Chapter 5 The One Night

The night air was heavy with heat, yet my body shivered.

“Come with me,” he said, his voice low, bringing a promise I couldn’t name.

Every urge screamed to walk away, but my legs failed me. I followed him up a narrow staircase that led to a rooftop pool, hidden above the chaos of the city. The city of Los Angeles stretched before me, glittering, living. It mocked the silence I carried inside.

I said in a whisper, "Why here?"

He said, "Because freedom tastes different at night." "You look like you haven't had it in years," he said.

My throat got tight. I hid my face because I was worried that he would see too much.

The rooftop was empty, and the water was shining a soft blue light. He threw his jacket away, rolled up his sleeves, and leaned against the edge as if he owned the place.

He joked, "Calm down." "This wasn't meant to drown you," she said.

I almost laughed, but the sound stopped in the middle. “That’s not funny.”

He studied me, his face softening. “You’re right. Forgive me. I forget what it’s like… to be touched only by fear.”

The words pierced me. “How could you know that?”

“Because I lived it,” he said simply.

Silence pushed around us. I walked to the pool’s edge, looking at the glowing water. My image rippled, broken, like the woman I had become.

He moved closer, his presence wrapping around me. “Tell me what you’re thinking.”

I shook my head. “No one wants to hear my thoughts.”

“I do.”

Something inside me cracked. My voice shook. “I feel… dead. Like every breath is stolen. Like every day, I wear a mask that’s killing me.”

His jaw stiffened, his hands curling at his sides. “Then take it off. At least for tonight.”

My chest ached. “I don’t know how anymore.”

He reached for me, fingers brushing my face with respect I hadn’t felt in years. “Let me remind you.”

The world blurred. His lips touched mine, soft at first, then deeper, hungry. My heart thudded fiercely, and for the first time, I felt alive.

The kiss turned into fire, into surrender, into something that swallowed every scar inside me. His hands slid down my arms, pulling me against him, grounding me in a reality I had long forgotten.

I gasped against his mouth. “This is wrong.”

“Then let it be wrong,” he whispered, his face pressed to mine. “For one night, choose yourself.”

The rooftop disappeared. There was only heat, water lapping as we fell into the pool fully dressed, laughter and gasps echoing against the night. The coolness of the water clashed with the fire of his touch, and I clung to him as though dying, as though he was the only air left to breathe.

He kissed me like he had been hungry, like he had been waiting his whole life. And I kissed him back, spilling every secret ache, every broken dream, every scream I had buried in silence.

When we broke apart, breathless, I whispered, “I don’t even know your name.”

His eyes glimmered with something unreadable. “Maybe that’s better.”

Later, as the city hummed beneath us, I lay in his arms on a beach chair, wrapped in his warmth. For once, I wasn’t Mrs. Charles Donovan. I wasn’t a prisoner in a golden cage. I was just a woman.

He drew circles on my hand. “What are you afraid of most?”

I swallowed hard. “That I’ll never escape. That I’ll die for his wife and never… myself.”

He looked at me then, something dark and fierce in his eyes. “You will escape. Even if you don’t know it yet.”

The confidence in his tone scared me, but it also wrapped around me like a tether.

The horizon changed. Dawn was coming. The spell was breaking.

I sat up suddenly, fear rushing in. “I can’t”

He caught my hand. “Stay.”

I shook my head, tears burning my eyes. “If I stay, I’ll want more. And I can’t want more.”

His fingers tightened around mine. “You already do.”

I tore my hand free, standing shakily. My clothes stuck damp to my skin. My voice barely carried. “Forget me.”

He rose slowly, water dripping from his shirt, his eyes locked on mine. “I couldn’t, even if I tried.”

I turned away before the sob escaped, before the truth in his look trapped me completely.

As I slipped down the stairs, the sun bleeding into the sky, I whispered into the dawn, “Forget me.”

But deep down, as the city woke below, I knew the stranger on the rooftop pool would haunt me forever. And worse something told me this was not the last time our worlds would meet.