Chapter 3:Red Flags

“Are you planning on just standing out there?” The same emotionless voice that had spoken to me yesterday called out to me from inside his office and I hesitated for a second longer at the fear that I realized I was feeling, “I despise people who waste my time.”

Taking that as my last warning I took a deep breath in and plastered a fake smile on my face to greet him. At my entrance he turned to look at me and for a second I felt myself incapable of breathing. The way the light shone from behind him, through the glass walls and created a silver lining to his impressive physique made him look like an angel, a divine being, that was until I saw the color that blotted his grey clothing sinisterly. It broke my fantasy all at once and I was thankful for that reality check.

The red didn’t seem to bother him and neither did the stench of blood that was heavier inside than it had been outside and gulping some saliva to moisten my throat I looked at him and then outside the window, wondering if I would somehow anger him with even the slightest actions that I made.

“Who were you again?” he asked, shedding his blazer that he had been wearing while a member of the cleaning crew hurriedly brought out a new change of shirt and suit of the exact same color that he had been wearing before, ready for him to change into.

I had been so attracted by the way his muscles flexed in the tight black shirt that he had been wearing that I hadn’t realized his question and when I did I felt my heart crack a little.

 Did he not remember me?

“Don’t test my patience,” he warned me as he stared at me from behind his desk, watching me with slightly annoyed and uninterested eyes.

“I-I,” I started to say but I didn’t know how I could introduce myself. He had already put me in such a disadvantageous position by starting our conversation in an irritated manner, that now I felt foolish and ashamed to be standing here.

But even then I pulled my lips in and let out a deep breath to calm myself and with a fake smile plastered on my face again I said, “I am Silia Morgan, the woman you met in the elevator yesterday.”

He looked confused for a few seconds as if there had been many more Silia Morgan that he had met yesterday in an elevator and knowing that I had been so insignificant to him hurt me more. I wondered if I should just leave with the very little dignity that I was left with when suddenly I saw his features brighten up slightly in recognition.

“Oh you are that woman who is undeniably dumb,” He said making me feel offended but at this point I couldn’t even defend myself. What was I thinking? How could I let myself be influenced by my visions to this extent?

Rounding the table he opened the top button of his shirt and then the cuffs of his arms as if it had been perfectly normal to be holding a conversation while undressing in front of a woman. His skin that was peeking out of the material of his shirt distracted me and I had to mentally scold myself to tear my eyes away from that place.

When I moved my gaze up to his face again I could see a disgusted look gracing his handsome features. The result of which was a current of shame to pass through me as I was unable to hold his gaze anymore. He had caught me gawking at him and must think of me as a desperate woman but how do I explain to him my connection?

Was it so bad to be attracted to someone? Aren’t we supposed to be lovers in the future?

Standing in front of his table he picked up a few envelopes off his desk and throwing them at me he said, “This is what you came for, right? The one I sent before wasn’t enough so take this and leave.”

The money that had been inside the envelope fluttered out of it as two of the thick bundles hit me making me feel the humiliation of the situation. I had never been treated like this before, even the kids who had bullied me for being an orphan all those years back seemed less scary than this man right now.

It angered me at the treatment that he gave me but I was angrier at the way I had let him treat me. I knew that he was a murderer and I knew that he was that kind of person who bought people’s honesty with money and yet just because I saw some crazy delusional visions of the future I had ignored all these red flags and came here.

For what? A happy future that I believed this man could provide me? I bet that he had never even brought a single smile on a person’s face.

Even that murder from yesterday must have been a fluke on his part, there was no way that he had been thoughtful enough to seek justice for the citizens of this city.

Feeling tears drip from my eyes I wipe them away even as the mortification wanted me to just bolt out of his office. I stood my ground and glared at him with angry thoughts were buzzing inside my head. Like a wasp I was ready to pierce poison into him but for some reason I couldn’t say anything

Have I already started loving this man to feel this hurt?

“That is no way to treat a lady, Draven,” I heard a voice call out from behind me and near the door. His voice had been laced with a delicious accent that instantly made me turn around to place a face on this healing smooth voice.

Brown eyes and brown hair, a muscular build and an air of importance surrounding him was his significant features. His eyes had been looking at Draven in disdain and that made me like him better.  

“Stay out of it Alfeo, you don’t know what I am dealing with,” Draven grunted taking off his shirt, the rustling of the material enticing me to look at him but I wouldn’t and staring down at the ground below I waited for him to change.

“And why do you say that? I don’t think a beautiful lady like her could have done anything, wrong,” Alfeo’s voice along with his words had been the only salve to my wounds right now and I wondered why I couldn’t fall in love with someone like him.

“She is a gold digger. She saw me kill someone and wanted to use that fact to get more money out of me,” Draven said making me gasp and look up at him. He had only just started wearing his new shirt and his exposed chest made me fluster and look away.

It took me few seconds to calm myself but the frustration of the misunderstanding was resulting into more tears slipping out of my eyes when I saw costly shoes come into my blurry line of view. A soft and sympathetic touch of a pair of hands on my cheek made me flinch but the touch had been kind enough to make me stay still in his hold.

Alfeo gazed down at me but his handsome face had been hazy because of the tears and I wondered if he thought I was pathetic too.

Wiping away my tears from the pads of his thumb he cleared my vision to show me the apology that he held in his eyes. That expression took me by surprise and I yearned for that look to have been granted to me by the instigator of my tears.

Why couldn’t Draven be like Alfeo?

“Don’t mind his words, please. He just doesn’t know how to talk to a beautiful woman. I am sure he misunderstood you and your actions so let me apologize on behalf of him,” The man said titling my face up to make me closer to his face, eliciting a shortness of breath from me.

What was he doing?

Was he going to kis-

“Stop fucking around, Alfeo! Stop using distressed women as your playthings, especially not in front of me. You can do whatever you want outside,” Draven’s cold and harsh tone reminded me of his presence in the room again. It instantly made me step back and out of Alfeo’s hold as if breaking out of a trance.

“Why did you have to ruin the moment like that?” Alfeo complained looking at me with an impish smile that was all the confirmation I needed to let me know that I had been fooled.

I can’t believe that I had fallen for a player’s words.  

“Really dumb,” Draven’s words had been mumbled out loud enough from him as he wore his suit but refused to look at me. It hurt me to realize just how true he had been in his deductions.

I had been nothing but dumb since the very start that I had met him.

“Now that the reason behind my actions have been revealed, I am not going to act anymore but are you interested in going back to my place? I promise I am nothing like that cold bastard there,” Alfeo said pointing at Draven who clicked his tongue in annoyance and went back to his work. It was clear that he didn’t care about me and who I was with.

Feeling my legs turn wobbly from all the direct and indirect insults I had received while being toyed in between these men I didn’t wait a second longer in their presence and bolting out of this door I vowed to never return back to this place or to him ever again.

"You both are the fucking worst! I hate you."