Deirdre was caught in a daze for a moment, but she cleared her head soon enough. ‘Brendan’s tricks are growing cruller with time, and now he has learned to seek pity too?’She would feel sorry for him at this point if she was her past self, but she felt nothing other than hatred now. She said nonchalantly, “What does your well-being have anything to do with me? Go to the hospital if you’re unwell, Brendan. I’m not a doctor and can’t help you. If it’s inconvenient for you to send the phone to me, I’ll seek Mr. King’s help to get it from—”“I won’t hand it to him.” Brendan took a deep breath and concisely interrupted her. Deirdre was stunned and furrowed her eyebrows. “What are you doing, Brendan?”Brendan repeated himself by saying, “Come see me.”“No!” Deirdre roared aloud, her ghastly pale face flushed in anger.The customers in the convenience store looked over at her. She forced herself to calm down with great effort by clenching her fist tightly. Only then she found he
It would be inappropriate, indeed. In the end, Deirdre took the call, but her tone was icy cold. “What the h*ck do you want, Brendan? Are you only pleased after tormenting a person to madness?”Brendan chuckled bitterly. “I’m sick, Deirdre. I’m feeling very ill and have no one else with me. I just want to see you. Even if you don’t care about me, will you not fulfill this request of mine?”After exhaling a breath, Deirdre fell silent while Brendan said, “You can call me despicable or shameless, but I’ll return the phone to you if you come. Otherwise, not only will I destroy the phone, but I won’t agree to get a divorce either.”Upon saying that, Brendan gave her the hotel address and ended the call concisely. Deirdre suppressed the shakiness of her hand as she returned the phone to its spot. “What’s going on?” The storekeeper was extremely anxious. Deirdre shook her head. “It’s done. Please charge me for this call as well.”After leaving the store, her mind was blank.The
It was by no means serious, but external wounds were usually the most painful type of injuries anyone could suffer. Even a little brush on a gash could make one think a sharp, thin blade was peeling their skin. Brendan took a deep breath to calm himself before finishing the entire glass of water. Deirdre placed the glass back on the table.He took another gulp of breath before stating, “The phone’s in the drawer near the headboard.”Deirdre felt her way to the cabinet near the bed and pulled the drawer out. The phone was where he said it would be—a revelation that surprised her since she had not expected him to make it so easy.Then her surprise faded immediately into the same stony face she had reserved for him since the beginning. “Seems like there’s no more reason for me to be here. Goodbye.”She turned on her heels and started toward the door.“D-Deirdre.”His voice came out almost like a frail whisper. She stopped dead in her tracks but did not spare him a glance. Bren
“I had nothing to do with the abduction at all,” said Brendan. “But you won’t believe me if I say that, will you?”The mirthless self-mockery in his tone was so stark even Deirdre felt her heart droop. Doubt crawled into her chest like an invasion of ants—she clenched her hands into fists as a burst of desire to leave seized her.He was back at it again. Back to that idiotic, wounded, “woe is me” pretense. Would he ever quit!? If she stayed any longer, she might just fall for it and be scammed by that stupid innocent look he was making. “Excuse me.”With that, she marched out of the room. Deirdre helped herself with the help of the wall until she felt her chest finally relaxing and she could breathe again. She closed her eyes.She opened them as soon as she finally regained the strength to stand. Remembering where the elevator was, she headed in its direction. There were others inside, and they asked her where to go. She replied through her pale lips, “The ground floor, thanks.
“Girl, you have no idea!” said Glenna, unaware of anything amiss. She even laughed at Deirdre. “Come on. You can’t seriously not know anything about that, right? Okay, so here’s the gossip. Mr. King and Brendan are actually really close. They’re so close they won’t mind lending underwear to one another if the other needs it.“When Brendan got into this big trouble, Mr. King flew straight home from Germia without any warning that he shocked his own family!”Deirdre was stunned. “When was that?”Glenna made a production of counting on her fingers. “About… Huh, I don’t remember the details, but it’s got to be a year ago or something. Mr. King was trying to establish his footing in the Germian business scene, so he almost never returned.”As Glenna prattled on, the smile on Deirdre’s face died second by second. She interjected, “No, you must have gotten all that wrong, Glenna.”The young woman in question blinked in confusion. She broke out a smile. “Okay, why so serious all of a sudd
Deirdre released her grip, and Glenna rubbed on the sore spots. Too sheepish to look directly at Declan, she gave an awkward laugh and replied, “R-Right! We were… b-both too excited to show off our c-cooking skills.”Declan snickered. “God, what did I do to deserve having two attractive women dying to feed me good food? It’s not even my birthday yet!”Hearing Declan call her “attractive” caused Glenna’s brain to eject everything that had happened between herself and Deirdre just seconds ago. Sheepishly, she announced, “I’ll be in the kitchen!”She brought the bags to the kitchen while Deirdre stood still on her spot, unmoving. Declan considered her as he hung his coat and asked tentatively, “Miss McKinnon?”She raised her head, and he smiled. “What’s the matter? Didn’t you have a good rest last night? You’ve been wearing a long face since I got here.”“I didn’t have a good rest, yeah.” She took a deep breath and forced herself to calm down, but Glenna’s words haunted her like a sp
“I was about to go abroad then. At that time, I had decided never to come back, so I used that opportunity to tell him upfront. Told him it’s best we never talk to each other again.”“Then why did you come back? When you showed up when Brendan needed you the most!”“Miss McKinnon?” Declan was baffled by Deirdre’s accusatory snap. Frowning, he explained, “I came back for two reasons. One, I wanted to see my mother’s grave. Two, I changed my mind.”He exhaled a breath. “My mother’s death is connected to Cillian and his mother, Miss McKinnon. I was too young to protect her… I couldn’t save her from them. But now, I’m older. I have more means now. I came back because I wanted to start my business empire here and… avenge my mother.”Deirdre froze. She had not realized that the enmity between Declan and Cillian ran this deep. “I’m sorry, I didn’t…”“All’s good.” He flashed a smile. “I doggedly insist on hiding all of this history from people, so it’s only natural that you knew nothing o
The three of them started eating. Declan was ever the conversation starter while Deirdre gave her inputs, but Glenna was silent throughout. She was suspiciously focused on her fish and chips, except for the odd moments of her scanning Declan through the corner of her eyes. Then, before the man himself noticed, she would lower her head instantly. It happened enough times that the man finally found out. Setting his knife down, Declan asked, “What’s wrong, Glenna? You kept glancing at me. Something on my face?”Glenna sputtered. Strapped with any excuse, she replied, “It’s not your face! It’s, uh, your… hair? It’s, uh, interesting…”“Interesting?” Declan thought for a moment. This was the first time anyone had ever commented something like that about him. “How?”Glenna gripped the edge of her shirt tightly before finally coming up with an answer. “It makes you look, uh, retro.”Declan’s smile froze.Deirdre almost spat out her food.Glenna tried to salvage her answer. “No, I don’t