A Wife for the Billionaire
Chapter 86: SOFIA

Chapter 86: SOFIA

It was stupid, but I didn’t hasten my steps until I was sure the woman had left.

It wasn’t that I didn’t believe that there were few good ones left in this cruel world, but I have been too badly treated by life not to raise an eyebrow at her kindness.

I even thought the woman was a serial killer, and God knows, those heartless bastards are usually very kind from the onset.

When I was convinced, she was really gone. The only sign of her being there before, was the disarray of fallen leaves and the faint trail of her tires.

I dashed for the Blake Mansion, just a bend from Leek Park and a few trots in, I stood before the looming façade of the mansion.

Instinctively, my eyes went to that corner I had huddled in until daybreak. A shiver ran through my spine as I witnessed involuntary flashes of that memory flooded my mind.

And worst, my mind tried to picture various images of what might happen if I cross that threshold and Alicia and her daughters were already home.

My feet graced the first step , and the second and couldn’t find the courage to go further. Alicia’s car was nowhere in sight, but I couldn’t allow that to deceive me. Knowing her, she might’ve hidden her car so I won’t know that she was back.

Rather than playing into her plans, I turned back and ran. I had one destination in mind, Charlie’s Vet. Without slowing down, I ran and ran until I stood before the Vet.

I snatched the door open and eyes turned to meet me, human and animals alike.

But the one I sought for was Charlie’s. His eyes met mine and he came running.

"Are you alright?" He asked as I bent to catch my breath.

"I’m... fine" I managed, snapping away his fingers that came to inspect me like a sick animal.

"Hey, come here. Come have a seat" he said, pulling me towards the sofa at the reception desk.

"No!" I gasped, "I can’t sit or... or waste time, ju...st tell me, did Alicia call or did she... come here?"

"Stop talking, stop wasting your breath." At my glare, he added, "And no, Alicia is yet to come here, even though she called and when I told her that you were here, she insisted that I put you on the phone. It was only the constant barking of Ace, the dog I had been treating for a broken leg, that made her end the call. She had insisted that she would speak to you, but when Ace refused to calm down, she had cut the call"

I managed a smile as I said, my breath returning to normal,

"I think I owe Ace a ton of belly rub and a round of fetch, please extend my gratitude to him"

Charlie also smiled as he helped me stand upright.

"Aren’t you forgetting something?" He asked.

"Of course," I mumbled, "How could I forget? What you did for me today means so much and I truly appreciate more than I can put into words and I mean it, thank you, Charlie"

"Anything for you, heartbreaker" he teased.

He may have said those words as a tease, but I could feel the hurt layering underneath that try at humour. He was still hurt and I was solely to blame.

And this was what I feared with Cole, I couldn’t hurt him too, even though it was kinda late for that. I’ve already hurt him, but at least he wasn’t hurt hurt, not like Charlie.

I stood on tiptoe as I leaned in to kiss him on the cheek, he didn’t flinch or stepped back, and as I made to withdraw, I whispered to his ears,

"If only things were different"

A bob was all he could manage as I stepped back.

"Now get out of here" he said, his voice breaking after we stood staring at each other for five seconds, it was weird and the intensity of the moment was apex. Like we were going to kiss.

It was hard to turn away, but he did it. And as I made for the door, I knew without a doubt that Charlie was going to cry and worse, for someone as unworthy as me.

That was how much of a monster I was. Able to reduce a grown ass man to tears.

As I forced my legs to lift and take me forward, I realized that I really meant those words I said to him.

Had things been different, without my

messed up past, my fucked up present and my reservation for love, I would have married Charlie and I would have been happy and content.

Tears flooded my eyes at the shock of such realization and the chasm left by its tendency to remain only an ’if’, a ’would have been’ and nothing more.

I didn’t stop, instead I forced myself to keep running, my tears flowing with the rushing winds of my dash.

A flock of pigeons made for the sky as I ran across Leek Park. Children halted for a moment at the sound of my running strides, only to resume what they were doing the next moment. Adults who were reading or just admiring the beauties of nature glared at me for being a nuisance, but I didn’t care.

They were all blurs before my teary eyes.

A few more strides and I stood before the Blake Mansion, once again. I wiped at my tears and masked my face to the stoniest of expressions.

A knock.

I waited, trying very hard to calm my raging nerves.

Another knock, louder this time.

I threw my shaking hands behind me as I heard footsteps approaching.

"Miss Sofia, I wasn’t expecting you until later, surely Charlie hasn’t closed by this time" Felix poked his spectacles further over the ridge of his nose.

"Good evening, Sir Felix. I was allowed to go early seeing it was my first day and all. But please, are they back yet?"

He glanced behind him and opening the door wider, he answered,

"They are not, come in"

Relief washed over me like a splash of cold freezing water on a winter night. Goosebumps mapped the length of my skin.

Without wasting a second, I rushed in.

"Thank you Sir Felix" I said as the door banged shut.

"You are a fine lady, Miss Sofia, from the very first day I saw you. The Mistress and her daughters may do all they want to you, but never let them win. The moment you allow them dull your shine and start believing the lies they say about you, that’s when they win"

In all my stay at the Blake Mansion, the senile servant had never spoken to me

like that... like he cared.

And really, I think those words were the lengthiest he has ever said to me.

Blinking back, tears that wanted to spill down my cheeks, I said,

"I won’t. I promise"

"That’s what I want to hear, now run along, they will be back soon"

A tear escaped my right eye and as the man turned his back to me, I felt the urgent need to hug him. To feel the warmth of a fatherly hug.

Without thinking about it, I dashed and hugged him from behind.

He froze at my touch, then relaxed.

Gently patting my crossed hands at his midriff, he said,

"You are okay. You are okay"

As I let him go, I saw him wipe at a tear, then back to his tone of reprimand,

"I’m not crying, something got into my eye, now run along before I tell on you"

With a chuckle, I dashed upstairs to the small room I called mine.

I tossed my bag on the bed with a faded mattress and began changing my clothes.

I didn’t dare test the cruel hands of fate that had decided to be kind to me today, by taking a shower.

After all that running, I needed a long bath, but with every second racing to the time Alicia or her daughters would be back, I dared not.

As I made to exit my room, I saw the card, Hermosa, my kind stranger had given me.

In haste, I ditched it into my bag and now it peeked from the opening of my bag which I had tossed with enough force to bring it out.

I reached for it and it read,

"Hermosa Trail

Trail Publishing and Book Services"

I dropped the card without intending to or getting to the number.

"Trail" I repeated inaudibly.

That could only mean one thing, Hermosa was Cole’s mother.

No wonder she had been so kind, her son must’ve taken the quality from her.

I practically raced out of my room after that, I had met Cole’s mother and in a way she now knows who I was.

The girl who had hurt her son, and there’s a chance I would hurt him more if I decide to take the job offer tomorrow.

"I will be damned" was all I said as I descended the stairs.