The instant she got to the villa, she slammed the door behind her in a fit of rage and stormed up the stairs. Its silence echoed back at her reassuringly as she pushed her room door open and dropped her purse on her bed, plopping onto it with her head in her palm. Rina took a deep breath, trying to let go of everything that had happened that day.
But it was the hardest thing to do.
It plagued every part of her, snaking through her like a disease. She wanted to do something to hurt Regina at that moment, without the slightest hesitation. But at the same time, Rina knew it wouldn’t be worth it. She had come too far to let all of her carefully plotted plans go up in flames that way. Still, it didn’t help the fire that was trapped inside her, threatening to burst out and engulf every person who had chosen to become her enemy.
Knowing sitting wouldn’t change anything, Rina retrieved her phone from her purse and walked into the bathroom, connecting it to the speakers Zayn had asked Igor to provide the next day after she moved in. Shrugging out of her clothes, she prepared her bath and stepped into the bubbles, sighing as the warm water relaxed her nerves and melted her anger. Rina didn’t know how she had come to attribute soothe to having a bath, but it was one of the moments she got to relax, think and plot.
Closing her eyes, she slipped further into the water and took deep breaths repeatedly. She replayed the conversation at the production house, wondering if there were any signs that could have warned her about what she had been stepping into. But even if there were, Rina wondered if she would have made different decisions, if she had turned around and headed back to her car, canceling the whole meeting. She’d surely gained something from it. The recording was saved in her phone, backed up on her iCloud, and also sent to George just in case someone somewhere knew she had made a recording before she decided to use it.
Armed with the recording, Rina decided it had also been a win-win situation for her. Even though it stung that she’d been so excited about the prospects of getting back onto a set, she knew she would still get another offer. Rina wasn’t just a regular actor. She was the best there was, evident by how every production set begged for her to star in their movies. Getting back to the limelight wouldn’t have been such an issue if she hadn’t unknowingly made some enemies on her way up to greatness.
They’d all smiled and dined with her when behind her back, they snickered and waited for her to make a mistake. Rina decided that after all, the spread of the sick rumor by Kayla ended up being an opportunity to know the people who genuinely liked and respected her. But her child didn’t have to die for that to happen.
“Rina.”
Although, Rina thought the water had to be her therapy, hearing his voice in her head did something she hadn’t imagined possible. At that exact second, every iota of anger disappeared and was replaced with a burning desire to exert revenge. “I have to be running insane at this point,” she whispered to herself, sighing under the bubbles.
“What happened?”
Rina shot her head out of the water at once, her eyes falling on Zayn. He was standing by the door casually, his hand resting on the door frame. He backed the light streaking in from the room, so it was hard to see the expression on his face. She hadn’t been imagining it. He had actually called her name.
“This is becoming a regular occurrence.” Her heart thundered against her chest suddenly. “I know I’m going to be your wife and all of that, but don’t you think you should knock before coming into my room?”
“Rina…”
“We also spoke about not having any relationship with each other. You said it was going to be completely cordial.” She was deflecting, trying not to focus on the issue at hand. Perhaps, she was scared to admit how her hands shook under the water, or how she suddenly remembered what happened before he traveled the first time in her closer, how his hands hovered around her skin, making her shiver under their bold strokes, like an artist that knew his canvas in and out. There were a few things Rina was scared of, and this made the list.
“Rina, stop it!”
“Stop what?”
“What you are doing.”
“What is it that I’m doing?”
“Pushing me away.”
An abrupt silence overtook the bathroom as Zayn waited for that to settle.
“I noticed when I arrived. You didn’t look into my eyes, and you said things that ordinarily, if it were to be another person, it would have been a whole different result.”
“So why didn’t you do anything about it, then?” Rina shot back at him, hating the fact that he was right. Although she promised herself that she wouldn’t let her displeasure show since she had no right to hold anything over him, Rina couldn’t hold it back. It was the exact thing she was scared about all those months entitlement. She knew it was going to affect their arrangement, and now, Rina wouldn’t be surprised if Zayn ended it all on the spot.
In fact, she expected the announcement to be his next words, bracing herself for it even. She sighed as he moved slightly, removing his hand from the frame and taking a slow step into the room. He didn’t overwhelm her with his presence, stopping a few feet away from the tub, as if telling her it was okay if she didn’t want him in her space right then, that he could wait until she was ready to talk. It made Rina feel bad for lashing out at him.
“I don’t know.” Something broke in his voice. “I just couldn’t bring myself to.”