I could feel the anger boiling inside me as I paced back and forth in my room. My footsteps were heavy and purposeful, each one pounding against the floor with a sense of determination. My fists were clenched tightly at my sides, my jaw set in a firm line as I tried to process what just happened at the bottom of the stairs.

The sheer nerve of him!

The room around me felt small and claustrophobic, the walls closing in on me as I continued to pace. I could feel my heart racing, my breath coming in short, ragged gasps as I tried to control the rage that was consuming me. I could feel the heat rising in my cheeks, my eyes burning with the intensity of my emotions.

I stopped pacing for a moment, standing in the middle of the room with my eyes closed, trying to calm myself. But the anger was still there, simmering just beneath the surface, waiting to explode. I could feel my hands shaking, my body trembling with the force of my emotions. The audacity my dad had to shut me down in front of Claud and then force me see him.

Prioritise Claud?

Who the heck was he even to be put to the front like that?

I started pacing again, my movements becoming more frantic, more desperate. I could feel the tears welling up in my eyes, but I pushed them back, refusing to let them fall. I was determined to hold on to my anger, to channel it into something productive. The need to find every single detail about him was filling me up.

As I continued to pace, I could feel the anger slowly dissipating, replaced by a sense of determination and resolve. Claud did not know who he was playing with. The perfect image I had created for this fucked up world did me well to cover my true nature...

****

I knew it was wrong for me to go see him. But it was like my body was on autopilot every night. It sought his connection. His warmth. His presence. And I was a weak being that was easily let by my emotions.

Whatever Shar had said to me about him... it kept swimming in my head. I wanted answers. The first person I could ask is obviously Nate so that was what I planned to do.

I pulled up my knees and dropped my chin carefully on it, watching the side road and waiting for Nate to show up. It was a few minutes past midnight. He was never late. It was always me. But never Nate...

He might be having fun with someone else. A angry voice whispered in my head

Or he might just be running late.

Then thirty minutes passed.

Forty.

No sign of Nate.

I stood up from the bench and walked to the end of the street, poking my head out to look left and right. The whole street was empty.

Fifty minutes.

An hour passed and still no sign of Nate. I began to worry, annoyed at myself for not having his number or something.

I waited a few more minutes, knowing perfectly well I had to get home right now. Another maid would be scheduled to check up on me soon.

I started walking back, but my head kept turning around to see if Nate was coming from the distance.

No sign still.

I was so worried about Nate, wondering and thinking irrational things that somehow had occurred to him and I didn't get a shut eye until Lorna came in the morning.

The next morning, determination filled me. Fuck going to work. I had one destination in mind and if my sleepless night did not prepare for this confrontation, then I would be pissed

I rounded the corner, my strides long as my heeled boots hit the concrete ground. I spotted him sitting on the edge of the bench, his head thrown back and exposing all the tattoos. I stopped mid step, taking in the roughness of his posture but the delicacy surrounding it. He looked untouchable, detached from the world around him and far to engrossed in his own refuge.

I snapped out of my trace when I saw approaching people in my peripheral vision. I trailed my gaze onto them and saw a boy and girl ambling towards Nate. The girl, a petite bundle of cuteness had chestnut dipped hair and when she came closer to Nate, she ran the remaining distance.

I watched, as she threw herself across his lap and Nate gazing down at her. I saw the smile that crept on his face and as he lowered his head to place a chaste kiss on the girl's cheek.

I felt it then. The sudden fire that ignited inside of me. It was causing a lot of pain and unavoidable burning. What is happening to me?

I grabbed my hand, rubbing the middle of my chest, gasping out yet no sounds coming out.

Told you he was with someone else... that voice from last night came back.

I stumbled backwards, hitting the cold wall. I fished for my phone in my back pocket taking in deep shallow breathes. I fired a text to Shar and his reply was instant.

Shar- Be there in five.

Shar dropped me home just shy of one in the morning and for once, I didn't care about my dad's disapproving persona. I had been with Shar the whole day, not once stepping foot in the office.

A day with Shar, when I really needed him, was like no other day. He made me forget about everything. One look at my face, he asked me no questions and straight away took me my favourite brunch place.

Food was a way to my stomach. Food and back-to-back movies in his comfortable living room.

The house stood in the dark, all alone and looming. Shar offered to walk me to the door, but I waved him off, letting him go home instead. I had to walk the short distance to my front door, the quite street behind me whispering in the night.

I clutched my hoodie tighter to my chest, the sounds of my foot hitting the pavement the only sounds that reached my ears.

I knocked on the door softly, hoping a maid would see to it. The front door slowly opened, and I was greeted with a cheery Maila.

Maila was another one of my dad's workers and she was mostly around in the night.

I stepped inside the house. "I personally think you are one of the night people." I whispered that in her ear and I heard her soft chuckle.

"Well I am if you want me to be," Maila winked at me.

I grinned at her. "The police still going to check up on me at night?" I saw to it that the maids that regularly checked up at night were known as the police. With aprons.

Maila threw her head back and let out a laugh."Off to bed Flower."

I took the steps of the stairs with care, hoping I didn't disturb anyone's sleep. When I got to my room, I dropped my bag near the door, stripped till I was just in my under garments and then dropped backwards on the bed.

As I nestled into my bed, the room was silent and still. But then, I heard something. A faint scratching noise coming from outside. Very close to my window. Or was it from the wall? I froze, my heart pounding as I strained to listen more closely. The scratching turned into a knocking, and I couldn't tell if it wa coming from inside or outside the house. I lay there, paralysed with fear, for what felt like hours.

It was just a few minutes.

Eventually, the knocking stopped, and I was able to drift off to sleep, but the memory of the no stayed with me, leaving me feeling uneasy for the a while.

I felt the shadows move.

"So that's what you spend your nights doing now."

It was a knee-jerk reaction, to open my mouth and screech out. And he probably knew it was going to happen because he had his hand over my mouth before I could even scream this motherfucker.

He hovered over my body, his presence bringing in a cold breeze to my face. How did he get in the room?

Past everyone?

Past the security?

"Are you going to scream?".

I shook my head as response, my chest rising and falling at a rapid pace. I was too fucking scared right now. For what was about to happen. Because no one ever manged to breach my dad's security. Never mind the ones he installed at home. And on top of that... the patrolling guards.

He moved his hand off my mouth slowly. "Guess what? You are going to tell me where the fuck you have been the whole day." Nate ordered, his hot breath fanning my face as cold chills ran down the back of my spine.