Chapter 15 Why did you bring me?
Raphael
Is he trying to flirt with her while I'm standing here?
Will she really go to the hospital to look for the doctor?
Does she find him attractive enough to want to date the doctor?
The questions refused to stop coming, my head flooded with so many what ifs within seconds. I had to take the pain killers the doctor gave me while I sorted out the complaints from the investors. It's obvious that they didn't know about me getting almost assassinated.
After I rounded up the board meeting, I came downstairs to sit on the porch outside when I saw a figure, her back facing mine. She didn't know I'd been standing there for more than twenty minutes. And just as I was about to go inside, her voice cut through the patio
“I thought you came out here to cool off? Then why are you leaving?” She asked.
“I have changed my mind,” I responded to her.
Immediately, she pushed herself up from where she'd been sitting, her movements quick and determined. She was ready to leave.
"I'm done here," she said, her voice flat but firm. "You can have the space all to yourself."
I felt something tighten in my chest. I didn't want her to go, not like this. "I'm not as bad as you think," I said, the words coming out softer than I intended.
I was trying to start a real conversation, trying to break through whatever wall had built up between us.
She stopped. Turned to look at me. Her eyes searched my face, and when she spoke, there was something raw in her voice.
"Why did you bring me to your house if my presence irritates you?"
The question hit me harder than I expected. I blinked, once, then twice, caught off guard by how direct she was being. My mind raced, scrambling to find the right words. I had to be careful here. Every word mattered now.
I took a breath, steadying myself. "Why did you choose to run away the day I came to your house to see your family?"
The words hung in the air between us. I watched her face, waiting to see how she would react.
This question had been sitting inside me for a while now, and I needed to know. I needed to understand what had made her flee that day, what had made her so afraid or uncomfortable that leaving seemed like the only option.
Instead of leaving, she turned around and walked back toward the porch. Her shoulders slumped forward, the fight seeming to drain out of her with each step. She looked tired, defeated in a way that made my chest ache.
She didn't sit down right away. Just stood there for a moment, as if gathering the strength to say what came next.
"Getting married isn't my decision," she finally said, her voice quiet but steady. "But Margot wants me out of the house so badly that she thinks marriage is the only reasonable thing that would take me away from home."
I stared at her while she talked, really seeing her for the first time. The weight she was carrying, the pressure that had been placed on her shoulders. It wasn't fair, any of it.
She kept going, and I stayed silent, letting her speak until she was done.
"And I heard she's looking for you," I said, my eyes meeting hers briefly before looking away. "That's the reason you have to stay here until she gets tired of searching for you."
So that's what this was about. Margot was hunting her down, and somehow I'd gotten pulled into this mess, into her mess. We were both trapped in our own ways, both running from things we couldn't quite escape.
There was a pause, a shift in the air. Then she changed the subject entirely.
"How did the meeting with the board go?" she asked.
The question caught me off guard. After everything she'd just shared, she was asking about me. About my problems. It was unexpected, and somehow, it made the space between us feel a little less hostile.
We sat there in a comfortable silence after that brief conversation. We didn't say much, maybe we were scared of spilling somethings that are meant to be spilled.