Breaking the Cinderella Rules

❁ MISS INDEPENDENT

Hello everyone :) I'm sorry for taking so long to update :) I made this chapter a bit longer... By a bit longer, I made it a few hundred words longer xD I hope you like it :) And 87 votes on the last chapter? YOU GUYS ARE AWESOME. I LOVE YOU ALL. And as always, if you want to get a dedication, comment below. First come first serve :) SInce it's been two weeks since I updated, here's the summary of last chapter's plot:

- Ash meet Cinder in the creepy party of the killers.

-Ash promised himself to tell Cinder everything.

Now, I told you that he would confess to her about the Mason twist... But well... I changed my mind o.o... I'm terribly sorry! Don't kill me o.o!

Song: Miss Independent by Ne-Yo

Chapter 20—MISS INDEPENDENT

Cinder

            I was expecting a thousand miss calls from either Allison or Tiana, but instead, I got one text message with a very clear message typed in. They must figure out that I was not at home, which confirmed their curiosity of the girl who looked like me in the Masquerade Ball. That girl was Cinder Van Hoyer, the girl who tripped on the stairs and was caught by the CEO of the Dark Red. The memory of that itself made me embarrassed.

            DON’T EVER COME HOME.

            That was the message that came into my phone screen. I gritted my teeth as I read the sentence over and over again, trying to verify the words plastered on the surface of my phone. Blinking, I reread the message again before sighing. I had lost my only home. There was no shelter for me to rely on. I was alone. Instead of finding a new roof, I was stuck with Ash who demanded for me to listen to his story.

            Somehow I have a feeling that I didn’t want to listen to anything he was going to say. My guts told me leave him in the darkness, disappear, and never meet him again. There was this hesitation inside of me that kept shouting at me that I would be hurt in the end. But my curiosity won, as usual.

            And now, I was walking with Ash into a familiar park. The sky was sparkling with enough stars to make this night one of the brightest nights in my life. I followed Ash as he guided the way to a bench in the middle of the park. He glanced at me constantly, checking if I was still following him. My eyes were scrutinizing my surroundings, and it widened as I recognized the park.

            This was my weakness. I met him here, and I lost him here too. When I saw Ash gesturing me to sit beside him in a bench, I was hesitant. I remembered it too clearly. Years ago, I was crying on the very same bench, hugging a boy whom I shouldn’t have known. I regretted having known him, and remembering him only reopened the scars I had tried numerous times to close. My heart was now bleeding.

            Tears came into my view as I landed beside Ash on the bench. From the corner of my eyes, I saw Ash staring at me intently like looking a piece of puzzle. His eyes looked concerned when he saw tears coursing down my cheeks. And like years ago, I was held in the arms of a stranger as I cried my feelings out. He said something soothingly, but I could barely hear him through my screams. I was hysteric.

When I finally reclaimed my calmness, I pulled myself from Ash’s embrace and leaned on the bench. My eyes were still trying to stop the tears, and my lips were quivering. But when I stared into his eyes, the storm inside me started to calm.

“Forgive me,” I said and wiped the remaining tears on my cheeks.

Ash shook his head and smiled, the kind of smile that seemed to clear all my pain. “You don’t need my forgiveness, Cinder,” he confessed honestly. His voice was clear, apologetic. “Because I’m bringing you here to ask for yours.”