Chapter 38 A Place Of Safety
The air around me suddenly felt tight. I gripped the handle of the chair hard as I took in every information. My throat suddenly felt dry. A sound came from the far end of the hallway, I immediately jerked up from the chair and hurriedly placed everything back into the safe and locked it.
Taking my phone, I walked out slowly out the study room and closing the door, hurriedly walking to my room and I slammed my door shut.
With my back behind it, I slid down, tears pouring down my eyes, making a wet puddle on my night wear. I can’t believe this, I covered my mouth so as not to make any noise as I cried.
It wasn’t entirely my dad’s fault! My mother had turned him into a monster. She had cheated on him and only that, she sold our house to Aurick. I suddenly felt disgusted.
How could I stay in a home that housed the ones who made my dad die?
Putting on fresh clothes, I packed few more into a bag. Wiping away my tears, I went out of the house. Using the facial recognition at the gates, the gates opened up for me.
Without looking back, I strided away. Although, it was past midnight, few cars still passed by illuminating my path but I soon grew tired.
What the hell was I doing?
I didn’t have anywhere to go! This was a big city and I couldn’t go back to Brooklyn, what would I tell Summer? That my mum’s infidelity killed my dad?
She wouldn’t believe me. Even I didn’t. But everything I had seen today had totally destroyed my mother’s image in my eyes!
There was one person who would listen to me though. My heart sank just at the thought of having to call him. What if he was busy… with Tan? What would I do then?
I took in a deep breath. It won’t hurt to try.
He picked up at the second ring.
“Yv… Yvonne, is that really you?” His rasped breaths came from the other end of the line. Was he working out? This late?
I bit on my lips nervously, wondering what to say. When he noticed my silence, he said. “Where are you? You know what, stay right there. I’m coming to get you, okay?”
“Okay,” I finally said.
It wasn’t up to ten minutes after our little call ended that a red car pulled over at my side. Barth alighted from the it and walked towards me. My heart skipped a beat.
The moonlight casted an ethereal light on him. He was putting on a white armless shirt, his muscular arms protruding, making me gulp down. His hair wasn’t in its usual state, it was disheveled and scattered across his face. I arched to run my hands through it once more.
Suddenly, he gripped my arm tightly and shook me out of my thoughts. Pain shot through me instantly.
“What are you doing outside this late, Yvonne?! Are you crazy? Don’t you know something could happen to you out here!” Barth growled, shaking me roughly.
I grimaced, my face twisted into pain and fury, trying to free myself from his hold. I didn’t call him out here to lecture me!
“Barth, let go. You are hurting me.”
He blinked, the ferocious look in his eyes gone in an instant. His hand slipped away from mine.
“I’m sorry, Yvonne. I was only worried about you,” He muttered.
“How did you find me?” I raised a brow. “I didn’t even tell you where I was.”
A proud smirk crept onto his face. “Well, technology, Yvonne. But you haven’t answered me about why you are out this late.”
I shivered due to the cold. Hugging my arms to myself, I rubbed furiously. I looked around, we were the only ones on the road. Then, it really dawned on me about how dangerous my venture had been. “Can you take me out of here please?”
Barth nodded and opened the passenger door for me. Stepping into the car, he turned on the ignition and we zoomed off. I fidgeted with my fingers as I sat in the car, his musky scent drifting in my nose.
It had been weeks since I last saw him and he still affected me this much.
“Will you tell me what’s going on now?” Barth asked, gazing at me and then back at the road.
I pursed my lips. I didn’t know where to start from. The first meeting with his mother? The second one or what I had found out? I knew his mother was a sensitive topic for him.
“Speak Yvonne! You are driving me nuts!” He half yelled, slamming hard on the steering wheel making me flinch.
“Okay! Okay!” I yelled back, my chest heaving. “You don’t have to use that tone on me. I met with your mother.”
His jaw tightened hard like it would snap off at any second. His hands gripped onto the steering wheel, that his knuckles turned white.
“And?” He said through gritted teeth.
I swallowed as I recounted my story to him. I told him about how I had gone to the hills to clear my head and how she had come to me about secrets surrounding my father’s death.
I told him about what I had overheard from Aurick’s and my mum’s discussion. I told him about how I had met with Cecilia again at the restaurant and the pictures I had seen. Then, I finally told him about the documents I had seen in his father’s safe. How the dates went back two years before my father’s change of behavior and death.
After I finished, I stared at him. Barth had a blank expression on, it was either he was too good at hiding his emotions or I wasn’t good at reading him.
“Okay,” He finally said breaking the awkward silence between us and opened his car door. I hadn’t even realized we had stopped but that wasn’t what bothered me.
I stepped out of the door and jammed it shut. Stomping my feet, I screamed at his retracting back. “Okay? Is that all you have to say to me?!”
He stopped in his tracks and looked at me over his shoulders. “Come inside. It will be daytime soon, I don’t want my neighbors to think I have brought a crazy lady home.”