𝐃𝐚𝐦𝐚𝐠𝐞𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐃𝐚𝐲𝐝𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐦𝐬 ✔️

19 | The Explanation

"No, I won't leave until you believe what I'm telling you. I would never cheat on you," he says, his voice trembling a bit. Perhaps it was genuine or all an act. I didn't know what to believe.

I'm tempted to call for Roman and save me from this uncomfortable situation, but I had to handle this on my own.

"Ethan get up."

"Evangeline, please, tell me you believe me," he says, begging. "I would and could never choose her over you. She's nothing like you."

"You said somethings and did things to me that's not easily forgivable."

He gets up from the floor and digs through the gift bag that he had brought with him. He takes out two boxes. A small square one and a long rectangular one.

"I wanted to give you this for your birthday, but I felt that it would be better to do it now. I really want to do better and show you that I can treat you the way you deserve to be treated," he says.

He pulls the top off the rectangular box and reveals a gold necklace with the letter E, lined with diamonds. Gold was not my color and if I was mistaken, the E must've stood for his initials, not mine. He was doing this to show off that I was his, like some kind of possession.

"I went to pick it out when I heard that you were sick," he says in a low voice, "I felt guilty about what I had said, and you didn't deserve it, but I was just so frustrated."

"Frustrated to the point that you forced yourself on me?"

He takes the bouquet from my hands and sets it down on my dresser. He makes me face my mirror and I swallow the lump in my throat as I'm forced to stare at myself through the mirror. I felt like a puppet. He pushes my hair to the side and around my neck and brings the necklace around. He latches the necklace and his cold hands linger around my neck and shoulders. His eyes meet mine through the mirror. They're not the same begging ones from earlier. They were now cold and distant—like a mask over them.

"We were going to do it at some point right? You didn't say anything to make me stop," he says.

I feel a sharp pain in my chest. Like if he had physically stabbed me with those words. Tears fill my eyes and I can feel the bile rise in my throat from how sick he was making me. This was not my boyfriend. This wasn't Ethan that had the desire to chase after me when we met.

"What's in the other box?" I ask, my voice barely manages to croak out.

"A ring," he says. He takes out a matching ring with a thin gold band and a cluster of diamonds in the middle. "To promise yourself to me and no one else."

I don't get to say anything as he pulls my hand towards me, eliciting a gasp from me and he slides the ring onto my left ring finger, where an actual ring would go. The ring looks very out of place. It doesn't look right on me.

He pulls me towards me and he wraps his arms around me like a forced hug. "I meant it when I said that you were going to be mine," he says in a low voice, "I'm glad you understood where I was coming from. I thought I would have to be more aggressive to get my message across."

He releases me from his embrace and leaves my room without another word. I listen to his heavy footsteps descend the staircase and the front door opening and closing. When I've confirmed that he's left, I feel myself collapse on the ground as silent tears fall down my face. At that moment, my phone goes off with a text notification.

I rip the necklace off of me along with the ring and throw it somewhere onto my desk. My phone starts to ring and I wipe the tears from my face. I grab my phone, not recognizing the number, and I answer.