His Secret [Completed]

Chapter Fifteen

The soft tweeting of the birds outside was drowned out by the heaving pounding of Noah's fist on Sophia's bedroom door, which was then followed by the words, "we're leaving in half an hour." Her croaky morning voice replied with an 'okay' as she shuffled into the bathroom to switch on the shower. She allowed the warm water to glide over her shoulders in an attempt to help ease the tension in her back, but as the nerves ran through her veins she found herself being denied that much-needed relaxation. She knew that it made little sense why she'd agreed to go back to the McKenzie manor, and after the way Noah's father Alan had treated her, she felt personally targeted and judged with anything she did or said. He spoke to her in a horrible manner, but she felt the need to prove him wrong. Alan only saw Sophia as a gold digger and deep down, she wanted to show him who she truly was and how kind and hardworking she could be.

As she stepped out of the shower there was another knock on the bedroom door. Wrapping a thick white towel around her body she opened it ever so slightly. "Breakfast is on the table," Noah said, gave her the once over and then walked back to the kitchen. Yelling a "thank you" after him, she retreated back into her room to dress. When Sophia finally emerged a couple of minutes later she was dressed in a simple pair of black jeans, a white shirt and her hair was swept up into a high ponytail.

The corner of Noah's mouth tilted up ever so slightly as Sophia entered the kitchen, but it was barely noticeable as he buried his head back into the newspaper in front of him. Sophia took a seat across from him and noticed the buffet of food in front of her. There was one item in particular that caught her eye. A white box with a red silk bow wrapped around was set in front of Noah's placemat. His eyes joined hers and then drifted to the box. "This is for you." He slid the box across the table. Out of pure curiosity, Sophia unwrapped the bow and lifted off the lid. She wanted to refuse the gift before she even knew what was inside, because she felt as if she knew Noah rather well, and was convinced whatever was in the box was expensive. She didn't want to accept handouts from anyone, but especially not from Noah, who'd already given her so much.

"I can't accept this," she said as her fingers danced over a brand new phone, which still had the plastic film over the screen.

"Why not?"

"I have a phone." She tried to convince him that her beaten up, decade-old phone was still functioning as it once had.

Noah tore his eyes away from the newspaper for a quick second. "Correction... you had a phone."

"Excuse me?" Sophia's answer came across as a little rude, and very angry.

He folded the newspaper and set it aside. "It fell off of the table last night," he explained, as if it were a dish that slipped out of his hand and smashed as it hit the tiles. The old flip phone contained her world;  it was the last present she received from her mother before she died. Sophia was fourteen at the time and was just starting to walk to school on her own. Under any other circumstances, her parents would have refrained from giving her a phone until she was at least sixteen, but she was beginning to walk the forty-five-minute journey to school every day, as money for the bus ride just wasn't something her parents could swing each week.

The phone was the only item Sophia had left from her old life and the fact that Noah didn't seem the least bit bothered by it broke her heart.

"Where is it?" She asked him, in the hopes that he hadn't simply tossed it into the trash. Noah reached into his blazer pocket and pulled out two separate components of her phone- the keyboard and the screen were hanging together by a couple of wires. Sophia's face dropped as he passed it to her. The tape that had been holding it together for a while had not done such a good job in the end, and even though she was devastated, she couldn't help but feel disappointed that he hadn't even apologised.