Owen’s eyes snapped open, his body instantly alert as his gaze swept the room. Had he actually fallen asleep? He shook his head in disbelief. He never let his guard down—especially not now, not with Rena so close, within his grasp.
But nothing to worry about, he reassured himself. Serena would be sitting quietly, like she always did in the past. She never would suspect that she had actually been kidnapped. But where was she? Shouldn’t she have been sitting at his bedside, taking care of him like the last time she had?
His eyes darted around the room, as if expecting her to pop up from the floor and then fell on his small bag in the corner. A flicker of doubt crossed his mind. Was it open before? He couldn’t remember. Frowning, he stared at it for a beat longer before shrugging. Probably just me being paranoid. He must’ve left it that way.
A sudden rush of panic shot through him. Where was she?
"Rena?" he called out, softly at first and then louder.
Silence.
He swallowed hard, pushing back the rising fear. Had she run away? No, she couldn’t have, he answered himself.
Despite the bandages wrapped tightly around his chest, Owen pushed himself out of bed, uncaring that he was breaking his own act. Hurriedly, he walked to the door and called out loudly, "Rena?"
Still no answer. His mind raced as he hurried toward the main door. She couldn’t have gone far... Could she? But he’d specifically told Maya to lock the door from outside.
He stepped into the hallway, ready to race after her, but then, froze.
The bathroom door creaked open, and there she was—Serena, standing in the doorway, her expression unreadable.
Owen’s heart pounded in his chest, both with relief and a lingering sense of unease. Why was she looking at him like that? Did she see anything. Did that Maya return? He forced a weak smile, masking his worry. "Rena, you scared me for a second. I thought..."
Serena, however, di dnot smile back. Her expression was cold, her eyes narrowing at him as if assessing him. The unsettling silence between them grew thicker.
His hand clenched into a fist, as he instinctively looked around for anything nearby that could serve as a weapon. He scanned the room slowly, his gaze falling on a heavy-looking lamp and a nearby vase, both of which could be used to subdue her if necessary. His mind raced with possibilities and scenarios...
But instead of making a move to run from him, Serena took a deep breath and started walking towards him, slowly. He looked at her in surprise and then blinked as she scolded him,"What are you doing out of bed?" she scolded him sharply, her voice laced with frustration. "You should be resting."
Momentarily thrown off by her sudden change in demeanor, it took him a moment to realise that he had been worrying for no reason. She was none the wiser.. He sighed and tried to think of something to say, "Rena, I..."
But she cut him off with a wave of her hand, "Don’t try to act like you’re feeling better. I saw your bruises, Owen. You’re up and about, despite what you’ve been through! How can you be so careless with yourself! Get back into the bed. And next time if you try to come out,I will tie you to the bed!"
Owen gave her a weak smile, and then slowly limped back towards the bed, in stark contrast to the agile way he had walked just now.
Serena watched as Owen limped back toward the bed. Her eyes followed him hiding the anger and disgust in them as she kept calm. She stepped forward to assist him, her hands guiding him back onto the mattress gently, even though all she wanted was to give him a high five on the nose... with an iron skillet at that!
Bu as he turned to look at her, all he saw was a calm expression and not the murderous one. Tenderly, she adjusted the pillows, ensuring he was as comfortable as possible.
And then, she took a seat next to him, even though all she wanted to do was go outside and sit by the door, hoping Aiden had received her message and was already on the way.
"Owen, can I ask you something?"
"Of course, what do you want to know?"
"I want to know everything. About us, about our love together. I know you’ve not mentioned it much to me because it must be painful for you, seeing me with someone else and having to re-live those moments. But now, I’ve decided to leave Aiden. So, I want to know more about us. What kind of dates did we go on? Did we ever fight? If so, what did we fight about?"
Owen shook his head," We never had fights?"
Serena looked at him in surprise," Really? Not even about the littlest of things? I mean, don’t all couples have fights? Were we even a real couple if we didn’t have a huge fight at least once?"
She watched in amusement as he panicked for a moment, seeing her question their relationship. "I didn’t mean that we had no arguments. Just that those arguments were never improtant. It was always little things so I don’t even remember half of them."
Serena nodded," That is great. Then what about our happy moments? What did we enjoy together?"
Before he could say something,they heard the sound of door opening. Sending a smile his way, Serena hurriedly stood up," That must be Maya! Let me go bring her here. I think I gave her quite a fright yesterday!"
With that she raced out of the room, letting the door close behind her. As expected, it was Maya who had returned. Hurriedly, she walked to the woman and grabbed her in a hug," Maya! I am so sorry about yesterday! You must have been so scared. I shouldn’t have insisted but tried to understand things from your perspective..."