My Obsession Broke Me Until My Other Self Took Over

Chapter 3 The Reason I Fell

By the time I got home, I had a fever. In my dream, someone who looked exactly like me sat across from me.

"Ivy, can you stop being such an obsessive doormat?" she asked. "What do you even see in him? I don't think Adrian is anything special."

I rested my chin on my hand and thought for a moment before answering. "You don't understand," I said. "When I first joined the company, I was assigned to work as Adrian's assistant. I didn't like him at first. That changed the day we met a client for a business deal. The client kept forcing me to drink, and Adrian stepped in and took the drinks for me. Later, at the private lounge, that same man tried to touch my thigh. I found an excuse to leave and went to the restroom. I cried there for a long time. I had already decided I would quit after that night. Adrian found me. He handed me a pack of tissues and asked what had happened. When I told him, he went straight back into the room and told the client one thing. He said they could cancel the deal, but the client had to apologize."

I paused, the memory still vivid. "Adrian has always been good-looking, with a sharp nose and eyes that aren't big but are incredibly intense. The lights in the lounge were dim, but in that moment, his eyes seemed to shine. That was when my heart skipped. I could actually feel it racing. The client apologized afterward, but the deal fell through. His father even beat him over it. When I saw Adrian again, his face was covered in bruises. He looked just as battered as I do now. I bought medicine for him. He told me to only wait outside during future business meetings. So after that, I always stayed in the car. Before every meeting, he would leave a big bag of snacks in the car. I once asked him, 'Mr. Vale, are these for me?' He looked annoyed and said, 'Who said they're for you? They're for me. You can have some, but not too much.'"

I smiled faintly. "But I knew they were for me. They were all things I liked. For the first two years, I wrote him a confession note almost every day and left it on his desk. Eventually, he got tired of it. He said if I didn't stop, he would fire me, so I did. To be honest, even I got tired of writing them. After that, I started calling him Adrian in private. He never corrected me. When we were alone, he wasn't that harsh with me. And none of those things really mattered. As long as he was happy, that was enough."

The woman across from me stared at me as if I were beyond saving. "So that's all it took?" she said. "That's what moved you? Something that cheap was enough to make you fall for him? You really are a hopeless doormat with a love obsession. There are plenty of men in the world. Why do you have to cling to him?"

I smiled. "I don't know," I said. "I just feel happy when I see him. And besides, does liking someone really need a reason?"

She let out a sharp breath. "Enough. I'm not listening to this anymore," she said. "If you ever decide you don't want to love him anymore, come find me."

"Thank you," I said softly. "But I think I can keep loving him..."