Chapter 33: Chapter 33

“Myra, are you all right?”

Hart’s six-feet tall figure towered over Myra as he watched her rub her eyes. They were still red and puffy from her tremendous tears earlier. He observed her hurriedly folding a slip of paper that she was holding into a small square and stuffed it under the tablecloth. Fortunately, Hart didn’t notice her hasty actions.

“What are you doing here, Hart? How did you know I’m here?”

Hart helped her into a comfortable position on the sofa. His lips moved, charming as he normally was, but thinking of how he was with Waley earlier just made her feel disturbed. He wasn’t the person she was waiting for.

Things were complex between him and Waley. He couldn’t explain it in such a short time, but he couldn’t afford to make her sad anymore. It was his promise to her he should have kept, yet Waley’s entrance into his life was so unexpected. It followed Jake’s threat to him and now; he wasn’t sure how to keep the relationship running.

Still, he didn’t want to see her so sad.

He knelt before her so suddenly that she let out a cry of surprise. He acknowledged how he had messed up big, even if he and Waley weren’t dating or having an actual relationship. Myra was still his girlfriend right now.

In the morning, he would have a lot of explaining to do to Waley.

“I tracked your phone,” he answered truthfully. Myra turned to face him with a blank expression on her face. Between Jake and Hart, in the end, it was Hart who had found his way to her.

“Hart, please tell me the truth. Are you cheating on me?”

He looked at the redness of her eyes, and his heart hurt even more from all the guilt. Even if he didn’t love her like how he did for Milla, they only had each other for the last two months. And truly, he had let her down with his infatuation for Waley because of how much she resembled Milla.

Both Myra and Waley, they weren’t Milla. He had to accept the truth.

Hart stared back at Myra, unable to say a word. He had already broken his promise to her by keeping secrets from her. He had a lot of them, which he couldn’t tell Myra about. It would just complicate things between them, while it was already complex right now.

Receiving no response from him, she rephrased her sentence.

“Hart, did you sleep with her? That woman you’re working for in a project?”

He firmly shook his head. But even if he hadn’t gone as far as doing the deed with her, he had more than once cheated on her emotionally. He and Waley shared a kiss at the park, in her apartment and in his car.

It was wrong. But he was getting more and more attached to Waley, especially when they had so much compatibility at work. Her smiles would drive him nuts, even if she was supposedly his partner at work.

That night, they hadn’t gone past their set boundaries. She had turned off the lights, but the next thing that happened was something hard had hit his head. When he woke up, someone had wound a large bandage over his head.

Waley apologised. She blurted she had ‘accidentally’ hit him with a table lamp when it slipped from her hands, but who in the world carried table lamps around and dropped them on people? For sure, it was some weird move from her. But he didn’t blame her weird antics and allowed her to nurse him for the next few days.

When Hart wanted to go look for Myra, Waley always had an excuse that she needed him to accompany her to places, meet her aunt with dementia and survey around for prospective clients and vendors for their collaborative project. Most of the time, she kept him from answering his calls from Myra or replying to her texts, using work as an excuse.

The woman indeed had a hold over him. But outside work, she was just as adorable and childish as Myra, but a bit more mature than her. This woman could lead an army of men to conquer a mountain, but needed a man. He found it rather surprising, but women were all unpredictable.

“Is that the truth? Do you have any feelings for her, Hart?

“If so, I can let you go…”

She looked so worn out that Hart only knelt lower and hugged her knees.

“I promise, I’ll take some time to explain to her. It was a mistake on my end. She looked so much like Milla, I lost my mind… I…”

She mustered all her strength to pull herself up in a straight sitting position, although she was as tired as ever. It drained her emotionally, and being five weeks pregnant didn’t make it any better. To his bewilderment, she placed a hand on his shoulder.

“I also have something to tell you, Hart. I… I’ve made my share of mistakes. But what I really need you to know and understand is something that is beyond my control.”

Hart’s eyes bulged listening to her statement. She didn’t explain further what her mistakes were, although it affected her negatively that she didn’t know who she was pregnant with now. The question impaled itself in her heart - should she keep it?

There was so much right now she couldn’t cope with.

She cleared her throat, trying to keep as calm as possible.

“My family made a promise to Jake’s family for me to be his bride when we grew up. I’m 21 now. His father now wants to bring forward the wedding.”

Myra didn’t stutter. In fact, her face remained blank. It was like a part of her already died and she had no feelings at all. She accepted her fate even if it wasn’t forced on her.

“And you’ve agreed?”

She stared into his eyes intensely. He was still kneeling that she had forgotten to tell him to stand up. Realising her blunder, she raised him to his feet with a simple hand gesture.

“I need the help from YX, as much as I can get. My father’s businesses are facing bankruptcy, and I cannot just stand there doing nothing. Please, Hart, I hope you can understand.”

He didn’t answer, but took her into a tight embrace.

Could he make it work? He asked himself. After how he seemed to have fallen out of love with her after Jake’s appearance, then Waley… and now, looking at her so tired and broken, he couldn’t back out of their relationship.

“Are there any options?” he queried.

She looked down at her feet. Hart lifted her chin, gazing into her eyes as he sought that spark of desire that was once theirs. It was just a matter of time. He had to be adamant enough to bring back their love. But first, how could he help her? He wasn’t a CEO like how Jake was, neither did he have enormous amounts of money. Even if he contacted his father, which he wasn’t happy to, what reasoning would his father lend him millions to aid Myra?

“I...I’ve decided on a political marriage. I won’t give up our relationship, Hart. I’ve erred, but Hart, believe me. I wasn’t in my right state of mind when I kissed Jake…”

Hart seemed relieved. If it was just a few kisses between her and Jake, there was nothing he had to worry about. He was more concerned about his relationship with Waley, and how he could bring himself to end it. This endless infatuation would not go well. They worked together. Even a fool knows not to have a relationship with someone from work. In the end, Waley had never said she wanted to be his girlfriend.

“I forgive you.”

As they embraced together in the secrecy of the old mansion, Hart questioned if he had done the right thing to choose Myra over Waley. He had to resolve things with her peacefully, even if he couldn’t find that love he once had for Myra when they were in Bali. It must be that the change of environment had also played a tremendous joke on them.

He wouldn’t regret his decisions. There was no time for regrets. Once, he had allowed Waley to seduce her way into him, but after seeing Myra this way and knowing her dilemma, he knew he had to choose her.

Hart resolved he could fall in love with her all over again with time. Even if he didn’t love her now, there would be a way for him to regain those feelings.

As Myra closed her eyes and lay in the warmth of his shoulder, Hart was sure he saw a dark figure lurking outside the window, watching over them. But when he looked again with his keen eyes, the figure appeared to have disappeared.