Niamh spent the rest of the day with the old master until the sky turned dark.
Kendrick left the study now that he was done with work and walked toward the old master’s room in hopes to speak to Niamh. He saw her lying on the study table.
With a book in hand, she had fallen asleep quietly. She was unguarded in a way that reminded him of an innocent child.
‘She must be exhausted.’
Kendrick thought to himself caringly as he turned to leave the room. He returned shortly after with a blanket in hand as he carefully walked toward Niamh and covered her body with it.
Kendrick had intended to leave and not disrupt her any further after placing a blanket on her, but he found himself unable to hold back as his warm fingertips fell on and massaged the crease of her eyebrows.
His heartbeat slowly turned joyful. He understood the sudden sweetness that washed over him.
However, his heart clenched painfully as his fingertips fell on Niamh’s cheek.
Her fair and flawless cheek had been marred with a wretched gash back then when Nevaeh disfigured her face.
She had been in so much pain, yet he tore the bandage away and mocked about how her wound was fake.
‘I’m sorry, Nia.’
He apologized internally as he leaned down to steal a peck on Niamh’s cheek.
The temperature of her face swarmed his heart with warmth.
Like a thief who had stolen something, he immediately fled and pretended as if he never went to the room at all.
Soon after, Niamh woke naturally to find herself covered by a blanket. There was a slightly minty scent. If memory served her right, that was also how Kendrick smelled like.
Dazed, her phone vibrated in notification of a call from Felipe.
He had already arrived at the villa’s gates to fetch Niamh home.
Niamh replied before packing up to leave after seeing that the old master was still serenely asleep.
She closed the room door behind as she left, only to have Kendrick appear before her.
“Are you going back? I can send you if you want.”
“No thanks.” Niamh rejected curtly. “Felipe’s already waiting for me outside.”
Niamh turned to leave before Kendrick could even retract the disappointment in his eyes.
Seeing Kendrick walk out with Niamh, Felipe alighted the car to wrap his arms around Niamh. The corners of Felipe’s lips tugged into a smirk as he looked at Kendrick before suddenly leaning down to press a kiss between Niamh’s brows.
Felipe’s peck was sudden, and as shocked as Niamh was, she could not help but remember that Kendrick was right behind them.
Something told her that Felipe kissed her just for Kendrick to see, but she got in the car quietly without commenting on it.
Felipe gave Kendrick, whose expression screamed of frost, a glance from the corner of his eyes as his lips curled into a mocking smile.
He alighted the car and stepped on the accelerator.
In the passenger seat, Niamh’s eyes could not help but stare at the diminishing figure from the rear- view mirror.
Under the moonlight, the heavy loneliness and torment could not be more clear on the man’s face.
He was evidently displeased, but he was also suppressing it.
Niamh thought Felipe would send her back to Montgomery Manor, but the car had instead stopped at a single villa in the outskirts of town.
As far as she could remember, she had never spent the night here before.
Felipe brought Niamh to her designated room and had the maids bring her amenities and sleepwear.
“You must be exhausted after taking care of that old master the entire day. Go take a bath.” Felipe instructed softly as he patted Niamh’s long hair. “Did Kendrick do anything to you?”
Niamh shook her head. “I don’t think he’d dare.”
“That’s good, then.” Felipe smiled faintly. “Go take a bath.”
He turned and left, closing Niamh’s door behind him.
The warm smile on his face vanished the moment he closed the door.
Ever since Niamh had woken up after that day by the sea and he took Niamh from Kendrick’s arms, he could feel that something in Niamh changed.
He had no idea what happened between the two of them on the island during those two days, but Niamh’s treatment of Kendrick seemed to be different now.
In the quiet of the night.
Kendrick sat awake in Old Master Waldburg’s room with the blanket he had placed over Niamh’s shoulders in his hands.
Yearning, he brought it to his nose and found that it still smelled faintly of Niamh’s perfume.
However, the memory of Felipe turning Niamh away and kissing her forehead pierced into his heart like a needle.
He could not bear to imagine if Niamh was spending time alone with Felipe, or if they were getting intimate.
The more he thought, the more breathing seemed like a chore. His heart thumped suffocatingly in his chest.
Kendrick quickly pushed the thoughts away. Glancing at the sleeping old master, he then left the room quietly…
…
At the rural villa.
Coming out of the bath, Niamh video called Jackson with her phone. Her finger had accidentally tapped on the gallery when she put it down and an unfamiliar image popped up in her line of vision.
The teal sea blended in with the azure sky as she squatted by the beach. Her eyes were bent into crescent moons as she smiled and held the bookmark in her hands.
The scene was beautiful, and the angle made her look stunning.
However, was this not the scene of her strolling by the beach the morning before she left the island?
Had Kendrick taken a picture with her phone?
Why would he take such a picture?
Now that she thought about it, she remembered Kendrick’s lovesick-like behavior that day.
‘Is that love?
‘Would love drive a person to do such a thing?’
Niamh was deep in thought when the light knocks on the door brought her out of it.
Putting her phone down, she turned to open the door.
Meeting her eyes was Felipe’s lithe figure in front of her.
Donned in a loose-fitting white sleeping robe, the man’s alluring clavicles could vaguely be seen through the thin material.
Niamh felt inexplicably uncomfortable to see Felipe in such a sight even though she had not felt the slightest discomfort when she took off Kendrick’s shirt previously. The upper half of his body was even revealed when she dressed his wounds.
“Did you come to say goodnight, Felipe?” She smiled, reining back her wandering thoughts.
Felipe smiled lightly and walked in.
Niamh was left with no choice but to let go of the door handle, which Felipe took and used to close the door behind him as he entered.
The sound of the door closing fueled Niamh’s unease.
“Is there something you want to talk to me about, Felipe?” Niamh gave a small smile, standing by the door.
Felipe turned around. Reading the guarded look in Niamh’s glossy eyes, his lips quirked as he walked toward her and grabbed her hand.
“Vera, or perhaps I should call you Eveline, considering that’s your birth name.” Felipe’s tone was gentle as it drifted to her ears like the soft evening summer breeze, while a slender finger reached out to tug wisps of her hair behind her ear.
“I swore to myself the moment you almost died on the operating table because of Kendrick and Nevaeh that I would never let anything harm you again.”
The walls in Niamh’s eyes slowly gave away, leaving gratefulness in their wake.
“Thank you, Felipe. You saved me once back then, and you saved me again when I fell into the sea. I would’ve died had it not been for you.”
“I won’t let anything happen to you.” Felipe’s gaze was deep. “I promised myself ever since we met by the seaside on April Hill, and I promised you as well that I’d protect you forever.”
Niamh lifted her sparkling eyes at his words to take in every detail on the man’s face.
The familiar sharp bows and starlit eyes bore warmth, yet her mind seemed to supply her with Kendrick’s appearance instead.
New Book: Back Home to Marry Off Myself
Loredana’s father left the family for his mistress, leaving them to fend for themselves abroad. When life was at its toughest, her father showed up with “good news” after 8 years of absence: To marry off Loredana to a paralyzed son of the wealthy Mendelsohn family.