Chapter 277:
Anger? No.
Disappointment? Not exactly.
He experienced little beyond a profound desire never to see her again.
“You may go,” he stated dispassionately, his tone barely deviating from its usual cadence.
“From this moment forward, we share nothing.” Ashley forced her lips into a smile that was painful to witness.
“Alright.” She gripped her suitcase handle and departed.
Before today’s confrontation, she had contemplated her response if Kristian exposed her deception.
She had imagined revealing her desperate circumstances, believing that his protective nature would compel him to champion her cause and confront her tormentor.
But faced with reality, clarity dawned harshly.
Kristian, who never fully invested himself emotionally, wouldn’t be swayed by her plight even if he understood it. His primary concern was whether she had betrayed his trust.
As this realization settled, Ashley’s fingers, clutching the suitcase handle, grew numb with cold. The prospect of failing her assignment and returning to that person filled her with icy terror. It would be absolute hell!
Once outside, despite her reluctance, she contacted that man. She recognized the futility of escape. No matter her actions, she remained trapped in his web of control. The connection clicked through.
That familiar masculine voice answered—deceptively calm yet inherently threatening. “Failed?”
“Yes…” Ashley’s palm grew slick with cold sweat against the phone.
“How utterly worthless!” The man’s words slithered slowly, dangerously, as he assigned her new directives. “I’ll present you with another task. Should you fail at this as well, prepare to return to the basement.”
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Ashley felt paralyzing dread course through her veins. The basement? No! She couldn’t bear that fate!
Kristian dismissed Ashley’s affairs from his thoughts entirely. After departing the building, he retreated to his vehicle.
He reclined against the leather seat, his mind meticulously reconstructing everything about Freya, including Felipe’s pointed remarks from the previous day.
“When will you exhibit honest self-reflection, Kristian?”
“Freya is the only one who has ever truly influenced your feelings since you were a kid. You wouldn’t get into such arguments with anyone else, not even with Ashley.”
These observations echoed repeatedly through Kristian’s consciousness.
He attempted to dismiss the thoughts, but they held a persistent grip on him.
Amid his tangled contemplations, he contacted Zander, who was currently at the film location, to pose several questions.
“Kristian?” Zander, having just completed a scene, expressed surprise at receiving his call.
Kristian’s gaze darkened subtly. Settling back against the driver’s seat, he inquired with calculated detachment, “What does it truly feel like to love someone?”
Zander was utterly astonished by this unexpected inquiry.
His thoughts raced frantically.
“Are you in love with Freya?”
“That’s not what I’m asking about,” Kristian responded, perpetually skilled at concealing his emotions, fabricating with perfect composure. “It’s actually Gerard. He’s been wrestling with uncertainty about his emotions recently and just asked me to explain the experience of loving someone.”
“I’m unattached, Kristian,” Zander replied succinctly.
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