For the next hour, Astrid listened to Nikoleta ramble on and on about Darius, but she didn't find it disturbing. She actually thought of it as a good way to know the man she was fake-engaged to.
She found out how Darius stopped going to the beach after his father died in an accident. She found out how almost the whole Titan property was willed to him, how he started to run Titan Fabrics from the young age of sixteen with his mother's assistance.
From then, Nikoleta watched and felt her son slip out of her grasp. She couldn't control him anymore. He started to go to bed with a different woman every night. And when Nikoleta thought it wouldn't get worse from there, he started to find pleasure in people's pain.
She explained how she would always try to talk him out of degrading women, but he would shove her advice aside with a simple "they're not complaining."
Later, she was diagnosed with cancer. Darius didn't act like it, but he cared a lot. He did everything he could for her in the past few months and was still trying to help her beat the cancer.
He never stopped playing his games with the women, though. Nikoleta had had enough, so she finally moved out his house, threatening to never return until he stopped with his acts.
"I believe that when you two were seeing each other, he was still sleeping around with other women. I feel so embarrassed. People blame me for it, sometimes. They say I didn't do enough." Nikoleta sniffled, dabbing her eyes with a tissue.
"You did more than enough, I'm sure." Astrid murmured, a faint smile on her face.
"How are you still in love with him?" Nikoleta shook her head in disbelief.
I'm really not. He makes it hard to be loved by anybody, Astrid thought to herself.
"The same way you still love him through everything." She opted for a more appropriate reply for someone who was supposed to be his fiancée.
"It's a shame he doesn't see what he has." Nikoleta frowned for her son.
"He's coming around." Astrid nodded. He was not.
"As his mother, I really want you to be with him. As a woman, though, I want you to move on with your life and not be with a disrespectful man like him. I'm not taking sides." Astrid raised her eyebrow at the woman in front of her.
She had not met someone who looked at things in different points of view as Nikoleta did. It was comforting.
"You're an amazing person, you know that?" She held Nikoleta's face in her arms and wiped her tears.
How could an angel like her give birth to a total idiot like Darius? That was the question that Astrid kept asking herself.
"But thank you for staying." Nikoleta stood up, getting ready to leave. "Oh, and Astrid?" She called out, making Astrid raise a questioning brow.
"Yes?"
"If you can't take it anymore, feel free to walk away. You can't figure a person out if there are no openings. If he doesn't give you an opening, find your exit." She walked away.
"If he doesn't give you an opening, find your exit..." Astrid giggled at how corny it sounded, coming from her own lips. She could never pull it off like Nikoleta had just done. She was no badass.
A mother encouraging her son's fiancée to leave him if he kept disrespecting her. That was a breakthrough for Astrid.
On a fine day of listening to something like that, she would never believe it. Every mother wanted what was best for their child, even if they had to be selfish to get it.
Nikoleta, on the other hand, was strict. Astrid should have known from the moment she found out that Nikoleta moved out because of Darius's behaviour. She gave tough love.
But Astrid knew that she wasn't willing to look for any openings in Darius. If she could, she would. But the man already shut her out since she had first met him.
It was just at rare moments that he would do something minimal but significant. And most of the time, he never meant it.
What was there for her to open would be a box of her heart right after he would have ripped it out with his bare hands. She couldn't afford to give herself to the man.
Who did she think she was? The main character of a romance novel?
Like she could magically have him on her knees for her. She almost guffawed at that stupid thought.
That afternoon, she skipped lunch and spent the day painting her mind with different chaotic thoughts. One thought would race into her mind from another and it would lead to a different one until she lost track of time.
.
It had been three days since Astrid last saw Darius. She never really noticed how restless and acrobatic her heart always was when he was around until later that Sunday night.
She sat in the library on the far end of the second floor, looking out the window into the back of the house. All she could see was plains and more plains.
It was dark. Nobody knew she was in the library. Everyone was most likely asleep, anyway.
She sat there in the dark, unable to sleep. It felt like time was working in slow motion and the silence was quite deafening, approaching footsteps aside.
Approaching footsteps?
Astrid held her breath, listening closely. There were footsteps, alright. It didn't sound like they belonged was one person.
They stopped right in front of the library. Astrid silently prayed for the footsteps to continue ahead.
As her luck would have it, the door opened. It was too dark to make out who it was.
"Why are we in your library?" A feminine voice hissed as the footsteps became rushed. Astrid heard a small slam and then a gasp.
"I don't want anybody in my play room right now." Astrid wasn't crazy. That voice belonged to Darius. She was not imagining it. She knew it wasn't a dream.
He had just returned... with another woman. Her chest tightened and she found it hard to breathe. It felt crowded.
"I won't question you. Let's just do this and let you get some rest. You must be stressed out after your trip." The lady purred.
Judging by the next sound that came, Astrid knew that they were kissing.
It was going to be an awkward night.
She heard the lady breathe loudly and moan out his name a couple of times. How well does he know her body to have sex with her in a dark library? Astrid couldn't help but wonder.
Plus, he didn't even care to check up on her. He brought in another woman to the house that her parents were sleeping in. Sure, they knew that the whole engagement was an act, but still. Where was the respect for people in this man, even the tiniest bit?
Astrid didn't know how long she sat still, listening to his skin slapping hard against her skin. That night would haunt her for a long time.
"Ashlee." He groaned out once. Ashlee. Ashlee. Ashlee.
Astrid wanted to strangle the life out of that Ashlee. She didn't know why. Maybe because she was the reason for the whole awkwardness and discomfort that she was feeling.
Ashlee. Astrid repeated the name in her head. She was relieved that she couldn't see them, but that didn't change the fact that it wasn't happening in front of her.
Finally, the throaty sounds ended and they were both trying to catch their breaths. Astrid shifted uncomfortably in her seat, trying hard not to make a sound. "Fuck." Darius muttered, a hint of anger in his voice.
"What's wrong?" Ashlee asked.
"Fuck, fuck, dammit." Darius kept mumbling obscenities.
"Darius, what's going on? You didn't do anything wrong." Ashlee said.
Astrid dug her nails into her palms, trying hard to suppress the anger she was feeling. It was aimed at everyone and everything.
Silence.
"I'll leave you to rest." Ashlee said. Shuffling, a creak and then the door slammed shut.
Darius shuffled around in the library and finally left, too. Astrid still sat there, wanting to delete the past hour from her mind.
When she was almost certain that Darius couldn't possibly be near the library anymore, she stood up and tip-toed towards the door.
She placed her ear against the door and got the silence she was hoping for. She sighed in relief and opened the door. Darius was there, leaning against the wall right opposite the library.
Their eyes met.