He’s wearing a black suit and a sky blue shirt inside with a black tie. His hair is black, parted at the side to give his face a defined look, although there’s a thick shade covering his face. The morning sun comes up to shine on his face and illuminates his whole appearance.

She will not say she’s surprised to see him because that would be a complete lie. She’d always known he’s been following her. It was also obvious he was the one. The Ferrari he’s in is usually not spotted around this area she was in looking for a house as it looked too classy to be around the rural settlement. She feels infuriated though, at how far he’s willing to go just to see another human being suffer misfortune and pain.

If she didn’t know better, she would say he found pleasure in watching her suffer and be miserable, and this is someone with many humanitarian awards.

“I hope you’re happy and satisfied now,” she says, glaring at him.

He removes the shade he’s been wearing from his face, revealing his green eyes. “I’d like to say yes, but that won’t be completely true because besides satisfaction there’s curiosity.” He opens the door and steps out of the car before closing it.

‘Curiosity,’ Neriah echoes in her head and scoffs in disbelief, but says nothing.

He stuffs his hands into his pocket, “Your present house is in the city, so I’m wondering if Shawn knows about your plans of moving to a place that makes contact between the both of you impossible.”

She grits her teeth and her nostrils flare up and fury, “It’s none of business, whatever happens, is between Shawn and me, not you.”

He waves his finger in the negative sign on her face. “But it is. It became my business the day you, not knowing the first thing about me, called me names,” he tells her.

“Then I’m sorry for calling you name. If I could go back, I would have done things differently, but the deed is done and I don’t want this manipulation to continue. I am sorry,” she apologises, hoping to end this and put it into the past. His constant attacks and frustrations are already crushing her.

His brow rises in irritation, wondering if she thinks the little sorry will change a thing. “You think you’re going to say sorry and it will be good enough? You insulted me in front of a dozen of my employees and you think sorry is going to change that?”

She shakes her head and scoffs in disbelief. “This isn’t about an apology or name-calling. You are just looking for someone to lash out on.” A part of her warns her to tread carefully on the part she’s about to take with Cainan, but she ignores it as she feels he’s pushed her to the wall already. There is no way out but through him. “Clara dumped you and you can’t seem to get over her and it’s painful that she’s no longer yours and you look for the small, defenceless people who cross your path to make the insignificant life they have miserable. You can’t hurt Clara back by breaking your little heart, so you are going to break others just to make yourself feel good. You try to parade yourself as tough, but underneath is a brokenhearted, sad and lonely boy.” It’s as the last words roll out of her tongue that she realises the venom in them, but she knows she can’t take them back any longer. Even if she wants to.

Cainan grabs her by her arm and slams her against his car, his eyes red with fury and so much ruthlessness that causes panic to rise in her, but she tries to push it down and face it head-on strong.

His teeth clench as he stares down at her with menace, “You overheard the conversation I had with Clara and suddenly you think you know the first thing about me?!”

Her heart is racing, but there is no going back anymore, “I know enough, and I know it’s close to the truth and that is why you’re lashing out and responding this way now.”

He chuckles darkly, “You don’t know the mess you’re in, girl.”

“I’m not scared of you, Cainan Inferno. Now let me go!” She yells into his face and he lets her go and backs away from her.

She rubs her arms and glares at him before walking away from him. Her heart is pounding heavily against her chest and so is her head, but she tries to get away from him as fast as she can. As she does this, she hears a loud slam and figures it’s Cainan taking his anger out on something, so she doesn’t dare look back as she hurries away fast.

Rain drops from the sky and Neriah cusses under her breath if she’d saved herself the stress of picking a fight with him, maybe she would have seen a taxi that would take her back to get to the apartment and avoid getting drenched in the rain, but here she is. She picks up the pace to get to the closest shelter which isn’t so far from where she is, but it isn’t quick enough because her body shuts down before she can get a grip of herself and she feels the blood run down her nose and she grabs her handkerchief to wipe at it and that’s the last thing she remembers.

Cainan lets her go and runs a sharp hand through his hair, only to yank at it violently. He is boiling and ready to punch or kick something hard, but nothing seems close like his Ferrari, so he slams his fist against the side of the car and pain shoots to all parts of his body from his hand. He does it again and again until there is no more room for anger as all his attention comes down to his bleeding fist.  

He breathes down and unclenches his fist before holding on to it with the other. His hand is now covered in blood. He pulls out a handkerchief and wraps it around his now bleeding hand. The raindrops and he opens the door of his far to get in and he looks up at the annoying lady that just ruined his day.

  He watches her as she walks away at a fast pace, only to stop and search through her purse for something, and Cainan waits eagerly to see what it’ll be. Maybe an umbrella to cover her from the already drizzling rain, but her purse looks too small to contain any size of an umbrella and he knows the rain is probably going to soak her up, but he doesn’t feel the slightest pity for her. She deserves that and maybe even more.

He watches and waits to see what she wants to pull out, but he never does because she loses her balance in the next moment and collapses, hitting hard on the sidewalk not so far off.

**

When Neriah opens her eyes again, she sees herself on a bed in a large room, but she knows it’s not a hospital because she’s been there many times and has no one been this big nor its bed this large. Her eyes travel around the room and they spot someone with long brown hair reaching her shoulders, in a grey shirt and black trousers.

Neriah sits up immediately and gets up from the bed when the strange lady turns around and sees her. Her brown eyes immediately show disapproval of Neriah’s action, but she’s careful not to let it get to the extreme.

She takes a few steps toward Neriah, and this sends Neriah completely running off the bed.

“Don’t do that,” she adjoins with a thick British accent, raising her hand in surrender.

There’s a fear in Neriah that she doesn’t let it appear on her face. “Where am I? Who are you? What happened?”

“You came in here unconscious. I just did some test to know what’s wrong, the result will come in soon.” She answers, her hands still held up in surrender.

“Who brought me in?” She asks, still trying to recall the last few things she can remember, which are blurry and not enough.

“I go-got to go,” she says when the Lady hesitates in answering and she knows she’s not ready for lies.

She sees the door and walks towards it when the woman speaks, “Mr Cainan brought you here, but he made me promise to not say a word.”

Anger grows within her, “All the more reason I need to leave.”

“Please—” she begins, her blue eyes weary, but Neriah doesn’t let her say any more.

“I’m sorry, but I don’t know the side of Cainan that you know, but I know the bad side. He’s made my life a living hell these past three months. I’ve known him and I’ll be damn if I let all this fool me.” She sees her purse on the table close to the mystery woman.

“I don’t know the side of him you know or the part you want me to know, but he brought you here to help.”

She walks to the table and takes her purse. “Well, you can say that when I’m dead and gone,” and with that, she walks over to the door before leaving.

Throughout the day, she ponders upon what the result the mystery woman was expecting from the lab is. She wonders what they might find out and what Cainan now knows about her health.

Just when she thought things couldn’t get any worse, they did.

After hours of thought, she comes out with the truth. If Cainan knows she’s dying, it’s only logical to come out and tell Shawn the truth, as he deserves that, at least from her.

‘Or you can run away a little voice in her says.’

She’s never known herself as a coward, and although she wants to tell him the truth, a part of her fears how he’s going to take it. He’s probably going to be angry, considering how long he’s been in the dark and maybe even furious that I only told him now because Cainan knows. She still can’t leave him hanging and wonders what he did wrong to make her take off without saying a word.

‘Leave him a letter, then run away. That way, he’ll know the truth and you won’t have to see him explode,’ the small voice suggests.

Seem better she agrees and looking at the time she knows she still has time to pack and leave him a letter so she goes to the other side of the room where the wardrobe is and brings out her bag and places it on the bed, she gathers her clothes and other things into it. She stuffs her shoes into the bag and closes it up.

After another thirty minutes of gathering her things together, she knows she is ready to go, and the only thing left is the note she needs to write. She sits down, picks up her notepad and her pen from the table and settles to write the letter when she hears a knock on her door. Her first instinct is to ignore it, which she immediately follows, but the knock comes again, this time louder than the last.

She gets up from the chair and walks to the door. “Who’s it?” She asks, but all she gets in return is silence. She wonders if the knock was actually from her door or her neighbour’s door, but as she turns to go back, the knock comes again. “Damn it! Who’s it?!” she snapped in frustration.

“I think you know who it is. Open up, Neriah.” comes Cainan’s response, causing Neriah’s heart to drop in her chest.

“I don’t want to talk to you.”

“Well sucks ‘cause I’m not leaving here until we talk and guess who will come back to see his girlfriend soon? You guessed right, it’s lover boy—”

Neriah opens the door, not letting him finish his mockery of her already terrible and complicated love life.

Although his voice had sounded like a mockery to Neriah’s ears, his face didn’t look like the one about to make a joke or tease her. “What do you want? Haven’t you done enough?!” she demands, not wanting to sound or come out as weak, which is how she’s feeling.

“Aren’t you going to let me in?” He asks, ignoring her questions.

She chuckles, “Because we are such good friends?”

“You’re right, I’m not and for that I’m sorry.” He apologises, and this is the first time Neriah has heard him apologise.

“You’re forgiven,” she replies, and she’s about to slam the door when he speaks up.

‘’The results came in.” this causes her to draw a sharp breath, but he continues, “I know you’re dying, Neriah. And this may sound cliché, but I want to help you.”