*TRIGGER WARNING* This chapter contains descriptions of domestic abuse and violence. This chapter can be skipped, and I will leave a summary in the 'author's thought' at the bottom.
Rosaly kept Mark's gaze, making sure she had his attention.
"The way you managed the situation with Amanda yesterday…" Rosalyn sighed and faintly shook her head. "Mark, this thing between us... It no longer works."
She could see something change in his eyes as she spoke, the laughs and good mood from earlier quickly disappearing.
"We need to end this, Mark. This relationship," she waved between them, "it's no longer healthy." Her monotone voice rang between them, like a bell signalling the end.
Rosalyn gave him some time to let her words sink in. Watching as his expression changed, as he processed her words.
There was now something dark over his expression.
"Rosalyn, you should think about this again. Do you really know what you are doing right now?! I am a son of the Olsen family; you will never land someone as great as me again!"
There was a malevolence in his voice Rosalyn had never heard before.
"Rosalyn! Answer me!" he roared.
Looking at this man she could no longer recognize, Rosalyn's feelings were still calm. Her emotions tranquil as always.
"Mark, I have made up my mind. We are through."
"Shut your mouth!" he snarled in return, his eyes now feral.
"You think you can just break up with me? That you can send your sister to get money from me, and leave me like some has-been?"
"You need to understand that you can't leave me if I don't agree. You don't break up with me! This relationship can only end if I want it to!"
Mark was now up on his feet, pacing back and forth inside the small room. "I am the son of the Olsen family! Do you know how much I have sacrificed to be with you?! How much hardship I have had to face from my peers? My parents? Not to mention the main branch!"
"I know you have been under a lot of pressure, Mark. I tried to talk about it with you, remember? But you shut me out," she responded in a calm and low tone, making a clear contrast to his loud and angry voice.
"Ha! As if I could talk about this with you! You're just from some small family, how could you possibly understand how it is for someone of my standing?!"
"Mark– "Rosalyn tried, but he had no intention of listening to her.
"And what about the situation with Amanda? What if I slept with her? What then? That is also something completely normal for men in my position! She comes from a good family, so keeping her by my side will keep my family off my back."
He was now back at his place by the table, gulping down the rest of his wine. Holding the glass in his hand, he stared at Rosalyn. "Don't you understand that I do all of this for you? For us?!"
Hearing him all but admitting to the affair, Rosalyn calmed even further, her emotions locked deeply within. She had indeed made the right decision by breaking things off.
"Mark, I think you did it for you. There has been many months since this relationship stopped being about us and started being about you."
As Rosalyn was trying to reason with Mark, a glass suddenly came flying past her head, crashing into the wall behind her. The shards flying everywhere, one cutting her cheek.
Sitting completely still and feeling her body freeze, Rosalyn brought a hand up to her cheek before looking at it. She was bleeding. Feeling her heart start beating faster, she simply looked shocked at Mark.
Had he truly just thrown a wine glass at her?
"Shit, sorry Rosalyn. Are you bleeding? I didn't mean to harm you. You just made me so angry… Shit!"
Mark hurriedly stepped around the table, reaching Rosalyn's side. As he tried to place his hand on her shoulder, she instinctively recoiled, avoiding his touch.
"What the fuck, Rosalyn?! Are you avoiding my touch now?" he demanded as his hand awkwardly missed her.
Rosalyn, still not over his suddenly violent behaviour, just stared as his hand that was still in the air.
Looking at Rosalyn, which was seemingly in a trance, he forcefully grabbed her shoulders and shook her.
"Answer me, Rosalyn!"
Being woken by his shaking and forceful grip, Rosalyn merely removed his hands as she felt her shoulders hurting.
They were at an impasse; him waiting for a response and her just looking at him.
Mark gave up first, turning around and starting pacing back and forth in the room again. Dragging his fingers through his hair repeatedly, his steps grew more and more forceful, until he stopped once again in front of her.
Looking at his erratic state, she wasn't sure if she should just keep quiet or say something, but the fear for him riling himself up again won in the end. She decided to try and defuse the situation.
"Mark, calm down. I will listen to what you have to say, and I apologize for my sister. I will pay you back the sum you gave her and give her a good scolding for her foolishness," she tried.
Unfortunately it had the opposite effect.
"Ha! Pay me back?! Do you think I can't survive this measly little sum? You think the money is what matter? You. Can't. Leave. Me!" He was now glaring down on her, his usual green eyes almost black.
Rosalyn gently put up her hands, trying not to agitate the man further. She truly could not recognize him as he was blazing down at her. Prior to the day before, he had never even raised his voice at her. Much less laid a hand at her.
"Rosalyn are you certain you want to break this off?" he snarled, still standing over her.
Keeping her voice calm and her face neutral, she gave a single syllable response, "yes."
*Smack*
The hit came without warning and before she could understand what had happened, she was lying on the floor. As her ears were ringing, she seemed to faintly hear the voice of a man. Deep and velvety, comforting her. Whose voice was it? She couldn't remember.
Gently cupping her hit cheek, she let the voice soothe her as her ears continued ringing. She couldn't make out the words, but it didn't matter; the voice was soothing nonetheless.
"Quit playing on the floor, Rosalyn. I didn't even hit you that hard. Can't you just learn to behave?" He let out a long sigh.
"This wouldn't have happened if you just behaved. You know, this hurts me more than you! It breaks my heart having to act like this, but you give me no choice. Any more than this and I might have to sell you on the black marked; and you don't want that, do you?"
Mark's voice rang from over her, mocking her pain.
But Rosalyn scarcely heard his words over the ringing in her head and the soothing voice she couldn't quite place. The words coming from Mark sounded muted and far away. But no matter how far away they sounded, they continued without giving her peace.
"Either way, we are not breaking up; I have sacrificed too much."
Mark was once again pacing the room, seemingly content talking to himself.
"I am the son of the Olsen family's second branch. One day I might even overtake the first branch, so this much is still nothing for someone like me. Yes, that's right. So just behave, Rosalyn. I will see you at the banquet," and with that he left the room, not even looking back.
Rosalyn stayed on the floor until the ringing stopped, listening to the soothing melody of an unfamiliar familiar male voice.
As she slowly got up from the floor, she looked down on her hand. There she saw a glass shard embedded, but she felt no pain.
She didn't feel anything.
She felt numb and separated from the world.
Gently pulling out the shard, she used a napkin from the table to stop the bleeding and picked up her purse, getting ready to leave.
As she left the restaurant, still a bit disoriented, her phone rang. Finding the phone in her purse, she looked at the caller; it was Elliott.
Why would he call?
Oh…
She was supposed to call him after she ended it with Mark… Had she ended it? She wasn't sure.
Picking up the phone, she heard Elliott's cheery voice coming through, "How did it go? Did you break things off cleanly?" he happily asked.
Forcing herself to respond, she replied in a monotone voice, "I am not really sure what happened… Elliott, I think I might be in shock."
"What, in shock? What did he do? Did he cry and beg you not to leave or something?" Elliott laughed in return. He didn't hear anything wrong with her voice, since she usually spoke in a monotone voice.
"No, not cry. He didn't cry… " she started.
"Come by my place later and I'll tell you what happened. I am still trying to wrap my head around it as well…"
As she was talking to Elliott, she tried to flagg down a taxi to take her home.
After a short pause of silence, Elliott asked worriedly, "Rosalyn, are you okay?"
"I am not entirely sure, to be honest," she answered in a low voice.
"Okay, I'll come over as soon as I am done with work. I'll try to finish early."
"Thanks…" she muttered.
Her head was slowly starting to clear and Rosalyn finally remembered the meeting she had had with Mr. Smith and that she was supposed to update Elliott.
"Oh, and the meeting with the distributor went well, they'll contact us when their side has had a chance to review the proposal in detail," she stated, not noticing the how abruptly she switched the topic.
Elliott once again took a few seconds to reply. He might have been too concerned with her state at the moment, or how she didn't give a clear response about Mark. Either way, Rosalyn didn't really notice. Even if things were getting clearer, everything still felt far away. Like there was an ocean between her and all other things in the world.
"That's good, Rosalyn. But I don't really think that is all that important right now," he let out a gentle sigh. "Just get home safely, sit tight, and I'll see you soon. Okay?"
Rosalyn agreed and cut the call.
She stepped into a Taxi, having finally flagged one down, and gave her address as she leaned her head on the headrest.
As she closed her eyes, she tried to remember the voice she had heard earlier. Unfortunately, she could no longer recall it.
Feeling her energy drained by the day's events, she didn't notice anything suspicious as she quickly grew sleepy.
If she had been in her right mind, she might have noticed the driver putting up the partition and the smoke slowly filling up the back seats. But she didn't.
In the back seat of this unassuming taxi, Rossalyn was now completely unconscious, oblivious of what was about to happen.