"You know, hiding from the world and ignoring Matt isn't going to solve anything." I should have known that someone was likely to follow me after I ran away from Matt, and I should have known that it would probably be Markus who followed me. "Your daughter—"

"You can say her name, Markus," I sighed.

"Callie is beautiful, and it looks like she's a very happy little girl." I looked down at the floor where Callie was playing with her Barbie and her favourite teddy, the one I bought for her when I found out that I was having a little girl, while she was babbling away to herself. "Do you ever plan on telling my brother that he is a father?"

"He told me he was infertile, Markus. He insisted that he couldn't have children, so I am sure you can imagine my surprise when I discovered I was three weeks pregnant with his baby."

Admittedly, when I had I had paid that visit to the doctor and they had confirmed that I was, indeed, pregnant, it was a shock. For a moment, and only for a moment, I considered getting an abortion because of how terrified I was.

I was barely twenty-one and was just out of University. I didn't think that I could raise a child alone, especially when I couldn't look after myself half the time, and there were occasions where I would forget to feed myself or where I simply wouldn't want to get out of bed; that wasn't a life I could bring a child into.

But, as soon as that moment passed, I knew that I could only do my best by my baby. I might have been young and I might have had no money, but I had enough to know that I would love my child and to know that they would never go without anything.

"Sophie—"

"He would never believe that Callie is his daughter, and I don't want to give her false hope." I found my gaze drifting back to my little girl, a grin on her face as she remained oblivious to the world around her and the turmoil which was going on inside her mother right now, and I found myself relieved that she was as innocent as she was. "Call me selfish, but Callie is my baby, and no one is going to take her away from me. Especially not your brother."

><><><

When the night came, I found that, not only was I hungry because I had deliberately skipped dinner by telling my mother that I was unwell, but I also couldn't get to sleep.

Callie was snoring away beside me, her pillow once again clutched to her chest and the duvet tucked up to her neck, and I envied her ability to fall asleep the moment her head hit the pillow. I kissed the top of her head before I rolled over to check the time on my phone, knowing that I was only going to regret doing so.

01:37AM.

I checked Callie—as though she was going to have woken up in the thirty seconds since I last checked on her—and made the decision that going for a walk was better than staring at the ceiling for another six hours. No one else would be up now, or at least I assumed that they wouldn't be, and if they were, then I would think that they were in their bedrooms doing the very thing I don't want to be doing.

Glancing at Callie, knowing that she would be safe in here, and if she did wake up, then my mother was just across the hall and Callie would go in there. Sliding out of the bed and slipping my feet into my slippers, ensuring that I had my phone with me (you know, in case someone suddenly decides that they need to contact me one forty-seven in the morning) and headed into the corridor.

I wasn't entirely sure where the hell I was going, or even what I was going to do when I got to wherever it was that I was going. I simply let my feet do the walking and waited to see where I ended up.

Though I did end up taking left and right turns all over the house, and I am more than certain that this place was bigger than it appeared upon the first inspection. But, eventually, I ended up in a room that looked like it should have been the dining room.

Instead, there was a dimly lit fireplace in the centre of the room with a sofa just in front of it, and a fur rug beneath the edge of sofa. There was, also, a picture hung above the fireplace of who I assumed to be Matt and Markus' mother.

"You know. You shouldn't be creeping around at this time of night. Especially not when all guests are required to remain in their room until the morning." A voice spoke from the shadows at the edge of the room. I should have probably been scared, or even run off back to my room, but I didn't feel the need to do either, not when I knew there was only one person who liked to stay hidden in the shadows and scare the shit out of people.

"I wasn't creeping, Mark. I couldn't sleep, so I simply decided to view what else this house had to offer."

"Call it what you want, it still doesn't change the fact that you're walking around this place at night. It's just asking for trouble."

"Are you going to give me trouble?" I wanted to slap myself for the flirty tone I had just used, but then there was a part of me which was enjoying teasing Mark, and showing him that I wasn't an innocent as he constantly told me I was.

"I like trouble, and I heard that you like a little trouble too."

"Shame I don't play your games, Markus" I turned around to see that he was stood there is nothing other than his underwear and dressing gown. I could only assume, from how comfortable he was, that he must have spent most evenings in this room and he didn't expect anyone else to stumble across it at this time of the morning.

"Oh. But you are currently playing a game with my brother. Are you not?"

"I'm not playing games with Matthew. I just, I don't know how to tell him, and I'm terrified that he's going to take her from me when he finds out the truth, and that's if he doesn't deny that Callie is his daughter." I had never admitted my fears out loud, but that was the truth. I was absolutely terrified that, if he didn't deny that Callie was his, he would fight for custody of her and he would win because he has far more than I do. "Callie is my baby. I'm the one who has raised her, who has fed her and clothed her, who has loved her, and I am the parent she knows. I can't lose her, Markus."

I walked over to the sofa and took a seat on the edge, putting my head in my hands, and praying that Markus couldn't see the tears which were flowing. I had never cried in front of anyone, except for my mother, and that was only because my pregnancy hormones were wreaking havoc with my emotions, and I didn't want Markus to know just how much the thought of being without Callie hurt me.

"I would never let that happen. Granted, you should have told him when you found out, but you have done an amazing job with Callie and it's clear that she belongs with you. So, I promise you now, if Matthew tries to take your little girl, then I will fight for you and ensure it doesn't happen." I felt Markus' arm go around my shoulder and I registered him pulling me into his body, but I didn't have the urge to prevent him from doing either, because this is what I needed; a non-judgemental shoulder to cry on. "I heard Callie telling your mother earlier that she loved mummy because you would play Barbie with her."

"My mum has never really adapted to the role of grandmother too well. She still says that she's too young to have someone calling her nanna." No matter how many times my mother told Callie to call her nanny, Callie didn't listen and she continued to call her nanna, which made my mother feel older than she was. "What is this place anyway?"

"This place? It's nothing really. It's just where I spend my time thinking," Markus shrugged.

"Is that why it's where no one can find it? And you were hiding in the shadows?"

"You managed to find it. Anyone can find it, if they just look for it," Markus chuckled, and it was then that I realised I was still in his embrace, and I was quick to pull back.

"I think I should be off now. Callie is still in the bedroom on her own, and I don't want her to wake up, and me not be there for her. She can get quite distressed when that happens." I might have been exaggerating, but only slightly, Callie genuinely did throw tantrums if I wasn't there for her when she woke up and I didn't want to rest of the house to be woken up by a stroppy toddler. "Goodnight, Markus."

"You're walking away now, because being this close to me got too much—"

"Don't kid yourself," I huffed under my breath. I couldn't allow myself to get close to Markus, not when his brother had already destroyed me, and certainly not when I knew exactly what Markus was like when it came to women; he played them like a game and then disposed of them when he was done with them.

"—Before you leave, Sophie, you'll be begging for me." And there was the cocky arrogance which I hated, but it was also the personality which I was more familiar with when it came to this man. His caring, and being the shoulder I needed, throw me off earlier and almost made me question whether I really knew Markus at all. Or whether I had assumed based on what I thought I knew, but this confirmed that Markus was still the same as he had always been.

"I knew there was a reason I hated the male population. Thank you for reminding me of that reason."

"You'll be back. They always are." It literally took everything I had not to walk back into the room and hit him, but I wanted to believe that I was better than that. I didn't want to give him the satisfaction of knowing that he had gotten to me, and I also didn't want Callie to think that violence was acceptable when she was questioning who had given Markus his black eye.

It was a miracle that I had already survived a week in this place, and it was even more of a miracle that I had only had the one encounter with Matthew, while Markus seemed to be everywhere I went. I was relieved that there was only two more weeks left and, when all this was done, I would be able to return to my version of normality; and I couldn't be more excited by the prospect of that.

^^Markus be like...

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