I was never the one to eavesdrop but when Mr. Rhodes was taking decades to come back, I couldn't help but make my way towards the door.

As I lightly and quietly walked towards the front door, I heard voices. The plan was to bid Mr. Rhodes goodbye and get the hell out of here even if he saw me.

He needed the file, I gave him that. Now my job was done.

The voices grew louder and I realised that one was the voice of Mr. Rhodes and other was of a woman and it seemed like they were yelling at each other. Arguing about something.

Now if you were sane, you'd just leave and go back to the room and pretend to not have known what was happening, but of course, was I sane? Absolutely not.

So I walked even more closer to the door, making sure to stay hidden, until I could pretty much make out what they were saying.

"—why don't you get it?! I don't care!" Mr. Rhodes angrily yelled at the woman.

"I still don't know why are you hanging on to the past. It's been years!" the woman said.

"Oh wow, I cannot believe you have the audacity to come here at my house and say that. What do you need anyway? I'm pretty sure you're receiving the aid every month. Why are you here then?" Mr. Rhodes scoffed at the woman. She looked in her early fiftees.

"Ace he died and you didn't even bother to show up? Everyone at the funeral was aski—"

"Everyone what, huh? Everyone was asking about that son who was forced to leave his house at thirteen because his parents couldn't care less whether he died or lived? Well too bad, let them know that he died for them the day he left that house," he spat and slammed the door shut at her face. With anger written all over his face, he made his way towards the stairs, without acknowledging my presence.

He climbed up the stairs and started walking towards his left and I just stood there, staring at him disappearing behind everything.

I wasn't sure what just happened.

Mr. Rhodes looked furious but still behind all the fury, I could see how broken he was and no matter how much the sane part of my brain screamed at me to get the hell away from him and out of this house. I couldn't ignore how seeing him like that made me feel.

So I decided to do the most stupid thing one could think of.

I started climbing up the stairs in hopes of somehow letting him know that I was here and that being alone and bottling up wasn't going to help.

As I was on the first floor of the house, I walked towards where he went and saw the door of his room slightly open. Me being me, peeked inside, making sure he couldn't see if he was in there.

His room was empty so I stepped back from the door and looked here and there, thinking which room was I supposed to check in next.

I walked all the way towards the end of the corridor when I found a big glass door that led to a terrace.

My heart started beating wildly inside my chest when I opened the door and saw a silhouette, obviously his.

As I stepped closer to him, I realised that he had his eyes heavenwards and his back was towards the railing so that he was leaning on it.

My breath hitched in my throat and I kept walking towards him. Something told me that he knew I was here, like he had sensed my presence the moment I stepped in but still he did nothing to acknowledge it.

When I was standing on almost an arm distance from him, he spoke up,

"You're still here.."

It wasn't a question rather a statement, like he was expecting me to have left long ago.

I noticed he had a cigarette in his hand. He lifted the cigarette to his lips, took a deep drag and exhaled the smoke into the air, watching it disappear in the cloud of smoke above us.

"I am," I replied, stepping a little more closer to him.

He finally met his eyes with mine and all I saw was coldness, like he had gone behind his walls once again.

I wondered how easily he pulled off a face devoid of any emotion.

I stepped more closer to him and crossed my arms against my chest as the cool breeze brought goosebumps to my bare arms.

"Don't smoke. It causes cancer," I whispered timidly, scared that he would get angry and start yelling at me any second.

Instead, he chuckled, it was a humorless chuckle but nonetheless it sounded good to my ears.

He shook his head like he couldn't believe that I really just said it and threw the cigarette on the floor, stepping on it he kicked it aside, resultantly stepping a little more closer to me.

He looked into my eyes, like searching for something, and I looked into his. I knew he was angry, hurt and broken but he was so good at hiding it that it made me doubt if I was right about it.

He was looking at me with such an intense emotions which made my insides churn. My hand was aching to touch his face. To trace each and every detail of his face.

I didn't know when or how, but before I realised what I was doing, I found my hand making its way to his face.

At first I was scared that how would he react, but slowly and lightly my hand touched his face and he sucked in a sharp breath like I had just hurt him with a mere touch.

I ran my fingers along his jawline and felt his stubble. He closed his eyes as my thumb rubbed circles on his cheekbone and I cupped his cheek.

In that second, even with his eyes closed, he looked so broken and lost that it broke my heart to see him like that. I stepped one more step closer so that we were standing this close that I could feel his breath fanning my neck as he leaned into my touch.

I haven't had expected him to react like this but something broke inside me when I realised how lonely he must feel all alone in this huge house.

His arm snaked around my waist and pulled me towards his chest to remove any non existent space between us. He still had his eyes closed and he was resting his face on my hand like a baby.

I lifted my other hand up and ran it along his hair, making his hold me to tighten.

He opened his eyes and looked straight at me with so much intensity that I squirmed under his gaze.

As I traced his cheekbone with my fingers, he whispered my name,

"Isabelle...." His voice was croaked and heavy that it sent shivers down my spine.

In that moment I saw an expression on his face that nobody could have ever thought would be seen on Ace Rhodes' face.

Vulnerability.

"I'm here..." I whispered lightly, stroking his hair as he held me close to his chest.

"Please stay wi-"

He was cut mid sentence as his phone started ringing in his pocket and I swear I had never felt this angry and irritated before that I almost groaned out loud.

It seemed like Mr. Rhodes was brought back to his senses as his lightly removed his arm from around me and I stepped back, blushing like an idiot and cursing myself to let my guard so down in front of him.

I was looking down, embarrassed and baffled about what just happened. He pulled the phone out of his pocket and groaned as he saw the name flashing on the screen. He declined the call and put the phone back in his pocket.

"You should go back home. It's late," he spoke after an eternity of painful silence.

What?

Seriously?

So we're just gonna ignore what happened?

"Yes.....good night," I said quickly and made my way out of the terrace and towards the stairs.

Tears started brimming in my eyes as I walked down the stairs. I didn't know why but seeing him act like what intimate moment we just shared did not mean anything to him hurt me so much that I felt my heart clench in my chest.

With blurry vision I made my way out of his mansion and started walking in the direction of the subway.

How stupid I was to think that I could ever mean something more to him than a dumb secretary.

I brushed off my tears as I walked and vowed to never let my guard down in front of him ever again.

*********

Yikes...

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