Chapter 17 Got Caught In His Arms...Again
KARA'S POV
Days passed, and finally, my internship came to an end. The finality of it settled over me like a weight and I had made it through, but there was a strange emptiness that I couldn’t shake. Mr. Stewheinz wasn’t there during the giving of certificates. I tried not to think too much about it, but I couldn’t help the way my heart ached with the absence of him, his presence, his control, and his everything.
I looked around the room as my friends buzzing with excitement as they received their certificates, their futures ahead of them. But for me, something was missing.
"Finally, we're done!" Sancha exclaimed and hugged me and Louisse.
Aaron was the one who stayed behind after the ceremony, his own internship with Stewheinz’s company still ongoing. He had three more weeks to finish before he could go home. We agreed, the moment the ceremony ended, that we’d remain good friends outside of work and should never feel unease.
"You know I’ll still be here for you, right?" Aaron said as we gathered our things to leave. “We’ll still hang out, just like we promised. No weirdness, no anything.” His voice was light, but I could tell he was relieved that we had made that decision.
“Yeah, no weirdness. We’re good.” I nodded, forcing a smile.
But deep down, I couldn’t help but feel a cold emptiness creeping inside me. It was as though I had reached the end of something, something I wasn’t sure I was ready to end.
Weeks passed, and soon, the mock board exam loomed over me. It wasn’t just a test, it was my future. If I didn’t pass, it would mean taking it over and over again until I did. The pressure was suffocating for real. I then threw myself into studying, trying to bury my thoughts of him, the man who had turned my life upside down.
But every time I tried to focus, his face flashed before me. His eyes, sharp and unreadable, the feel of his hand on my skin, and his body pressing against mine. How he would pull me in, possess me, and then push me away, like I was nothing more than a passing thought.
I missed him but it hurts.
I hated how much I missed him, I hated how, no matter what I told myself, I couldn’t stop thinking about him.
“Focus,” I told myself, burying the feeling deep down, pushing aside the memories of the nights he consumed me.
But it was hard, so hard.
I didn’t know what he thought of me after I ran away that day, after I finally gathered the courage to push him away. Maybe he had seen my breaking point, maybe he had read that I wanted to stop what was happening between us, or maybe he just didn’t care.
But what did it matter now?
Letting him back in would have cost me everything. My self-worth and my dignity. I wasn’t sure I had anything left to give him anyway.
Three days passed before I could bring myself to retake the mock board exam.
When the results came back, I barely dared to look at the sheet. But when I saw it, I couldn’t believe it that I passed. One take, and I was done. Sancha and Louisse also passed, and we celebrated, the tension from the exam finally lifting.
So close to becoming Engineers!
That night, we decided to go to the club, to unwind, and to forget about everything for a while. We called Aaron to join us, and he agreed as his was voice excited at the thought of spending the night with us.
"Hi, girls!" He greets us but his eyes nailed on me as if I was the center of attraction.
"Zup, Aaron!" Louisse greets him.
He sits beside me and speaks in a low volume that only me can hear.
"You look beautiful and hotter than before, Karaella," he whispers that made me smile.
We drink and made the liquor drown us. We danced wildly on the floor after as the music thumping in my chest, with the heat building between us as we moved. Aaron was close, his hands resting on my waist, his body pressed against mine, and his lips brushing my ear as he whispered something I couldn’t hear over the noise.
We were laughing, caught in the moment, when something shifted in the air.
Suddenly, a strong arm wrapped around my waist, pulling me back against a hard-muscular chest. Before I could even process what was happening, I heard a loud crack It was a strong punch landing squarely on Aaron’s face. His body staggered back, and I watched in horror as he collapsed to the ground, blood beginning to pool beneath his nose.
And everything stopped.
Aaron was on the floor, but I wasn’t looking at him anymore. I was staring at the man who had made my life a living hell for months.
He's Mr. Stewheinz.
His furious eyes locked onto mine, burning with an intensity that made my heart freeze. There was no tenderness in his gaze, no affection, only cold and unyielding rage. His fists were clenched, his knuckles white, and his tattoos stretched over his neck like dark, inescapable reminders of the chaos he had brought into my life.
“Get away from him,” I whispered, but my voice was shaking. I didn’t know if I was talking to Aaron or to him.
But before I could even react, his arms were around me again, lifting me effortlessly as my feet leaving the ground. I gasped in shock as the world around me blurred, the lights of the club swirling into a dizzying pattern. I tried to struggle, but it was no use. His grip was unrelenting, his strength too much for me to break free from.
And in that moment, I realized something, something that twisted my insides into knots.
It was him, again.
The man who ruined my mind, my heart, and my every thought.
Without a word, he turned and walked toward the exit as my body is weightless in his arms. We were a blur disappearing from the club, as if we were nothing more than bubbles popping in the air. And in the quiet that followed, all I could think was, I’ve been running away from him all this time, but it’s never over.
Not for me and not for him.