You Belong To Me

50

"There's something I need to tell you, it's about Lorenzo. And I need you to promise you won't get mad." I tried to give him a confident smile but as he dropped my hands, I knew there was no way he wouldn't be mad at what I had to tell him.

Even after all these weeks have passed the mention of Lorenzo's name still brought a sour look to Noah's face. I watched him closely as he walked to sit behind his desk. He grabbed a bottle of Whiskey from the shelf and poured himself a large glass.

I knew he was waiting for me to talk. The longer I thought over the right words in my head, the thicker the tension in the room became. I watched him as he undid the top few buttons of his shirt. I tried not to get distracted, coughing slightly to control my nerves. He took a sip of his drink, raising his eyebrow at me as he did so.

"Annabella, are you really going to stand there in silence? Or are you gonna start fucking talking?" He placed his glass back down on the desk with a thump. I mentally pulled myself together before walking closer to Rippers desk.

"I'm sorry Noah, I don't want to keep secrets from you." I reached out for his hands which were roughly pulled away from me yet again. At that moment I knew I was truly in the shit. Noah never ever rejected my advances, he always wanted to touch me in some way, but not now. The look in his eye was cold as ice as he stared me down. He stood up abruptly, knocking his chair on the floor, storming over to me.

"Listen to me, you need to start fucking talking. My mind is working 100mph trying to imagine what you're going to say. You better tell me before I do something I may, or may not regret." The look on his face transported me back to the times where the only thing I felt for Noah was fear. I knew not to mess with him when he was like this. I didn't want us to take 10 steps back after how much progress we had made together.

He slowly took a step back to sit back behind his desk. I didn't want to anger him any further so I started talking.

"Last week Lorenzo called me at school. He called through to the office and told me he wanted to meet with me." I took a chance to look up at Noah, whose face didn't move an inch. His eyes urged me to carry on with the story. "I told him I couldn't do it but he insisted. I felt so guilty and I thought that if I went I'd be able to apologise and get closure on the situation." I took a brief pause again waiting for Noah to say something but he still kept silent.

"S-so I went to meet him at a café on Tuesday, you were away for the day." The silence ended as the glass in Noah's hand smashed in his grip. I went to go over to him to inspect his hand but roughly shook me off of him.

"Keep fucking talking." I didn't want to piss him off any more, so I nodded my head quickly. 

"As soon as he sat down I started apologising, telling him how sorry I was about that day. He said he didn't care and that it wasn't my fault. That he was only mad at you." I moved myself a little closer to him, not liking the distance between us. I knew he was mad at me, furious even.

"He kept trying to make small talk but I just wanted him to get to his point. I felt so uncomfortable there, I knew I shouldn't have went and I couldn't stop thinking that I was betraying you." I couldn't stop myself from tearing up a little bit as I spoke. I shouldn't even be crying but I think the emotion of bottling this information up was eating away at me.

"I kept telling him you wouldn't like it if I were there and he got mad at me. Telling me I shouldn't be letting you run my life. He was being condescending and patronising, I just wanted to get out of there. B-but then he said he's been doing a lot of thinking and a lot of planning since he last saw us."

This caught Noah's attention as he narrowed his eyes at me, the word planning struck a chord with him. 

"What did he mean planning?" I took a deep breath.

"He said he had a friend in the FBI and they're making some big plan to put you in prison..." My words hung in the air.

"I told him he was fucking crazy and needed to leave things well alone. He called me a slut and a stupid school girl so I hit him. He left in a hurry, I have no idea if he's still going ahead with his plan, or what exactly the plan is, but you need to be careful Noah." A stream of tears left my face as I sank to my knees trying to embrace Noah. 

In a split second he snapped into action and pushed me away from his body. I fell in a heap on the floor as he grabbed the Whiskey bottle and threw it at the wall.

I tried to back myself into a corner as Noah went on a rampage, destroying everything in the room. I let out a loud sob bringing his attention back to me. His eyes held a fire inside of them as he charged over to me, I quickly stood up. 

"You've known that this punk was out to get me for a whole week and you've said NOTHING?" I couldn't even think of words to defend myself because he was right, I took too long to tell the truth. The anger was radiating off of his body as his grip on me never loosened.

"I'm so sorry Noah, I was scared. I was scared you'd be angry at me for going to see him. I was scared you'd find him and kill him." I knew there was no reasoning with him today. No amount of tears would get him to calm down.

"You were right to be scared. Not only did you defy me when I told you to NEVER speak to him again, but you also kept your fucking mouth shut with information that could cost me EVERYTHING."

"Noah, I'm sorry- I was wrong I should've never have gone to see him. I should've told you when he called me right away." 

"Sorry isn't gonna fix it. So what, because I brought you a couple of birthday presents you don't want me to get in trouble? Is that what it is huh? Let me guess, you would've kept your mouth shut if your birthday wasn't up to par?" I shook my head profusely trying to reason with him.

"No Noah that's not it, you know I'm not like that. I don't care about those things." 

He started laughing at me. 

He took large strides over to his desk where he found the tickets to Italy he'd bought for me. Right in front of my eyes he ripped them to shreds. He grabbed the lingerie set which he threw in the fireplace, along with the box which held the diamond necklace.

I sobbed out loud, not at the fact that the presents were destroyed, but because he thought those were the reasons I was coming clean. "I thought we were moving forwards Annabella but it's clear to me that you can't. You'll never fucking trust me and now guess what, I don't trust you either."

I didn't care that he was probably contemplating killing me right now. "Please don't say that Noah. I trust you more than anything. I know you trust me too. Look we've both made mistakes okay, I'm sorry I didn't tell you sooner. I'm a fucking coward okay." I grabbed Noah's head between my hands, forcing him to look at me.

"Don't throw what's happened in the past in my face. We started a fresh and you fucked up. You disobeyed me and then you didn't think to tell me someone was trying to get my ass thrown in jail. That someone being a man you know I loathe." He had calmed down a tiny bit, he never threw me off of him again which I took as a good sign.

"I know Noah I was being stupid, so fucking stupid. It won't happen again. I promise you, I'll never do anything like that again. I don't care about the gifts or any of that stuff. I just care about you, I want to be with you, I need to be with you Noah." Desperation was clear in my voice and I quickly placed a kiss on his mouth. He didn't recoil so I did it again and again. He made no move to kiss me back so I let out a strangled sob.

"I'm leaving." He said.

"What? Please don't leave, let's talk about this." He peeled me off of him, fixing his dishevelled clothes.

"No. Not tonight. I need to go speak with my guys and tell them about your lovers plans." He gave me a look laced with disappointment before walking out the room leaving me alone.

I screamed out in frustration, throwing any solid object I could get my hands on. This was all my fault. Why did I tell him sooner? I fucked up. I knew deep down that Noah cared out me, he had to forgive me for this. 

I just have to give him some time and then we can work this out.

We had to.