Ch3: Is This Him?

​At that exact moment, her mind lacked the capacity to think or analyze. The cruelty of his rejection just seconds ago dissolved under the weight of his lips, which devoured her breath with a sudden, hungry violence. Her body was trembling, not just from the chill of the hallway floor, but from the glaring contradiction this man inflicted upon her—casting her into the abyss with his right hand, only to extend his left to catch her before she hit the bottom.

​Without breaking that fierce kiss, Kai’s harsh hands reached down to grip her slender waist, pulling her forcefully behind him back into the apartment. He shoved the door shut with his foot, and it slammed with a violent crash.

​He pressed her body against the darkened wall behind the door, continuing to kiss and touch her with a strange frenzy, as though he were punishing her and possessing her all at once. His touches were rough, entirely devoid of any tenderness or comfort for a woman who had just lost her child. Yet Evelyn... surrendered.

​She relaxed her trembling hands against him, allowing her hot tears to flow and mingle with his kisses. It was the surrender of a drowning soul who had stopped fighting the waves and decided to drift with them. At this very moment, she desperately needed any warmth, even if it was false—any sign telling her she was still wanted, after being branded as "defective" and a "failure."

​Slowly, she wrapped her frail arms around his neck, clinging to him like someone grasping at a straw in the center of a hurricane, completely ignoring the throbbing pain in her bleeding wrist and the boiling fever that still consumed her limbs.

​Kai felt her submissive surrender. He tightened his grip on her and guided her slowly toward the bedroom, completing his total dominance over her body and her scattered emotions. Meanwhile, she buried her consciousness in denial, wishing with all her might that this nightmare would end and the Kai who loved her would return.

​The next morning, pale streaks of sunlight crept through the window, waking Evelyn to a reality far colder than the darkness of the night before. She opened her eyes slowly, feeling every inch of her body screaming in pain, the fever still weighing heavily upon her limbs.

​She turned to her side on the bed, but she did not find Kai lying there to hold or comfort her as her delusional imagination had hoped.

​He was standing in front of the mirror, putting on his clothes and preparing to leave for work. He didn't even turn to look at her; instead, he caught the reflection of her pale face in the mirror and addressed her in a dry tone, utterly stripped of any trace of last night’s warmth: "Finally, you’re awake? Come on, get up quickly and get ready to go to your work at the shipping company."

​Evelyn went rigid beneath the covers, a lump suffocating her throat as she listened to his commanding voice, which continued with utter indifference: "You wasted a whole week in that hospital for nothing, and our debts have piled up. I am not prepared to bear extra expenses because of your laziness. We have lost enough."

​Their loss? Did he mean their child, whose soul had bled out on the hotel marble? Or did he mean a few pennies?

​Evelyn looked at him with a profound disappointment—a silent betrayal that left her throat with no energy even to reproach him or cry. It was a long, cold look, as if she were seeing him for the first time in his naked truth: a man who had stripped her of everything, and now wanted to consume the remnants of her diseased body just to pay off his debts.

​She didn't utter a single word. She pushed the blanket off her slender frame and rose from the bed. Her steps faltered from dizziness, but she forced herself forward, completely ignoring his presence in the room. She took a shower to organize her thoughts, and when she came out, she found he had already left; he hadn't even waited for her.

​She put on her old clothes, grabbed her bag, and walked out, heading to her job at the shipping company...

​Evelyn entered the shipping company headquarters with a broken body and a detached spirit. She did not possess the luxury of crying or complaining, so she threw herself into the furnace of work the moment she arrived. She found herself drowning in a sea of paperwork, auditing, and tracking shipments—a storm of tasks accumulated over her week-long absence swallowed her whole.

​Even though the official working hours had ended, the desks around her emptied, and the employees left one by one, Evelyn consciously chose to take on overtime hours. She wasn't just looking for the money; she was terrified of the thought of returning to that desolate apartment, and even more terrified of facing Kai and his dry looks that stripped away whatever was left of her.

​An absolute silence enveloped the company corridors, and nothing could be heard except the rhythmic clicking of her trembling fingers on the keyboard. Her vision swayed before her eyes due to the lingering fever and exhaustion, until she suddenly felt a massive shadow eclipse the light of her small desk.

​Before she could turn or comprehend what was happening, a solid frame enveloped her from behind... a body radiating an immense warmth and the scent of a luxurious perfume—a sharp, familiar Italian cologne mingled with the scent of expensive cigarettes.

​Her breath hitched in her chest as she felt his warm breath brushing against her neck, which was exposed by her short hair. He tilted his head, whispering near her ear in a deep, calm cadence:

​"You rejected me when I tried to get close to you in the past, Evelyn... At the beginning of your marriage, you turned me away with the pride of a faithful wife for his sake... And now, look at yourself. How did you become so broken?"

​Her eyes widened in shock, her entire body shaking within his embrace. It was Adrian... the CEO of this shipping company, the man whom everyone feared to look directly in the eye.

​He gave her no chance to move or answer, continuing his close whisper that shattered her consciousness: "The moment I asked about the reason for your absence and learned what happened to you... I left everything behind. I cut my trip short and returned for you immediately... My plane has just landed, and my feet have not touched any place before coming to you."

​His words were powerful, warm, and carried an influence that made her weak.

​"Is this the man you rejected me for?"

​Caught between a man who had stripped her of her child and kicked her out into the darkness of the night only to consume her again in the morning, and a man who wanted to give her the world, leaving his business and traveling just to be with her in her weakness... Evelyn felt the walls of her heart, which had once guarded her love for Kai, completely collapse.