Arrogant Billionaire: Love vs Hate

Chap. 16

"Reason is powerless in expression of love"
-Rumi
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Mark's POV

Argh. My fist slammed into the wall. Pain shot through my knuckles, sharp and immediate, but it barely registered. My breathing was heavy, uneven, and my hand was already beginning to swell, yet none of it mattered.

Andy's eyes flashed in my mind again.

Cold. Distant.

It was the look she gave me before she walked away. For some reason, that single moment kept replaying in my head like an irritating echo I couldn't shut off.

Why the hell was I even thinking about it?

I shouldn't be giving a damn about what she thought anyway. She disrespected me first. I only reminded her where she stood.

So why was this still stuck in my head?

I dragged a hand through my hair and forced myself to breathe slower. This was ridiculous. I had never been someone who wasted time thinking about meaningless things like this. Still, the irritation sitting in my chest refused to settle.

I needed to clear my head.

After taking a cold shower, I headed toward my personal gym. The familiar scent of metal and rubber greeted me the moment I stepped inside. Usually, this place worked like a reset button. A few rounds of lifting, some time with the punching bag, and everything inside my head eventually quieted down.

Or at least it used to.

I rolled my shoulders before stepping toward the punching bag and throwing the first punch. The impact sent the bag swinging violently. The chains rattled above it with a metallic rhythm as my fists kept landing, one after another.

Minutes passed. Then more.

Thirty minutes later, the bag was still swaying under the force of my hits, my knuckles were swollen and burning, and sweat soaked through my shirt. But the noise inside my head hadn't faded at all. Usually, the anger drained out by now. Instead, my thoughts kept circling back to the same person.

Her.

There was something about that girl that irritated me on a level I couldn't quite explain. It wasn't simple anger. Anger was straightforward. Clean. Easy to deal with. This wasn't.

It was like every time she spoke, every time she looked at me with that calm defiance, something inside my head tightened slightly. As if she had somehow stepped into a space she had no business entering.

People usually behaved in predictable ways around me. Most adjusted themselves quickly, either out of caution, ambition, or simple self-interest. It was easy to read and ignore. But Andy didn't seem to operate within that pattern. That had to be the reason she stayed in my head longer than she should.

Nothing more.

Still, certain questions refused to disappear.

Why the hell did I put her on my bed when I should've left her locked in that damn closet?

Why did I knowingly cut her shift short?

Why did every expression on her face remain unusually clear in my memory?

I punched the bag harder, the chains creaking loudly with the force. Another thought almost surfaced—something I didn't want to examine too closely.

I stopped mid-swing.

My hand hovered in the air for a second before I lowered it slowly. The thought irritated me more than the punching did.

"Stop it. Are you trying to kill yourself?" Chase's voice cut through the room.