chapter sixteen

Chapter sixteen

"It is okay if you don't want to talk about it." Regan said gently as he looked up to the ceiling and drew circles on her shoulder. If she wasn't going to talk to him that night , then he would let it be, she was under his roof, sooner or later, she would come around but for now he was happy that he had protected her from Connor. She wasn't going anywhere. Not that he was going to let her. And even if she did, he would get her back no matter what it cost him.

"I'm sorry for my recent attitude toward you. I didn't mean to be rude to you. I was being childish and unreasonable when you were only trying to help." She applauded her brain for a very wonderful intro.

"I never held a grudge, Gennadios." He smiled. "I never heard you address me as 'sir' since you started working with me."

"The first time I saw you, I took you as a chef and I am still finding it hard to change perspective." She replied shyly.

Regan only hummed and waited for her to continue with what she had to say. After a while of silence she said, "I'm insecure."

"Of what?" he asked softly. He adjusted to face her, ready to hear whatever it was she was going to say about Connor.

"Myself. I feel like I am not worth it. Connor did despicable things to me…" She trailed off. Her eyelids lowered as she reminisced.

"What did he do, darling?" he cajoled.

She felt warmth course through her at how gentle he was being with her.

"The night before you saw me with the turtle neck, he tried to-" she almost choked on her words but there was no going back now, was there? "He tried to… to rape me. He hit me really hard but before I passed out, I saw him head out the door and when I opened my eyes I was at home. I asked my dad what happened but he said that some man brought me home but he didn't say anything about my bruises." She looked up at him to see his reaction. She suspected that he was behind her saving that night but would he keep it from her? "Do you have anything to do with it?"

"No." he dead-panned.

Then who?

"What else did he do?"

A frown came to settle on her forehead. The whole thing was complicated and she could not fit the whole picture into a single frame. Who had saved her that night and why was Regan so relaxed about it? Did he not care? "Why do you want to know?" she asked defensively. There was no point confiding in him if he was just going to take it literally lying down.

Regan's brow quirked up to her sudden change of mood, "What do you mean?"

"Why are you being nice to me? Why do you want to help me?" she scurried away from him and out of the bed.

He followed suit and rook tentative steps towards her. He understood that she was not going to trust him easily even though she had tried to open up a bit. "Elena-"

"Regan please leave. I don't want to talk anymore." She needed sometime to herself to think about everything that was going on. She didn't look back even when she heard the click of the door notifying her that he had left. A part of her wanted him to hold her and tell her that everything was going to be alright and on the other hand she didn't want more people to get involved in her mess. She laid back down on her bed and for the first time in a while, she cried.