Page 118 of The Darkness is Calling

What about the rest of my life?

“I don’t think there’s any point in postponing the inevitable, Oksana. I can’t come up with excuses every day.”

“Then let’s think long term.”

I roll my eyes. “That’s kind of hard in this situation...”

Her face becomes serious, and the way she fixes me in place makes me fall silent at once. “Have you really given up fighting?”

“Fighting for what, Oksana?”

“For freedom. A few days ago, you were determined to find a way out of this arrangement. Now, that Artem is no longer in the picture, that’s it? You’re just going to settle into this whole story? Did you wanted to cancel everything for Artem, or for yourself?”

Her words are full of reprimand, and they hit their marks with precision. But my answer is just as honest and sad. “I wanted to cancel everything because I cared about my future, whether it was with Artem or alone.”

“And now you don’t care anymore?”

My gaze drops to my fingers wrapped around the phone.

“Right now, no.”

“You should, Katya. Because when you start caring about yourself again, it might be too late.”

Her words haunt me all day. Even though we never discuss a backup plan again, I decide honesty will be the best option when the right moment comes.

Oliver is relaxed, but exhaustion is written across his face when he comes to pick me up from my friend’s house. The dark blue suit sits flawlessly on him, and not a single strand of his light brown hair is out of place.

He is not the funniest man. In fact, I would call him severe. But he is not frightening either, the way anyone could describe Artem. He is the classic businessman, born into an old English family, as careful with his gestures as he is with his words.

Most of the time, I feel at ease around him, but if I had to find a few words to define our relationship, monotonous, comfortable, and royal would be the most fitting. In other words, a relationship stripped of passion but wrapped in peace, unfolding in a setting that felt like a royal palace, where everything belonged exactly where it was and mistakes were never tolerated.

For a twenty-nine-year-old man, Oliver has taken the image of future Lord a little too seriously. Especially this past year, ever since I began to feel that business was consuming him more than before. He blames the time zones for the conference calls he takes from his office after midnight, but I believe his ambition to prove something to his father is turning him into a man who forgets how to feel.

The entire drive, while we sit in the back seat of his limousine, he holds my hand and tells me about his travels. He only lets go when we arrive at the restaurant, so he can smile and greet the small group of journalists waiting at the entrance.

“I truly missed you,” he tells me from across the table, crowded with various appetizers.

He ordered as if we were attending a royal feast, while I have struggled to taste a little from several plates, despite the lack of appetite that has haunted me these past few days.

“I’m glad you’re back,” I answer with a warm smile.

All I am trying to do is remember that he is not to blame for the change my heart decided to make in such a short time. He still cares about me and wants us to have a future together. I am the villain here, pretending everything is the same as before, even though my heart is still aching for a man I could never have had anyway.

“Did someone told the journalists we were coming here?” I ask after a few minutes of silence.

“Since it’s a famous restaurant where many celebrities come, they’re probably hunting for whatever story happens to fall into their laps,” he says easily.

Something makes me skeptical of that coincidence.

“How lucky for them to run into us on the exact day we reunite after so long.”

He sets his cutlery on the edge of his plate, looking at me in confusion. “Are you suggesting something?”

I lift one shoulder.

“It seems suspicious to me. That’s all.”

“We do not need publicity, Katya. No one on my team would request that kind of attention.”