Chapter 6 V - Sophie

• I no longer understood anything, one minute everything was fine, we finally seemed to be understanding each other, and the next he was running away from me.
• I tried to turn around when he stopped and moved his fingers away from me, but I held myself back and didn't confront him. I didn't know what could have made Patrick leave me there in that library. I was facing away from him, and his mask still covered his face, there was no possibility for me to see him.
• I could still feel his fingers on my body, squeezing, massaging, and penetrating me. I rubbed my hand on my neck, feeling the heat rise just thinking about his lips there.
• I couldn't let him do that again, kiss me, touch me, igniting my whole body and then running away as if hell had come to earth.
• I marched out of there determined to make him give me at least an explanation for today's outburst, but as soon as I reached the main hallway, I collided with a wall, and strong hands held me to prevent me from falling.
• "Careful, Miss," John's voice sounded before he lifted me up. "Running like that, you might end up hurting yourself."
• "I told you to call me Sophie, not Miss."
• John was almost my age, he told me on the trip here that he's only twenty-five years old, he had no reason to call me Miss, not to mention how much I hated being called that way.
• "If the boss hears me calling you Miss, he'll kill me," he said with a little smile that didn't allow me to tell if it was a joke or the truth. "He got angry when I said how beautiful you are and explicitly said that I would lose my teeth if I spoke like that again."
• "He didn't say that," I murmured incredulous that the same man who threw in my face that I was only there to have his children every chance he got would care to hear another man compliment me.
• "Why would I lie about that? And to be safe, I better take my hands off you too," he replied, seeming more serious, he let go of my arms and took a step back.
• I no longer understood anything, why would the man run away from me like that and act like a jealous husband towards others?
• "What's going on here?" Holly appeared, catching us by surprise.
• "I'm trying to tell Miss Carter how jealous the boss is and that I should keep my distance," he raised his hands as if to prove that he was far away from me. But Miss Carter was much smarter than him and slapped his arm. "Ouch, what did I do now?"
• "What you didn't do, get out of here and let me talk to Sophie alone," the man wasted no time, despite his size, Holly scared anyone. "Now come here, dear, tell me what happened that you have that confused look on your face?"
• I let myself be guided to the kitchen, and the smell of food finally opened my appetite, my stomach growl must have been so loud that even she heard it because the old lady stepped back and started preparing a plate for me.
• "What happened to Patrick?" I blurted out the question, not the main reason for my expression of confusion, but it would lead me to my objective. "Why does he hide in this house and wear that mask? I know it was an accident, but how? How did it happen?"
• Holly returned with a plate full of lasagna that made my mouth water just by looking at it.
• "That story is not mine to tell you, at the right time I'm sure Patrick will tell you everything you want to know," she replied with a patience that made me envious, even her expression was calm, when all I wanted to do was scream at him.
• "And until then, what do I do? Do I swallow his attacks, pretend he doesn't exist, overlook every time he kisses me and runs away?" I knew I shouldn't be talking to her about this, for Holly he was great, but I had no one else to confide in there.
• "Sometimes? He kissed you again?"
• I awkwardly bit my lip, her excitement told me that it was probably a miracle they didn't expect so soon.
• "He went to the library and we..." How could I tell her what we did? "We didn't kiss, he didn't want to take off the mask, but he touched me and..."
• "Okay, I get it, girl. I may be old, but I'm not a prude," she waved her hand as if to say it was nonsense, but my blushing face must have told her it wasn't nonsense to me. "Oh dear, you've never... you're a virgin, Sophie?"
• I wanted to be buried right now, or at least go back in time to this morning and erase everything I've done since I woke up.
• "Yes, I am, but that's not the point. He started... and then ran away from me."
• In my head, I was much more resolved about this sex thing than I am now talking to a woman I met yesterday. I was ashamed of myself in this moment, but that wasn't the focus there.
• The only person I talked to about sex was Rosa, she insisted that I needed instruction in this matter, but that was when I was fifteen. And I never really had the chance to date living in that madhouse of a house, the only boys I had ever kissed were from school and those kisses were nowhere near as intense as Patrick's.
• "My daughter, Patrick is a long and winding path that can lead you to paradise, but for that, you have to go through all the difficulties," I furrowed my brow, wanting her to give me something more than riddles about things I already knew. "He suffered a lot in his first marriage, and that made him have trust issues with people. With the accident, it got even worse, and that's why he lives here."
• "He was married before? What happened to his wife? Did they have children? How long did the marriage last?"
• "Calm down!" she shouted, stopping the flood of questions I had on the tip of my tongue. "That's all I can tell you."
• "But how does that help me understand why he runs away from me?"
• - "You'll have to find out directly from him," she said. There goes my hope, I thought. "But if you want a way to your husband's heart, think about this: he didn't have a good marriage, he doesn't trust easily, and he thinks you're only here for the money. Patrick sees no reason to trust you, so give it to him, bridge the gap between you two, and you'll see how everything will become easier."
• I smiled, thinking about how much she and Rosa resembled each other. My heart ached with longing as I thought about her and how she should be in that house. Unable to contain myself, I threw my arms around Holly, hugging her tightly, trying to feel a spark of human warmth amidst all that coldness.
• "Thank you, Holly. I'll start doing that now," I said as I stood up and grabbed a plate, just as I saw her do with mine. "You tell me how he likes it, and I'll prepare and bring it to him."
• Patrick had gone to the library to call me for lunch together, so now it was my turn to do the same.
• Holly pointed me towards the office door where he would be, and I went straight there. But before I could even knock, the door was slightly ajar, and raised voices could be heard from the hallway.
• "What were you thinking, father?"
• "About your well-being! Something you haven't been doing lately," I put my head in the crack, searching for Mr. James, but all I saw was Patrick facing the window. "Did you really think we would be searching for trivial details like that?"
• "Trivial? I asked for a woman to have my children, since you can't get that out of your heads. A woman who would know her role in this whole farce!" he shouted and turned to the phone on the desk. "But instead, you sent me a girl who knows nothing about life, who's romantic and, on top of that, a virgin. What am I supposed to do with that?"
• My legs trembled, and I almost dropped our plates when I heard that. So he already knew I was a virgin, just a touch was enough for him to know, and that's why he ran like a madman, fleeing from my inexperience.
• And if that wasn't enough, now he was telling his father, what humiliation. My face burned, but this time it wasn't desire, it was pure shame.
• "He must be doing it already since he knows she's a virgin!"
• "Don't test me, father! I'm doing this for you because I would never give my last name to another woman," he scoffed, and I heard the sound of something breaking. "She's not fit for this, she's innocent and a virgin, she'll have romantic ideas about this marriage, she'll make plans for us..."
• "And that's what she should do!" I recognized Audrey's voice immediately and bit my lip to hold back my anger as I shrunk in the hallway. "That's what wives do, and she's your wife, Patrick, whether you like it or not. You have to treat her as such!"
• "I refuse to touch her, the girl is ten years younger than me and probably still dreaming of Prince Charming," he said, his voice becoming ominously lower. "Do you really think I'm going to have children with a fool? You'd better find another one, preferably very promiscuous, or no grandchildren!"
• My chin trembled with tears and I held back from making any noise, letting the tears slide down my cheeks. I couldn't believe it was the same man who kissed me yesterday or touched me today. Patrick seemed like a monster, far from being a prince charming, he was a beast inside.
• I swallowed hard and lifted my head, leaving there. Once again, I was being rejected, cast aside, returned like a useless commodity, all because the damn man didn't want a virgin woman.
• My dream of having a better life away from my uncles was going down the drain. I needed to do something!