CHAPTER 139: PUSH FORWARD

The night when he kissed me, I felt like I had no reason to resist. My body naturally reacted to him, and I was once again reminded of just how attracted I was to Raphael. His kiss wasn’t forceful or demanding-it felt careful and almost reverent. The gentleness that he showed me surprised me to a certain extent. The way his hands framed my face before his thumb brushed against my lips made my heart flutter. I wanted to trust him with all my heart and just surrender everything that I was to him. That was how he made me feel all throughout the night as we made love.

We spent hours tangled together in a passionate embrace as we whispered words of love to each other, his lips kissing my skin in my most delicate of places while he held me in his arms. It made me feel like nothing else mattered but the love that we had for each other. Every time that I whispered words of love to him between our hot and sweaty lovemaking, I realized that I meant it with all my heart.

Raphael was honest when he said that he would show me his true self during this trip. I could finally understand his vulnerability and the problems that plagued him. Under all the cold and complicated façades, there was a man who was just as fragile and ordinary as they come. Despite his broken past and complicated present, this was Raphael, who was trying his best to cope with it all. I understood very well that just as I was worried about my mother, he must be extremely worried about his father.

I wanted nothing more than the trip to stretch out forever as if time wasn’t a finite resource for us. However, all the warmth and hope that I felt could never truly last. The next morning we both knew that we had to return to whatever reality was waiting for us.

"Follow me out when you are ready," Raphael said to me before heading towards the door.

"I won’t be long," I called out after him.

I just wanted to make sure that I didn’t forget anything at our accommodation before leaving. Suddenly my phone vibrated and drew my attention to it. I wanted to ignore everything, but the name that flashed on my screen notifying me of a message was one I couldn’t ignore. My fingers trembled as my heart began beating faster in my chest.

Rosabella.

I didn’t know what she wanted from me, and I wasn’t sure if I wanted to find out. However, by this time I knew that Rosabella wasn’t a figure I could simply ignore. With shaky hands, I clicked to open the message she had just sent me:

’Are you enjoying your little getaway with my dear Raphael? When are you going to tell your mother the truth about you two?’

My mind immediately started to spin as my breath caught in my chest. How did she find out? How did she know?

I quickly threw my mobile phone in my bag before heading for the door. I tried to compose myself before meeting Raphael, but my pulse was racing madly with every step that I took forward. Raphael was waiting in the car, and thankfully he did not notice that my face had completely drained of color. I forced myself to breathe and to smile as I tried to ignore the message that Rosabella had sent. I couldn’t tell him that Rosabella was back on my tail again-not now.

It didn’t feel like the time. I wanted to preserve the happiness that we felt on this trip even if it was just for a while longer until we returned back to the mansion. The weight of the secret that I kept weighed down heavily on me, and I knew that Rosabella was monitoring our every move.

It wouldn’t be long until she decided to break her silence, and then chaos would truly break out.

...

I had blissfully thought that the car ride back to the mansion would be peaceful or filled with idle small talk shared between Raphael and me. I couldn’t have been more wrong. As I sat in the passenger seat of the car thinking over and over about the message that Rosabella had sent, her text acted like a chain that wrapped around my chest and refused to let go. Her words burned in my head and refused to go away.

I kept sneaking glances at Raphael because I was scared that he would notice something was wrong. Instead, his expression looked calm and content as he focused on the road ahead. Thankfully he was blissfully unaware of the storm that had started raging inside of me. By the time that we reached the mansion, I was already a ball of nerves.

"Welcome back home! Where on Earth did you two disappear to?" my mother asked as she waved brightly at both of us.

"I guess we’re both stressed from all the work at the office. I decided to take Abigail on a little escape trip to unwind. Hopefully you didn’t mind," Raphael replied smoothly.

"Not at all. I hope that you two enjoyed yourselves. Come on in, you must be tired," my mother replied with a smile.

Unlike the night before where I spent such a delightful time in Raphael’s loving arms, that night I lay awake staring at the ceiling of my bedroom. I knew that Rosabella wanted nothing more than to remind me that my time was running out. I needed to find a way to tell my mother about the truth before she would beat me to it. I stared at the ceiling in the dark as I practiced in my head how I would tell my mother.

’Mom, there’s something that I need to tell you. You know, but he isn’t exactly who you think he is... and neither is Raphael...’