جميع فصول : الفصل -الفصل 110

But Rina couldn’t keep that promise she’d made to Zayn for as long as she’d hoped. When he left, she returned to her room and threw herself on her bed, still in the bathrobe, staring up at the ceiling until her eyes hurt. She got up again and paced through her space, her head spinning from everything that had occurred.Now that she was alone, Rina allowed all her feelings to come to the fore. It was the only time she would allow herself to be that way over the fashion show because that was all she could afford. Rina was certain that when it was morning, she would be ready to face the world, along with whatever it brought. But for now, she slid onto the floor and heaved out a loud sigh.It was useless to question the past, especially since she’d left it behind. Still, Rina wished she hadn’t become friends with Kayla, and that she hadn’t married Finn. Her life wouldn’t have been that difficult, and crushing Kayla back in the entertainment industry would have been much easier if she’d se

Rina got up with a start, wincing as the headache came in immediately, hitting her head all over. She held a hand to her forehead and leaned on the headboard, staying that way for a while until the first bout passed. She felt like she would throw up at any minute, and her eyes still felt like she was asleep, even though she knew she didn’t want to return to bed. Reaching for her phone by the nightstand, she checked for missed calls and messages, yet ended up ignoring the five missed calls and three unreplied messages. Her head banged again, demanding her attention, and this time, Rina didn’t think she could ignore it.Yet, there was something trying to nudge her consciousness, something she had missed even though she’d only just woken up a few minutes ago. It was present, nudging her to pay attention to something else other than her migraine. When she heard the loud thump on her door, Rina jumped and yelped from the sudden shoot of pain. That was what woke her up, and not the migraine

They went through a trap door Rina had never noticed in her basement, and it made her wonder what else Zayn had discovered in her cottage that she had never noticed after years of owning it. Oleg went before her, pulling out the rug from atop the door and stepping aside to let her through. Rina looked up in apprehension when she discovered he wasn’t going with her through the dark hole.“I have to close it up and lock the basement doors so they wouldn’t notice the trap door if they gain full access inside,” he explained. When he saw that Rina’s worries only increased, he said, “We will make sure that doesn’t happen. The guys outside only need the signal that you are out of there before they go into action. They don’t want to hurt you in the process.”“And you?” Rina whispered, scared that someone might have come in already, that the kitchen door wasn’t strong enough to keep them out. “How will I know where I’m supposed to go?”“Just hide away from view at the entrance. I will be there

Dinner was a feast, and Rina had a feeling that it had everything to do with her. George and Isaiah seemed to have grown even closer in all the months that Rina’s career had taken a huge tank, and she loved to see them exude such sweet love. It was exactly what she’d hoped for when she was much younger, to be in love so much so that it was hard to hide it. And when she met Finn, Rina had thought that was it, that she had gotten her forever.But even forever could be misidentified.“Isaiah made the meals,” George said when they were down to desert, a large bucket of cold chocolate ice cream and scones.“Of course,” Rina chuckled. “It couldn’t have been you. You would set the whole kitchen ablaze.”George opened his mouth in mock horror and Rina waved it away. “At least, you are good at being a manager,” she muttered. That bit was true. Throughout the period she worked as an actress and even after she retired, George always had her schedules prepared beforehand. There was never a thing

Rina got off the floor in the blink of an eye, her lips parting in astonishment. “Are you sure?” Her voice came out in a whisper, and she made no attempt to correct it. There were more pressing issues, like the presence of Zayn in the apartment where her manager lived. Was he trying to blow out their cover?“I don’t get it,” George muttered, trying to wrap his head around the sudden presence of the most powerful person in the country. He knew that as a result of the nature of his job, he interacted with influential people in the country, but Zayn was just on another level. George knew where he belonged, but the Graham family, and Zayn in particular, were way out of his reach.Yet, he was there at the door, ringing the doorbell again.“Aren’t you going to answer that?” Isaiah asked, staying rooted to the spot. “We can’t know what he wants if we leave him out there now, can we? Maybe he needs you to do something important for him.”George took a deep breath, and cleaned his hands on his