After eating breakfast, Ines went back to rest. Solomon was outside the room and she did not pay any mind to what he was up to, but she could hear the sound of water splashing against the bathroom tiles. Shortly after that, Solomon returned to the bedroom with a bath towel wrapped around his waist. Ines' eyes widened and she nearly gasped. “What are you doing?” “Took a shower.” Solomon answered factually, “You still have my pajamas around here, don’t you?” Ines hesitated. “…Yes.” Solomon opened the closet and found his pajamas inside. It was still neatly hung in its original spot. He grabbed it and proceeded to put it on. When he turned around, he noticed Ines with her head buried under the blanket again. With that, he lifted the blanket and fished Ines out of the blanket. “Why do you keep hiding under the blanket?” Ines grabbed tightly onto the blanket and eyed him nervously. “What are you doing?” Solomon ruffled her hair and stated candidly, “Figured I’d
In the end, Ines dragged herself to the kitchen because she was worried. As soon as she stepped into the kitchen, he saw Solomon sipping from a spoon. He was taste-testing the soup. “Why are you up already?” Upon noticing Ines, Solomon quickly put away the spoon and went to her. “You should have put on a coat, have you forgotten that you have a running fever?” As he said this, he went to the bedroom to grab a coat to put around her shoulders while asking with a frown, “How do you feel? Do you feel better after getting some rest?” Ines stared at the way he was behaving and found herself rather confused. Why was he being so caring to her when they had already broken up? The more he showed concern for her, the more troubled she became. She was beginning to have second thoughts about leaving him. Upon noting Ines’ silence, Solomon went to grab the thermometer and took her temperature again. The reading was the same as the morning, it had not gone up nor gone down.
“Where are you?” Patricia asked. Solomon scooped several additional slices of fish to Ines' plate while answering Patricia on the phone, “I’m outside right now, why?” Upon hearing this, Patricia immediately became upset. “Jonathan told me you came back from Monafett yesterday. Why didn’t you bother to come home to see me first? Why are you outside hanging about already? Have you ever thought about how your parents would feel?” Solomon could sense by her tone that she was truly upset and proceeded to explain, “Mom, of course I care about you and Dad. I just happen to have something come up. I’ll be right back after I finish up things on my end.” “Busy? How busy can you possibly be? I know you already took care of things at Monafett, what else is there for you to do at this point? “If you’re so busy, then keep at it and don’t bother coming back anymore!” “That won't do.” Solomon chuckled and cast a glance at Ines who was silently eating her food. “One way or another, I
Solomon fixed another look on Ines and spoke, “At the time, all you did was apologize to me but you never directly answered my question.” Ines pursed her lips and stayed silent. The air around them seemed to thicken with silence. After a long time passed, Solomon sighed and gave in. “Forget it, let's eat. We can talk about this later.” Since Ines was still feverish, he did not want to pressure her needlessly… Ines nibbled at the rest of the food and did not utter a single word for the rest of the meal. After the meal, she went to the couch and replied to some texts at work. Meanwhile, Solomon took the dishes to the kitchen to wash. He may be an amateur cook, but he was very experienced when it came to doing the dishes since it was his main duty in the past. After he was done washing the dishes, he returned to the living room with a glass of hot water for Ines. “Drink this.” “I can't drink anymore,” Ines remarked. She was bloated and did not want to drink.
“Why?” Solomon was caught off guard. He could not understand why Ines would say so. “Because I always feel insecure with you!” Ines' eyes were frayed with red. She was finally able to say what she had always kept to herself for ages. “You’ve always been on and off with me. Every time you missed me, you would come to me and shower me with so much affection as if we had only just started dating. Then, when you were busy, you would ignore me for up to two months at a time and didn’t even try to contact me… “You kept claiming that you won’t mess around with other women when you have a girlfriend, but it didn’t seem like you put much effort into rejecting their advances when they pulled out every trick in the book to get closer to you! “You told me that I’m the only woman who has your heart and that you would never flirt with other women, but that’s not what I have been seeing. I saw you getting touchy with another woman in the hotel and entering the same room together…” What
Solomon called Jonathan and ordered him to check the surveillance footage in the corridor of the hotel on the twenty-first of June. After hanging up, he turned back to Ines. “Let’s put this aside for now, we’ll get back to it later on. For now, there’s something else I want to talk about.” Ines cast a confused look at him. “Huh?” Solomon suddenly took her hand and expressed sincerely, “I admit that I have not put in a lot of effort to see you when I was busy, but I have never been on and off with you. I’m sorry I made you feel this way, but you should have told me about it when it happened.” The look in Ines’ eye fluttered but she did not speak. “Ines, we have been together for so long but I don’t think I have ever told you what my job is.” Ines stated, “You’re the president of Rowland Corporation.” “That's not the only job I have.”Solomon gently massaged her hands and began to explain, “Before I took over the operation at Rowland Corporation, I founded a company
Jonathan had sent him the surveillance footage taken from the hotel corridor. In the video, Solomon could be seen pushing a scantily dressed woman with an hourglass figure against the wall. He pressed a hand against her waist in a flirtatious manner. Then, he seemed to have said something to the beautiful woman and prompted her to playfully thump against his chest. After that, he held her by her waist and led her into the room at the end of the corridor… ... Upon watching the video, Ines’ sour memories were reawakened. A surge of rage swelled inside her in an instant. She glared at Solomon with a stout expression. “How are you going to explain this?” Solomon stared at the woman in the video for what seemed like ages before he finally remembered the events of that day. Surely enough, the man inside the video was none other than him. Ines’ accusations were not unfounded! However, there was more to it than she thought. He immediately turned to Ines. “Ines, I
The reason Ines hesitated was not because she did not love Solomon, but because she had tried to hurt Blair and Mable in the past. She did not know how Solomon could face them with a clear conscience if he got back together with her. “Ines, I won’t hold what happened in the past against you. I just need you to promise me that you will not hurt the ones closest to me ever again.” Ines nodded. “I can promise you, but…” “No more buts.” Solomon was aware of what she was concerned about and quickly assured her. “I just need you to give me the word, I will handle the rest. Everything is under control.” Ines expressed somberly, “Solomon, I don’t want to drive a wedge between you and Blair…” Solomon gently stroked her cheeks and assured her again. “He’s not going to do anything to me just because I’m dating you. He and I go way back, this won’t ruin our bond.” Ines was relieved to hear this. She supposed there was no more need for her to worry. With that, she pressed he