"You disgust me…" Her words were loud enough to knock the air out of Claude's lung as the man watched her with intent, hurt evident in his gaze. Disbelief was etched all over his face."What did you just say?" His hold around the armrests tightened. He was struggling to keep his temper in check. Lashing out on her given their situation was the last thing he wanted to do. "You heard me right the first time." Ayla straightened her posture as she continued to hold her gaze in place, not allowing her voice to waver. "Don't say something you'll regret, Ayla." It pained him to see her acting so cold towards him. But what made it all worse was the steadiness of her voice. She sounded like she believed those words. She was making it look like she was utterly and truly disgusted by him. That was enough for him to know that whatever was blossoming between them during the past few days was long gone now. "The only thing I will r

Ayla had her first eyes trained on the wall clock as she watched the seconds ticking by. It was already past midnight but Claude was nowhere to be found. She had tried reaching out to him, but he was not picking any of her calls. When she decided to use the landline for calling him, he disconnected it the moment he heard her voice. It was only then she realized that he was still angry. Scratch that. Claude was very, very, very mad.But she couldn't even hold it against him because he had every right to be this angry. She was the one who allowed her temper to get the best of her. She was the one who didn't hold her tongue back. She was the one who didn't heed to his words when he gave her the option. If only she had listened to him."Don't say something you'll regret, Ayla." His words echoed through her mind as she scooted under the duvets. She was missing him so much that instead of sleeping in the master room like always, she dec

"Is it worth it?"  It was a rather simple question which Ethan asked him, but the depth of his words left Claude shook to his core. He couldn't help but ask himself the same thing.  Was it really worth it? Was any of it really worth it?  It didn't take him long to come up with a concise answer.  No.  It wasn't. None of it was worth it.  As if reading his thoughts, Ethan gave him a small smile. "I am not going to sit here and defend her actions or words because I know that they must have really hurt you for you to be acting out like this. But at the same time, I can neither defend your actions. She's willing to apologize to you, even if you are not willing to forgive her. But here you are, staying at your penthouse just so you can avoid facing her. What does it say about you?"  Claude let his mind process it all. It wasn't that he didn't think of this before or the same thoughts didn't

"Hey, you!" A couple of giggles left Ayla's pouted lips as she eyed the handsome hunk of man who was standing before her. His brooding expressions made others wary of him, but was the least bit bothered about it. "Aren't you handsome?" She leaned back against the couch as she tilted her neck up to have a better view of him. He was standing tall and proud, unmoving like a mountain as the background faded behind him."I really hope that you somehow recognize me. Otherwise, I don't think that I'll be pleased with my wife calling a random man in a club handsome." Claude shook his head while maintaining his stance. He had his hands shoved inside his pockets to keep them away from lunging at her. He wanted nothing more than to engulf her in a big warm hug and, hopefully, take all of her worries away. But seeing her drunken state, he had to keep his emotions in check. The last thing would be having her all scared and flustered because she was unable to labe

"What happened, love?" He took a step forward in her direction, wanting to run to her. "You are getting me worried here. Please, say something." That was all it took for Ayla to blurt it all out to him."You were not there when I woke, so I thought the worse." A frown made itself evident in between her trimmed brows. "I mean, I was right to do so. Given how much I drank last night, you should have been right next to me when I woke up earlier. But, you were not." She was moving her hands animatedly in the air as she continued to ramble on. At this point, all of her worries flew right out of the window. She didn't pay the rest of the people sitting around the long conference table in their prim and proper attire. Her eyes were solely focused on Claude; him and him alone. "When I didn't see you there, everything came rushing back to me. And since my mind has this really bad habit of making the worst out of situations, I started thinking abo