Chapter 10

The first thing Trinity noticed when she got back was that door had been left ajar. She tried remembering if she had absent mindedly left the door that way before leaving.

She thought of Rick, but he was always careful to lock the door. Hesitantly, she walked in to find an empty apartment and decided to lock the door herself before she went up to her room. Although there didn't seem to be any intruders in the house, she still couldn't shake off the uneasiness she felt. She felt a second presence inside the house and she was sure of it.

Just when she reached the door to her room, she saw the door to Daniel's room slightly opened across the passage. She got tempted to look in and peered in through the open space.

All she could see was his bed as the sunlight stole an entrance through the lifted curtains. Below on the floor, a red stain was smeared over the white plush carpet and Trinity backed up in concern. Quickly, her eyes scanned the place with each shaking breath she took.

Had someone really broken in, or had Melanie come to retrieve her things again? It wasn't quite possible since she didn't have a spare key.

Or did she?

The sound of shattering glass startled Trinity a little too suddenly, and she held her chest while suppressing the scream that almost rolled out of her mouth.

The noise had come from Daniel's room. She had to be careful, so she quickly and as silently as she could went to the foyer to make a phone call.

"Hello 911. What's your emergency?" The voice on the other end of the phone spoke calmly.

"Hello, there's an intruder in my house-"

"Trinity?" The familiar, husky voice shook Trinity and she immediately looked up to find Daniel staring at her.

She looked at the phone in her hand, the other person still trying to get her to respond to endless questions, and felt stupid instantly. She cut the call and cleared her throat.

"Wh-what are you doing here?" Was the only thing she could think of saying at the moment.

"This is my house, remember?" Daniel said, eyebrows raised.

He was wearing a white undershirt that was still tucked into his greyish suit pants. Trinity figured he only just arrived and she had interrupted his undressing.

"I heard a noise." Trinity said.

"Yeah that was me. A tiny accident." He shrugged. His eyes darted towards the picture ledge then. It was like he needed a minute to fathom the empty space that was once occupied by the picture of his former partner. He was at the center of the living room immediately, so fast, Trinity couldn't register when or how he had gotten there. His wide, dangerous eyes scanned the ledge until he was certain there was nothing on it.

He turned to look at Trinity, fists clenched, heated breaths.

"Where is it?" He asked calmly.

"Where's what?" Trinity asked him in return.

"Don't play dumb with me, Trinity Everton. I specifically told you not to touch anything." He said hoarsely, keeping her on guard.

"Where the fuck is Melanie's picture?" He growled, pointing towards the empty ledge.

"What the fuck is his problem?" Trinity thought with a petty grimace on her face.

"She took it." She answered with an annoyed shrug.

"Who took it?"

"Melanie! Who do you think?" Trinity retorted. She still couldn't believe he was that angry over something so inanimate. Melanie Graham was long gone, and now Trinity was in her place. He needed to deal with it.

"What?"

"Yeah, she came over." Trinity tucked the strands of her hair behind her ear and folded her arms like a little girl who just got offended by the third grade bully. "I was going to tell you but….." She let him fill out her sentence himself. "I told her you weren't around but she said she just needed to grab a few of her things."

Daniel's eyes were squinted to splits. He looked at her as if he didn't believe her, then a muscle worked in his jaw before he turned around to leave.

Trinity rolled her eyes as she watched him go back to his unfinished business.

"So much for apologies," she thought, a lump growing in her throat as her eyes watered.

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The two of them spent the rest of the day avoiding each other. Trinity stayed locked in inside her room and ordered Chinese while Daniel paced back and forth making several business calls within and out of the state. For all he knew, he hadn't done anything wrong by setting boundaries and for all she cared, he could go fuck himself.

Trinity couldn't stop thinking about it even though she had really tried to.

She understood the terms stated in the contract which made it clear that their union was solely based on a business alliance, but since both individuals were free from marital duties, she wondered why he didn't just get back together with Melanie since he clearly still loved her?

She knew she shouldn't care or pry into it, yet she couldn't help but feel their reunion would speed up their divorce which was what they both wanted and what everyone else expected.

She cursed herself for it, but she eagerly searched up Melanie Graham on social media and decided to send a follow request which, to Trinity's surprise, didn't take long before it got accepted.

She typed in a "Hello, it's me again, Trinity," and sent it.

In less than a minute, three typing dots appeared on her screen, indicating that Melanie was typing a response to her message.

"Hello," Was all what had taken Melanie an eternity to send.

"I think we got off on the wrong foot. Let's talk over lunch sometime."

Melanie didn't respond this time, and Trinity voiced out her frustration as she let out a groan into her pillows.

If it all went like she hoped it would go, at least she would get a thank you from Daniel. It would be the only nice thing he'd say to her and as long as it benefitted her, she didn't mind.