The door casually opened with the third knock, with Ian standing and holding the doorknob. I had tried talking him into holding a weapon in case he needed it, so he actually had one right now hidden in his trousers. My kitchen knife.
I waited for the danger, ready to act out in any way that I could, but then, as soon as the door was open, Ian suddenly paused. I watched him suddenly spread a smile at whoever was at the door, shake their hands, and extend the door much wider for them to come in.
Raising a curious brow, I adjusted from my defensive position and slowly came out into view as the footsteps made it in, and instantly, I made a pause. Then my curiosity went higher.
The cops?
How are they here?
I had dialed Ian, not them, hadn't I?
"I called 911 on my way," Ian explained just then, as if reading my thoughts as he slammed the door shut after they were all in. There were about five officers. Four males and a blonde female cop. "I figured you obviously meant to call the cops when you dialed me, so... just in case I couldn't handle whatever was in here for too long, I had to call them for some backup while I came over."
"Oh," I whispered, and slowly traced my eyes back to the officers. Nodding my greeting to them, I inhaled a calming breath and smoothed a hand up my lower arm to get myself fully back in composure before finally adding as I exhaled.
"Welcome."
"Thank you, Miss."
"Iris," I completed for the blonde officer. "Iris McCarthy."
Yeah, I had to use that.
There was no way I was going to use the surname from my marriage to Isak around here. It would be better to stay incognito by all means, even if he already found me. Remembering the fact that he already found me, I almost released a frustrated sigh.
Nature just had to be somehow against me.
"We received a report from your friend that a suspected-dangerous man came around trying to get in."
"Yeah," I stuttered, nodding.
Somehow, my eyes kept glancing back at Ian before returning to the officers.
If he had mentioned this part of the story earlier to me about calling the cops, I really would have persuaded him to make the officers turn around by apologizing that it was a false alarm because right now, this suddenly didn't really seem like a good position for me.
The questioning. They would want to know who I suspected it was. They would want to have names.
I wasn't about to go give them my background story with my estranged forced husband in front of Ian. I hadn't even told Ian I was married yet. Well, ex-married or whatever. This would be a disaster if it went ahead.
"Do you know anyone who could have tried to break in?" The female asked again, pointing her pen to a little note as she kept a soft questioning gaze on me. "This area is pretty safe, actually," she added. "We haven't had any such reports around here for a long time, so maybe..."
"No, I don't know anyone." I immediately shook my head. "I'm not that kind of person. I don't know anyone who might have just tried to come here specifically and attack me. It was just some man; I've never seen him before."
God. Iris. My subconscious dramatically squealed in shock at my lies, and I almost screwed my eyes shut to imaginatively slap the damn thing shut.
"You're sure?" It was Ian this time.
He was walking over to me now with a lot of concern and worry etched on his face. One that caused me to have a momentary slowdown inside because I had never seen anyone so physically worried before... Not even my parents. And I just met Ian last week.
My breath continued to slow as he stood in front of me and held my shoulders.
"Maybe just try to think?" He suggested it, looking so scared in between his concerns. Maybe I might be hurt later on by that same intruder. I watched him raise his hand with a suggestive shrug and scratch at his hair. "Maybe back at the resort? Did you bump into anyone who maybe didn't react so nice to it like me and also gave off hitman vibes? Did you exchange a word feud? Did anyone threaten you?"
"No. Ian." I popped a chuckle and stepped a little bit backwards.
He knew all of these were ridiculous!
"No!" I shook my head, smiling now, as I shoved him gently out of my way to walk towards the officers as I gently wrapped my arms around my body.
"I think it's probably an intruder that just came into the area; it's possible," I said. "I'd appreciate a bit more security around my house if we could get that. No strange faces. I literally don't know anyone here."
"Noted. We'll surely look into that," the cop responded while I bit down on my lip and wrapped my arms more around my body before looking back to Ian behind.
"He's here now, though. Ian. I think I'm safe for now. I don't think the intruder will be returning anytime soon since he left after seeing someone arrive." I turned back to the cops.
"Sure, but be on the lookout. If anything suspicious catches your eye again, quickly call us. Before then, we'd have done our best to tighten up security, Miss McCarthy. We're sorry this happened."
"Sure." I briskly nodded and looked over all their faces as they started to retreat back towards the door while I trailed. "I appreciate that you dropped by on time. Thank you very much."
Once again, it was the woman who responded, and after watching them walk down the short staircase and back towards their car, I finally closed the door again.
"Iris, this doesn't feel right," Ian said the moment I turned back around in the room.
"The intruder?" I asked him without moving from the doorway as he leaned off the polished wooden table that was behind him.
"Yeah. I've lived around here for so long; we've never had anything like this. The cops were right with their words. I think... even if you don't know who it was, Iris. We should still find out. It's probably someone after you, and you have no idea. We should figure out who it was. Anything he must have left... He was already walking through the door again. "An ID?" He asked as he searched around. "Maybe something was accidentally dropped?"
"Ian, there's nothing. This isn't a movie." I reached out to pull him back gently by the shirt as I stepped out too.
Turning back around to me, he shook his head.
"You seem so sure this intruder won't return! We can't think that, Iris."
"I never said I was sure there wouldn't be a return."
"Exactly, so we need to do something," he cut in, just really cautious that his friend might get hurt. "I don't believe it's just some random dude. I'll try to make the cops look more into finding out who stepped in, and then... in the meantime, maybe you could come stay over at my house." He shrugged.
"What?" I chuckled, almost not believing he had just suggested that.
Rolling his eyes playfully at me, he walked past me and moved back inside.
"My house is safer than any other around here, trust me."
Now he was bragging, and I couldn't help laughing as I followed him back inside.
"I am not going to live in your house, Ian." I shut the door.
He really is so crazily worried about me! A hot guy is worrying about my safety. And inviting me to his house if I wanted to feel safer. What a universe!
"You'll love my house, Iris." He shrugged again and leaned against the counter to chug down the glass of water he had just taken from the kitchen tap. At least he was much calmer now, and most of the buzz from the worry had steamed off of him.
"I'm not staying at your house, sir." I responded with a not-so-mean side glare and went to turn off my tap properly before shooting him a thankful smile and turning around to him.
"The cops will handle it; they already have a heads-up on the issue. I think I'll be great, Ian. You don't have to worry." I sighed, showing at least my thanks through my weak, grateful smile at him. "I think that stranger is going to get caught if he comes around here again."
"Okay." He simply shrugged and dropped the empty cup before smiling back at me as he started out of the kitchen.
"Wait." I quickly leaned off the counter.
"Yeah?" He turned back around.
I swallowed and accessed his wrongly worn coat before looking back into his eyes.
"Thank you so much." I spoke slowly. "For coming over that quick when you got the call."
"It's nothing, Iris."
"Okay." I nodded. "But still…"
"Still, nothing," he interrupted, and lazily shook his head at me. "Friends, right?"
"Uh…" I stuttered, blinking slowly at him.
It still all seemed too good to be true, especially hearing him say with his own words that we were actually friends. Him and me. Together.
"Yeah," I finally answered and beamed at him. "Friends."
The door to my room banged shut, and in the next minute, I was down on the floor, squatting against the door with my feet on the cold tiled floor and my hands hugging tightly around my knees.All of those things had just ended a few minutes ago, and I just needed time to think right now.All I felt was weak. And tired. And disappointed.I was so disappointed in how things were turning out.This was not the plan at all when I left Isak's house and bought this apartment.I had planned to stay here and remain hidden for as long as it'd take until he finally agreed to sign the divorce papers.How did he find me so easily?Why was Isak constantly such a thorn in my life, even in the process of trying to finally be free from him?Just to confirm everything I already knew, I slid out my phone and opened up the pictures once again, and it all came back into view on the screen, as clear as the moment it had occurred. His retreating figure. His clothes. His car and plate number. Everything.It
That night, Ian had to go back first to his place to freshen up, which was a lot easier since, luckily, he had come in the morning with his car.Before leaving back to his place, he had helped me set up a new alarm system in my apartment and put other possible things that could come in handy together if there was any emergency while he was gone.It didn't take long, however, before his car arrived back in my driveway. I knew he had done it all as soon as possible to be back because he had only been gone for barely an hour when the drive from his place to mine took about thirty minutes to and fro, like he had mentioned before.Not thinking of how much speed he must have added to be back before anything happened over here, I tied up my bathrobe and moved quickly to answer the doorbell.I only just made it out of the shower, thinking I'd have the time to maybe prepare some snacks for us before he got back, but here he was, already back when I had barely made it out of the shower."Ian?"
"Are you okay? Be calm. We're safe."It was Ian speaking. His hands were rubbing firmly over mine in my panic attack as he hurriedly started the car with his other hand while I watched through my ragged breathing as the men from the fire service continued to arrive in their trucks, trying to put out the fire from the house.It felt like a dream.Like a goddamn hallucination.All that reflected in my eyes from my new apartment was now a tall fire. Razing down every single thing all up to the roof.Soon, I found myself whimpering, and then, as soon as Ian's car swerved and finally started to move out of the driveway, I burst into tears.Ian tried his hardest to keep me calm, rubbing consistently over my hands until his car was finally out on the road, leaving it all behind with each distance covered.My apartment.The entire last of my savings was used to purchase that house for my escape.Everything gone.Razed down to the ground.I really couldn't control my cries at this point, and I
I was busy.I had been bent over the same mahogany table for the last hour, looking over the email responses from my lawyer for the millionth time. At the same time, I had my copy of the divorce papers spread over the shiny wood surface in front of me, and at the same time, my left thumb kept busy with declining each of my parents’ calls that kept coming in over and over again.There was no reason to talk to them right now.They had done this to me.Even if they were calling because they had probably heard about the fire, I still didn't wish to speak or say anything to them.There was even a higher possibility that their call wasn't anything about the fire outbreak at my house because I bet Isak wouldn't just go and let them know that their daughter's apartment got razed down when she was in it.It was better now that Isak had no idea where I had gone.He wouldn't go tell my parents about the fire because then he wouldn't be able to say where exactly I was at the moment if my parents
"You look great, Miss.""Uh, Thankyou." I chuckled, sending a thankful smile to the older lady, who was simply one of the many other dozens of staff in the house.I wouldn't be surprised if it turned out that I hadn't even seen them all. This house was literally so big, it would need a lot of housekeeping in all of the corners."I think they fit great," I said too, adjusting my suit jacket as I turned side to side while beaming at the mirror.Ian had burst into my room earlier this morning while I was still in bed to tell me that he had something that may interest me for today if I wanted to join.He had work today, and his offer was that I could join him at one of his companies that he was headed to.Somehow, that had brightened up my entire morning in anticipation for the rest of the day.If someone had told me any day that I would be this happy just to go see some company and return, I would have rolled lazy, bored-looking eyes at the person and gone back to whatever imaginary thin
Ian has changed into a colorful beach shirt with a white singlet underneath and biker shorts, looking way different again from what he had looked like just a few minutes ago at his company.We were both in a jet, and I was psyched!All of these had been really quick; it almost felt like I was on set in an episode of Fifty Shades of Grey. I used to watch them with Arthur, and now I feel like Anna.Only I wasn't Anna. I was Iris, a girl on the run from her maniac husband, Isak. And Ian, a crazy billionaire white knight that I had run into one late night at a resort."You own this jet?" I screamed at Ian, just to be heard over the noise of the wind.The doors were open as Ian wanted us to see all of the sights, but hell no, I wasn't doing that!He grinned at me behind his sunglasses as the strong wind blew over his hair."Enjoy your first ride with me, Iris!""This is crazy!" I laughed loudly and threw my head back.God!If anyone told me I would ever be doing this—flying on a jet—on a v
"Did you ever go to the beach as a kid?" Ian suddenly asked me.Wondering why he asked, I paused but answered anyway. "Yes.""Is that why you stopped back there? When did we come?"So he hadn't thought it was about the apartment.Slowly, I answered him again. "Yeah."He smiled. "I saw the look in your eyes. Like you were recalling the waters from a past time."I let out a silent chuckle, and our gazes remained connected till I could feel that heat building in me again, starting from my neck and then down in the pit of my tummy. It equally started up in my core between my crossed legs stretched out on the beach chair while I blinked constantly and put more and more focus into not letting my breath pattern change in the slightest.Watching Ian, I knew that he could feel everything that I felt right now too.One of his hands was relaxed over his chest, rising and falling calmly with it, and with his other hanging hand, he slowly made contact with my left hand, which was equally hanging d
"Lily? Be sure she gets everything when she's awake.""Yes, sir." The maid bowed.From the top of the staircase, I watched them as I slowly started to get down, and the sound of moving footsteps drew Ian's eyes up.The guards around him were getting his work documents ready and moving them to the car.Holding his gaze with a dry expression, I finally got down to the bottom of the stairs.My nightgown was still on me, stopping short of my knees, with the long silk jacket over it.My hair, I was sure, looked tousled in the morning, and my face was hardly clear of sleepiness.