Chapter 4

Veronica was stunned. Let Stephen, who had just returned after his business was finished, escort her home. She was mentally shaken after he declared his interest in her which she thought was too sudden so she did not listen to Karl afterwards. Her brain went blank. Like a F4-size paper book which was still white, losing all the scribbles that had decorated the book. She could not process what she just heard from the black-haired man with an Asian face. In fact, she forgot to thank Stephen for bringing her home.

"Nikki? Hello?"

A heavy pat on her shoulder brought her back to her senses. She turned around, looked at Stephen who was standing behind her, laughing softly at her.

"Finally you're awake. Your forehead will soon hit the door of your own apartment."

"Ah ... oh!" Veronica stared at the door of her apartment which was a few centimetres from her face, then moved away from the door of her apartment. "Yes, you're right. Thanks."

Veronica just realized that the man escorted her to the door of her apartment. Her hand immediately reached for the key to the apartment that she kept in her bag. Too nervous, she even dropped the key to her apartment. The man immediately moved closer, picking up the key before she could do it.

"Let me open the door. You must be tired," said Stephen, taking over to open the apartment door for her while returning the key to her after she got inside. “See you tomorrow, Nikki. Have a good sleep."

"But it's still six in the evening!"

"I know," says Stephen, stuffing his hands into the pockets of his leather jacket, shrugging his shoulders. "But early is better, right? I had been asking you when I got in the car, but you were stunned, so I let it go. What was your impression of my friend earlier? "

"An interesting person," replied Veronica, quickly. There was no way she could tell Stephen that she was almost tempted to touch his friend's solid ass. Surely that man would think of her as a perverted woman. So, that was the only answer she could give Stephen.

"Only that? Seeing your reaction earlier, it seems more than that. Well, it's better to keep the details to yourself. You must be surprised because of Karl's love statement, right?"

She gave him a sharp glare, surprised to hear Stephen's guess that hit the spot. "How do you know?!"

"Because that's what Karl keeps saying every time he talks about your meeting. Until my ears hurt to hear it. But my friend is right. You are far more attractive than all the women I've dated."

Her eyes narrowed when she heard Stephen's answer, which reminded her of Bianca. There was a feeling of disappointment that came to her chest. "So I was one of the women you've been close to?"

The man did not seem to dismiss her last words which were sarcastic, because the man stroked the back of his neck, looking awkward.

"Well, yeah. Better not get too close to me, Nikki. I am not someone you can categorize as a good person, but my friend… well, you can trust me on this one. Karl is someone you can count on."

Veronica rolled her eyes. Very nice. The man in front of her managed to destroy the first impression that man seemed to have made unconsciously during their first meeting at the cafe.

"As you say, Stephen. I'm a little tired and need a break. So, good night," she said, losing interest in continuing their conversation and slamming the door of her apartment right in Stephen's face, as he was shocked at the change in her emotions. She caught a glimpse of Stephen's face, which turned grim for a moment.

What a strange man, she muttered to herself. But she was even weird because she liked a man who was clearly not in the mood to take their relationship to a more serious stage.

Veronica was still standing at her apartment door, snorting in annoyance. She did not know why she was so upset to hear that she was not the first woman Stephen Laurent approached. Well, come on, how could a guy as handsome as Stephen Laurent not date all his life?

Compared to Stephen, Karl Smith was a lot better than him.

No, no. Why did she start comparing the two men she just met today?

Veronica patted her cheeks lightly, shaking her head to dispel her reverie. Took out the sneakers that she kept in the box in the bag and put them in the shoe rack near the entrance to her apartment, along with the red high heels Karl gave her that she was wearing. Then walked limply to her bedroom.

***

Veronica's breath immediately caught on as soon as she woke up from her dream. She swallowed hard, wiped the cold sweat that ran down her forehead as she picked up the digital watch on her nightstand. Three o'clock in the morning. Her hand returned the watch to the table, while she adjusted her breath back to normal.

After returning from Karl's residence, her body was seized with fatigue, so she decided to use the rest of her time to sleep even though she knew that she still had work to do the Victimology course that had to be submitted next week.

The nightmare that had not haunted her for two years began to appear again. She has spent most of her life visiting psychiatrists every month to deal with trauma after an assault incident that cost her leg at the age of eight. Veronica touched her thigh, stroking the missing leg grimly. She tried to close her eyes. However, her memory was still fixed on the incident twelve years ago.

At the quarrels of her parents that always happened every day at that time ...

On her decision to leave home because she could not stand it and ran until she got lost deep in the cold forest, in the dark of the night when the moon was half-full ...

To her fear when the wolf-eyed hazel, full of anger ran towards her. Biting both of her legs until she screamed in pain and lost consciousness ...

No matter how hard she tried to provoke her memory to remember more about the incident, her memories always stopped there. Then over and over. At first, it would spin very slowly, then faster, and faster, until her head was throbbing because she could not bear the memory that was spinning too fast. As it was now. She gripped her blanket, trying to shake the memory from her mind.

Sometime later, the memory flashback disappeared. She breathed a sigh of relief, lay back down on her bed. Her eyes looked up to the ceiling. Remembering Stephen's gloomy expression for a moment when he saw her angry. Did that man know anything about the incident, considering that the figure who had attacked her was a werewolf? 

That was true. It was possible that the man had found out, and had purposely kept that fact secret from him. Stephen's werewolf background must have given the man a reason to protect his fellow werewolves.

Suddenly, she hated Stephen.

Veronica once again gripped the sheet with all her strength until her knuckles turned white. She could not go back to sleep. What if the nightmare came back to haunted her again?

Taking the umpteenth long sigh, Veronica threw the blanket she was wearing earlier on to the side of the bed, jumping out of bed. It was better to use her time to continue her task which she had delayed this afternoon so that her mind would be diverted from the dream. She stared at her prosthetic leg for a moment, then chose to grab a pair of crutches that lay beside her prosthetic leg. Walked to her desk, she turned on her laptop. The laptop battery indicator light turned red.

Shit. She forgot to charge her laptop battery yesterday before she went to bed.

Annoyed, she cursed her own stupidity, plugging the charging cable into her laptop. Her mind tried to recall the dream, which she quickly shook off. As soon as the Windows 10 logo appears on her laptop screen, she looked for her task file, starts working on the task. Her drowsiness had completely disappeared when she had to read a five hundred page electronic learning module, marking the section her lecturer asked for the day before yesterday.

***