Ch6: Substitute

​Adrian lit his cigarette calmly and sat on the genuine leather sofa. After a few seconds, he looked at her as he tapped his cigarette ash into the ceramic dish.

"Dana, I recall that I already set the boundaries of our relationship. Do not make me resent you."

​She tapped her fingernails on the table in front of him, then sat down and quietly pulled a cigarette from his pack, challenging his eyes.

"But you are the greatest benefactor of our relationship, Adrian."

Slowly closing her eyes, she leaned her face forward with the cigarette in her mouth to light it from his, then leaned back again and continued:

"While I? I feel like the loser here. I gave you everything you wanted—my body, my soul, and all my money and influence, which you control as you please—while you do not allow me to gain any privileges from you."

​Adrian knitted his brows.

"When you say this, you make me feel as though you are the one superior here and I am exploiting you. Have you forgotten who I am? This money of yours is worth nothing to me. Do not mix up the concepts, Dana. I manage your business only because you are my uncle's ward, and I take nothing from you for myself."

​She looked at him, her eyes reddening as a deep sadness lay within them.

"Did your uncle also command you to use his daughter as a substitute for the girl you love?..."

​Adrian’s hand froze in midair just as he was about to tap the cigarette ash again. A sudden silence enveloped the suite, and his eyes turned sharply toward her with a long look that caused her trapped breath to slowly retreat.

​He extinguished his cigarette very slowly, pressing it down into the ceramic dish until it was completely disfigured, then leaned his body toward her, making his face only a few inches away from hers.

​"Substitute?" The word came from between his lips in an extremely low tone, yet it carried a calmness that terrified her more than any shouting. He continued in a mocking tone: "I warned you... since the very first day you approached my bed of your own free will, and I told you not to expect a heart from me that does not belong to you... You are the one who chose the role of the substitute, so do not weep now and pin the accusation on me."

​Dana looked at him in a silence that suffocated her neck until her throat began to ache, before she finally spoke after swallowing her bitterness:

"I thought that proximity would change you. I thought that with my money, my influence, and my great resemblance to her, I would make you forget Eileen. But the moment you learned the news of her miscarriage and her husband casting her out, you left everything and ran to her... Do you think she will accept you, Adrian? Eileen is a loyal woman; even if her husband destroyed her, she will not throw herself into another man's arms easily!"

​Adrian turned away from her and stood up to his full, towering height and commanding presence, a cold, mysterious smile etching itself on his lips. He walked toward the massive window overlooking the mansion's garden, observing the horizon, then spoke in a quiet voice overflowing with his mystery.

"She will accept... and I will make her completely forget even the name of Kai, providing a warmth that will make her burn her entire past for my sake."

​Dana sighed. "Do what you want, Adrian. After everything that happened in the past, you haven't changed... Even after she preferred a man who is worth nothing over you, you still give a woman like her value."

​Adrian's eyes snapped toward her with sheer violence. "I warn you, Dana, do not insult her or touch her in any way."

​Dana looked at him and stood up. "I hope you do not lose your way again, Adrian."

​The luxury car came to a stop beneath the old apartment building, and the driver stepped out to open the door for Eileen with complete respect. She disembarked with feeble steps, her body still trembling slightly from the remnants of fatigue. She climbed the wooden stairs, her heart beating systematically, and pushed open the door of the modest apartment with her slender body.

​She stepped inside, and a bleak stillness wrapped around the place. She moved with heavy steps toward the bedroom, but she froze in her tracks at the threshold of the door, her eyes widening in bewilderment and a grief that wrung her insides.

​On the bed lay her husband, "Kai."

​He was lying in a chaotic position, his clothes creased and scattered, and his hair covering his forehead at random. He showed signs of extreme exhaustion and sleeplessness; his face was pale, dripping with cold sweat, while the sharp smell of wine emanated from his breath and the entire room, having completely blacked out his consciousness.

​Eileen stiffened in her place, feeling a burning lump choking her throat. She advanced toward the bed with very slow steps, barely touching the ground, and sat on its edge, contemplating his lost features. In his confusion and misery, she saw a great brokenness. Despite all the cruelty, injustice, and abandonment she had tasted from him days ago, and despite the hurtful words he had hurled at her at the hospital and in the phone call... her heart grew weak again.

​Her hot tears fell silently, pouring down her pale cheeks. She felt a deep pity tearing through her chest as she looked at his wretched state; she remembered the other Kai... the Kai of the past, her loyal lover who used to fill her days with warmth and security before life's debts swallowed him and turned him into this destructive person who was going through the worst period of his life.

​Her trembling hand slowly extended, bypassing all the false promises of strength she had laid down before Adrian, to touch the scattered strands of Kai's hair with extreme gentleness. Deep down, she was incapable of completely hating him, and this was what tore her heart the most and made her intensely angry with herself.

​But she stopped suddenly as this cruel question attacked her mind:

"Since when did all this begin?"