Chapter-11

Kara’s POV.

“Oh, I just feel awful now, Derrick,” Jade told Derrick right outside my door as I rearranged my room from bottom to top. “I didn’t know it was her room; I would never have taken anything that was hers without asking her. I’ve never done so! Can you please make her understand how sorry I am?”

If I rolled my eyes one more time, I would lose them somewhere in my brain. She sure didn’t seem sorry when she was reading through my journal.

After I put my foot down and demanded my room back, Derrick had no choice but to yield. Derrick had then taken Jade out to show her the gardens while I managed to move my belongings back to my room in peace. Unfortunately, they didn’t stay outside for long.

“It’s okay, Jade,” Derrick said, voice low and soothing, tender. It was a tone that was only reserved for Jade. “It’s not your fault, and I thought she’d be a good sport about it, not blow her top.”

“Still, I just feel so bad.”

“You said sorry once, Jade, now it’s her job to be a decent person and accept it,” Derrick insisted. Ugh, I disliked him so much when he was like this. “You know what, why don’t you move to the master bedroom? There’s plenty of space there, of course.”

I sucked in a breath at that. I wasn’t surprised, not really. I knew that it was inevitable. It would be strange if they weren’t sharing a room at that point.

Their voices moved away from my door after that, but the tone of Derrick’s voice when he consoled Jade stayed with me, making me remember something peculiar.

I had a memory of an event I was fairly certain never took place, as it was that bizarre. It must have been a hallucination from when I caught the flu during my first year of marriage, and it was the worst time ever. It took me a week to recover, and during the times when my fever was high, I hallucinated. So, this memory must be a hallucination.

I felt like I remembered Derrick sitting next to me on our bed, because I was still sharing the master bedroom with him. His voice was gentle as he spoke to me, promising me that it would be okay, that I’ll be better in no time, and that it was only a nightmare. Apparently, I must’ve had a nightmare in my hallucination.

It was the weirdest thing, and I had no idea what to make of it.

The memory felt so real, but I knew it couldn’t have happened. Derrick would never touch me that way.

But back then, I was still certain that I could make him love me, and if he was capable of being so gentle with me, then I had a chance of melting his cold heart.

That fake memory gave me hope, and of course, that hope was squashed afterward.

Back then, I really thought it happened.

But now, I was certain it was only a delirium of sickness, my own mind playing tricks on me.

After my room was in order again, I was so sweaty and exhausted. I shouldn’t have exerted myself so much just after coming from the hospital.

A nap sounded heavenly right now, so I went to the bathroom to take a quick shower before falling into bed, before Jade and Derrick decided to disturb me with something again.

In the bathroom, everything was going fine until a dizzy spell settled on me. It came out of nowhere! One moment I was standing up, the next I was slipping on the tile and falling on my butt.

On the way down, my hand caught the toiletry shelf of the bathroom, and it came crashing down with me, making a loud noise. I was so disoriented when I felt that I just stayed there hyperventilating for a moment, without even realizing what happened, feeling pain flaring up from the barely healed wounds on my legs.

Then, before I could react to anything, the door of the bathroom burst open, and Derrick came rushing in with the widest eyes I’ve ever seen on him.

His head whipped around until he registered me on the floor, and his expression immediately became annoyed.

“Shit! Are you injured?!” Without even thinking twice, he reached down to pull me up from my shoulders, checking me for injuries. “Why are you so fricken clumsy, Kara? Do you want to end up in the hospital again?”

 I was so flabbergasted that I just stayed there gaping for a moment before my brain caught up with the situation. As soon as I did, I recoiled from him, bringing my hands up to hide my naked body from him, blushing from head to toe.

“What the hell, Derrick? What are you doing, get out of here!”

“I came because I thought you cracked your head on the tiles!” Derrick snapped. “Did you? Do you feel any pain in your head? Can you see straight?”

“Get out, Derrick, I’m naked here!”

Derrick seemed to have only realized that then. His eyes snapped down to my body, and then, they just stayed there, looking dazed. He froze for a beat; his expression was something I’ve never seen before.

“Derrick, what going on, why did you run?”

Just then, to make matters worse, Jade’s voice came from the hallway, sounding lazily concerned.

“Derrick, get out of here now!” I hissed, absolutely mortified. “Get out, now!”

“Shut up,” Derrick muttered instead of getting out, and then yanked his jacket off his shoulders. Then, he draped it over me, tucking it over my shoulders so it wouldn’t fall, blushing the whole time.

But it wasn’t fast enough, and the damage was done.

Jade was already there, her face pale, standing at the doorway, staring at us as if she was having a rough time believing her eyes. Her brittle smile was frozen on her face, and the strain to keep it up was visible.

“Derrick, what’s going on here?” she asked in a sickly-sweet voice that poorly hid her true emotions regarding the situation.

“Nothing,” Derrick replied. “Nothing happened.”

Before Jade could get another word in, Derrick turned to me and reached behind me, too fast for me to move away. I felt the skin of his hands making contact with my wet, bare body, and the next thing I knew, I was being scooped into his arms and then cradled into his chest. My hands came up instinctively to hold his shoulders because I was suddenly unbalanced.

I couldn’t believe what was happening.

Without another word, Derrick carried me out of the bathroom, right past Jade.