What Nobody Knew

Part 44

I hadn't set a foot out of my room since William and my falling out yesterday. I remained in bed through the night up until the next morning. I had not slept a wink, however, since I was unable to get my thoughts to quiet down.

I kept thinking about everything that happened between William and me.

He trusted me...

Those words kept repeating over and over again in my head. It was unsettling and I didn't know what I was supposed to do with this information. Even now, hours later, I still felt stuck in terms of what to do.

His admission didn't matter though, it didn't change anything. He still lied by not telling me about Sophia. He purposefully hid the fact that he was to marry another woman away from me.

Why though? Why did he keep hugging me, being kind towards me, finding any excuse to touch or comfort me if he knew fully that whatever he started would not, and could not go any further?

Had it been another man and the situation had been different, I could chalk up his behaviour to mere kindness. But the way he looked at me wiped out any convictions of the sort. If a man intended to have a platonic relationship with a woman, he would not have looked at said woman with the same longing and intensity as William looked at me. His touch would not have lingered or strayed just on the edge of propriety as they had. 

I wasn't a fly by night type of girl and surely he knew that. He must've known that I wasn't going to be strung along with his infidelity once I found out. And he must've known I would've found out. 

But, maybe you got it wrong. 

I don't see how.

Well, he did start to deny it, maybe if you had given him the chance he would've been able to explain...

Oh, yes, because clearly, the cheater was going to tell the truth after moments before embracing his fiancé.

And besides, his aunt herself claimed it to be so.

Unless she had lied... 

But not to quote her, why would she do that? She couldn't have any reason that I could think of to make up something like that about her nephew.

There was something about this whole situation with George that still bothered me. Why had William gotten so riled up just by the mention of his name if he was the one who stabbed George in the back? None of it was adding up.

As I tossed around endlessly, a part of me wished I hadn't been so quick with my tongue. Maybe if I gave him the chance, he would've been able to explain some of these things that didn't make sense. I didn't wish this because I believed him to be innocent on any of the accounts that I accused him of last night. My opinion about him and his actions remained unchanged. But if I had let him, maybe he would've been able to fill in some of the blanks...

I tried desperately not to think of his confession at the end. That part left me the most frazzled. I had no idea that he felt that way about me. That he, up until yesterday, felt that he could trust me. I believed, although until yesterday was unwilling to admit, that there was an attraction from both sides. But trust? I had no idea he trusted me.

William hadn't gone about his morning routine as he usually had. He didn't come out to have breakfast or even ordered any room service whatsoever from what I could tell.

The suite was so quiet that I couldn't help noticing when he finally opened his door and entered the living room area. He was relatively quiet on the other end for the most part, until his footsteps sounded as they came closer to my door.

A slight panic rose within me at the thought of him approaching my door to talk, or worse yet, to ask why I wasn't dressed and ready for the day's work. I wouldn't put this past him, his business meant everything to him and was not to be disturbed by frivolous emotions. 

I held my breath, praying that he wouldn't just barge into the room. I was not in any state to see other human beings, especially not the human being who was single-handedly responsible for my less than presentable exterior. I had a serious case of bed head and was wearing sweatpants and a T-shirt, not exactly a swoon-worthy ensemble. 

There was no knock and no doors barging open, just an envelope sliding underneath the door. And a few moments later, another door could be heard opening and closing as William left the suite.

Silence fell over the suite once more as I was once again left alone.

I threw the duvet off of me and came into a sitting position.  For a long time, I just stared at the envelope, not making any attempt to retrieve it, too afraid of what it might contain.

What if it was a termination letter.

Oh, my word...

Of course, I was being fired! After everything that happened yesterday, there was no way that William was keeping me on. If you take away everything personal that transpired between the two of us over the last couple of weeks, he was still my boss and my actions boiled down to unprofessional conduct in a work environment. I had no foot to stand on.

Oh bloody hell, just pick up the stupid letter and get it over with! There's no use in sitting around worrying about it...

With that thought, I went over to pick up the envelope from the floor, flipping it open in one motion. There were about three papers folded on the inside. As I unfolded them, I realized they were letters.

Who still wrote letters?

But that wasn't all, that was inside the envelope, there was also a room key, one with a different number than the one that we were in.

He wanted me to move out...

Very well Mr Knight, if you can't be decent enough to tell me to my face that you no longer want to share a suite with me or have me in your employ, so be it.

I felt an unreasonable surge of anger. 

What kind of an ass just slid something like this under someone's door. No explanation, no chance to talk things through. 

He chose to avoid me... after last night he clearly couldn't stand being in the same room with me, neverminded sleeping one door down from me.

Well sir, if that's what you wish...

I quickly threw on a pair of jeans and a sweatshirt, before tying my hair in a bun. Just because my mind was in a dreadful state at the moment doesn't mean some poor unfortunate soul had to be scared close to death by my appearance. 

I wasted no time in gathering up my things. This didn't take too long, however, as I didn't even bother unpacking more than a select few dresses and blouses that would surely wrinkle beyond repair had I not done so. After tossing everything into my suitcases, I made my way out of the suite. 

I took one last look at the living room where William and I had watched TV together, almost like it was a normal occurrence for us.