Brooke felt a lump swell in her throat, her shaky hands fell out of Thane's grip and covered her mouth.
"Mr Grayson, I-"
Thane quietly got off his knee, he picked up both mugs and turned towards the kitchen area, "It's late, you should return to your room."
Was he angry at her?
Brooke thought while wheeling herself out of the room. The chair had an automatic self wheeling feature that she hadn't noticed before.
The entire night, she thought about it all, getting married again. It sounded like a complete nightmare, her mind was convinced it was just for show, but her heart was far from willing to move on.
The next morning, Brooke planned to apologize to Thane for her reaction, but he caught her off guard with a breakfast of pancakes and scrambled eggs.
"Here, tell me if it isn't to your taste, I'll make another batch." He said while pouring maple syrup over the stack of fluffy pancakes.
Brooke kept her gaze on the plate, toying with her hair she softly replied, "N-No you don't have to sir, this is more than enough."
Thane reclined against the table, right next to her, he was so close his scent filled her nostrils. "You have to finish everything, you have some tests to undergo later."
"Tests?" Brooke raised her head.
"We can't be too sure, so it's better to have every single test carried out." He explained, "But enough about that, there's something else I've been meaning to ask you about."
"What is it?"
He loosened the knot around his apron and took it off, "The phone you had on you when I found you, who does it belong to?. I tried your face recognition and finger print, but it wouldn't open."
Brooke fiddled with her thumbs, "Oh, that isn't mine. I swiped it from Cassie when she wasn't looking. But I promise I wasn't stealing!" Her face reddened, the last thing she wanted was this man thinking he couldn't leave things around the house.
She had learned a lesson from her childhood about stealing, and never wanted anyone to call her a thief ever since.
Contrary to her expectations, Thane chortled, he folded the apron and placed it next to him, "Your reactions are interesting, you know that?" He asked, wiping a tear from the corner of his eye.
Brooke blushed and tore her gaze away, "I just didn't want you having the wrong impression." She folded her arms and pouted.
"I see." He seethed.
Brooke could sense he was making fun of her, but oddly enough she did not mind it. Bringing the conversation back on grounds, she stated, "I wanted to use it to call for help. I would never steal from someone like her."
She looked at him, "Are you going to give it back?"
Thane shook his head, "No."
"No?" Wait, was that not stealing?
He explained himself, "Know yourself, know your enemy, and know the terrain; then you can fight a hundred battles with no danger of defeat."
Brooke gasped, she knew that quote. It was from a book about war she leisurely read when she was younger. The sick boy she used to play with had a collection of books, and this quote was from his favorite one.
Thane carried on, "Sun Tzu, he was a military strategist, he wrote-"
Brooke cut him off. "The art of war. I read it when I was younger."
Thane's lips cracked into a half smile. "Did you now?" He folded his arms. "Do you understand what it means?"
"It means gathering studying your opponent, and understanding everything about them before going into battle." She answered calmly.
Thane smiled at her warmly, "Correct." He unfolded his arms.
"If you want to take her down, then you need the upper hand. The first and most crucial battle is a battle of information, which is why we need to know everything about the enemy, their strengths, weaknesses, their secrets, everything." He lectured, with an aura of eloquence coating him.
Brooke nodded. The old her would've insisted that it was wrong to snoop through people's things, but now she was past thinking that way.
"I understand, I was too naive, I'm sorry for that." She straightened her back, cursing herself for not thinking that way from the beginning.
"That's one of the things I like about you..." Thane muttered deeply to himself.
"What was that?" Brooke asked, she failed to catch what he had said just then.
But Thane brushed it off, "Finish eating, there a lot of things you need to do." He said, avoiding her question.
Dismissing her curiosity, she nodded and started eating the meal in front of her. Halfway through, she asked, "Aren't you going to have any?"
"Don't worry, I get full watching you eat." He replied.
Only for Brooke to say, "That's crazy talk!" She nudged the plate towards him, "You need to eat too. We're in this together aren't we? Then we both need to fill up our tanks."
Thane scoffed in amusement, "Do you really have the luxury to be worried over others?"
Brooke raised her hand and flexed her invisible bicep, "See? I'm built to last. That's why I can take anything-" the image of Ethan throwing a punch at her tear filled gaze flashed before her eyes.
The corners of her lips fell to the floor, and her eyes watered when she heard the echoes of her husband's yelling over the faint sound of her whimpers.
No!
She didn't want to remember it all over again!
Her hands trailed to the bandages, they had started to itch again, the pain resurfaced from her memories. It was as if she were drowning in a river of pain, her breaths turned shallow, and slow.
She nearly drowned in the pain of a panic attack, but Thane's voice pulled her out, like an outstretched hand dragging her body from a cold river.
"There's one more thing I forgot to tell you, someone I had gotten ready." He announced, passing her a neatly folded handkerchief from his pants pocket.
Brooke used it to wipe the sweat she didn't realize ran across her forehead and down her neck.
Her lips trembled, "W-What is it?"
Thane responded firmly. "The divorce papers."