GRACE.
“Explain then,” I glared at him, pouring all the rage I was feeling into his eyes.
At first, I wanted to stay inside NK’s room till he left like I told NK but I just couldn’t beat to hear him plead that way.
I really didn’t want to see him ever again or hear whatever he had to say, but his persistence was driving me nuts.
The desperation and urgency in his voice drew me out of the house. And I thought to myself; he wants to talk right? Then we might as well just hear his loads of excuses and get it over and done with.
One thing was certain, I’ve been a reporter for more than five years. No Tabloids can carry an information like that without the person’s authorization or the company or agency they work for.
He would have slapped them with heavy lawsuits if that wasn’t the case. So yeah, I wanna hear about it too, cuz I have been scrolling through articles since NK showed me that, looking for an article releasing denial statements, suing that newspaper for carrying fake new, but none of that showed up.
Nothing. Absolutely nothing.
“Grace…” he trailed off, his enchanting grey eyes looked sad. “Let’s talk in a place more… private, please.” He took a step further but NK blocked him out.
“Here is fine by me,” I said like I wouldn’t care less, as if the redness of my eyes wasn’t enough evidence to give me away. Then he turned to stare at NK pleadingly.
“You can use my office, Grace,” she snorted and walked back inside.
I ushered him into the NK’s office, hoping this talk or explanation could be quickly over and done with so I could go get my child from school and get ready for work.
But somehow deep down, I wished the explanation or his side of the story should be something I would be able to understand because, it would hurt more than I can even imagine.
I offered him a seat when we got in but he declined, saying he preferred standing, so I had to stand as well, only just a safe distance from him. He was putting on a face cap, which was probably meant to be a camouflage, with dark sunglasses in his hand.
Trying so hard to hold my ground even when his cologne was beginning to engulf my senses.
“Talk,” I said curtly, “You said you wanted to explain to me, so please go ahead.”
“I don’t have any excuses, Grace,” he started, his eyes burning deep into mine. “I’m sorry you had to see that, but I have nothing with Angela. She’s in the past now, nothing more.”
“Then who put the news up there?” I asked, hating the way he started his speech, “because as far as I know, a news like that cannot be put up on the Tabloids without your consent or that of your agency, also, why are you not suing or doing anything to deny the allegations?”
I didn’t just need him to deny Angela or whoever to my face, I needed him to deny having anything with her before the whole world. If he really had nothing to do with it as he was saying at this point.
“Like I said, Grace.” He took few steps closer to me but I retreated. “I don’t have any excuses but you have to trust me, I’ll resolve everything soon.”
I was flabbergasted at his indifference, it just wasn’t making any sense.
“You don’t have any excuses?” I asked, trying not to raise my voice. “C’mon, Alpha Connor Shelby. You have to do better than that if you expect me to trust you. I mean, if I don’t deserve a real and full explanation, why are you here? Why did you look for me? What do you even want from me?”
“Grace…” he whispered and with a single stride he was right in front of me, holding me to himself and I was almost tempted to inhale a lung full of his delicious smell. “I love you, and I can never let someone from my past ruin what we have at this point.”
“Well she is ruining it already if you can’t look me in the face and tell me the truth.” I uttered, shrugging to remove his hands from me while putting some distance between us.
I took out the key of the car he bought me, dragged out his hand and dropped it inside his palms. “If you have a conscience, you’ll stay away from me. You have done enough damage already, Connor Shelby.” I said with a tone of finality and walked out of the office.
NK was waiting in the parlor but I was too emotionally exhausted to say anything, so I simply walked straight into her arms. She hugged me tenderly and I hugged her so tightly like I was on life support and she was oxygen.
I retreated from her arms, sniffing back tears and evading eye contact while telling her I was going to get Laurie from school even though it wasn’t time yet. But I needed to get away from Connor as fast as I could. I didn’t want to be in the same space as him.
I hailed a taxi as soon as I got to the road and drove straight to Laurel’s school. I told her teacher that we had to be somewhere so I had to take her earlier than normal.
I just wanted to be alone with my child, away from the world as long as possible, so I called in sick at work.
…….
CONNOR
Her last words hit me so hard, I couldn’t gather the will power to go after her.
I saw the raw pain in her eyes. The hell she was going through standing in front of me like she was impenetrable.
And she was right about everything. She deserved the truth if I expected her to trust me, but how could I tell her it was all my mother’s doing? That was surely going to make her feel worse than she was at this moment.
The mother of a man you love trying to arrange marriage with someone else for him. That would drive anybody nuts.
I wouldn’t sit here and watch her slip away from me this time again. I had to go confront my mother, I decided, as I left NK’s house with the old car I came with, leaving the car keys Grace dropped in my palms in her friends place.
I drove off quickly before she had a chance to argue with me about the car. I bought it for Grace and I would never take it back. Her friend would be forced to take it back to her at some point.
I need to pay my mother an impromptu visit.