Chapter 19: "Fate, you say?"
1861 Words
Chapter 19: “Fate, You Say?"
STELLA
My ex-husband’s half-brother was the neighbour who'd moved in beside me. It was a whole lot to deal with.
Since yesterday morning, I've tried everything possible to avoid him. Being indoors all day was the easiest for me. I had no friends so my room was my only safe zone.
I glared at my phone's screen. It was a message from him.
“Hi, neighbour. Do you care for dinner? I made way too much food, I thought to share with you"
My eyes ran through the words like fire running through dry bushes.
“How did you get my phone number?" I texted back. I wasn't impressed. I had no sort of impression about him showing up in the flat next to mine.
“Fate, we should call it?"
I scoffed, I hadn't heard a lie as silly as that in a while. ?
"C'mon Stella, you haven't stepped out of that room in a whole day”
Now that was already across the line. I was only trying to be nice and who was he to monitor me around? Why was he trying to get so close already?
I turned my phone off, taking out the bread from my fridge only to realize it was stale.
I needed to get some items, and going to the convenience store was only going to be a disaster —perhaps like the last time. I had to wait until Valerie was back in town.
She'd been away at work, also preparing the evidence that would clear my f*****g name from the internet.
I needed to get my life back, and to do that, the internet needed to let me out of its jaws.
I settled for something else—pasta and sauce with cheese.
Slowly, the day faded into night as the city lights in London blurred out but I hadn't realized.
My blinds were always down—I was either in my room, laughing and feeling all sorts of emotion, just like now, as I flipped each page of the new book I'd started reading yesterday, “ALPHA DRAVEN" by Auraliss, my favorite writer.
I'd grown to love her over the last few months— she was the creator of my fictional boyfriend.
I bless the day Valerie introduced me to reading fiction.
I flipped the last page of Chapter 4, only to be met with a knock on my door.
My lips pursed as I waited for a minute, a brief argument within me happening….I was simply deciding whether it was worth it, considering that I was expecting no one.
My phone buzzed. Rhys.
“I'm outside, I need to talk to you real quick. Let me in"
God! I hated this. I grabbed something more appropriate to wear over my lingerie, heading to open the door.
“It better be important" I cussed, pulling the door open.
"Hi,” He froze with a smile like a cardboard version of himself that I’d seen in a t****k video of one of his fans. He held something like a food flask in his hand but I didn't bother to ask about it.
What was he expecting me to do? Run at him and thank him for being a disturbance to my peace?
I pulled the door wide open, backing away till I settled into the living room couch. I paid no attention even as he crossed his way over to the kitchen area. We didn't have the kind of closeness for me to feel free around him.
Something still wasn't right. I knew but just couldn't prove it. I didn't know how to figure out or pinpoint that thing.
“Stella" He called my name out loud. I turned, but in his hand was the plate I'd dished my dinner in.
Unwashed. Left in the sink.
“What?" I turned around to grab a pack of chips from the centre table in the living room, turning on my television but I turned it off, just as soon as I did. It was a smut scene! I wasn't alone here.
“Don't tell me this is all you've eaten today" He talked like he had some right to care.
“Yeah, what's wrong with it?” I threw a mouthful of chips into my mouth.
“Seriously? This was all you had for dinner?” He talked like sausages and eggs weren't enough food to have for dinner.
"Why do you care anyway?” My eyes narrowed as my head shook rigorously, in accordance with the stress I put on every word.
I had to say it—put him in his place. “Just leave me alone. I don't want anything to do with you, Rhys. Don't you get it?" I didn't care if he and Dylan had any sort of bad blood.
Family was always going to family and I? I wanted nothing to do with their family!.
I only let him around me because I wanted to see how far he'd been talking about fate and making me believe it was cruel to fix my enemy beside me as a neighbor.
I refused to believe such.
“You know what, why don't you see me for who I really am?" His gaze calmed as he said. He didn't look hurt. He looked quietly desperate like a man who was at the edge of a cliff but didn't mind falling.
He dropped the plate in his hand, storming towards me.
I didn't flinch, thinking he wanted a reaction from me.
Instead…he knelt. Before Me.
I blinked back. Not tears. But shock.
“I apologize…”
No. I didn't want to hear it. I grabbed the remote, turning the TV back on.
"I am not apologizing on his behalf, Stella,” He clarified, as if he could read my mind. I didn't take my eyes off the TV.
If I could, I'd have walked out on him but it was far too rude.
I wasn't trying to be a good girl or anything. It was just me according to a human like me. Nothing more. Nothing less.
“I know you don't want me around, Stella” Yes. That was the f*****g truth. I was f*****g uncomfortable, knowing someone like him was living next door. What more inconvenience could I foolishly call ‘fate’?
"I am sorry because you had to go through all that.” He moved closer but knew better to leave a bit of distance. My eyes stung as my jaw clenched.
What did he think of me?
"Did he ask you to come for this?” At this point, I wanted to hurt him on purpose. Couldn't he just leave me the f**k alone??
“Dylan and I aren't what the world thinks we are," He sighed so heavily that I could feel his hot breath on the back of my palm.
“Are you apologizing because you feel guilty?” I asked again. I asked out of curiosity. I genuinely wanted to know.
RHYS
She thought she'd perfectly hidden the tears from me but she sucked at it. I could still hear and feel her heart shattering into pieces every second I spent around her.
I knew her. I knew that this woman was not healed yet, she wasn't broken either. She was just waiting—for the time to show the world how far she'd come.
Not everyone could see it in her eyes, but only those who really took the time to study her would.
I watched her while on my knees. I had no idea how to make her believe in trusting again. I looked at her, the urge to treat her right already squeezing me from within.
An ache spread from my heart to my belly
It hurt for reasons I didn't know…why did she ever deserve a life as cruel as that with Dylan?
She was too cheerful a woman to have ever crossed paths with everyone she'd ever met. Her parents. Dylan. Taylor. Everyone and I wasn't an exception either—except Valerie.
Was that her fate?
“Rhys Adrian" She said my name, glaring at me like she was going to swallow me the next second. She looked strong but it was just a facade.
Behind it, I could see a strong woman who wouldn't let her tears fall no matter how painful it was.
I wished I could make her happy —genuinely. But I'd be a spoiler, letting her know I could see through her pain.
I raised my eyes to her but before she could say anything again, I began.
“I would never apologize on Dylan's behalf. Not your parents either" She looked at me differently, like someone who never expected to hear that word ‘parent’.
“I am sorry you have to suffer such cruelty from fate." I lowered my head. I wasn't the type to be broken at heart, even in the hardest circumstances ever, but my chest ached with pains that weren't physical.
“You didn't deserve it all. I am not apologizing because you're weak. You're not. I see how strong you've been holding up. It's just—”
"Don't say anything about ‘fate’” She cut me off, her voice ringing like a morning alarm.
By the time my eyes met hers, I realized she'd worn a smirk the whole time—not the bitter type but the villainous type.
I went quiet as I searched her eyes. That was guilt settling inside of me. I'd lied to her once. Did she find out already?
“Rhys," God. I loved how she said my name. I loved it so bad that I was beginning to hate other names.
“The same fate that made you my neighbour," She smiled like a villain who'd just dropped their last card.
Embarrassment managed to wash over me as she smiled, she seemed impressed by my foolish lie.
I loosened the buttons of my sleeves, rolling them up.
How could I explain without sounding like a stalker? That was the part I avoided.
There were reasons I didn't want her to know. Knowing alone was dangerous, most especially for her.
How was she going to feel, knowing I'd followed her home that day, barefoot because I didn't feel comfortable, letting her walk down that eerily quiet road??
How could I tell her I just wanted to protect her without strings attached?
Was it such a realistic thing to say?
Ohhh! I avoided her eyes as I muttered. “Back home in Canada. I needed to crash somewhere else. I need a low profile for some time. A year or two. The company and succession are quite stress-causing"
Yes. I lied again but not completely. I'd said half, swallowing the other half inside of me.
I couldn't find a reason why I'd been stalking her since then.
This part of me only wanted to keep her safe. Just her. But what if I was wrong?
What if I didn't want only her protection?
What if I wanted something more—her? Was I crossing a line?
- Writer
