Chapter Three

Zach patiently waits for me as I limp towards him. His eyes linger on my knees and his jaw clenches. He opens the door wide enough for me to enter and I realize it is the same room I woke up in. He closes the door behind him and I feel a bit nervous.

He motions for me to sit on the bed and I do as he says. He then walks to the bathroom and brings a first aid kit. He reaches for his pant pocket and takes out some pills.
 
He sits next to me.
 
"Does it go up?" Zach points at my sweatpants. It's quite loose, I shrug before pulling it up. It doesn't come above my knee.
 
He sighs. "Change into something else, your knee has to be bandaged," he says, looking at me in my eyes. I nod my head and limp to the closet.
 
My hands hover over the shorts that are hanging there and I look at the lilac coloured one but I decide against it. I can't, he'll see the scars. Instead, I wear olive coloured baggy trousers. I don't want to disgust him, anyway.
 
I limp back to the bed and find Zach running his hand over his hair. Something he used to do when he was conflicted, he still has that habit I see. What has him so conflicted though, I wonder.
 
He looks at me and waits for me to sit beside him. I sit down a little too far and pull the trousers over my knee. He sighs and rolls his eyes before shifting closer to me.
 
I see him looking at my leg intently, small scars are scattered around my calf. Thankfully, he doesn't ask me about them.
 
The moment his hands touch my skin, tingles erupt. I bite my lip and control the emotions within me. He momentarily looks at me and bites back a smile. He purposefully lets his hand linger on my skin for a little too long while wrapping my knee in a bandage. His feather light touch on my skin makes me take a shaky breath. Once he is satisfied with his handiwork, he hands me the pills.
 
"Here, these are the painkillers. How is the pain?" he asks. His deep voice sounds quite funny when he tries to speak softly, it's actually cute. I shake my head to tell him the pain isn't bad. He frowns.
 
"You haven't spoken once," he states. I look at the bandage on my right knee to avoid his intense gaze.
 
"Why?" he pushes.
 

I bite my lip and look at my lap. He sighs and drops the topic.
 
"So, about the proposition," he starts before clearing his throat. I perk up and look at him, excited about what he was going to offer.
 
"I'll give you a job. Work in my company," he breathes out meeting my eyes. My eyes widen and I crack a smile waiting for him to say 'ha! Just kidding' but his expression remains serious.
 
My lips part and I gasp silently. He is seriously offering me a job. But, I know there is something more to it. I look at him expectantly.
 
"But," he starts again, "in return, you have to live here." I release the breath I didn't realize I was holding.
 
"It's a win-win situation for both of us," he adds.
 
How? How is it a win-win situation for both of us? What is in it for him?
 
"Think about it, I'll wait for the answer till dinner," Zach sighs and stands up. I look up at him with my eyes that are still very wide. He passes me a small smile, one that doesn't reach his eyes and that's when I realize how tired his eyes look.
 
He walks to the door and leaves. I fall back on the bed and sigh. Seriously, what's in it for him? After how I broke his heart, why does he still want me around?
 
A knock makes me snap out of my thoughts.
 
"Miss Sallow," a familiar voice calls out, "Can I come in?" Yes, I say. In my head, of course. I open the door for her. The maid comes inside and settles the huge tray in her hand onto the table.
 
"Mr. Kane asked to have your lunch delivered to your room. He wants you to finish everything."
 
I mentally groan at the sight of the amount of food on the tray. I could eat it for days. This guy. I smile at her politely.
 
The whole day passes in a blink. Not literally, but you get it. I end up walking around the mansion and surprisingly, there's a library, a gym and even a movie theatre.
 
I spend the day in the library and Lily, the maid, gives me company. I like spending time alone but she didn't want me to feel lonely so I let her be with me.
 
She, however, couldn't stop talking. She kept on saying how much she hated Scarlet and I was surprised when she said Scarlet wasn't Zach's girlfriend. She just wants to get into Zach's pants and become his girlfriend for the money and recognition, Lily told me. And as disgusting as it sounded, Zach thinks I left him for the same reasons.
 
And because Lily spent the whole day with me and I hadn't spoken a word, she found out I couldn't speak.
 
Zach on the other hand, still doesn't know I am mute and I wonder how he will react.
 
I decide to take a shower before dinner because I still felt dirty, even after the long shower I took in the morning. Living on the streets for a year does that.
 
I take my time to scrub myself clean. I am surprised to find the fruit scented shampoo that I used to love back when we were together, on the rack. I convinced myself that Zach hadn't remembered it and it was just a coincidence.
 
Once I was done, I come outside the bathroom with a towel wrapped around my body. I stand in front of the full length mirror and let the towel drop.
 
I sigh and look at myself. The scrawny girl looks back. The girl with grey eyes, small nose, full lips and quite prominent cheekbones looks back at me. But she looked so scrawny. I remembered how pretty I used to look in high school and compared to that, I look so bad.
 
So bad that it hurt.
 
To top it off, I had scars of all sizes scattered around my body. Thankfully, my arms and forearms didn't have any or I'd have hard time covering them.
 
My scrawny body looked really bad. I had full breasts but other than that, everything else was ugly. Utterly ugly.
 
A large scar runs down my back, starting from the nape of my neck to my tailbone. It is the worst of all, deep and still very dark. It will never fade away.
 
I let a hot tear roll down my cheek. What did I do to deserve this?
 
My heart stops beating when the door opens to reveal Zach.
 
"Dinner's -" he stops talking.
 
I look at him through the mirror and don't dare to turn around. My brain freezes and I don't do anything while Zach looks at my body. My very naked body that is filled with scars. His green eyes sweep from my head to my toes and I don't do anything, thanks to my petrified state.
 
A moment later, my brain starts working again. I hastily pick the towel from the floor and wrap it around my body with trembling hands.
 
Zach just saw me naked.
 
He saw all my scars.

Tears start streaming from my eyes and I desperately hope Zach won't question anything and instead act like he didn't see anything.
 
But, Zach does the opposite. He closes the door behind him and walks to me. He turns me towards him by my arm.
 
"What the fuck are those?" he grits out and my heart skips a beat when I see his angry green eyes that are so dark, they almost look black.
 
"Who. Did. It?"
 
I gulp and look at the floor.

Ooh, wonder what Zach is thinking right now