After Effects

Chapter 56 • After Effects

I spun around to face him; my mouth open in shock.

"What- what did you just say?" I asked, needing to clarify whether I heard that correctly. Riddian looked just a bit surprised at himself as well, but the reaction soon dissipated as he took a step closer to me and then paused as if rethinking it.

"Katherine," he repeated, staring down at me with what almost seemed to be vulnerable eyes. The name sounded so foreign coming off his tongue but although my mind was not used to it, it was already liking how it sounded. Riddian closed his eyes for a few seconds and then took a breath before reopening them. "I'm sorry," he said in the most broken voice.

"You're sorry?" I asked awkwardly.

"I'm a stupid man. I've said a lot of stupid things since night. Please, let me try to handle one arguement at a time and explain everything to you," he whispered, breath hitching in anticipation to whatever my answer would be.

I released a soft breath in hesitation and then sighed quietly, mentally mulling over his request. Finally, I made the decision, concluding that I needed to hear this and it was about time I got some idea of what went through this man's mind. This was the opportunity, so I stayed quiet and nodded, giving him the go ahead.

Riddian took a deep breath and then began.

"Firstly, about the.... gold digger thing." I inclined my head as he paused and then exclaimed, "...well... shit!" running a hand through his hair and taking a step closer. "Listen, I don't know how to have these kinds of conversation with a woman because of... how I grew up," he sighed looking up at me, eyes becoming four with mine, "but for you I'll try."

I took a deep but silent breath, being careful to not interrupt.

"Katherine I've been through a lot throughout my life. One half I thought I had enough only to be abandoned by the only family I had, and then in the next half I gained a family who gave me more than enough! And though that made me want for nothing physically, it definitely made me cautious about the people around me since now everyone who approached me wanted something physical as well.

"I started not trusting anyone but my family or people just as wealthy as us because everyone else would only want money," he admitted. I couldn't take my eyes off him as he came even closer and his arms moved up so that his palms were resting on the closet doors on either side of my head. His head bowed so that I was now staring at his forehead only. "I have had many experiences where I was taken advantage of because of the same matter. That made me build a personal wall up against people until I find out the truth.

"With Paige, with you, it's the same thing. When I first met Paige it was when Kellian introduced her to us as his wife a few months ago. As the guy's best friend, I had never even heard of her before then and neither had his family. It was literally that one day Kellian had never been in a relationship, never even been seen with a girl who is not just a onetime contract business associate, and then the next, news spread that he's married to someone we've never even heard of before. Paige really just popped up off the map all of a sudden, we never even heard a thing about a wedding," he explained, seeming deeply troubled before his head snapped up and the conversation shifted.

"Then with you..."

My head started swimming.

"No offense but of course I thought you were a gold digger with all the things I've been through." My face tightened into a deadpan. "I mean there was no way you couldn't have known me- I'd thought- and then you were separated from an entire troop just to meet up with me in the forest? That sounded like a well thought out plan to me..."