Chapter 8

Chapter 8: This is It

Elena’s P.O.V:

The second his lips touched mine, all thoughts vanished and electricity poured into my veins.

One of Knight’s hands were fisted in my hair while the other was around my waist, molding me to his body. For an instant, I forgot everything around me. The only thing running through my mind as he parted my lips to put his tongue inside my mouth, was that this felt right. A sense of belonging washed over me, a sudden peacefulness that had been absent in my life for…for the past three months…

I wrenched myself back from the kiss and at the same time pushed him back with all the strength I had. It was only when I tasted the iron in my mouth that I noticed that I’d bitten his tongue hard enough to draw blood. Good. It was a very small price to pay for everything he did to me.

Knight stumbled back, his eyes wide as he looked at me as if he was still in a daze; the slight red tint on his lips proof that I had indeed been able to do some harm. I grit my teeth to bring my breath under control as I watched him closely, ready to move out of the way if he tried something funny again.

“What was that for?” He asked surprised, his breathing still a bit uneven.

I didn’t answer. How could he even ask that question! The arrogant son of a bitch!

But then he regained his composure and his frown turned into a smirk. “You know,” he said as he took a step towards me. “I’ve been watching that video a lot lately.”

Immediately, I felt my face paled. Why was he talking about that video? Why now? Didn’t he promise not to release it to the press? A million questions swirled in my head but I didn’t have the courage to ask them.

Knight took that as an invitation to prolong my torture. “You love with so much passion Elena, such fury. I’ve missed it the past few months. Nothing else seems to satisfy me any longer.”

This time, I swallowed my fear as put on an acidic smile on my face. “Why Knight Blaze Tyson,” I emphasized on his surname just to watch his brows frown. “Wasn’t Ava enough for you? You got her divorced, made her children fatherless and now when nothing’s standing between the two of you, you just leave her to bite the dust? Why, didn’t want the extra burden?”

“Don’t you dare blame that on me! And if you’ve forgotten already, you were the one who leaked those photos!” Knight came at me so fast with his hands raised that for an instant thought he was going to hit me, until his hands slapped the wall on either side of my head, the noise making me wince.

“Ava dug her own grave,” he spat. “The only one responsible for her children’s condition is Ava herself! She should’ve thought of them before she slept with other men! ”

I winced at his tone but I also knew it was true. If Ava hadn’t wanted to get divorced then she shouldn’t have cheated. But why leave her in such a condition when he’s also just as responsible for it? Was this what he’d do when he finds out about my baby too? But just as that thought passed my mind I felt my gut wrench in violent rebuke.

He’ll never know! I won’t subject my child to such hatred even before it’s born!

But before I could reply to him, a sudden sense of nausea hit me and I felt bile rise up my throat. Pushing past Knight, I ran to the other side of the room where a small washroom was located and gushing into it, threw up in the toilet. A short while later, I felt hands on my shoulder as Knight brushed the hair away from my face while I wrenched my guts out.

After I’d thrown up my lunch, I closed the toilet seat and leaned my head against the wall opposite to it. Right now, I didn’t care about hygiene in the least; I was fucking tired of throwing up all the time!

I felt a wet cloth being dabbed on my face, wiping away the perspiration from my forehead, but as much as it was comforting, I shook my head at Knight, too tired to argue with him. “You’re wiping my makeup.”

“Elena,” he warned, moving my hand out of the way so he could dab the cloth on my neck. “You’re sick, let me help you. Did you eat anything stale?”

Laughter bubbled out of me at his words, but even in my breathless state, I remembered not to reveal my condition to him. “Why do you care all of a sudden?” I asked instead.

“I-“There was a knock at the door before he could reply.

“Ms. Thunder, you’re needed out there in ten,” a male voice said from outside the door.

“I’ll be out in a minute!” I told him, as loud as my voice could go.

“Are you crazy?” Knight whisper yelled at me as we heard the footsteps retreating. “You just threw up, how can you walk on the ramp after that?”

“I’ll be fine,” I pushed off the wall I was leaning against and with knight’s help, got to my feet and splashed some water on my face from the sink.

Then I went to my vanity, the first thing I did was to take a long drink from the electrolyte water and almost immediately it helped ease my nerves. I realized that the water and medicines won’t immediately start working since this was my first time taking them, but I’ll need to take them every day so that my health improves. I then wiped all the water off my face and neck with a clean towel and then reapplied my makeup. Thankfully, the mascara and eye liner I’d used had been waterproof so there were no black spots on my face. Knight sat on a chair next to me and watched me with intense eyes as I got ready.

When I got up from my seat, Knight immediately came to my side. But this time, I pushed him away.

“Knight, for whatever sick reason you want to be close to me, don’t.” I turned to look directly into his eyes. “I don’t want to play these games with you. And besides, you slept with me to get back at me because you think I took those photos and leaked them?” I shook my head. “I seriously can’t believe how someone can be s dumb.”

“Elai-“

“No!” I snapped at him. “You’ve said enough! It’s my time to speak now and you’ll listen. Out of hundreds of people that attended that fashion show, which included more than fifty reporters, you decided to have sex in a place that was accessible to everyone, including the media who can so easily sneak around to get cover stories? And then you blame me for leaking those photos even though you never saw me taking those pictures. You keep telling me you saw me, but you never told me if you saw me taking those pictures! Then what was that revenge for? Why did you make that tape even though you never had any proof of the fact that it really was me who’d taken those photos!”

Knight stayed silent for a long time. It was clear from his face that he hadn’t taken anything into account when he’d placed the blame on me. My heart felt like they were being squeezed by icy fingers. Did he really just act on impulse without trying to know the truth?

“I had checked the surveillance tape.” He said after a long while, his voice quite in a way that said he had come to a different conclusion. “The only people who had gone to that place were me, Ava and you. I’d checked three hours before and after the incident, but there was no one there. That means someone had to place that camera in there well over three hours ago…”

The ice eased a little, but it still didn’t give me any real comfort. The damage was done and I’ll be the one to deal with it now. It’s true that I love my baby, no matter how much I’d been in turmoil about it from the instant I found out, I still loved the baby. But that doesn’t mean that I had wanted to get pregnant at this early and especially since I didn’t create this child out of love. My baby was unplanned and I’m not yet mentally ready for it.

I took a step back from Knight and his eyes immediately went to me. “Wait,” he moved forward to come face to face with me. “I’ll stay close by. I need to make sure you’re safe.”

“Fine.” I agreed, because right now, I didn’t trust myself not to get sick again. “But this is it Knight. You don’t come after me ever again and you’ll destroy that tape. That’s the least you could do for acting the way you did.”

Knight’s eyes flashed with an unknown emotion as he looked into my eyes, but he didn’t argue anymore. Finally, he nodded his head and we exited the room together.

Knight didn’t let me out of his sight for the rest of the night. Wherever I went, whether walking down the runway or talking to some of the students who wanted makeup advice, I’d always find him lurking around nearby. And sometimes when nobody else was looking, he would stand close to me or rub his hands down my spine and it would suddenly settle the baby enough that I wouldn’t feel nauseous for a long while.

I knew that after the conversation we had today, Knight wouldn’t bother me again. This was it. This is the closure I wanted. But then, why does that icy fist around my heart seem to tighten even further instead of loosening?