Chapter 24 #2
The next day I woke up early because I wanted to have breakfast with William before he left for his office.
Aurora usually slept until mid-morning, so if we left very early it was unlikely that we could have breakfast with her.
At that moment William was sleeping peacefully beside me, he seemed calm, but I suspected that everything about Lino had left him worried.
I remembered his words: “He plays hard, but I assure you that I’m going to play even harder,” and that worried me, but I wasn’t going to allow that wretched Lino to hurt him, even if I had to confront him like I never had before.
I could tolerate him belittling me, but not messing with my family, and William was my family, he and Aurora were the most important and precious things in my life.
With that thought, I gave him a soft kiss, got up and went into the bathroom to take a shower.
When I came out he was still sleeping, so I assumed he had fallen asleep much later than I had.
At that moment it was seven-thirty in the morning, so I decided to let him rest a little longer.
I headed to the kitchen and the aroma of freshly brewed coffee and toast made my stomach growl.
Delia already had everything prepared for our breakfast, but it occurred to me that I could bring it to him in bed.
“Good morning, Delia.”
“Good morning, doctor. How are you today?”
“Very well, thank you. I was thinking of surprising William with breakfast in bed. Would you mind if I put everything you prepared on a tray and take it to the bedroom?”
“How could I mind?! This is your home and you can do whatever you want. Besides, I love those romantic gestures. Come, let me help you.”
With everything arranged, I headed to the bedroom where William, sitting up in bed, was stretching and looking at me with a smile from ear to ear.
“Is all that for me?”
“These are all Delia’s preparations. I just thought we could have breakfast here. Does that sound good?” I said as I approached the bed.
“I wasn’t referring to what you’re carrying on the tray,” he said with a mischievous smile, looking me up and down.
“No?”
“Of course not.”
“You mean me?” I asked, placing the tray on the bed and sitting on the edge.
“Of course,” he repeated. “Come here.” He took me by the nape of my neck and brought my face to his to kiss me passionately.
When I pulled my face away, I looked at him but couldn’t say anything. I was completely dazed.
“Did I leave you speechless, doctor? It’s because I kiss wickedly well.”
“You’re arrogant,” I said when I recovered my speech, “but you do kiss wickedly well. Now let’s have breakfast before what Delia prepared gets cold.”
“Party pooper,” he said, laughing.
“It’s almost eight in the morning, Cavaller. You need to have breakfast and get ready for work.”
“I can go in later. The company is mine,” he said, shrugging his shoulders and completely forgetting his stance as a serious and responsible businessman.
“I have to be at the clinic by ten.”
“We can have breakfast and then... then I’ll explain,” he said, laughing.
And he made sure to explain to me in exquisite detail what he had in mind, and he did so while we were showering.
That day I had a rather long and tiring schedule. I started with appointments for my little patients at ten in the morning and finished at one in the afternoon. After that, I only had half an hour to eat something, and then I had pediatric duty until nine at night.
While having a light lunch, I was able to talk first with William and then with Aurora, because I knew that by the time I got home, it was unlikely I’d find Aurora still awake.
At that moment, I also took the opportunity to mentally review the gifts because the next day was Christmas Eve.
For Aurora, we had bought several games and the long-awaited Rapunzel costume.
William’s gift had given me a lot of trouble because he was a man who had everything, and I really didn’t know what to get him.
In the end, I had decided on a gold-nibbed fountain pen from a well-known luxury brand.
William had wanted to pick me up, but it was common for me to leave much later than scheduled when I had duty shifts. Besides, I had gone in my car, so I had asked him not to come and to take advantage of the time to stay with Aurora.
As I had anticipated, instead of leaving at nine in the evening, I ended up leaving after ten.
When I reached the parking lot, I got into my car and immediately my phone rang.
I grabbed my purse as quickly as I could because I assumed it was William.
He had called me several times earlier because he was worried about me since I had been working so many hours.
His care made me feel so protected and safe that I often wondered if I was in a dream and it was all just my imagination.
When I looked at the phone, I saw it was a number I didn’t have registered, and the first thing that came to mind was that it was from the clinic and I had to go back.
Before meeting William, I wouldn’t have hesitated and would have quickly gotten out of the car, but at that moment I had a family waiting for me, and I was eager to get home.
Nevertheless, I would never turn my back on my profession.
“Dr. Dulcet,” I said as soon as I answered.
“Hello, my queen. How lovely to hear your voice,” he responded, and I immediately recognized Lino’s voice.
After all the lies he had told, hearing him made me furious, and an impressive amount of anger welled up inside me.
“How dare you call me?! I have no idea how you got my phone number, but I have no intention of talking to you. Fortunately for me, you’re no longer part of my life, so stop bothering me and... go to hell!”
Lino let me speak without interrupting, but I didn’t give him a chance to reply and ended the call. I couldn’t remember the last time I had felt so furious. My anger grew just thinking about the huge lie he had created to separate me from William.
A few seconds later, the phone rang again. It was him again, but I didn’t even bother to answer.
“Damn wretched, deceitful, resentful man!” I exclaimed, though no one could hear me.
It rang once more, and just as I was about to turn it off, I saw it was William. I immediately answered.
“Hello, my love.”
“Hello, ‘Dulce,’ is everything okay?”
“Yes, of course. Why do you ask?” I inquired, because it seemed like he knew about Lino’s call, though that was impossible.
“Because you’re taking so long. If you stay much longer, I’m coming to the clinic and carrying you out over my shoulders,” he declared, and I couldn’t help but smile.
“I’m already in the car and…”
…the passenger door opened and Lino sat down beside me.
First, I was startled; second, I stared at him in surprise; and third, I exploded.
Flames of rage burned inside me. It was enough.
All my fury fell upon him, but I had the sense not to hang up the phone, allowing William to hear everything this man had to say.
Very carefully, I let the phone slip from my hand and fall to the floor, still on.
It was a premonition—I felt that William had called at the perfect moment and that he needed to hear whatever Lino was going to say.
“Get out of my car right now! You have no right to be here, you miserable bastard.”
“Calm down. I know I deserve this, but you need to…”
I didn’t think too much. The monumental, resounding slap I gave him left my hand hurting, and I immediately regretted that act because I wasn’t a violent person, but this man wouldn’t let me live in peace and it was enough. I wanted him out of my car and my life, forever.
“You’ve got a good hand, my queen, and I must admit I deserved it. But let’s agree that I’d prefer you use those delicate hands on other parts of my body,” he joked, as if I would find his stupid jokes funny.
“Lino, I don’t know what you’re after, but either you leave now or I’m going back to the clinic and telling security that an intruder got into my car,” I stated firmly.
“I’m sorry. You have reasons to be upset, but...”
“Of course I have reasons, and every day you give me another one. Now, get out!”
“I can’t. We need to talk about us.”
“About us?” I repeated with contempt. “There is no ‘us,’” I said with an ironic inflection.
Hearing me, only the shadow of a cunning smile appeared on his face, and that worried me. I turned to get out of the car, but his hand gripped my arm to stop me.
“Whether you like it or not, we have a past and we will have a future.”
“You’re completely insane and I won’t allow you to…”
While I was speaking, I tried again to get out of the car, but Lino blocked me with a malicious smile, and when I tried to dodge him, he reached out to grab my chin and pressed his lips against mine to kiss me and silence me.
I tried every way possible to escape from his arms but the more I struggled, the tighter he held me.
My mind was working at full speed trying to find a way to push him away from me and, without thinking too much, I bit him.
“Ouch! Why did you do that?” he said, bringing a hand to his lips and moving away slightly, looking at me as if I had lost my mind.
“Don’t ever kiss me again! Don’t ever come near me and get out of my car! Now!”
“My queen, you’ll have to get used to my presence in your life again because we’re going to be together again. We should never have separated, it was the biggest mistake of my life,” he stated seriously.
I tried to calm down; there was no point in continuing to confront each other like this.
I had to try to speak calmly. He wouldn’t let me leave the car and he had no intention of doing so either, so the conversation would have to take place there, but I was going to make sure William heard it so there would be no more misunderstandings between us, which was what Lino was trying to create.