he was doing this. I couldn't wrap my head around it for some reason.

“Is it just me, or do you look.. tired?” He stared at me a bit longer. I tried not to feel too conscious.

“Long night?” he asked me softly. His eyes were tender and full of warmth. I was almost tempted to run up to him and tell him how much I missed me. I was almost tempted to beg him to stay.

“What the hell are you doing?” I snapped at him. He looked taken aback by my question.

“What are you talking about, Katty?"

“You know exactly what I'm talking about,” I growled as I stormed towards me.

“You tell me you're getting married to another woman and you're ready to destroy everything that we've ever built and then you leave me to deal with the aftermath but for some sick reason, you're back here again. So I'm going to ask you again. What the hell are you doing?” I said.

I knew that my voice was too loud. The strange man in my bedroom could probably hear everything that I had to say, but at this point, I wasn't so sure that I even cared about the situation. I simply wanted to be left alone.

“I know things are not the way they used to be, between us, but that doesn't mean that I don't care about you, Katty,” he said. I shot him a look.

At the end of the day, maybe I wasn't the delusional one. Maybe he was because what the hell was he even talking about?

How was it even possible to care about me when you could tell me that you're getting married to another woman without remorse.

Maybe I wasn't the delusional one, after all. I wasn't as delusional as he was because it sure looked like it.

“I’m still going to care for you. I'm still going to make myself available whenever you need me. I'll be here to bring you breakfast, here to be whatever you need, even here to warm your bed if you want,” he said.

I stared at him. Stunned by how convenient it was for him to assume that I would be content with him being his second choice.

I wasn't going to come second to any other woman in his life. It had to be only me and no one else. I'm sure you were ready to tell him that you were planning to get him kidnapped. I was just as pathetic as he was.

“I think you should leave,” I looked away from him. My eyes stung with tears. I thought I could face him without going mad with anger and heartache, but him being here was simply making it worse.

I was thinking properly.

Hell, I wasn't even sure that I could breathe.

I was definitely running out of my mind and at the end of the day. I couldn't exactly do anything about the situation. I was suffocating terribly.

“Katty, don't be like that,” he approached me, trying to close the proximity between us.

“I think you need to leave. Don't come any closer,” I snapped at him. He paused. Almost as if he was debating if it was a good idea to listen to me. Well, he better.

“Katty, just listen to me-”

“I said, get out of my house,” I yelled. My voice broke. I was losing control, and I was at a loss for how to get it back.

Any moment from now, I was going to break in front of him.

“Am I interrupting something?”