Chapter 180 – Beginning with a Daring Encounter

“I don’t think I’m okay. I’m not fine. One moment everything was fine and going so perfectly, and the next minute it just feels like… Like I’m about to lose my mind,” Celsie cried as she broke into a sob, unable to hold back the tears anymore.

Sonia’s brows creased with a frown as she tried to make sense of what Celsie had just said, “Calm down, Celsie. Please don’t cry. What’s wrong? Did Benne do something?” Sonia asked, reasoning that whatever was wrong with Celsie had to be connected with Benne as he was the only person who was close to her over there.

Celsie sobbed for a while and then she took off her glasses to wipe the tears off her eyes with the back of her hand, and dropped the glasses on the table. It wasn’t like she needed the glasses to speak to Sonia.

“Did you know that Benne is the same person as Benedict Delgado?” Celsie asked with a sniffle, and Sonia’s heart skipped a beat.

“What are you talking about?” Sonia asked in confusion. Although she had written in the manuscript of her novel that Celsie’s driver was also her boss, she hadn’t expected it to be true. Celsie’s driver was actually Bryan’s brother?

“You heard me. Benne is my boss. He deceived me! He lied to me after I trusted him. To think that I was almost falling for him and now this…”

“Slow down, Celsie. Just calm down and slowly tell me all that transpired between you both,” Sonia said as she cut off Celsie’s bitter diatribe.. Had Celsie not been crying, she would have been over the moon with joy that Celsie had said she was falling for Benne.

Tears dropped from Sonia’s eyes as she patiently listened while Celsie told her everything that happened between her and Benne. Celsie’s voice was pained as she narrated how she had finally decided to act like Benne’s girlfriend, and how they had ended up having sex. She also told her how she had been woken up by Benne while having a nightmare, and Sonia was shocked to hear that Celsie had fainted while talking to Benne about the traumatic experience, but more than that she was surprised that Celsie had actually decided to talk about it after so many years of keeping it to herself.

To date, Celsie was yet to tell any of them exactly what had transpired between her and Jason when he abducted her. They had all assumed that perhaps she must have lost the memory of the event, and her sleeplessness and nightmares were just the adverse results of Jason stalking her, not what happened in that room where he had kept her. All they knew about it was that by the time the police got to where Jason had been hiding her, he was lying lifeless on the ground in the pool of his blood, while Celsie was lying naked and unconscious too.

Throughout the court proceedings that followed his death, Celsie had remained mute and had just kept staring into space with unseeing eyes. It had been Sonia who testified to the court how Jason had been stalking Celsie and harassing every guy that came around her. Her parents had cut her off angrily since it was Sonia’s testimony and that of the guys who had been harassed by Jason, that cleared Celsie. Her parents had wanted Celsie to be punished for the death of their son since they had cleared every evidence from Jason’s bedroom the moment Sonia told it to them that Celsie was missing and Jason was the suspect.

Sleeping had become so difficult for Celsie that the few times she managed to doze off, she would wake up screaming and crying. She had been admitted to the hospital for treatment, as the doctors said she was still in shock. Once she was discharged from the hospital weeks later, she had started taking sleeping pills and alcohol to sleep, and that had continued for years. None of them had been able to broach the subject with her, seeing how she didn’t voluntarily raise the subject herself.

Seeing now how she had easily opened up to Benne, Sonia could tell that she wasn’t just falling for Benne, but rather she had fallen in love with him. It broke her heart to see that now that Celsie had finally managed to come out of her shell after such a long time, she was hurting this way.

By the time Celsie finished speaking, they had stopped crying, and Sonia could also see things from Benne’s perspective, but she was smart enough to know that it wasn’t the right time to point out to her that it was very possible that Benne hadn’t meant to toy with her as she was assuming.

So instead, Sonia did as every best friend would do, “How dare he do that to you? What right did he have to mess with you that way? I should take the next available flight down there and kick his two-faced ass,” Sonia said dramatically, and then paused, “Come to think of it, maybe if you had slept with your boss as well, you would have noticed the similarities in action or maybe the shape and size of…”

“Sonia this is not the time,” Celsie chided her, even though her lips were curved in a smile at Sonia’s joke.

“I know. I’m so sorry, Celsie. I honestly can’t say I understand how you feel, but I know you’re smart and you’re going to figure out a way to deal with it… Just don’t push him away. Benne is not Jamie. He opened up to you himself. He even put the house up for sale already and quit his job…”

“His fake job,” Celsie pointed out.

“It doesn’t matter, Celsie. If he didn’t care about you or let’s say if he was toying with you as you think was, he wouldn’t care about your feelings, and you know it! He would have easily continued with it until you find out yourself, but he stopped because he didn’t want to hurt or scare you. So please whatever you do, don’t be too harsh on him. It’s the first time you’re like this with a guy, so don’t allow his own insecurities ruin things,” Sonia pleaded.

Celsie’s eyes glistened with tears once again, “But he lied to me. He tested me…”

“Tell me if you were in his shoes you wouldn’t resort to the same measure to find love. Tell me if you were him and had encountered ladies like Anita, you wouldn’t be suspicious of every other lady that comes your way? He liked you enough to leave his mansion and live next to your little apartment. He liked you enough to leave his office and work beside you as your driver. Have you even considered the amount of stress he must have passed through just to keep up with you?” Sonia asked reasonably.

“I didn’t ask him to do any of that!” Celsie snapped at Sonia, angry that she was defending Benne.

“You would never have gotten to know him or fall for him had he not done what he did!” Sonia snapped right back.

“Are you on my side or his? Don’t tell me you’re supporting him now because you have a thing with his brother,” Celsie said in a slightly annoyed tone.

“I’m on the side of whatever makes you happy, Celsie. I admit that what Benne did was wrong, but it’s not an unforgivable offense. I would be just as pissed as you are if I were in your shoes, and believe me I would have hit him with whatever was closest to me at the time. However, I also know that I wouldn’t throw out the baby with the bathwater. Get some rest, Celsie, and think over this once again when your head is clear. And you can be rest assured that I will support whatever decision you make at the end,” Sonia promised, making Celsie sigh.

She hated that Sonia could speak so wisely a times. And she hated it more because she was still very pissed, yet she knew that Sonia had made very many valid points, “And what about Bryan? You’re sure he wasn’t aware of this?” Celsie asked, and Sonia narrowed her eyes thoughtfully when she remembered all the times that Bryan had kept pressuring her to tell him about Celsie. Of course, the rat was aware. Little wonder she had been unable to find anything about Benne around the house.

“Let me deal with Bryan myself, just focus on getting over your hurt and forgiving Benne. Now I’m curious to see Anita’s face when she finds out she left Benne because he is broke, yet will be going through so much stress to seduce him. Hurry up and forgive him before she shows up again,” Sonia urged Celsie, and when she heard the disconnect tone, she could tell that Celsie was still very upset.

With a sigh Sonia got off the toilet seat, and readied herself to go confront Bryan.

Harry watched Jade as she ate her food in silence while he sipped from his glass of wine. He wasn’t exactly hungry but had come out for lunch because he wanted her to eat as she looked too thin for his liking. He wasn’t sure she has had a decent meal in a long while.

“For someone who claimed to be hungry, you haven’t touched your food,” Jade pointed out calmly without looking at him, although she could tell that he staring at her.

“I’ve been too hard on you, right?” Harry asked, and Jade’s lips quirked as she raised her head to meet his gaze.

“You’ve been an arsehole,” Jade admitted with a nod, but she no longer sounded very upset.

“I know. It’s probably going to be stupid of me to apologize once again,” Harry said with a crooked smile, and Jade gave him a nod.

---