Lyra

After I woke up from the nap, he was nowhere to find; I was alone in his bedroom. A grey comforter was wrapping all over my body. The blinds were down, so the sun lights were blocked. When I first entered this room, the room was all bright and full of sunlight, so I believed Nathan put them down after I fell into sleep. I got out of bed and went to the bathroom to wash my face, and made myself presentable. I found my bag on the sofa near the window; I took the bag with me. It was an effortless task to locate the bathroom, as there were only two doors inside the room.

When I opened the first one, it was a walk-in closet. He furnished the entire room with wooden cupboards where Nathan’s clothes were neatly arranged. One cabinet for his white shirts, another for his suits, besides that one for all the color shirts. The drawers were locked, but it wasn’t a tough job to estimate that clothes were there, too.

In the middle of the room, there was another wooden piece that was only for his watches and tie. Owen had something similar at his new house. He showed me the pictures, as I had yet to grace my presence at his house.

Slowly, I made my way to the second door, and that was the bathroom. The marble-designed floored bathroom was separated into three sections. When you walked in, you would find a vanity area where double sinks awaited you, with several cabinets on the wall and drawers. The nest one was the shower and bathtub and at the end, it was the toilet part.

I used the vanity part, mostly. I washed my face. Luckily I had my makeup bag with me. Brushed my teeth, combed my hair, pulled the long locks into a ponytail, dry my face, applied a little foundation and concealer, and finished with lip gloss. When I entered the room, it was the same as I left it. I arranged the bed before going out and found Nathan.

I was on the open balcony; I passed this place earlier, going to the bedroom. This entire place was just amazing. I knew Hall had money, but seeing the décor and everything, it was safe to say Nathan was eager in the house's interior, too. Only someone with extravagant taste and eyes was able to find this place.

“You are up?” he asked me.

“Yep.” I turned around and saw him.

He changed his three pieces to more comfortable clothes. A white shirt and faded jeans looked extravagant on him.

It would be a lie if I said he wasn’t good-looking. Handsome didn’t justify his looks, he was gorgeous. Tall, tanned, muscled, intelligent, witty was combined rightly in him, his hazel eyes, brown hair, full lips, a day old stubble, the glasses on his eyes formulated him. In a package that was constructed to give ladies a heart attack.

I wasn’t familiar with the Chicago crowd, yet I was aware of his popularity. Newspapers, magazines were constantly snooping around him. To know anything about him. Every week they photographed him with a new woman in his arms, mostly models, actresses, women from our circles. I was conscious about his type of woman, petite, blonde, full lips, Kim Kardashian butt, tanned, confident, a social woman. All the women who photographed him in the restaurants, yeah, parties, private dinners, nightclubs or even in his casino, ticked all the spots I mentioned.

It was nothing bad, but him showing in my life did seem odd to me. I didn’t notice before, but he always popped when I needed someone by my side to lean on, on my worst day, he was there for me. He clasped my hands, wiped my tears, kissed me to comfort me. But how was that possible? And why? Why was it always him?

“Why are you always there?” I asked him.

“What are you saying?” He frowned.

“Whenever I am in trouble, why it is always you to come for my rescue? Doesn’t it look odd to you? I mean, you saw me at my worst from the first time we met to the two nights ago. You were there to save me from an embarrassing public encounter. Why? And how was that even possible?” Seriously, I am curious.” I covered my ribs with my hands all over me and took steps towards him that brought me closer to him. We were standing closer to one another now, barely a few inches away from one another. I was inhaling his cologne. Something woody and spicy matched his personality perfectly.

We locked our eyes with one another. We both didn’t dare to look away, we felt we would fail to catch something important. But I didn’t know what that important thing was. It was a magnetic force that didn’t permit me to forestall a second from his caramel eyes; they were enticing me to him with an immense force that was feeble to be shorn off.

“When was the first time we met, Lyra?” he relied on against the doorway and asked me without stripping off his eyes off me.

I almost forgot to answer him as my breath got caught when his lips lazily pronounced my name. I closed my eyes tight so I could control myself; I was the one who launched this matter; I needed to concentrate. It was wrong to get swayed by a man this easily.

“A year ago, I believed. In a nightclub downtown that you owned. I found my then-boyfriend Brad Watson cheating on my friend and I, Hailey Gayson, in the bathroom. You walked into the place right after I found them out and then took me out of that bathroom and dropped me home and placed a kiss on my cheek before leaving.”

I remember that day distinctly, I deeply engraved every second of that night in my heart without a glitch. How could I forget that? Our families were talking about marriage between us the night before during family dinner. Brad told everyone he wanted to marry me as soon as possible. Brian, dada, uncle Josh, aunt Rose, Owen, Robbie all were there, although uncle Josh never really liked him, and he was loud about his dislike. Owen also had his doubts about Brad, but he kept quiet, seeing me happy and excited.

But it deeply hurt me. Owen and uncle Josh was important to me, and I wanted them to be liked by a man who liked and was ready to begin a new life with him. The next morning I sat with uncle Josh and Owen, and we talked about this.

“What do you guys think about Brad? And give me an honest opinion.” I asked them as we sat in the lounge of our house after a family breakfast.

“Are you sure you want to hear my thought about your prince charming?” Owen challenged me, and I knew it would be a bitter pill to gulp down.

My brother Owen was straightforward about everything. He mostly handled things roughly, but when it came to me, he was a sensitive man. He always protected me from the harsh reality of the world, the cruel truth that our family had because of our mother, constantly made sure that it never touched me. If anyone was ever meant to me or bullied me, that person also knew it was over for him or her.

In high school, everyone was alert to Owen’s possessiveness about me, and that’s why it was peaceful; otherwise, I didn’t think I would have the courage to survive among those little mean teenagers.

He even stood against Viola from time to time, and one day he warned Viola that if she ever messed with me, she needed to suffer the consequence that she thought even in her worst dream.

“Yes. Tell me what do you think.”

“Hold your breath, sister, you asked for this reality check.” He warned me before speaking. “I think your Brad is a villain in the mask of a prince. He is using you for power and fame, maybe money, too. I am not fully sure about that. He knows what power he had, and then he started dating you publicly. The stork of his family hospital shot to the highest, almost off the chart. Every time two of you were seen at any parties, it was Watson’s who experienced benefit. And that man looked like a bastard who will do anything that will help him climb the social stairs. I don’t like his family either.” Owen paused this time. Uncle Josh carried the rest.

“They look scratchy. No matter how hard I try to overlook something about them, they do something more ambiguous that doesn’t sit well with me. I am sorry, princess, but I just don’t think he was right for you. Sooner or later, he will show his genuine face, and that day you will know why we are having second doubts about this man. I will advise you to wait a little longer, don’t jump into something that you will regret later.”

I didn’t need to wait much longer. After ten hours of that conversation, I got the logical answer to their doubt.

“You are wrong,” Nathan said.

“What? Am I wrong?” I frowned. “About what exactly?”

“We didn’t meet for the first time during that time. We met before that. Well, I met you, but you didn’t, so I guess that doesn’t count on you. But that night was the third time I saw you.”

“What do you mean?” I raised my eyebrow and furrowed my forehead. “What are you saying?”

“Do you remember the whisper of that night, the one that told you to go to the bathroom where your ex-boyfriend and ex-friend were busy fucking one another?”

I nodded, but I wasn’t liking the direction where the stories were going, and how did he know about that? The man who warned me that night was tall around Nathan’s height, but his physical structure didn’t match him at all. That was lean. He was wearing a black hoodie, a black cap covered his half-face. Also, the lighting was dim enough for me to notice his face. Also, the smell of both Nathan and that man was different. It fully covered him in tobacco, with that foul smell that almost nauseated my stomach.

How did he know about him?

“What are you trying to say, Nathan?” I asked calmly, feeling like the next word that was going to come out of his mouth would change something.

“I sent him to you. He is one of my employees, manager of my casino, Aspiration Luka.” I gazed at him and smiled. “I dug into that bastard after seeing him with you and found a long history that was enough for me to put him behind the bars for a lifetime, but Hailey was the interesting one. And most useful for us, it helped me to get him out of your life.” He looked at me and winked.

“Why would you do that? Dig about him. Getting him out of my life. I mean, why would you?”

“What do you think? Why would a man go to that extent, Lyra?” He asked me.

I was confused with everything revealed and having a hard time assimilating everything. Things shouldn’t be this complicated between us. I and Nathan were just strangers, then why was the past so full of twisted. It tangled us with one another so badly that I was finding it hard to set myself free from him.

He was all over me, all over my life.

Today I was supposed to end everything, after whatever we were doing, which I did not know what or why. But the more I was learning about or going deep, things were getting more complicated, which I wasn’t a fan of. Since the time when my life had this much obstruction, it was fine till now. A little boring but without drama, and that was what I wanted.

When Nathan suddenly gave me all that information, my heart dropped right there, my legs were jelly, and I was feeling like a paper doll, so instead of asking him what he wanted me to ask, I changed the subject completely as I wasn’t yet ready to go that way.

“I am hungry. What are we eating for lunch? I am going to lose my mind if I don’t eat anything right now. I need food.” I bubbled out without thinking, but it was true.

A smile emerged on Nathan’s face. He was staring at me in full fascination as if I just did something that he didn’t expect at all. Hell, I did that. I didn’t even know that things were coming out of my mind until I really did. I should have said something else to turn the conversation, but as a chef, food was the first thing that came to my mind first, and as a fool, without thinking or using my brain a little more, I said those words.

“Do you like Thai?” Nathan asked and emptied the doorway for me so that I could enter the main house. I carefully tried to pass him so that we didn’t touch at all, but that was another failure. Nathan was a massive guy, like Chris Hemsworth, who was my favorite, by the way. Okay, now back to Nathan the big muscle guy, with that body he needed to give me more space, which he didn’t, and my chest perfectly touched his; however, I didn’t think much of that at all.

True, why would I?

Yeah, I did think something, so what? A woman had the right to dream about an attractive guy, and this man was a walking Greek god.

“I am a vegetarian. So as long as it is meat free, I am happy to eat anything.” I told myself after entering the house.

“You are kidding, right?” He laughed and asked me when I didn’t join him in his laugh troop. He stooped and gave his full attention to me. “Holy shit. You are really a vegetarian. You seriously don’t eat meat?”

I shook my head.

“But why?” he asked in astonishment.

“I liked animals and don’t want to kill them just because I was hungry. That is brutal. Do you know how many animals are sacrificing themselves every day around the world just to satisfy the hunger of a human being? The number will shock you. It doesn’t go right with me. I can’t enjoy something delicious without feeling guilty afterward. So I quit eating meat.” I explained to him.

“How old were you when you stopped eating meat?” Nathan asked me while going towards the kitchen.

“Twelve. I saw a documentary about animals with my brother Owen on TV. That one was about animal abuse and how they were dying. It was a wake-up call for me. After that, I just couldn’t bring myself to enjoy chicken or any animal meat. I feel pathetic even when I needed to cook that in the restaurant or at my home for Owen and Dada.” I winched my nose. “Gross.”

Nathan smiled, and I gave him a weak smile, as I did not know what to do.

“Okay, so I guess you will not touch the ton of meat I ordered for lunch. We have two veggie dishes. Can you have that with fried rice? Or you don’t eat eggs too?” He teased me.

“I am not a vegan-only vegetarian.”

A few seconds later, we settled down on the dining table with plates and the food that Nathan ordered. Nathan played some slow jazz music, and that was pleasant. I never had many relations with music. It’s not as I didn’t like them or something, it was just that they didn’t find their use in my life yet. If I heard a piece of pleasant music from time to time, I would have appreciated that, but that didn’t mean I had something special bond or connection with music. I was more like a movie or series person.

I was the master of binge-watching. For the first time, I discovered this talent of mine was when I was in my sophomore year of college. I remember the night when I finished watching Breaking Bad in three days. All five seasons and sixty-two episodes were done in three nights and three days. That’s a different thing that I didn’t sleep at all in that three days, after I finished the series, I slept for a solid twenty hours, and my roommate at that time, which was evil Hailey, yeah, the cheater one, thought I was dead.

After lunch we cleaned everything, then it was time to go out where I didn’t know. I had no idea about the day. What was happening? How was it going? Why was it going this way? Why was I with him? How was that possible? It would be better if you didn’t ask that sort of question today, as I didn’t have the answers for that.

The logic was gone. I threw them out of the window for today, which was a stupid thing to do. This was not the first time I was doing an idiotic thing. I did the biggest one year before, and that one was labeled Brad. I had some more strangely. Nathan witnessed all of them. I wanted to ask him, but I was also afraid of the answers too. I knew it would alter something after we were done with that conversation.

That’s why I was avoiding that using all the paltry excuses I could find.

“Where are we?” I asked Nathan as we got out of the car.

“My casino. I want to bring you here.” He took my hand, and we entered the huge wooden door that was opened by Nathan using a password.

It was afternoon. The clock was ticking at 4:15 pm.

When we entered through the massive door, a man greeted us in the foyer. Nathan gave him a sharp nod, and he went away, followed by an enormous area that came to my view. This room was so capacious that it was hard to see the end of the area. The room was filled with tables, but everyone was different from one another.

A man was cleaning the tile floors while the other was vacuuming the carpets, some were polishing the tables and chairs, there were four bars in every corner, and some guys were there too arranging bottles and glasses. Three young women were on the ladder cleaning the giant chandelier with a white piece of fabric. The room was painted in gold and white, so whenever my eyes went there, it was either golden or pure white. Even the white and yellow lighting matched the atmosphere perfectly here.

Every single person present in this room was extremely busy with their work. I guess they didn’t have much time before opening this place for business. That was why they were running around and working as fast as they could.

A man approached us. He was black, in his late twenties, all dressed up in a black suit. His attire was different from all the people in this room, which meant he was in a higher position, but this man somehow felt familiar to me. As if I met him before.

“Boss, I didn’t know you were coming today.” He stood in front of us. “Everything is going smoothly. In an hour, everything will be done. The chef is preparing something special today on your order.”

“Good, that’s better.” Nathan nodded, looking around the place with an eagle eye.

“Last night, three women came here for a job. Two of them were former prostitutes and were eager to start over a new life. As for your order, I appointed two of them as a server and another woman had some experience in the kitchen as she worked in a restaurant before. Chef told me he needed some extra help in the kitchen, so I gave her the dishwasher spot.” He reported to Nathan.

“How was the construction going?” Nathan asked as we walked to the left side of the room, which was the way out of this room. The man pushed the elevator button and started reporting again.

“By January, the building would be complete. The building will be able to residence for at least a hundred women and their families.”

“Good job, Luka,” Nathan said, and I looked at him. He was the one who whispered to me that night.

Now I knew why he felt this familiar to me, even though that was a short time after the meeting, but he left a powerful impression on me.

That his voice was harsher than today. He was there for a second, spelling those words, and then vanished in the smoke. It was hard to see him in that dim light, the coward dance floor made it tough for me to see him at all. But under the lights, it was hard to match that image to him.

He resembled like a decent person, a normal street dude who only minds his own business. His brood shoulder that gave him a wrestler or boxer image didn’t go when he opened his mouth to talk with Nathan.

“He was the one, wasn’t he? The whisper man.” I asked when the door of the elevator closed, and Nathan pressed the 4th-floor button, which was the highest floor of this building.

“Yeah. He was,”

“He looked like a decent human being.”

“He was in jail. I bailed him.” Nathan leaned on the wall of the elevator.

“What? Why?”

“He wanted to kill my father as the old man tried to rape his sister, who was a prostitute at that time. He had a knife at my father’s throat, and he almost sloth opened his neck if the police didn’t arrive in time.”

I never saw or met a son who was this enthusiastic or should I use the word bored talking about his father’s crime. He was jaded when he told me what his father did, but his mood changed to electrified when he told what Luka did as if he was ashamed of him for almost killing his father.

Brian was the devoted son to our dada. He would always come home before going back to his apartment. Even now that he was married, every three days a week he came home and sat with his dada. They talked, he filled dada with office work; they played cheese, sometimes drank together. After dada went to sleep, he left for his home.

On the other hand, Owen was okay with dada. He wasn’t that much attached to dada as Brian was or was disconnected. They talked when it was required, but other than that, Owen liked to stay out of dada’s way.

But the way Nathan was talking about his father, it felt as if he didn’t have any affection for his father. I saw him with his mother that night, kissing her temple, slashing her with her anger. It was the proof he loved his mother more than anything.

Unfortunately, that didn’t work when his father tried to talk to him that night, during dinner or afterward. Luke was the one answering on behalf of Nathan, but Nathan either nodded his head or answered in one or two words. When he had to say more than yes or no, it was Luke who came to his brother’s rescue and saved him, but sometimes Luke didn’t even know the answers, that was the time for Nathan to open his mouth. He never said a word, so the conversation was dead.

It was a bitter exchange between father and son, and something felt like this was what had been happening for a while now.

Nathan Hall didn’t share a good relationship with his father, he didn’t even try to hide that from the world.

I wonder if he knew about the affair between my mother and his father. Everyone knows about that, he was seventeen when the entire thing had blown up; I am sure he was aware of his father’s marvelously. That might be the reason for their dispute. Anything was possible.

We stayed at that place for over an hour. Nathan got busy with some legal documents that Luka told him he needed to sign those today. I sat on the couch of the room, which was more like a personal study room of a person than the office of this building. Nathan sat at his desk, read the papers, checked every line, double-checked before signing the papers while I was on my phone checking I*******m and F******k again and again. In the end, I plugged my earphones into my phone and watched some pranks video and babies’ funny moments.

“Do you like babies?” Nathan’s voice came from behind.

“Yeah. Who doesn’t like babies?” I asked him back.

“True. Ready to go.” He held his hand for me to take, and I did.

When we came outside the building, his car was already in the driveway waiting for us.

“Where now?” I asked him after hopping into the car.

It was 6:20 pm; the sun was on his way home; he was done for today, and it was his time to leave. Tomorrow he would be again here in the same place, but tonight it was his time to take a rest. It was also dinnertime, so I got the idea that we would be going to eat, but I didn’t know his plan. The entire day it was Nathan who decided what we would be doing, and I had no objection about that, as I know we weren’t going to be involved in some illegal things, after all.

He asked this day, and I gave him this day, in the end, we would be going our way, and the fake engagement would end here. Everyone would know we were done when Nathan would again start dating those models and actresses all over Chicago. The flame would be raised and everyone would comprehend the truth. That sounded heaven to me. Penny annoyed me greatly about this engagement circus. Even when I told her the truth, she pretended to close her ears. After tonight, she needed to acknowledge the truth, and I would be free from her torture.

“It’s dinnertime. What do you want to eat?” Nathan asked.

“Dip dish pizza.” I had been craving for a long time now.

“Excellent choice. Do you mind if we have our dinner in my office? I have some documents to email, and it’s important.”

“Sure.”

We picked up our food—deep-dish pizza, Italian beef sandwich for me, vegetarian, of course, cokes, brownies, and we made our way towards his office.

Upon arriving at his office, we took the private elevator from the basement so that’s the way we were able to save from people’s eyes.

After the dinner at his office, which was as exquisite as his house, I went to the bathroom to clean my hands.

The day was coming to the end. A few minutes or hours later, we would be on our way home. A few days later, the hot engagement news of us would cool down. Things would be normal as it was supposed to be. That was what I wanted, that’s how we started this date day. I spent the time with him was good; I enjoyed every little thing about this. It might be the most surprising, fun day I had in such a long time.

Most of my day began with my work and ended with me going to bed. Nothing fun or exciting for me as my peers would be enjoying. After the debacle of a few dates, I knew I needed to be conscious to protect myself. People loved to hurt others. In every form of relation, they came into my life, they taught me a great lesson. Viola, Brad, dad, or the latest one who broke into pieces so badly that I didn’t think it wasn’t possible for me to stand up and believe the magical universal thing called Love.

I had enough of that bullshit and didn’t care anymore. I was happy on my own. My life was boring, I agreed, but at least I wasn’t hurt. I wasn’t smiling like everyone was, but I wasn’t crying at least, and that’s what all mattered to me.

When I came back, it was Brian and Nathan who were fighting with one another.

When did this happen?

Why was Brian here?

“Lyra, what the hell are you doing here?” Brian roared.

I was afraid of Brian, although he never really did anything to me; he was always nice to me, polite to me. I was also aware of his anger, which was greater than his calm nature. I never saw him angry, but Owen told me recently about an incident in the office that made Brian out of control and ended up breaking glass or something like that. Occasionally he would raise his at home, but I was in my room, so I would only hear his roar and nothing else.

Seeing him all livid made my blood cold. This was nothing I expected. Everything was great till I was thinking the last part would be good too, but I was wrong.

“What’s wrong, Lyra?” Brian slowly approached me, I lowered my head when he yelled at me the moment I came out of the bathroom, and now I didn’t have the courage to look at his face. “I’m sorry. Are you okay?” He kissed my knuckles softly to make me feel comfortable. Tears ran down my cheek, and it was hard to stop these damn tears now.

I nodded but wasn’t brave enough to face him yet.

“What the hell did you do to my sister?” Brian clenched his teeth as he asked Nathan, “Did he try to take advantage of you? Did he do something with you? Tell me, and I will kill him here. I promise.”

That was what I was afraid of. I knew what the situation looked like at this moment. It was bad, worse than anything happening in my life, and if I didn’t say the right thing, someone was going to be dead. I needed to take good action from here, and I was ready for that, too.

Brian was in rage while Nathan held his calmness perfectly. Brian was here to fight with Nathan that said something must have happened, and now what I spilled from my mouth would be the turn of the table.

“He did nothing,” I whispered, without thinking twice.

I was still shaking pretty badly, but I tried to control my body, and it worked a little.

“Then why are you here?” It was a demand that Brian made.

“We are engaged.” I panicked and said those words which I never in my thought would come out of my mouth. I told a lie to Brian for the first time. “Last night we got engaged in the Hall mansion.” Another lie.

“Why did you lie to me before?” Brian asked coldly after a long pause. The rough Brian McCoy replaced the older brother. He almost sounded like Viola, and it scared me the most.

Even though Brian and I weren’t close, but he was good with me, cordial and loving. He supported me when I told him about my dream of becoming a chef. He told me he would be there for me if I needed anything, and he was. He was kind and a good brother to me, but today I was going to lose him because of my stupidity.

“I didn’t lie.” I squeezed my eyes shut.

“Are you fucking kidding me right now?” Brian screamed. My body went stiff and tears welled up in my eyes.

“Lower your voice. I will not tolerate any kind of abuse against my fiancée.” Nathan’s voice was quiet, yet full of deafening.

I was clueless, and just because of one stupid word from my mouth, I put both of us in danger, and Brian’s trust in me was gone, too. I lost everything. I had very little in McCoy’s house. Brian was one of them, but now he was gone, too.

“Oh, come on, cut the crap. You fucked my girlfriend and made her pregnant, and now you do the same with my sister. This is all your revenge plan. I get that perfectly well.” Brian thundered.

“Pregnant? Yours, girlfriend? Olivia?” My eyes were wide at the realization. “Did you get pregnant, Olivia?” I glanced at Nathan.

I trusted him, which was a funny thing. I knew nothing about this man whom I met two days ago, and today I was standing in front of my brother defending him.

This was wrong, but it didn’t feel wrong. In my heart, I didn’t feel for a second that I was wrong or that what I was doing was wrong. If anything else, it felt right, the perfect thing to do, honestly.

“Yes.” He accepted with no hesitation.

“Are you using me to get revenge on my family?” I asked Nathan without giving him any time to think. If that was his plan, then today was meaningless. He used me like any other man who came into my life before him. No difference between him and those dickheads.

Everything we did today felt special to me. I liked, enjoyed, cherished every single second, and I was praying it meant something to him, too.

“No,” he replied instantly, directly looking into my eyes.

“And you believe what he says.” I roared.

I did. I believed his words more than anyone at this moment. I was betraying my family, I knew that, but I didn’t want to leave him alone too. As our eyes locked, I saw integrity there, and that was enough for me to say the ultimate word.

“I will marry him.”