Her eyes lifted slowly to meet his. “Ernest,” she said quietly, her voice strained. “Do you not understand what knocking is for? You don’t just walk into someone’s room like that without their permission.”
He paused, caught off guard. Her cold tone made something shift inside him. “You’re right,” he said, softening. “That was thoughtless of me. Want me to try again?”
He started to step back.
“Don’t waste time pretending.” Elissa caught his sleeve, her voice tight with weariness. “Whatever you came to say—say it now. I’d like to shower and go to bed.”
The air between them grew heavier. Ernest felt the weight of it settle across his chest. So, she had heard it all—or at least enough to change something.
“Don’t shower here.” His voice was quiet but firm as he reached for the clothes in her hands. “I’m here to take you and Locke home. You can bathe there.”
Elissa froze. Her eyes bore into him, unreadable. What was he doing?
“Locke’s asleep already,” Ernest added. “Start packing. I’ll carry him down—”
“Ernest,” she said, her voice like glass on stone. “Stop. Just… stop.”
“Humph.” Elissa sank her teeth into her lower lip, fighting to contain the fury and humiliation surging through her veins, before releasing a laugh devoid of any warmth. “Do I appear to be some kind of fool in your eyes?”
Ernest’s brow creased as his typically gentle features hardened into an unreadable mask. “Absolutely not. That thought has never crossed my mind.”
“Then stop treating me like one!”
Elissa’s eyes narrowed to dangerous slits as flames of rage sparked to life within their depths. She demanded with razor-sharp precision, “Taking Locke and me back home? Exactly whose home would that be? The one you share with Linda?”
Ernest’s entire body went rigid with tension. His worst nightmare had materialized into devastating reality. Just as he feared, earlier that day she had gone back to the Flynn mansion and witnessed every damning detail with her own eyes and ears.
“Elissa…” Ernest moved closer, extending his hand toward her trembling form. “Please, just listen to what I have to say—”
“What exactly do you have to say?”
Elissa shook her head violently while backing away from his approach, determined to preserve the space between them. Despite her retreat, her gaze burned steady and unwavering as it locked with his.
Her voice quaked with barely controlled emotion as the words poured forth. “I witnessed everything! I saw you holding her in your arms, heard you promise to marry her!”
“Elissa…”
“Are you going to stand there and deny what happened? Did I fabricate this entire scenario? Give me an answer!”
Normally, she possessed complete mastery over her emotions and reactions, but this betrayal had shattered every barrier she’d carefully constructed. She fixed Ernest with a withering stare as her eyes blazed crimson, her entire frame shaking violently while her teeth chattered from the force of her rage. The words erupted from her throat in an uncontrolled roar. “Ernest! Answer me right now!”
“Yes, it’s true.” Cornered with nowhere to retreat, Ernest managed a reluctant nod. “But…”
.
.
.