Angela's pov
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Waking up with my head pounding was not how I wanted to start my morning.
The headaches are getting a bit worse and I haven't told Elijah anything about it yet. Elijah is constantly busy with work. And I don't want to add more of my problems to it.
Laying back down on the empty bed, I look over at the side in which Elijah slept last night.
My heart clenches when I think about what Elijah told me last night. How he opened up to me. And how he trusted me enough to tell me something so heartbreaking.
I wish I could have met him earlier.
The need to have been there for him in his most darkest of times is overwhelming. The need to have wanted to hold him when he felt alone.
The need to have been the girl who was there for him all those years ago.
I'm still not sure what I mean to Elijah yet. Sometimes he makes me feel like I mean the world to him. He calls me his and makes me promise things that I easily comply to. He makes my heart skip a beat and sometimes causes my stomach to flutter. He makes me shy and blush, things that I've never done or felt before...until I met him.
But then he also talks about this other person. The person who has been there for him in the past. The girl who has helped him stay out of the pit of darkness he had fallen into. The girl I suddenly felt jealous of.
He talks about her as if she's the most beautiful girl out there. He makes her sound wonderful and kind that I find it hard for me to hate her. She was there for him and I'm grateful for that.
But then there's this nagging question that tugs at my heart.
Where is she now?
I shake my head, ridding me of all of these thoughts. I shouldn't be dwelling on things of the past. It's better to focus on what's happening now and what's still to come.
I slightly jump as the door opens and Elijah walks in. He has his phone to his ear as he speaks angry Italian words into the phone, pacing the length of the room. I don't think he notices me on the bed and I silently take the chance to admire the view in front of me.
Elijah truly is a beautiful man. He's wearing a suit. Like always. But his suit jacket is missing. His muscles are bulging through his white dress shirt. His other hand is tugged into his dress pants with his expensive watch on his wrist, completing the look.
The sight of him speaking rapid Italian and walking up and down, has me almost melting into a small puddle.
I didn't even notice him ending the call and walking over towards the bed, until I heard him speak.
"Like what you see?" His deep voice asks.
I turn towards him and smile innocently up at him. "Yes."
I guess he didn't expect me to answer that question because he instantly clears his throat and sits next to me on the bed.
Before he could say anything else, his phone rings again. He grunts and answers the call.
"What?" He asks before silently listening to whoever was on the phone.
A few minutes later, he ended the call and turned towards me. "It was our doctor. He asked if you were feeling any better and if your headaches were getting any worse."
I slightly tensed before answering, "I'm doing better." I say with a tight smile.
I know I'm lying right now, but I'm doing it for him. He already has enough on his plate. And I don't want to add my problems to it.
Elijah looked at me suspiciously and my palms start sweating. "You sure?"
I nod and he nods back.
"Do you need anymore pills?" He asks and I slowly nod.
Ofcourse I need more. The pain is starting to get unbearable.
"Yes. A few more would be great. Thank you." I say and he gets up from the bed, texting something on his phone.
He sends it and looks back at me. He was about to say something else before his phone rang again. He groans and grips his phone again, snarling into his phone.
Elijah glances at me and points towards the door. I nod in understanding and he leaves the room.
And that's why I didn't want to bother him any further with my problems. He already has so much going on.
Getting up from the bed with a sigh, I make my way to the bathroom and get ready for the day. I wanted to check on Nicole after Elijah told me about the fight she and Dante had yesterday.
After getting ready, I leave the room and head towards the indoor gym, where Nicole spends most of her time.
A few minutes later, I reach the gym. But instead of finding Nicole there, I find Dante. He's in the corner, hitting the punching bag with so much force that I wouldn't even be surprised if it actually broke.
He sees me standing in the doorway and nods in greeting. I wave and greet back with a small smile.
Walking into the room, I move closer towards him. He stops hitting the bag and grabs a towel and a water bottle from the bench. After drying some of the sweat off his bare chest, he gulps down the water. He looks a bit tense with his brows pulled together and tight shoulders.
"Are you okay?" I ask him as I near him.
"Yeah." He answers shortly.
I raise a brow at him as he starts hitting the bag again. But not as intense as he had earlier. "Are you sure?"I ask.
"Yes."He grunts out between punches.
I don't believe him.
"Are you upset about the fight you had with Nicole?" I ask and slightly jump when he punches the bag so hard, it falls flat onto the ground.
"That's none of your business." He snaps at me.
I raise my hands and move towards the door. "You're right, I'm sorry. I'll just leave..." I trailed off as I turn around.
I hear him sigh heavily before he spoke again. "No wait. I'm sorry for snapping at you." He says and I turn back around and see him rubbing his hands over his face before he took a seat at one of the benches.
He pats the seat next him and I softly smile at him as I walk over towards him.
"Do you want to talk about it?" I ask and he takes a moment before nodding.
He puts his head in his hands before saying,"I don't know what to do." He let's out a long breath and leans back, fiddling with his fingers.
"Since the night Nicole and I met, we have been seeing each other more..."He started.
He shakes his head and closes his eyes."No, I have been trying to see her more than usual. At first I hated her for stealing from me that day. But for some unknown reason she hated me back."
He lets out a humorless laugh before continuing. "We would have petty arguments and would fight over the simplest of things. But as time went on, the small insults I would throw at her, turned into teases." A small smile tugged at his lips. And a small glint appeared in his eyes, as if he was remembering all those moments with her. "I started to like making her angry and would constantly try to do something that would easily set her off, just so I could see her fiery and sassy attitude. We sort of went from enemies to friends after that. At least I considered us friends. She just rolled her eyes at me and granted me with a curt nod."
His smile slowly started to disappear and his eyes hardened. I didn't speak or comment on anything though. I let him speak because I knew he needed someone to listen to and maybe give him some advise as well.
"As much as I Iiked teasing her - and I know she liked it too - I noticed that she would also stop herself from being anything more than friends." He started nodding his head before saying, "Yes, I admit I have been flirting with her whenever I would tease her as well. But at first I didn't mean anything more by saying that. I was only teasing her as a friend would."
He groans and slightly pulls at his hair. "I guess I developed.... feelings for her along the way." He releases a deep breath. "No, I know that I've developed feelings for her. And it simply just... scares me." He says softly.
My eyes slightly widen at his confession.
"What scares me even more is the fact that I have no idea how she really feels about me. There's something keeping her from giving in to me and it frustrates me for not knowing what's going on in her mind. I've never felt this way before and it's terrifying."He sighs and a sad smile appears on his face.
" But whenever I see that smile, she always tries so hard to surpress, it makes me.....happy. I don't know how to describe what I'm feeling because it's all still so new to me."
He looks over at me and I finally see all the emotions he's feeling, evident in his eyes."But one thing I do know is that I like her teasing smirk and gentle smile. I like her consistent determination. And I especially like her confidence and strong will." He falls back against the bench and sighs deeply.
He starts rubbing the back of his head....almost guiltily. And he let's out a nervous laugh while I give him a look that says 'what did you do?'
"We had a fight after I accidentally ki-" He clears his throat before continuing. "After I accidentally hurt this guy, who she's seeing."
Yeah I'm sure you only hurt the guy.
I narrow my eyes at him as he continues. "They were supposed to go on a date the other day," He says the word 'date' with so much disgust that I'm completely convinced that he's actually just jealous. "Got dressed up and everything. For him." He grunted.
I smile softly at him and patted my hand on his shoulder. "Did you try speaking to her about what you're feeling?" I finally asked.
He shook his head. "No. I can't do that. She'll probably just laugh at my face and call me a loser." He mumbles.
She probably will. But I'm not going to trample all over his little hope.
"I barely even got the chance to explain why I really ki-" He coughed again and softly hit his chest with is fist before saying, "Damn I'm parched." He grumbles and grabs a water bottle before chugging some of it down. I shook my head at him as he continued this.
"As I was saying. I barely got the chance to explain why I really hurt that guy." He says.
"You can try explaining it to her now. As much as you guys liked to deny it. The obvious tension between you two is getting overwhelming not only for you guys but everyone else around you too." I say with a small accusing glare.
When Nicole and Dante would fight, everyone - and I mean everyone - in the mansion knew. They would shout at each other across the mansion and would constantly glare at one another and would do revenge pranks - as they liked to call it - on each other. As cute and funny as it was, it was also annoying because they were extremely loud whenever one of them were at the receiving end of the pranks.
"I know." He says softly while nodding his head.
"Talk to her." I push. "Don't scream and grab at each other's throats. Just talk."
After a few silent minutes, he gets up and looks back at me as I get up aswell. He smiles and playfully punches my shoulder. "Thanks for listening to me. I needed that."
"No problem." I smile back at him. "We're friends right?" I ask and he chuckles before throwing his arm over my shoulder.
"That's a stupid question." He answers we walk out of the room.
As Dante and I near the living room, we hear voices coming from the room. Reaching the living room, we find Elijah, Gio, Nicole and surprisingly Lorenzo there.
They instantly stop talking when we entered the room. Nicole visibly tenses when she sees Dante entering the room after me. Dante opened his mouth, wanting to say something but was cut of by Nicole softly excusing herself and leaving the room. Dante doesn't miss a beat and instantly goes after her.
* * *
Dante's pov
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I pick up my pace as I follow her down the hallway towards her bedroom. When she finally reaches her room, she tries to slam the door in my face. Again.
I push forward and she slightly stumbles back and glares up at me as I stalk towards her.
"Leave my room, Dante. Now." She almost shouts at me.
I stop in the middle of her room, right in front of her.
"No." I say in return.
She throws her arms in the air, frustratingly. "I don't want to talk to you! Are you here to tell me how no guy is good enough for me again, huh? Or are you just going to kill every guy I decide to date?!"
I clench my fists at my sides and grit my teeth as I glare back at her. "He was going to hurt you, one way or another."
She annoyingly rolled her eyes,"How would you know? You never even knew Dave."
Dave? Even his name sounded dumb.
"I don't need to know him, to know that he was an asshole after catching him making out with some girl, fifteen minutes before your.... date." I spit out angrily.
She pauses. "What?"
I let out a humorless laugh, filled with anything but warmth. "Yeah. I'm pretty sure everything he told you before that was complete lies."
Something flashes through her eyes and she looks away from me. I walk towards her and she takes a step back. "Don't." She says softly but I ignore it as I stalk closer to her. She continues to walk backwards until her back hits the wall.
I crowded into her space and slowly tilted her chin up so that she was looking at me. My heart squeezed at the sight of her beautiful eyes brimmed with tears.
But what made me almost smile was the fact that she wasn't letting her tears fall. She wasn't going to cry over any man. She wasn't going to let anyone trample all over her. Even if they managed to get to her even the slightest bit - she was going to fight back. And she was going to make sure she was the last one standing.
She's a little fighter.
My little fighter.
Mine.
"Are you going to cry over him?" I already knew the answer but asked anyway.
Her eyes hardened and she blinked away the tears. "No."
I smirked. "Good." I said before my lips crushed against hers, in one long, deep and searing kiss.
I kissed her hard. Pouring all my feelings and unsaid words into this one kiss.
She gasped and I took that opportunity to deepened the kiss and pulling her closer. She kissed me back. Just as hard.
"Ask me what I want." I said softly against her lips.
"What do you want?" she asks breathlessly.
"You."
* * *
Unknown pov
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"How is she?"I ask.
"She says that she's doing better but wanted more pills for her headaches."The doctor answers.
"Did Elijah sound suspicious about anything at all? "
"No."
I nod before slowing bringing the glass, that contains an amber liquid, to my lips and taking a sip.
"That's good." I say while looking down at the framed picture, that's held in my other hand. "That's really good."
I lean my elbows on my knees while looking down at the picture in my hands - with complete and utter hatred.
"When the time is right, she'll leave him and he'll come back to his senses." I say as a slow smirk forms onto my face.
"He didn't need her then. And he won't need her now."
*****
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