Chapter 110: Mysterious boy
Chapter 25 - Mysterious Boy
Rosie’s POV
I woke up to an empty bed, blinking my eyes rapidly against the morning light until they fully opened. I reached up to touch the side of my head, feeling it throb with a pounding headache while the rims of my eyes still stung. I spotted a fresh glass of water sitting on the nightstand. I reached over and picked it up, gulping the liquid down greedily to refresh my rough, parched throat.
The moment the water hit my stomach, the chaos of the previous evening came rushing back into my mind, causing me to gasp out loud as my eyes widened in the quiet room. Sophia’s return was instantly pushed to the back of my mind as I remembered the insane words Jude had confessed to me right before I fell asleep.
I blinked at the ceiling, wondering if I was mistaken or if my exhausted memory was just conjuring up a wild dream. I could distinctly remember hearing a low voice cutting through my first arc of sleep, and I remembered Jude dropping to his knees confessing before I fell asleep.
Or rather my brain forced itself to shut down from what it had been fed.
My heart began to thump against my chest at the memory of it; a part of me wondered if I should be genuinely scared of how deep his obsession actually ran or just follow the flow as I had before knowing anything.
He loved me? He had been secretly watching me for years? He had planned everything?
I honestly didn’t know if I was angry or what I was even supposed to feel right now, but deep down beneath the confusion, I knew I felt a sense of gratitude for how deeply he loved me to do everything. I pulled my knees tightly against my chest, tilting my head down to rest on them as I tried to process everything.
What was I supposed to do now? He had done everything to have me in his life—someone like me, who felt like she had nothing to offer a man of his status. I rubbed my face with my hands, my head overanalyzing every single detail while my heart continued to race out of control. I couldn’t wrap my head around it.
Suddenly, my phone pinged loudly on the nightstand, the screen brightening as I stretched my arm out, picking the device up and unlocking it to see what the alert was about. As I swiped down the notification bar to view the message, my eyes widened in shock at the sight of money alerts from my bank. I quickly tapped into my mobile banking application, my breath catching in my throat the moment the account balance loaded.
I blinked continuously, staring blankly at the screen and carefully counting the zeros lined up at the back of the number while a lump of emotion clogged my throat, looking at the figure in shock. I rubbed my eyes aggressively, convinced that my mind was imagining things.
Then, Jude’s words from last night about forcing the loan shark to return my money flashed through my head, and realization hit me. All the labor I had done for the past seven years, all my hard work, and pain were staring right back at me as I used my hands over my mouth, muffling the loud scream of disbelief that threatened to escape my throat. I couldn’t believe it.
I became rich overnight. Was this how easy it was? To accumulate money like this, but it was hard working for it.
The bedroom door clicked open, and Jude entered the room carrying a breakfast tray in his hands, freezing dead in his tracks when he noticed I was awake and sitting up in bed. He gulped visibly, and I immediately noticed how disheveled his dark hair looked. He was still wearing the same clothes from yesterday, and there were dark circles under his lashes. His eyes made an anxious scan over my face, his fingers gripping the edges of the tray tightly.
"How are you?" he asked softly, his voice softened, wetting his lower lip anxiously.
I just gave him a slow nod in response, my tongue tied because I had no idea what to even say to him right now. I was feeling overwhelmed by discovering Jude had orchestrated our meeting, and seeing my hard-earned life savings sitting safely in my account was like a miracle. A part of me wanted to jump out of bed and throw my arms around his neck, thanking him while another part of me wanted to admonish him for keeping such a secret from me.
So contradictory.
But as I looked at him, a thought crossed my mind—if he had just come to me straight up and approached me normally back then, would I have agreed to let him in? I continued to stare at him in silence, causing him to shift awkwardly from foot to foot when I didn’t give a verbal reply.
I looked over his messy hair, his anxious face, and his broad body, all the way down to his legs, before bringing my gaze back up to meet his eyes. I honestly couldn’t comprehend what a man like him could possibly see in someone like me.
Jude opened his mouth to speak, starting with a hesitant, "Are you—"
But I cut him off before he could finish the sentence. "What exactly do you see in me, Jude? Why do you even like me? Why did you go to such lengths to do all of this? Since when have you loved me, and out of all the people in the world, why me?" I fired off the questions rapidly, letting my mouth spew out every single thought my brain could form.
Jude walked a few steps closer into the room, though he kept a safe distance between us before quietly dropping the food tray down on the nearby table. "I... I..."