Forced Marriage To The Psychotic Billionaire ( Book 2)

Chapter 31: The karma

The bright streams of morning sun met Markris pacing around his room. Between walking in the passage like a madman waiting for either Lorena or Ariana to step out, he had barely slept a wink. He ran a tired finger over his curly hair and sighed. He didn't know why he needed to explain himself to Lorena.

Especially when it looked like she was hell-bent on mistrusting her, he still couldn't deny his curiosity. He wanted to know what she and Ariana had discussed all night. He wanted to see how what Ariana told him that night about Lorena. It drove him crazy that he wasn't privy to their discussion. A knock sounded on his door, and he hastily whipped his head around.

"Come in," He rubbed his finger together, his heart palpitating. The door pushed open, and Lorena stepped into the room with a tray in her hands. "Huh?" He scrunched his nose.

"I brought breakfast, sir." She announced a little too cheerfully for his liking. He did not remember asking for breakfast. How could he eat when curiosity was killing Jim?

"Why are you bringing me breakfast, Tanika?" He raised a brow, watching the girl clear up space on his dressing table to place the tray.

"It's 10 am, and no one came down for breakfast. I should bring it up." She turned around after setting the table and bowed with her hands clasped behind her.

"Oh?" He squinted his eyes, still unconvinced there was no ulterior motive. When had Tanika ever brought food to his room, except he specifically requested it? He was not blind. He could see Lorena was the one she adored the most, not him. "So, have you brought Lorena's to her?"

"I did, but she's still asleep."

"Did you say it is ten already?" He looked around for a clock, but his eyes found Lorena's phone instead at the side of the bed. He quickly had a flashback of the phone rolling from Lorena's hands when she kissed him. If it was cracked before, it was bound to be blind now. Regardless, he finally had an excuse to go to Lorena's room.

"Way past ten by now, sir." He raised his head, forgetting someone was still in the room.

"Okay, Tanika. Thanks for the food." She bowed and walked out of the room.

"That wasn't strange at all." He shook his head and proceeded to the bathroom to brush his teeth.

Three hours passed, and Markris decided that he was just a coward. Lorena was still not out, and he still couldn't bring himself down to her room. He decided to kill time in his home office, remembering he had a score to settle with Jorginho. Soon as he entered the room, which was legitimately his favorite place in the house, the smell of hardcopy books hit his nose. If there was one thing the heir loved the most, it was the smell. Probably because of the nostalgia it arose in him or just because it gave him a sense of peace he couldn't describe. Whichever it easy, his ritual whenever he stepped into the room was to go around inhaling the smell. The more he walked, the more he forgot about his desires. In this room, only his ambition and success mattered. Only his vision and dreams he designed with his fingers mattered. Stopping at an art piece in from of him, he felt a sudden urge to paint. This was the second time in the last month he was feeling this need. The first was when he saw the painting in his mother's house. That painting still haunted him. It has spurred him to the depths of the pit where he had dumped his artistic creativity in the last ten years.

"Karma." He muttered, running his finger on the painting on the wall. It was layers of large eyes representing different generations. Every look had its representations drawn in them. There was just something about the sights in paintings that drew him in. Maybe that was why he still obsesses about the one in his mother's house. Perhaps he needed to know if she painted the series herself because the drawing before him was the last he ever did.