The Secret Heiress | ✔️

26 | 𝚄𝚗𝚕𝚒𝚔𝚎𝚕𝚢 𝚌𝚘𝚖𝚙𝚊𝚗𝚢

The thought had unsettled me so much that I hadn't even bothered to protest when Lykas had declared I sleep in his room because he wasn't risking anyone stalking me. He'd given me my space, almost tucking me under the covers to sleep in the comforts of the bed while he lay uncomfortably on the couch that was too small to accommodate his height.

In the morning though, I'd found him sitting on the floor at the foot of my bed, his head resting on the edge of the mattress while he held my right hand in his as if telling me he's here.

The effort in his actions had my heart soften enough to make me extend my hand and brush away soft, silky midnight locks of hair from his forehead and run my fingertips along his sharp cheekbones. He looked so beautiful and peaceful, like a sun when it rises.

The thought had me smiling because Lykas did have that quality, like the first ray of sunshine after a dark night. The exact same moment he'd fluttered open his eyes and caught me smiling down at him. The warm, thirty-six toothed, just-woke-up-from-sleep smile he'd flashed at me had my heart skipping a beat or two.

"Gosh Ryson, are you trying to break my poor heart by waking me up to that smile?" He'd lifted his head from the mattress, ran a thumb along the plumpness of my still curved-up bottom lip and added softly, "Not that I'm complaining. I could get used to it." He was beaming so gleefully, I could practically sense rainbows and sunshine erupting from him.

I'd scowled so hard at his words, he'd ended up laughing hysterically. I'd wanted to increase the degree of my scowl but it was so much harder when the sound of his deep laughter was so contagious, I couldn't stop the light chuckle escaping my lips.

Lykas had looked at me in such a starstruck daze as though I was a creature descended straight from heaven, performing fascinating magic on him.

"Oh my God, you're laughing!" It was so dramatic the way he was gawking.

I'd groaned, chucking a pillow at his face to stop myself from seeing the literal heart emoticons in his eyes. Then I'd stormed out of the room pretending to be annoyed when a wide smile spilled on my lips once I was in the hallway.

He was so. . .unusual. He had this quality of making me forget the nagging thoughts of my slipping sanity everytime I'm with him. He made me feel grounded. Lykas is, in a way, my safe zone.

The days following it just proved it about right. Because when I'd found the clown standing at my windowsill the next day, when I'd stumbled upon the sight of surgical scissors and knives in my wardrobe the day after, when three days ago the temperature of the place I was seated in had dropped too low reminding me of the day when the clown had locked us up in the refrigerating unit, when I heard those heavy thudding footsteps in the hallways whenever I was alone in my room, only to find out all of them were never really there as Nathaniel checked the place. I'd ended up going to Lykas to help myself from loosing it or worse, breaking down.

Each day, Lykas' concern grew so much, he barely let me out of sight. Trailing me everywhere, plucking flowers from the garden and tucking them in my hair or behind my ear when I went for a walk around the neighborhood, making food for me so that I didn't have to leave the house to get takeaway since I couldn't even trust the deliveries anymore after once a pizza delivery boy showed up in a clown costume as a part of Halloween theme. The fact that it was nearly Halloween week was making me more and more edgy from even stepping out of the house. I somehow saw every dressed up person in a clown's costume.

Lykas believes I'm perfectly fine and am being haunted on purpose, but a part of me knows I'm loosing my mind. The delusions were bothering me so much that I had to do something about it.

After tricking Lykas into checking up with Ethan by assuring him I'd stay at home, I'd slipped out of the house once he left. I do feel guilty about it but I had to do this. If I'd told Lykas about it, he tends to get overly worried, I don't like that look of concern in his eyes. Happiness suits him. Besides, Ethan could use some help with how obsessively he's been trying to find the girl without the records the last whole week.