Chapter 13: Mistake

Her heart started racing, every breath filled with his alluring scent, totally consuming her.

Just when she began to think her heart would burst out of her chest, he straightened himself and moved some distance from her.

Her dazed eyes followed his every movement, she came to a realization once more that his looks could drive women crazy.

The most enthralling thing was the slightest dip on his left cheek, a captivating dimple that showed on his left cheek when he made the slightest motion of smiling.

She noticed him pouring more of that brown liquid into the glass he took from her, refilling it.

“Tristan.” Turning to her, he offered her the drink.

“My name is Tristan.” He said again making her realize he was introducing himself. For some reason he seemed to keep his last name a mystery, but it wasn’t what mattered to her most in this moment.

Still lost in a daze she reached her hand to take the glass from him and it caused her hand to brush against his own since she wasn’t paying attention, it cause that fiery rush of heat to surge through her again, the same heat that had blasted through her when he held her chin just a while ago.

She shivered and quickly pulled her hand away.

“May I…may I use your bathroom?” She asked, quickly stepping backwards as if she had been scorched.

Truth was, something about him did indeed scorch her, but it was a strange internal fire roaring from deep inside her, a kind of fire she hadn’t felt towards anyone else before.

“Sure, this way.” He said, pointing her to the right direction.

“Thank you.” She dashed away as fast as she could yet making sure not to make it too obvious that she was running away.

She found the bathroom door at the corner he pointed her to, and she pushed open the door, entered and shut the door behind her then stood with her back rested against the bathroom door.

Freedom…?

He said she needed freedom.

Lately she had been feeling constricted, since he said that word to her, everything rushed into her, she had been forcing and pushing herself to fulfill other people’s will for her life, people who didn’t stop to ask her if this was what she truly wanted.

The constrictions in her life were Ian and her family.

Family? Could she even still call them that?

One thing was sure, that man… Tristan, had been right. She did need freedom, though she was the only one who knew what she needed to be free from, she was the only one who could be brave enough to fight for herself.

His words reverberated in her ears again like a mantra,

’…the moment you choose to stand up for yourself, you’ll find that freedom you desperately need.’

She remembered the moment she chose to run, the moment she had chosen to defy all thoughts and rationality and run from the altar.

His eyes, fiery hazel had been like an anchor quietly pushing her mentally.

He was just a stranger, yet his words resonated deep into her soul, his gaze gave her a quiet courage.

He had no reason to let her stay in his suite yet he did anyway, and it suddenly felt like he was protecting her from the crowd waiting to ruin her outside of this suite. Regardless of why he chose to help her, the one act of keeping her whereabouts secret made a flood of warmth rush to her heart and it began to race in her chest.

What was happening to her? He made her heart race again.

That night, even if she had decided to give herself to Ian, to attempt to seduce him in her own clumsy way she had felt no physical anticipation at all, rather it had been a strong sense of obligation that pushed her into making that decision. Having sex with her fiancee, it should have been a natural thing that should have filled her heart with eagerness but at the time, she’d had to forcefully convince herself that it was something she had to do.

It wasn’t a choice she had made of her own free will, it was a choice she felt she had to make, and deep in her heart, she hadn’t felt butterflies in anticipation at all.

Now that she thought about it, had she ever truly felt butterflies for Ian before? She thought she’d loved him, but he had never seemed to make her heart come alive.

Yet here she was with a man who was a mere stranger to her and in the span of less than a single evening, he had made her heart race, he had awakened a strange tingling sensation in her with just a single fleeting touch.

Letting out a sigh, Celine forced these thoughts out of her head and headed to the mirror welcomed by the reflection of her own perfectly made up face staring back at her.

In the past, being an actress had been her dream. It was something she had always desired from the bottom of her heart, but after getting it, she had forgotten the simplest things that elicited her love for the profession in the first place. It had led her to be trapped in the biggest mistake of her life, and that mistake was none other than Ian Rode.

All her life, she would think that the day she became a famous actress, her father would look at her with pride. She became famous and he smiled upon her, but it wasn’t a smile that showed the pride she always wanted to see, it was a smile that showed greed. She became another open door of opportunities that could be exploited.

Celine had allowed herself be exploited, she had allowed it to happen because she thought his love for her would show someday if she was everything he wanted and more.

She gave millions in funding to his company, gave in to every demand incredibly easily, she was the quiet punching bag who gave, and gave and gave all because she was desperate to be loved.

In the end, her father showed his true colors by forcing her to walk down the aisle and marry Ian Rode even after knowing he betrayed her.

Celine laughed bitterly at herself, the bitterness pouring down her face as painful tears. Her laughter slowly became heart wrenching sobs. She could not stop the tears flooding down her face as if a dam had broken, the sound of her sobbing so painfully sad to the ears.

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