CHAPTER FOUR
1097 Words
Living under the same roof was worse than Sophie expected, and avoiding Louis was impossible.
The island was not small enough to hide in, and their parents made things even harder by constantly pushing them together. Dinner, walks, conversations that felt too forced. Every moment felt like a test Sophie did not want to take.
But the real problem was not the situation, it was Louis.
No matter how much she tried to ignore it, the connection between them refused to fade. It lingered in the way he looked at her and in the tension that neither of them addressed.
It was still there, growing, and Sophie hated that.
She kept her distance as much as she could, but Louis did not push her away either. He stayed close like he knew she would not be able to keep running forever.
One afternoon, he found her standing alone by the edge of the property, staring out at the endless stretch of water.
“You’re thinking too much again,” he said to her.
Sophie didn't respond immediately. “You don’t know what I’m thinking.”
“I don’t need to,” Louis replied. “You always look like that when you’re trying to run from something.”
That made her glance at him. “You think you know me?” she asked quietly.
“No,” he said. “But I want to.”
The honesty in his voice caught her off guard. Sophie did not know what to say after that.
That was the problem with Louis. He did not play games, and somehow, that made everything between them more real than she wanted it to be.
“Come with me,” he said suddenly.
Sophie frowned. “To where?”
“You’ll see.”
She hesitated for a second, but curiosity won.
Louis drove her to a racing track that was hidden privately and looked perfect.
Sophie couldn't explain the feeling inside her chest.
“You built this?” she asked.
Louis nodded slightly. “I don’t like crowds.”
She let out a small breath, stepping out of the car slowly.
For the first time since she arrived on the island, Sophie felt like she could breathe.
“You race too,” she said. It was not a question.
Louis leaned against the car. “Sometimes.”
Sophie looked at him more carefully. “You didn’t just beat me by luck.”
A faint smile appeared on his lips. “I never said I did.”
That earned a small, real smile from her.
When Louis invited her to race with him, she didn't hesitate. While Sophie raced alongside him, she felt something that resembled peace.
When she laughed, it surprised her, because she hadn't done it in a long time.
Louis noticed everything. He noticed that she had been holding back when they first met, but now she was genuinely happy.
When they finally stopped, the sun was already setting.
“That night,” Louis started causing Sophie’s heart to skip slightly.
He looked at her, his expression more serious now. “It wasn’t just nothing.”
There it was...the truth she had been avoiding.
Sophie swallowed, her guard rising again. “It was supposed to be.”
“But it wasn’t,” he said.
She looked away. “You don’t get to change the rules after the fact.”
“I’m not changing anything,” Louis replied. “I’m just telling the truth.”
Sophie shook her head slightly, her emotions starting to slip through the cracks she worked so hard to keep sealed.
“This doesn’t work,” she said. “You know that.”
“Why?” he asked.
She laughed softly, but it sounded tired. “Do you really need me to explain that?”
Louis didn't say anything because he already knew the answer.
Her mind kept replaying everything from that night, and she hated the effect it was having on her.
Eventually, she got up from where she was sitting next to him. If she did not end this now, it would only get worse.
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Months passed, and Sophie forced her life back into order.
Or at least, that was what she told herself.
She buried everything that had happened on the island, locking it away the same way she had buried every other painful memory. She focused on what matters: her career and the life she had fought so hard to build.
Louis became a memory she refused to revisit.
At night, when the silence crept in and her thoughts tried to betray her, she reminded herself of the phone call she had overheard him making.
It sounded like he was talking to his lover, and in that instant, she felt stupid that he could ever love someone like her.
So when the day finally came for her residency to begin, Sophie walked into the hospital with her emotions sealed tight.
The hospital was exactly how she imagined it would be. People were moving with purpose, everything here felt like it was running on a well-oiled machine.
Sophie made sure to fit right in. She kept her head high as she followed the other new residents toward the boardroom for orientation. There were quiet conversations around her, she could feel the nervous energy filling the air, but she stayed silent and focused.
This was her chance, and nothing else mattered. Sophie stepped inside once the doors opened and scanned the room briefly before settling on the front.
Then she froze. This was his hospital, but she didn’t think she would see him.
Louis was at the end of the table, dressed in a clean suit, his presence was commanding in a way that demanded attention.
He didn’t look like the man from the racetrack, nor the man she had a wild one-night stand with.
Standing in front of her was Dr. Louis Sebastian, her superior and her boss. The same man she had tried so hard to forget. Sophie forgot how to breathe. The room continued moving around her, but everything felt distant. Her heart started beating faster, louder, like it was trying to break through the calm she had built.
When Louis looked up and saw her, the shift was immediate.
His expression did not change much, but something flashed in his eyes.
Sophie forced herself to move, to take a seat like nothing was wrong, but she could feel every pair of eyes that lingered just a second too long.
This was not how she planned this, this was never supposed to happen.
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