Nora woke up the next morning with a grimace. She was tempted to simply shoot a text to Antonio that she was sick and then lie in bed all day. She reminded herself that she was done wallowing after discovering his infidelity, but her mind did not seem to grasp the situation yet.
And then there was the additional discovery of Sara also joining the University. How was that possible? Sara was a year younger and had not even appeared for her exams... unless...
Nora shook her head. Just how clueless and foolish had she been? Her mother had insisted that Nora leave at least a couple of hours early for her high school exams so that she would not be 'late' under any circumstance. Even though she'd hated sitting in the sun to study, she had tried to console herself that this was probably her mother showing her some concern.
Now she knew the truth. Her mother had not wanted her to get suspicious of Sara. So, she had been pushed out of the house early so that Sara could relax and go.
Sighing, she made her way to breakfast and with a passing 'Good morning' at the man at the table, grabbed some cereal and milk for herself before sitting opposite him. This had been their routine since the last time he had given her 'the lesson'. Thankfully, there had been no other lessons from him.
She heard his baritone voice as she stabbed at her milk bowl, trying to gather her thoughts about questioning Antonio. Blinking at the unexpected sound, she looked up at the Snowman in confusion.
Since she refused to think of him as Demon due to the kindness he had shown her, she had taken to referring to him as Snowman or Snow in her thoughts. After all, the man always gave off a cold aura and was as silent as a Snowman.
"Did you say something?"
Demetri looked at her with a raised brow and she realized that no one must have ever asked the man to repeat what he said. However, the man was not petty and repeated, "You have marks on your wrist. Again."
She looked down at the marks in irritation. Of course, they were there. It wasn't enough that Sara and her mother were usually digging their fingers into her; even Antonio had quickly picked up that habit.
"Yes, I know I have them again! I am easily bruised!" She snapped at him before stuffing her mouth with cereal. It wasn't as if she wanted to get those bruises or had control over it!
"You should be more careful. If this gets out of hand..."
Putting down her bowl spoon forcefully, so that milk splashed from the sides, she burst out, "I can handle it! Do you think I am going around telling people to grab me? Of course, I am careful! However, I do not have the superpower of controlling others! And I do not need a lecture about the bad effects of violence and things getting out of hand! I. Can. Handle. My. Own. Business!"
The silence after her outburst was so charged that it could probably electrocute any innocent bystanders. Embarrassed and already realizing that she had overstepped her bounds, Nora was about to apologize when Demetri stood up and left the table.
He must be angry. As he should be. He did not deserve all that she had told him. Biting her lip, she wondered if she should follow him back to his room. But the direction to his room was one she had treated as the Line of Control, never stepping over it.
Just then she heard his door open and quickly grabbed a napkin to clean the spilt milk, trying to avoid looking at him. He stopped next to her chair and placed a card next to the bowl, "Please take self-defence classes in case things get out of hand. That is what I had been about to say before you cut me off."
And with that statement, Nora found herself buried under a mountain of guilt. She looked at the visiting card he had placed in front of her and sighed in her heart. A self-defence academy?
Catching his sleeve as he walked away from her, Nora stared at the gold cuff on it and apologized quickly, "I am sorry for my outburst. I did not mean to snap at you."
When he continued to stand there, making no move to go forward or say anything to accept her apology, she spoke hurriedly, "I met Antonio yesterday. That is my ex-fiancé. I don't know why I agreed to meet him again today. Maybe to get closure. But then I discovered another one of his and Sara's treachery. And my own foolishness, of course. I just... I am so sorry about all this.
Demetri's stern expression softened as he looked at Nora's down-turned head, his earlier irritation dissipating. "Apology accepted," he finally replied before moving away from her.
"Thank you," she whispered, her voice sincere. "I appreciate your understanding. And I'll consider those self-defence classes."
Demetri nodded and continued," You can use this card. It is for our company's employees so you will get a discount."
With those words, Demetri turned and walked away. However, as he reached the door, he could not help but hesitate and look back. Seeing her slump like this as he left did not feel right. But...
Sighing, he cleared his throat and called out," Nora, feeling foolish is okay. We have all been there sometime in our lives. Just remember, you are stronger than you think."
With those words of encouragement, Demetri made his exit. Nora stared in astonishment at the closed door, suddenly feeling grateful. She did not know if she was stronger or not but the assurance in his voice made her want to believe his words. Quickly, she finished her breakfast with renewed confidence and got ready to face her new challenge. As she prepared to leave, she could not help but wonder, what foolishness had he done in his life?
Antonio sipped at his coffee as he waited for Nora. She was late. He looked at the time again and wondered if she had decided to ghost him. Of course, he could not blame her for it, but he would definitely not think of her highly if she backed out of her promise to meet him just because of that.
As he sat there, feeling out of sorts, he overheard someone from the other table complain to their partner," I never make you wait! And yet you always do that. This shows how much you value me!" Hearing this, Antonio paused mid-sip. He had never had to wait for her as well, he realized in shock. He remembered that every time they had met up, she had always been waiting for him. Even before he had fallen for Sara, Nora had been the one who had always been early.
Just when he was about to call her, he saw her approaching and his breath caught in his throat. She looked as beautiful as a flower. She was wearing a dress again. This time it was in some tones of pink and mint green, but it hugged her form in a way that was too enticing. He felt his heart clench. Since their wedding day, he had seen her a total of four times. And out of that, she had forgone her usual jeans and T-shirts for a dress three times.
Why had he ever thought that she was not classically beautiful like Sara? He'd always thought of her looks as simple. She could be pretty and cute in a girl-next-door kind of way. But seeing her now, like this...
While he was lost in thought, she sat opposite him without a word. "Hi." he spoke inanely.
Nora raised her brow at the greeting and instead spoke directly," I do not have the time for chit-chat, Antonio. Say what you want and be done."
"Why did you hire an actor to act as a priest at our wedding, Nora?" Antonio leaned forward. That was the one question that had been hammering at him repeatedly. The entire day of his wedding, he had been feeling guilty towards Nora and grateful to her because she had stepped aside for him and Sara to be together. His parents had never liked Sara, but they had adored Nora. Because the wedding had become a spectacle, they had not objected to the marriage, but her mother had made it clear that she would never accept Sara as her daughter-in-law.
Even so, he had fought with them and even assured Sara that now that they were married, she would be able to win her over. With that, they spent together a blissful night together and consummated their marriage.
But the next day, they discovered that the marriage was never legal. Sara had been distraught, but he had driven her straight to the civil affairs bureau to marry her. However, his parents had also heard the news of the fake marriage and threatened to kill themselves if he really married Sara. And now, everything was a mess.
Every day Sara was questioning him. And his parents, who had always left him to his devices since he turned fifteen, were keeping a close eye on him.
Instead of answering him, Nora instead questioned him," Since when were you cheating on me, Antonio?"
Antonio was taken aback. He wanted to insist that Nora answer him but he could already see that she would not answer him unless he answered her so he said," I did not mean to cheat on you, Nora. Everything started innocently at first... A little time after I proposed to you, Sara came to me for help. While you are weak in your studies, she is brilliant so I wondered why she would want to do that. Then she told me that she wanted to appear for the Scholastic Assessment a year in advance. She wanted to keep it a secret from you and her mother as a surprise."
"So, I started to coach her. But because she was a year behind us and had only a few months to prepare, she needed more time with learning. It is why I cut off our time during the weekends."
"I see. So, you spent an hour every day of the week coaching me and all weekends coaching her." Nora said succinctly.
"Yes. I swear I was just helping her with studies, but I don't know when my feelings for her changed. I don't want you to blame her, Nora. I was the one who pursued her. When she realized her feelings, she tried to cut off our sessions, but she needed to study and she needed me to coach her. And then when I slipped and confessed to her, she succumbed. After all, she is still young."
"Well, that is very noble of you," Nora remarked.
Missing the sarcasm in her voice, Antonio continued, "By the time the exams were done, we were both overwhelmed with guilt towards you. So we decided to break it off. I used working at my father's company as an excuse to get away from her. I hoped that the time away from her would help me rekindle my feelings for you.
And I had almost convinced myself that everything would be okay when our results came out. She stood second in the overall scores, Nora! I was first and she was second! I could not stop myself and returned early. Even then I told myself that I would simply spend time with her and then break things off. But I couldn't break up Nora. I simply couldn't."
"Really? Then why did you not tell me? I made arrangements for our wedding. I was running around, managing my studies, looking at venues and caterers with your mother, trying bridal dresses, and foregoing my time on weekends to prepare for a wedding while you were having fun with my sister! Why not tell me in time and break up with me, Antonio? Did I not deserve that much respect. Or were you so in love with Sara that you forgot that I have feelings too!"
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