The Duke's Surreptitious Ways (Rafael Benedict Valiente)

Chapter 19: Sulking

Happy Birthday @sandyblush! This chapter is dedicated to you!! May you have blast! 🎉🎈

Raffy's POV

As soon as I got into my office, I quickly took the decanter that was just sitting on top of the fireplace, unplugged, then poured some into the glass sitting next to it, and downed the Whiskey at once.

The bitterness of the liquor erupted in the back of my tongue, accompanied by a burning sensation, but it is nothing compared to what I felt right now.

Unconsciously gripping the glass tightly, I stared blankly at the wall, her words replaying in my head like a mantra.

"You're hopeless, Raffy!"

"FUCK!" I growled angrily, and fumingly grabbed the decanter, poured another into the glass, and downed it at once.

One swigged after another until I felt my head getting heavy, but it was nothing compared to the heaviness in my chest. It felt like a huge boulder is on top of it, causing me to feel suffocated, it's hard to breathe, and her words kept replaying in my head, taunting me to no end.

The words felt like sharp arrows. Arrows after arrows pierced my heart, leaving an unbearable gnawing pain.

Argh!! I screamed in my head as I poured another into my glass, emptying the decanter, then downed it all. My fingers curled around the glass tightly as I stared at the wall in rage, tightly clenched jaws, and eyes that's spitting fire. My blood boiled in rage, my body starting to shake in overwhelming anger, and involuntarily, the empty glass went flying, smashed against the wall, and the sound of the broken glass against the wall pierced my ears, the million shards splattered over the floor were like my heart at the moment.

I walked towards my chair, then slumped down, I let out a chuckle like a lunatic, lost its sanity.

"You're a fool, Raffy," I mumbled to myself, leaning my head and back against the backrest of the high back chair, then squeeze my eyes shut, trying to wipe out her angry image out of my head.

I felt a stray tear rolled down my cheek, and I let out a bitter chuckle.

A stray tear?

Is that considered crying?

A loud rap on the door snapped me out of my thoughts. I lazily opened one eye, head slowly craning towards the door, and waited for the unwanted visitor. I opened both eyes when Grandpa walked in, donning a bright smile, but suddenly disappeared when he saw my appearance.

I subtly ran my palm across my cheek, wiping the mark of the stray tear away, then lazily sat upright, but my head was too heavy, so I had to lean back, and watched him sauntered across the room. He stopped in the middle of the room, eyes lingered to me, and I squirmed inwardly.

His eyes trained on me in an intent perusal, his eyebrows pressed tightly together, but he didn't say a word. He slowly averted his gaze, scanned the room, his eyes lingered onto the empty decanter, and then he saw the shards of the broken glass.

Slowly he shifted his eyes to me and spoke casually. "You're drunk!" he stated calmly, disapproval underlying his tone.

"I had a little bit, I'm not drunk," I responded glibly, then forced myself to sit upright, trying to convince him just that, but he wasn't the man to fool.

He raised his eyebrow, and then sat on one of the armchairs that were close to the bookshelves.

"Tell me what happened?" he probed as soon as he sat, crossing his leg over the other casually, then clasped his hands, and rested it on top of his thigh, with his back leaning against the backrest of the leather armchair.