Chapter 83
Chapter 83
n Chapter 83
Maybe it was how close Dante had been standing to me, or the way his eyes. burned through mime like he could read every thought that had ever crossed my mind, or maybe it was the smell of his cologne that charged my nerves and brought back the reaction and thrill | had to him once before. Maybe it was because it had been weeks before we were ever in such close proximity with each other that caused a shift in the air.
It could have been the sum of all of these things all coming together, knitting itself in one big ball of deprivation and realisation.
| didn’t want to be attracted to Dante after everything that had happened between us and for a long while | might have convinced myself that there was no longer any thing there but | was questioning every thing in this moment. The way Dante had been looking down at me was nothing but the opposite of what | had expected. My own reaction to him felt like a rug had been yanked out from beneath my feet.
“Who exactly do you think Jessica is to me, Sophia?” My name rolled of his tongue like velvet over a metal sword.
Smooth with a sharpness to it.
| swallowed unable to look away from him since he had my gaze trapped with his
own eyes.
“|- Well, I-” | stuttered but then took in a breath. “The tabloids were clear about your relationship. Jessica and you are dating, to put it simply.” | said to him and scoffed, his eyes alight with amusement and the corner of I*ps lifted to display a satisfied half smile.
“You should know better than to believe the tabloids by now.” He leaned forward, his nose brushing against the tip of mine anda shiver ran down my spine at the contact, despite how brief it had been.
“Then who is Jessica?” | asked as firmly as | could with his b*dy nearly almost brushing against every inch of mine.
“Jessica is my cousin. She moved to the states recently in hopes of expanding her practice.” He explained and | was about to start feeling like a complete fool but | caught myself,
There had been plenty a times where I'd allowed myself to be gullible and foolish with Dante. From believing what ever he had to say and only go be proved the
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fool.
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That was enough to snap me out of the trance he had me in and | took a step away from him but my back had his the cold, hard door of the bathroom.
He saw the look of doubt plastered over my face and his I*ps thinned before he sighed. He ran a hand through his hair before dragging it over his face roughly.
“Forgive me. | forgot that nothing | say ever gets taken seriously by you.” He snapped and while his eyes were pained, his tone was cl*pped.
“Dante, |-”
He held a hand to stop me from continuing. “No. Forget | even said any thing about anything.” He gritted before stepping back. “Do you blame me? All the times | had believed you blindly in the past had only come back to bite me. Am | that horrible for trying to look out for myself?” My voice had began growing tighter and high pitched.
Dante shook his head. “You’re not but did you ever consider that none of it was intentional? His question hung in the air for a moment.
| could very well give him the benefit of the doubt in this moment but why would I do that? Dante may stand in front of me and claim that he was misunderstood, and perhaps he was, but his move to take my company had been deliberate and calculated to attack and hurt me.
“| did. Many times but then you came after the company and | could no longer find it within me to make excuses for you!” My voice rose an octave and Dante looked at me in utter disbelief.
“You are utterly maddening! That agreement was as accepted by you and it had been by me.” He frowned and his I*ps twitched. “Where is that even coming from?!” He looked at me in bafflement.
“It is coming from the part of me that knows just how hard you’re working to take the only thing | have in my life from me.” | snapped at him for not getting it. “Sure, we made this agreement but it was done out of spite on your part and with the full knowledge that | wouldn't have been able to achieve those figures in such a short time. You set me up on purpose!” | really wished that | had not seen the look of guilt on his face.
But it was clear as day.
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Dante had set me up.
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“It was the only way | knew how to get to you, Sophia. You were shutting me out, heck, you still are. Unless | fight with you, | have no other contact or access to you. When you returned back catching me off guard and after all those years, | realised ina heart beat just how much | had missed your presence, just how much | had truly missed you. Nothing felt right since you left and | didn’t think too much of it until | saw you again and that’s when | realised what it was.” His tone had lowered and had been a gentle, soft carress but it was gone in a second.
His eyes flashed ablaze. “But you had no intention of letting me in and | didn’t know how else to interact with you but to challenge you.” He concluded looking away from me and at the door.
| heard every word he said. It all had vibrated through me and
rang in my head over and over again but | couldn’t accept this. Not now. Now after every thing that happened in that time. | knew how | had felt then about the way he had treated me and depsite his heart melting confession, | couldn’t find it in me to just become putty in his hands all over again.
“Dante, I- | can’t do this. Not right now.” | let out a slow breath. “It is all too much to take in and reconsider.” | swallowed the lump that had formed at the back of my throat.
He didn’t say a word after that. He simply nodded with his face a complete mask concealing what ever had been going through his mind at present. Dante strided to the exit my room and | heard his footsteps fade until the front door slammed shut and he was gone.
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