Chapter 120: Chapter 120

When Camille ended the call, she leaned back against the bench, feeling the energy drain out of her.

Now, all pretenses were gone. She closed her eyes and allowed herself a moment of peace, feeling the sensation of the evening breeze against her exposed skin.

It was a cold night, but she didn’t really mind. The day’s events had taken a lot out of her, and she preferred to cool off rather than simmer in the heat of anger any longer.

She could act strong, independent, and reliable in front of her brothers like the big sister that she was supposed to be, but once she was alone with nobody to display that mask to, she was a wreck. A mess of emotions. Someone who had developed a limit that grew shorter and shorter through time.

Now, she was a woman who could barely control her anger and frustration, completely unlike the calm teenager she used to be. With these negative emotions making her mood fluctuate often, it made her feel like a shadow of who she once was.

‘Since when have I become this kind of person?’ she couldn’t help but wonder. ‘I can’t even remember the last time I laughed so genuinely, not having a care in the world…’

Ah, right. There had been moments like that back then, when she wasn’t as tense and angry as she was now.

Camille let out a long suffering sigh and opened her eyes, glancing down at her watch. It wasn’t that late, so she could still choose to stay here for a while. She didn’t exactly look forward to going home in that oppressive house where Christian also lived in.

She wasn’t even sure if she could stomach seeing him again, especially the next morning. She felt dirty all over, and she had this overwhelming urge to take a bath and scrub her skin until it turned red.

It was just a kiss, but it was a forceful one, which made her feel violated all the same.

He technically didn’t do anything too drastic — thank goodness for that — but the action was still invasive and repulsive. All the other women that he dated probably wouldn’t mind those actions of his. In fact, they might have even welcomed it.

But it was a different issue for Camille. Unlike all those other women, she did not desire Christian in any way, and she also hated being forced against her will.

In this rare moment of peace, Camille thought about it briefly.

‘Do I really not desire him at all?’

One thing was for sure. She held no romantic feelings for him.

Thinking back to the times when she was close to him — literally, in a physical sense — she never felt any semblance of desire or sexual attraction towards him at all.

Of course, there was some aesthetic attraction, she couldn’t deny that. It couldn’t be helped since Christian was, after all, a handsome man. There was a reason why most women were captivated by him at first sight. His aura was just that magnetic.

However, being handsome did not automatically give him the right to do whatever he wanted. There were things in this world like ‘respect’ and ‘boundaries’ that Christian Callahan needed to acknowledge and accept, as what any decent person would.

But he was clearly not that kind of man.

‘Bastard’s probably not feeling even the least bit sorry for what he did,’ she thought to herself bitterly.

Just then, her phone suddenly buzzed in her pocket.

‘Huh?’

Confused, Camille pulled it out and held it before her eyes. It couldn’t be Ben again, right?

Unless it was an emergency…

Feeling a frisson of alarm at the possibility, she quickly turned on the screen and read the new message.

‘Vanilla,’ Michael’s text read. ‘Are you free right now?’

Seeing Michael’s name on the sender part made Camille freeze for a moment.

What in the world?

Why was he suddenly messaging her like this?

‘What’s wrong, Noah?’ she immediately texted back. ‘Did something happen?’

She could feel a trickle of panic inserting straight into her veins. At that moment, Camille remembered that Christian had brought up Michael’s name during their argument earlier, which made her think that something might have happened on Michael’s end.

But wasn’t it too early for Christian to make a move?

Or worse, did he already tell Michael about the kiss?

But why would he do that? She didn’t even resist him earlier, right?

Or did he do it because of her parting words before she left his office?

-

[“You’ve never been loved, so you can never truly love anyone.”]

-

That was what she had told him.

Maybe Christian thought of getting revenge on her because of it…?

‘Wait, what am I thinking right now?’ Camille scolded herself internally. ‘Why the hell would Michael care about a stupid kiss when he already knows that Christian and I are engaged to be married?’

‘Honestly, I’m becoming more ridiculous each day. I should really pull myself together!’

At that moment, Michael’s response to her message came, wrenching her out of her thoughts.

‘No, nothing happened. Why?’

Camille let out an audible sigh of relief.

‘Thank goodness, then,’ she told him. ‘I just thought that your text sounded a little weird.’

‘Weird? How?’

‘Nothing. Just a feeling.’

‘I see. Don’t worry, I’m fine.’

‘That’s good. But why did you suddenly text me and ask if I’m free?’

‘I just had a feeling.’

Camille blinked. ‘A feeling? What kind of feeling?’ she messaged back.

Michael’s response came just a little bit later than usual.

‘Don’t laugh, but I’ve just been having a strange feeling since earlier. Call it paranoia or an overt concern, but I kind of feel like you need someone right now.’

Camille’s eyes widened slightly.

Sure, it was a random guess, and if it were any other normal day, she would’ve just chuckled it away and indeed called him paranoid.

But still…

How did he know?

How did he know that she really did need someone by her side right now?

The thought of it made her want to laugh a little. What a keen intuition. Still, it had to be a coincidence. An uncanny one, to be exact.

‘So I was wondering if you were free tonight,’ Michael continued his texts. ‘Would you like to have dinner together with me? Don’t worry, I won’t be coming in a suit this time.’