AUTHOR: PLEASE VOTE, COMMENT AND FOLLOW!
We spent days and nights, working on how to put Maxwell behind bars. The office was stacked with Chinese takeout boxes, the windows were full of markers. I could understand why people would pay Adonis Millions to work for them. He is fucking amazing.
The way he works, as if it's reading a book.
He stood with compassion and i guess that's what makes him so great at his job. We had our laughs, and our sad times. Well, mostly my cries were heard in the office.
We obtained a restraining order a week ago, and I have never felt safer. "Now for the proof. The judge will request to see the evidence. Do you have any photographs?"
Yes, I do. Oh, I have a lot. Because I'd send them to my mother. Following her death. I felt as if I were ranting to someone. I nod and step away from the office table, collecting my handbag and pulling out my phone.
Adonis shoves two hands down his pockets, "they're really bad..."
"Show me."
I hand him the phone, and he looks down at the pictures. His jaw tenses, he looks up at me before handing me back the phone. "Catherine, why have you never asked for help before?"
"Because I-Adonis, I did not grow up with an amazing father or parents, I grew up mothering my little sister. My father was a drunk, an abuser as well. I grew up with men like that, I thought it was normal,"
"Was Maxwell the first man to rape you Cathy?" He whispers, my eyes widened as I looked into his eyes so suddenly. How did he know? "I can see it in your eyes." My jaw tenses, tears begin to soak my inner lids as I turn away from Adonis and walk towards his desk to mess about with a few papers.
"No." I whisper. "I was raped before, I was nineteen and he was the high school jock, my drug dealer...my mother chose Lucy over me, and I went to go to Alex, I called her three times, but she never answered. So, I called Damon, he was having a party when I arrived and..." I take sudden breaths, "I went in the jacuzzi, and everyone began to leave. Damon made a move, I rejected but he-he forced himself onto me. I begged him to stop, I fought him, and I tried Adonis, I really did fucking try but he was bigger and stronger than me. I called Alex-I called her and-"
"That was the morning of the confrontation? Where you were mad at her...you were raped?" My jaw froze, as did my heart. He knew about the confrontation. "You-you were not drunk were you, Catherine?"
No!
No! I was not fucking drunk!
Finally, someone believed me.
"I wasn't drunk. I was just raped. She shouted at me after I went to apologise for my words, she shouted, and I remember her words so clearly because every night-morning they haunt me."
"What did she say?" He was really listening. To me? Someone is finally paying some sort of attention.
"'Let us not go there Cathy, you weren't there for anything when I needed you. And do you know why? Because you are a self-absorbed, self-centred, and selfish human. You only care about what involves you, nothing else. And until you learn that the world does not revolve around you, then come to me and apologise. But warning, I will never forgive you.'" Tears were streaming down my eyes, Adonis leaned in closer and brushes it away with his thumb as he leans his forehead onto the top of my head. "I wanted to tell her everything-I wanted to tell her that I was raped...and I needed her, but she was not there for me..."
He tilts my head upwards, our nose brushing against one another.
"Catherine, you are not a self-absorbed, self-centred, and selfish human. You are a kind, caring and loving human. You care about other before yourself, and those are the words you need to remember."
I closed my eyes in this moment and inhaled his deep scent through my nose. My hands slowly slide to the back of his neck, I never had anyone listen to my side of the story before and this being the first time, it felt amazing.
It felt nice to say it all out and aloud instead of it being hidden for five years. Adonis...did Lucy send this man to me? Did she send him?
Because in only a matter of weeks has my feelings been growing for him, his dark brown hairbrushes against my blonde one. We were complete opposites. We met once five years ago, once...maybe fate brought us both back together.
"Thank you for listening..." I speak, breaking the tension between us.
"Always snowflake, always..."
Kiss him.
No. I am not ready to be in a committed relationship, I cannot do it. I'm scared. I'm afraid.
Maxwell.
Damon.
My own father.
I'm terrified, but my heart has its own hand grasping for Adonis'. Maybe if he accepted me for who I am, for the fractured parts behind this tough shell I've erected over my body. Is he willing to make time for me? Is he prepared to deal with me? Am I prepared?
Kiss him...
No. I can't. I want to. I really want to. But I cannot.
Because I'm afraid if I don't... I'd fall in love with him, and he'd betray me in the same way Maxwell has. I have to adore him in the dark, because he deserves to be with someone less broken than me.
He deserves someone who can provide him with more than I can. Adonis deserves it because he is a decent and kind man.
My hands slide down his shoulders and press onto his chest, it was as if he understood the memo and stepped back respectfully. He wipes the bottom half of his face.
"I need you to fill these forms out today, I have a meeting now. I'll be back in an hour." He tells me, I nod and take the clipboard from him as I watch him leave the room.
Come back.
Don't leave me.
This is for his own good Catherine; he deserves true love...from a fixed person.
How could I let go of someone I never had?
All because of the past.
I take a working pen from the pot and settle down onto his chair, suddenly the door opens, and my head raises to see Ares walking in. He stood there. Shocked. Just like myself. Oh fuck. He looks around the room, noticing the mess and the writing on the windows. I stand up almost immediately.
"What are you doing here?" He asks me, I always had a nudge feeling Ares despises me. I don't blame him from the things Alex tells him, I did hurt Alex. I did hurt her. She knew nothing about anything because if she did, then she's treat me a whole lot different.
"I-I work for your brother."
"Work for my brother? You don't look like you're working." My jaw tenses.
"What does it look like I'm doing then?"
"Fucking him." My eyes widen as he shrugs his shoulders...
"Well, for the information that you don't need. I am not Ares; I am not fucking your brother. I am working."
"Alex has been worried about you for months now, since the night you left. She's not been sleeping, and she's been on her phone all day and night. She called every police station to see if you were there, and this entire time-you've been here?"
Ares was not shouting at me, nor being snarky or rude. He was normal, a worried husband about his worried wife. It is selfish of me to hide my existence from Alex after springing up on her doorstep like that. I rub onto my arms, "I did not know."
"I know." Adonis walks into the room with a file in his hands, he flicks through it before looking up to see his brother standing in front of him.
"Ares?" He looks at me, I give him a slight nod. "What are you doing here?"
"I came to invite you for dinner, and now it seems you can bring a plus one. Catherine, I'll see you tonight. I'll tell my wife we are having another plate." Ares squeezes Adonis' shoulders before exiting.
"And I guess we are having free dinner?"
"I cannot come."
"Yes, you can Catherine,"
"No, I really can't!"
"And why not? You're really going to let me go alone? Atlas is going to be there, and he's a fucking bully."
"You're older than him, no?"
"Age does not matter!"
"Adonis, I might put her in danger, Maxwell-"
"Has a restraining order. You won't Catherine, not when I'm there."
Should I go?
Would Alex be mad?