Catherine’s POV
The persistent, high-pitched beeping sound of my phone was what pulled me out of an exhausted sleep.
Before I even opened my eyes, I felt Julian staring at me. I slowly opened my eyes and found him lying there, facing me, but his eyes were closed. He looked entirely too still but I knew he was awake.
"Stop pretending, I know you are awake," I muttered with my sleepy husky voice, poking him sharply in the ribs.
He immediately jumped, giving a dramatic start. "Shut! You caught me," he admitted, his voice low and amused.
Before I could ask about the noise, he spoke first. "Your phone has been ringing for a while now. It wouldn’t stop. I thought of waking you up but you looked too cute, didn’t wanna disrupt."
Ringing? I wondered, my mind still fuzzy. Who on earth would be calling me repeatedly? I quickly reached for my phone, which was vibrating relentlessly on the nightstand.
I picked it up and saw the screen flashing: 10 missed calls from an unknown number.
My stomach instantly sank. An unknown number? I knew exactly who it was. Collins.
"It’s Collins," I told Julian, rolling my eyes and smacking my head. "He’s becoming a pain in my neck."
Julian’s face darkened instantly. The amusement was gone, replaced by a furious scowl. "That bastard keeps disturbing you and I can’t help but feel angry about it. Catherine, I just need you to say the word and I’ll deal with him."
I pulled the phone back instinctively. "No! Don’t do anything," I insisted, pushing myself up into a sitting position and wearing his shirt over my body. "I don’t need you to get into a fight on my behalf. Collins is a psychopath. He would go to any length to cause trouble, and I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if something happened to you because of him."
I held the phone tighter. "I’ll just keep ignoring and blocking his number."
Julian leaned over, looking exasperated. "That won’t make him stop. It will just make him escalate."
"Who cares?" I countered, trying to sound dismissive, even though I was a bit worried. "He’ll eventually get tired and give up."
Just as I said that, I noticed something else on the screen: a whole flood of unread text messages from the same unknown number. I quickly opened the thread.
The messages were a torrent of aggression. Each one was a clear, escalating threat, demanding that I pick up the calls, demanding that I stay away from Julian, and ordering me to go back to Collins. They were frighteningly specific and unhinged.
I swallowed hard, the words making the blood drain from my face. They weren’t just idle threats; they felt dangerous. I showed Julian the phone, pointing at the worst messages.
He scanned them quickly, and his jaw became rigid. "He’s bluffing," his voice was hard but meant to reassure. "He’s a coward. He can’t do anything. He’s only trying to scare you."
The moment he said that, my phone started ringing again. It was Gabriel.
I stared at the screen, shocked. "Gabriel?"
"Why is Gabriel calling me?" Julian was equally surprised. "Are you going to answer the call?"
Before I could even think of an answer, we heard a furious, loud shout from Gabriel, outside the room. "Julian! Julian, open the door right now!" he yelled, his voice vibrating with raw anger.
He got to the door and started banging on it hard, resonant thumps that shook the whole frame. "I know Catherine is in there, Julian! I know you two are in there! Open this door!"
I stared at Julian, utterly confused and horrified. He looked equally confused.
"What the hell’s got into him?" Julian muttered, bewildered. He started to swing his legs off the bed. "I’m going to open the door."
My eyes widened in genuine panic. I grabbed his arm, stopping him instantly. "No way, Julian! I am not letting Gabriel see me in here, right now, like this!"
I was wearing only his shirt and he was just in a pair of boxers. If he opened the door, Gabriel would know about our affair.
Julian tried to pull my hand away. "Catherine, relax. He already knows you’re here; you heard him, right? We’ll play it cool. Look, you spent almost a whole day in his room recently, and nothing happened. Why can’t it be the same with us? We’ll just tell him we were talking."
Gabriel’s continuous bang on the door made my toes curl and my fingers fold tightly.
Julian was right that I’d spent time with Gabriel, but the comparison was different. I swallowed the surge of guilt.
"It’s different!" I hissed, pulling him back. "With you, something happened. We had sex. I can’t let him see me right now. I have to hide."
Julian looked like he wanted to argue, but the banging intensified. He finally gave in, sighing heavily. "Fine. Where?"
My eyes darted around the room. It had to be somewhere completely illogical, somewhere Gabriel would never think to search. The closet was too obvious.
"The balcony!" I whispered fiercely, pointing toward the sliding glass door. "The corner, by the railing! He’ll never look there."
Julian scrambled to get a hold of his discarded robe, throwing it on quickly. I grabbed my clothes, racing toward the balcony door. I slid it open just enough to slip out, pulling myself into a tight, shivering ball in the far corner, near the stone railing.
I heard the door slide shut behind me, muffling the sound slightly. I held my breath, pressing my ear against the glass.
Julian pulled the main door open, and the sound of Gabriel walking in was loud and heavy. I could feel the sheer force of his anger even from my hiding spot.
Then I heard a sickening thud, followed by a grunt.
Julian’s voice, after a pause filled with heavy breathing, was strained. "Gabriel! What the hell is wrong with you? What was that for?"
Gabriel’s voice was ragged, choked with fury, the words that followed cut through me, as I gasped.
"How long have you been fucking Catherine?!"