HER'S

Chapter Six

I WAS FRUSTRATED.

I was frustrated and confused. It wasn't even helping that Matteo wasn't believing what I said about seeing a shadow in the corner. Chase's shadow.

He had been so fast to disappear as if he knew what I would do. But who was I to even wonder how he did it?

Chase was a man who was an expert in things like that.

Still, it could be my mind playing games with me.

But then, I knew it wasn't my imaginations. I was sure I had felt him against me back in the hallway. I was sure I had heard his voice and I was very sure he had been in the shadows.

But was that his scent?

Definitely not. Chase used sandalwood cologne, and that was where I was confused. Matteo wouldn't corner me against the wall, and then, tell me to keep quiet with Chase's voice. That was stupid.

It had to be my imagination.

I gave up on those thoughts because I had no proof it was Chase I had seen or heard. Maybe it was actually my mind playing games with me like it used to two years ago.

I ran my hands through my hair, combing the straight locks as my mind stayed glued to that shadow; that feeling of Chase's hands on me after two years while I still tried to push everything away.

I really needed to see my therapist.

Sighing, I dropped my hands from my hair and looked around my room. Pulling off the heels I had on, I walked straight to my closet and dropped my jewelleries in my jewellery drawer. I tugged off the dress I had on and tied a towel around my body before going to the bathroom for a relaxing bath before bed.

Soon, I was out of the bathroom, wrapped in a bathrobe, and a towel wrapped around my head.

Just when my eyes fell on the smoke coming from my closet, my eyes widened, and a gasp left my lips.

Fire.

I rushed towards the closet and opened the door, my eyes taking in the condition of the whole room. Nothing was burnt.

Except for the dress I had worn earlier to the party.

I dashed back to my room and picked up the water jug, then rushed back to the closet and emptied the whole water on the burning dress, totally eliminating the fire.

I began to choke on the smoke, and my eyes stung with tears. I found it hard to breathe, and my knees gave up.

I couldn't understand what was happening. Except for the smoke coming from the dress, there was smoke suddenly filling the air from a corner of the closet, choking my lungs in a suffocating grip.

My hands barely touched the nearby shelf, and I fell on my knees as I began to cough, wrapping my hands around my throat but not in a tight grip; I was gasping for air.

Tears blurred my vision, apart from the smoke, and I felt the warm liquid rushing down my cheeks, making me feel weak of myself; reminding me of the Sophia that had been broken to her limit.

Before I passed out, the last thing I could remember was feeling arms around me from behind.

♡♡♡

I was unconscious. I was unable to move or do anything. The only thing I could feel was the soft mattress beneath me. The only sound I could hear was the crackling sound of the wood burning in one corner of the room I was in.

I wasn't in my room. I wasn't on my bed. I knew that very well but I couldn't open my eyes to look at where I was or even try to move.

Suddenly, there was a light sound of footsteps coming towards me. I tried to open my eyes, but still, I couldn't.

Soon, the sound of footsteps disappeared like it had never been there in the beginning, and then then the empty space beside me on the bed dipped as if someone had sat down there. The owner of the footsteps. It was the same person that had done Only-God-knows-what to me back at home.

That was when the scent of sandalwood hit my nostrils.

Chase. Chase. Chase. He was the one. He was the one behind everything.

I tried to open my eyes, but they wouldn't open. My eyes felt so heavy. I badly wanted to move, but my whole body was stiff. It was as if I had been tied in that space.

But I didn't feel the ropes.

He leaned in to me. His warm breath fanned my cheeks, and he placed a small peck on my cheeks, then my nose and my lips; something exactly similar to what I had imagined him do to me back at the party.

Unless I actually wasn't imagining things.

Without my eyes opening or my body moving, my lips parted, and a small whisper came out. "Chase,"

I felt him smirk against my skin, and then, his right hand was on my hair, his fingers threading through them, his voice coming out as a whisper. "Why did you change your hair, amore mio?"

Amore mio. That was what I had been referred to as in the mysterious note.

So, Chase was the one behind the notes.

He whispered against my lips again. "Why did you remove those freckles? Don’t you know how adorable they made you look?” He went silent before continuing. "You wanted to change everything I loved about you? If I had told you I loved you then, so you'd have changed yourself" He chuckled. "I don't care what you change yourself to, amore mio. All that matters is that I love you. I love you now. I always loved you and I'll love you forever,"

I didn't know how possible that was, but my heartbeat began to thump wildly at his words.

He loved me.

"I love you. You're mine and only mine, "He whispered again, leaving small kisses all over my skin. "I won't ever let you marry that man. Just get prepared for the wedding, but you won't marry him in the end because you belong to me and me alone. You belong to Chase Romano, Sophia Romano, "He continued dropping kisses all over my jawline, neck and collarbone. His teeth attacked my throat and he began to suck on the skin there. "Without Chase, there's no Sophia and without Sophia, there's no Chase,"

That was the last thing I heard before everything went dull. I couldn't hear anything again.