It was already past 11.
Nora and Lorraine had already fallen asleep after watching a couple more cartoon shows and movies, playing games, and playing with Trishi.
I tucked them both into Nora's bed. They looked so adorable fast asleep, innocent, and unaware of whatever was happening out there in the world.
I sighed.
I stroked my daughter's pretty sleeping face.
She was my light! The only light I had in this dark world. Having her was nothing short of a blessing to me.
Once her father finds out about her, if he hasn't found out already, he'd want to take her away from me.
He and his snooty family would claim rights over her and say that they wouldn't want their heir grow up in nothing less than the luxury they could provide, and they wouldn't take no for an answer even if that meant using the best lawyers in the world to fight against me.
They would separate my light from me in the blink of an eye and leave me alone and desolate again.
I laid a kiss on her forehead.
"I want you to be nothing but happy, but I can't let your dad and his family take you away from me, never! They'd have to kill me and burn my body to ashes first before I allow them have you, because I love you very much, and parting from you would destroy me to bits"
I pushed her hand below the covers, switched off the lights and went to bed.
★★★★★★★★★★★★★★
The next evening...
I was at the hospital doing a voluntary check on my patient who had just undergone a surgery by me to remove a stage four brain tumour from his head.
I went back to my office to get some papers when I received a message from my neighbour.
"Are you home? Need a cup of flour if you have"
"I'm at work rounding somethings up. No one is home"
"Then why are all your lights on?"
I froze. A cold dread ran down my spine.
I clearly remembered switching off all the lights in my apartment before I left.
Did my stalker...
I had to see this for myself.
★★★★★★★★★★★★★★
I was standing at my door, white like a ghost, heart pounding like a beast locked up in a cage, bewildered at what I met.
All the lights were off when I arrived, even as I switched them on, it didn't look like someone had been here.
Nora was with Lorraine and Abigail for the weekend. I didn't want to think of what would have happened if someone had actually broken in if she was here.
I released the air that had been stuck in my chest.
Racheal, my neighbor must have been mistaken. After all, that was normal from people with mental disorders right?
I closed the door behind me and headed straight to my room.
I didn't even bother switching my bedroom's light on.
I stepped into the serene darkness that engulfed my room, the only source of light being that from outside the glass still, everything in the room existed as shadows.
I exhaustedly peeled off my clothes and dumped them on the bed, then entered the bathroom.
I switched on the shower and stood under it, allowing the bitter sweet feeling of the droplets sink into my skin and wash off all the negative things I've been feeling; the fear, the anxiety...
After being in there for a while, I stepped out with a short towel tied around my breasts, that stopped just below my butt, and was drying my long dripping wet hair with another towel.
"Long time no see, amore"
I screamed in shock, jumping back and knocking a vase off the table beside my bathroom door.
I clutched my chest in fright, my heart in my mouth, eyes wide open like they would pop any moment like balloons filled with too much air.
Someone had actually gotten into my house!
I was too stunned to move, too stunned to speak.
From the voice, I could already guess who it was.
It was the same voice I had fallen in love with.
That deep bassy and husky undertone that sends shivers down one's spine belonged to the one person I was once madly in love with.
I immediately switched on the lights, and there he was,
Ace Romano!
My ex husband, and Nora's father.
A small mischevous grin was playing at the corners of his lips.
He must have found this amusing;
Finding me after nearly five years, breaking into my house, sitting ever so relaxed on my couch, and nearly giving me a heart attack.
His eyes dropped and began roaming my body in a lustful manner.
"I miss seeing you like this" he rasped.
I quickly grabbed a bathrobe nearby and wore it over my body.
The tension between us was awkward, at least for me it was.
He was just staring at me with amused eyes and an equally amused grin, which made me nervous.
What was he thinking about?
"Why are you acting so scared and shocked on seeing me here?" He asked, "Did you think I wouldn't find you?"
I swallowed the lump in my throat. He still had that power to intimidate me.
"What do you want, Ace?"
A low chuckle rumbled from him.
His tall muscular and intimidating frame stood up from the chair and began walking towards me.
His grey eyes still had that intense piercing look in them which were now fixated on me.
I trembled and shifted back as he came closer and began sizing me up. I didn't go far as my butt hit the table behind me.
He placed his hands on the table at either sides of me, trapping me and leaned in so close that our faces were just a couple of inches apart.
My breath hitched and my heart began racing again.
His heart stopping handsomeness hadn't left him.
His black wavy hair fell over his eyebrows in short strands, his grey eyes, still sharp, his perfectly shaped lips...
He brought one hand to my face, took stray strand of my hair and twirled it around his finger.
For a while, he didn't say anything, just stared at me with an unknown glint in his eyes.
"I'm hungry"