Lunch time…


  Jorge ate quickly, almost swallowing his food without chewing because of the horrifying silence inside Liam's pantry room. He finally stood up in the middle of his lunch since he did not want to get indigestion with the way he ate.

  "I forgot that I have an urgent matter. I will go first and finish my food later in my office," Jorge said before leaving them alone with his food. The two of them did not even bother to answer him.

  After Jorge left, Liam also felt gloomy. With lost appetite, he stood up, leaving his food unfinished and said, "I'm full already. You finish your lunch. I am going to rest in my private room for a while."

  Lana nodded and bit her bottom lip as Liam walked out of the pantry first.

  "What's with him? He didn't even bother to ask me about my encounter with Gracy. Is he now trying to avoid me? Is he really too mad about last night?" she whined as she cleaned up the food without finishing hers as well because she had already lost her appetite. She was feeling worried…


  Lana went back inside her room, feeling restless. After a few minutes of contemplation inside her room, she came up to a decision to talk to Liam clearly. She gave one last look at the one-way glass where she already had put a blind to cover herself from Liam.

  She exhaled loudly before standing up on her feet and strode up and stepped at the blind door of the private room. She had access to it since Liam gave her the manual pin number. She tapped the glass and input the pin code. The door slid open opposite at both sides.

  Lana peeked inside and saw Liam lying on his bed. She was about to turn around and leave at the thought of Liam sleeping.

  "Yes? What is it?" she heard Liam's voice, then she saw Liam got up and sat down taking the support of the back of bed, looking at her intently.

  Lana walked towards him hesitantly, stopping at the side of the bed where he was and asked, "Is there something wrong Liam?"

  Liam just tilted his head up and tried his best to look unaffected by Lana's worried and conflicted face. He was a little upset ever since Lana's cruel words during lovemaking. But to make things more in his favour, he had decided to act on his cousin Ryu's idea.

  The silent treatment to make your woman realise her mistake. He wondered if this could be effective. Taunting Lana with his silence and nonchalance. He wondered how long he would last.

  Liam had since long realised that Lana had become his soft spot and that he could barely tolerate any discomfort on her face. But the trick he was going to use would definitely make her sad, and he would have to endure it this time. He wanted to punish her for her wrong words at the most wrong time and as Ryu's tips on relationships, silence and acting indifferent were the best ways to deal with a prideful woman.

  "Liam, is there something wrong?" Lana asked again, not hearing any answer from him. He still remained quiet.

  Then fixed his eyes at Lana's and gave her a stony gaze before saying, "I thought about it overnight. You said that night, I should not invest any emotions in this relationship, and I realised you may be right, so that's what I'm trying to do right now."

  Lana's jaw dropped. She could not believe what Liam just said. She felt as if her breath hitched and she gulped to straighten the knot formed suddenly in her throat. Those words coming from Liam were like a stab to her.

  "What's wrong with you? Why are you acting so fussy over it now?" Lana beamed with a crumpled face.

  "Fussy? Me? I'm just simply obliging with what you said, my dear wife. So I will try my best not to get too attached with you emotionally, just as you have wished." Liam continued.

  Lana stared at him in disbelief. His words hurt her somewhere and she didn't know where and why! Why was he being so difficult and talk like that? She sat beside Liam and heaved a long, deep sigh.

  "Liam, I really hope you try to understand me. I didn't want to hurt you at any point of our relationship. If I ended up hurting you in any manner, I would never be able to come out of that guilt. That time, I said all that so we both could remain clear about our boundaries in this relationship.

  The pain in the heart is the worst pain to handle, and so is Love. To handle love and never let it become the chains binding your feet is not easy. Have you thought how much you can be hurt if you start having an emotional attachment with me and I end up being violent with you?"

  Lana then looked deep into his eyes and said, "I have a disorder Liam, a deep, rotten part of my brain makes me lose control of my emotions any time. Have you not realised it can be dangerous for you if you are overly attached with me? Me getting involved with you or rather you with me would not be a good idea Liam.

  You clearly saw what happened with me inside that elevator that night. I was hysterical, almost ready to kill anyone who dared approach me if I had a knife in my hands at that moment. You're lucky that I recognized you and didn't attack you that time, but there was still a possibility that I would see my father's face in yours at times like that…… and trust me things will get awful had that happened… You could end up getting hurt…"

  Lana's voice had almost turned into whispering when she finished her last sentence. Liam listened to each of her words dipped in agony, and he knew what Lana meant when she wanted to keep a distance from him.

  But his annoyance was not completely gone because what had upset him the most was her way of negotiating with him. She needed a good dosage of bitter medicine to never repeat such hurting words again and never, ever disrupt their lovemaking in such a manner again.

  Liam did not respond to her at all so Lana inhaled loudly and added, "What I'm trying to explain to you is that I'm a woman with a quite dry heart emotionally and am not capable of investing emotionally in our relationship…"

  "That's fine with me, Lana. I will stay with you until you're ready to invest…" Liam finally whispered, reading her facial expressions and trying to bring her into agreement with his clauses.

  "Why would you do that? Don't tell me you're… Oh God… We should stop this Liam…" Lana hysterically mumbled. She suddenly got scared and her hands and legs trembled.

  What if Liam was already falling for her, and she could not meet his expectations? Hurting him was the last thing she ever wanted to do, even if she wanted to show her love to him and get too emotionally attached with him, her past would remain just as it was, it would still be there to haunt her all the time. Her haunting past was like it was on a hiatus only, but would wake up any moment, ready to eat her alive when she would least expect it to stand up, just like that incident in the elevator.