FLASHBACK (1) FLASHBACK (1)

Roderick's heart bled insanely with worry.

'She inflicted pain on herself', those words rang in his head repeatedly sending warning bells ringing crazily in his head. What was he going to do about this?

******

Days passed and the days turned into a week. However, a certain someone's husband had totally disappeared. Elena had long stop waiting for the day when Roderick would enter her room and tell her to start packing for their honeymoon. Her anticipation had long died along with her excitement of where he would be taking her.

So she had been a bit surprised when she woke and opened the door only to be met with his incredibly handsome face. He smiled at her but it didn't reach his eyes and sadly when she smiled back at him, her smile also didn't reach her eyes. They both kept silent for a while before he started.

"Are you okay?", he asked gently as he reached out to her cheek and caressed it. Elena stared at him feeling the same warmth she felt a week ago. A warmth she had been longing, missing. Yes, for some reason she was missing him, this so called devil that seemed more like an angel to her.

Her eyes welled up with tears. She didn't know if it was because she hadn't known how much she had missed him or because she now knew he still cared. She had been thinking that way since the third day he suddenly disappeared. She had really thought he didn't care anymore. The tears rolled down her face and Roderick only stared with worry.

"Elena, I—", Roderick started but was stopped by a soft and broken voice.

"Where were you?", Elena asked looking like she was angry however, she leaned into him and pressed herself unto his hard body. Her arms wrapped around his waist and she buried her head in his chest before letting out a sob.

Roderick could feel his spotlessly white, expensive silk shirt getting wet from her tears. The sound of her muffled sobs were heart-wenching to him. God!

"Elena, please, please stop crying." Roderick said in a begging tone. He was beginning to feel suffocated. However, it seemed only to make make matters worse because she wailed even louder, trembling visibly in his embrace.

And what was worse, Roderick was starting to get agitated. He hated crying women. It reminded him of some unpleasant buried memories. Memories that.....well, let's just say involved a lot of crying women.

"Elena", Roderick's voice was getting hard and cold. Nonetheless, she kept up with the loud wailing. It seemed that the sound of her loud sobs were drowning out his voice. Roderick fisted his hands by his side, feeling his emotions getting the better of him.

"ELENA", he shouted and she flinched back. Elena took a step back and raised her hands to her face defensively. He could see her cowering in fear of him and it only made his heart sink to the pit of his stomach.

"I am....", he said trying to smooth things over however the moment he took a step forward, she took a step backwards in self defense. And seeing this, nothing but hurt filled Roderick's stone-cold heart. But the feeling departed just as fast as it arrived.

Trying his best to be gentle while his blood boiled red hot in his body, Roderick said, "we'll be leaving at noon tomorrow so pack up". The truth was that he failed miserably to be gentle. His voice was cold and low which made it seem ominous.

Elena made no attempt to respond so Roderick span around and left. He banged the door loudly to show his annoyance and Elena flinched. The moment Elena was free from his cold aura, her weakened legs gave in and she fell to her knees.

Her hand dropped to her side and she sat on her calves. Her empty eyes stared at the door then desperation creeped into her, making her feel as if she was hanging onto her life by a thread.

Why was he so angry? Shouldn't it be her who should be angry? What right did he have to shout at her? Suddenly her expression changed to one of indignation.

UGH!!

Life was really too unfair to her!

Well, she couldn't do anything about it either way. She actually shouldn't be be on good terms with him if you thought about it carefully. One way or the other, Roderick was partly at fault for her misery. But Elena had thought that since she was going to spend the rest of her miserable life with him, they should at least be on the same page, on good enough terms just so they could live with each other.

Was she that wrong? She sighed and got up to pack. She hoped this honeymoon would let her release some stress, to maybe go back into the tiny winy glimmer of light she had left.

Now she felt that might be an impossible feat. Especially after that look Roderick had given her.

After packing, she sat on her bed, dazed as memories with Cameron flooded her fragile mind

*FLASHBACK

That faithful day, Elena along with her friends has been walking to the apartment they shared after a long day of work. However, half way there, they were suddenly stopped by a group of gangsters. The gangsters chased after them in a slow pace as they hurried away only to end up at a dead end in an alley.

The gangsters cornered them. Elena, therefore stepped forward in order to persuade the gang to leave them– that is Elena and her friends– alone.

"Sirs, can you please be magnanimous and let us off?" Elena said politely.

But of course, she should have known what their answer would be. The men only chuckled as if amused by her question.

Nonetheless, Elena tried again in a pitiful voice, "see? We are so young and immature, we definitely wouldn't be able to satisfy your needs."

"Oh don't worry baby girl, that pretty little face of yours is enough to satisfy my every need." One of the gangsters said as he licked his lips and eyed her lecherously.

Elena clenched her fists as she gagged. The girls behind did same as their eyes turned cold. Elena opened her mouth to say something but before she could, a voice boomed front the entrance of the alley, "leave those girls alone." This deep alluring and magnetic voice seemed to make the girls' ears become pregnant.