Chapter 2: Chapter 2

“What the fuck is going on here?!”

A thunderous and ferocious voice broke the silence in the whole house.

“Nick! What are you doing here?” Asked a panicked Kate.

She quickly pulled her clothes to cover her almost naked body and sprung up from the sofa where she and Andrew, her boyfriend, were making out. Andrew, on the other hand, ran out of the house like his butt was on fire.

“That asshole!” Kate murmured. Then she turned to face a still furious, devilishly looking stepbrother, Nicholas Eudovic.

“How many times have you done this without me knowing?” Nick asked in a dangerously low voice, opposite to how he roared when Andrew was still around.

“What are you doing here?” Kate frowned at him.

“What the stupid question is that? This is my home,” Nick gazed at her with squinted eyes.

Kate looked down defeatedly. She cannot look him in the eye the way he can look at her. She is just scared her eyes would betray her and reveal her hidden emotions to him.

“How many boys have you brought here to make out with or… God damn it! Are you making this your free motel?!” Nicholas was enraged even just by the thought of Kate having sex with anyone in their own home.

His late father wanted to adopt her legally, but Kate declined the idea again and again. To put it correctly, she is not a family to the Eudovic. She is an outsider. But she dares to make out or to have sex in the comfort of their home? Of Nick’s home?! He felt his blood boils in anger.

“No. No, I swear. This was the first time,” Kate hurriedly answered.

She knew she was just an outsider here because she disagreed with being legally adopted and carried the same last name as her mom’s husband, Elijah Eudovic. But she has more reasons than what she can verbally express. Yet, the old man did not agree with her to live separately with her mom. They were not father and daughter on papers, but Elijah loved Kate as his own daughter. He did not have one of his own. His late wife, Ida, died too early for Nicholas to have a sibling in a car accident. She was a victim of drink and drive case. Ida died on the way to the hospital after being carefully and painstakingly taken out of her crashed car after sending her son to the playschool in the middle of the day. Elijah raised their only son, Nicholas, in the loving memory of his late wife.

He became mom and dad to Nick all his youthful days that he did not want to look at any other woman until he met Kelly Taylor. A private nurse. And a victim of rape, coming home from work after a late-night end shift duty. She was found almost half-dead the next day in an alley by a motorist as she tried to fight her attacker with all her might. She was beaten till she lost her consciousness and ravaged like a poor lamb against a wild beast. The attacker was annoyed at her fighting back that she was fed with unidentified drugs and was sent to the hospital and in a coma state for more than a month. She woke up to the news that she was pregnant. Kelly wanted to die. She felt so bitter and devastated to the rock bottom that being raped did not seem to be enough for her bad luck. That incident gave her a lifetime responsibility as well. She did not want to keep the baby, but she could not go on with her plan to abort it. Her conscience was eating her. She even gets nightmares about a baby crying and asking why did her mom kill her.

In the end, Kelly decided to keep the baby. She gave birth to an angelic, beautiful baby girl who became her source of strength. The baby became her inspiration to give it the best that she could and raise her baby well. Like Elijah, Kelly did not find it in her heart to look around for another man to be in her life. She had trauma, incurable trauma about sex. Elijah liked her company as she became his private nurse when Elijah was diagnosed with colon cancer.

They shared their life stories, and Elijah felt his heart throbbing to express his love, which started from pity but grew deeper as he got to know her better, even without sex involved. Their lives had been miserable that he wished to lift her up even in her later years in life. Kelly was only forty years old, but her illness was no longer curable. He tried to help her by inviting therapists to assist her in overcoming her trauma. It was not for himself that Elijah wanted Kelly to recover. He was old. He and his late wife were also a decade age gap that Nick was born in Elijah’s forties while his wife was only in her late twenties.

Kelly has already created a very impenetrable shield against men sexually. She can help and assist any gender on duty but being sensual was like an unknown feeling or even word for Kelly. Elijah was not after any sexual relationship with Kelly. Still, he wanted to help her overcome things by showing her his honest and sincerest affections, requited or not, Elijah did not mind. He was happy that she was receptive to his affections. He believed it could be a minor step towards her recovery. Loved started to bloom between them, Kelly was able to accept him little by little, but before they could reach the peak of her recovery, Elijah’s condition worsened. Kelly felt devastated when Elijah passed away. She blamed herself for not being able to recover too soon and expressed her love for her husband, Elijah, the only man who was able to break the walls she had built through the years against the opposite sex. Kelly feared for Kate, as the mother, she is worried her daughter will have the same traumatic experience. So Kate is not allowed to have a boyfriend until she is of legal age. That was a rule Kelly firmly declared between the mother and daughter.

“I’m so sorry. It won’t happen again, I promise. Please don’t tell my mom,” Kate begged.

She was so confident that nobody was home, so she agreed when her boyfriend Andrew asked if he could come over and spend some time with her. She did not think about doing it with him when she agreed to let him come over, but he started teasing and touching her. She resisted at first, but she got carried away. Andrew seemed to know where and what to touch to make her agree. Andrew was enjoying squeezing her fleshy boobs with one hand while the other was slowly moving down to her abdomen as he was sitting behind Kate when Nick’s voice startled them. Her mom, Kelly, went to the spa for a whole body and face massage, which Kate used to go along with, but she declined today as she has a lot of homework and research to be done. Andrew was supposed to help her, but he wanted to grab the chance of being alone with Kate that he insisted they make out first before they do their homework and research. Kate was totally unaware of Nicholas deciding to drop by to get something from his dad’s study room. Elijah passed away a few months ago, and Nicholas is busy with his last year in college with a BMA course while also taking in the business his dad left for him to inherit. He has his own pad, which is convenient for him to move from school to the company every day, a reason why Kate did not expect him to witness her nasty moments with a guy.

“And why would I keep this a secret for you? What is it in there for me?” Nick asked sarcastically.

This girl, who dared to deny being an adopted daughter to the Eudovic family, is bold to do her shameful acts in the sacred walls of his ancestral home, is now asking him to keep what he saw a secret. Nick cannot decide if he should be impressed at how brave she is or if he should be annoyed at her audacity.