"I want you back."

  His words still echoing inside her head, but in her heart, she doesn't love Bryan the way she loves Vince. However, he is someone important to her, the reason she could drive Bryan away.

  Until now, still painful that their friendship has shattered.

  However, friendship would not succeed in working a marriage. It should be love between two people whose heart is beating as one.

  Hailey looks outside the window of her bedroom as her head pulls back what happened earlier.

  *

  "You're kidding me, Bryan," Hailey scoffs after a long silence.

  "I'm serious, Hail."

  Hailey looked up and met Bryan's eyes. She could see how intense his gaze at her. However, it didn't move her.

  "Do you think everything is just like that!?" she snaps at him.

  Bryan softens his gaze. He knows it isn't, but he is determined to ask Hailey's forgiveness.

  "You have every right to get angry at me. After what I did, it is your right to get furious. But I can't live like this, Hail. I want you back."

  Hailey glared at Bryan after he repeated his quote. At this moment, she felt ludicrous that it rendered her speechless. Bryan seemed to have lost a screw in his head.

  They broke up. And everything about them is already in the past. The only reason she has to keep him around is because of the projects and the decades of friendship they have—nothing else.

  She muttered, "It is late of night, Bryan. There's no use joking around."

  Hailey's car moves forward, but Bryan remains gripping his hands on her car window.

  "I'm not joking, Hail. You don't know how my life becomes in hell without you!"

  "And why is it my concern?" she snorted, uninterested in hearing further whatever Bryan has in store.

  Bryan remained silent for a moment. He immersed himself gaping at Hailey's face longingly. She isn't looking in his direction, and so, he could only stare at half the side of her beautiful face.

  He lifted his left arm and caressed her face with his cold fingers. But when she felt his touch, a thousand bolts of disgust exploded in every part of her body.

  Hailey quickly slaps Bryan's hand and yells at him. "What are you doing, Bryan!?"

  That startles her. She may get used to hug Bryan mindlessly or sit on his lap without malice in the past. But now she realizes that it was inappropriate. Even though he is her fiancé, she didn't consider Bryan as a boyfriend but only a future husband.

  What is the difference by then? Honestly, she couldn't differentiate, and she didn't think of him as one aside from a marriage of convenience because she knew him all her life. But now, there is something wrong with their relationship back then.

  Her love for him is brotherly, and so she thought it was okay to do that. But in Vince's case, she was in love with him. No…… She falls for him, which is why they have such intimacy, and she didn't feel disgusted.

  Mulling over, she isn't acted as a proper lady around Bryan. Could it be that her action leads to something that Bryan couldn't handle alone?

  They said men are men.

  In the past, she isn't concerned about it because she isn't physically attracted to him, and she grew up that he was around, so she is comfortable with his presence.

  But since she got close to Vincent, she learned different emotions to the point that it confuses her. Until she felt that she becomes attracted to him, and she began having desires for her opposite sex.

  And now Bryan wants her to go back to him? It was a crazy idea.

  There's no use in going back to him when she had no feelings for him at all.

  "Hail…… Give me a chance to fix everything." He begged, and Hailey gets annoyed with his persistence.

  She glanced at Bryan. She smiled bitterly and said, "There's no need Bryan. Instead of fixing something, you should rather wake up. Eva is not the right woman for you. However, I will not come back to you."

  "Please, I'm in no hurry! I'll be waiting until you think about it! If you said yes, but you are not ready to forgive me yet, then I am willing to wait as long as you are giving me another chance."

  Hailey pursed her mouth. After seconds to ponder, she parted her lips into a sneer.

  "You don't need to wait, Bryan. I'll answer you now. I was serious when I said I would not come back to you. The love I have for you is only a brotherly love. And surely, what you've missed is the comfort of friendship that we shared in these passing years. I do feel the same way. So it hurts me that our friendship has to end. But maybe it is for the best."

  "But to me, I don't love you like a sister!"

  "Then why did you cheated on me!?" she shouted back. The back of her head began throbbing, and irritation grew in her heart. "Anyway, Eva is your long-time girlfriend. It is not difficult for her to win you back. But Bryan, she isn't the one for you."

  "That is why I want you back. And what happens in the past is a misunderstanding."

  "I don't need to repeat myself, Bryan." Misunderstanding? What the heck! It's the same excuse he told me before! Hailey stressed out while Bryan spoke up.

  "I don't love her. Do you understand that?"

  "Then find someone else." Her suggestion.

  "But it has to be you!" Bryan insisted. He would not give up wooing Hailey.

  He knew why she was rejecting him. He broke her heart and trust. That is something not easy to restore.

  He added, "In the very beginning, it is already my fault. I thought the feelings that grow inside my heart would disappear after I try to date different women and fall in love with someone. But I am only fooling myself. I tried to conceal my feelings, but I always go back to you."

  "Eva…… I have only been using her since the beginning of our relationship. I thought I would fall in love with her, or I could forget my feelings for you because of her. But it didn't happen. Our relationship never works out even now. She hates you because she could feel that you are in the way in our relationship, and it was true."

  Hailey doesn't want to believe Bryan, but why does she still trust his words? But it will not help to change her feelings for him.

  "Do you try to change your heart because you feel that I only love you as a brother?" Hailey asked him afterward. "Then why do you propose to me, Bryan?"

  There is a bitter smile contorted on the corner of his mouth. Bryan heaves a long sigh and releases them with gloominess.

  "I thought that I could make you fall in love with me once we've become husband and wife."

  Hailey pursed her lips into a thin smile; she replied, "Then I should thank Eva for stealing you from me."

  Bryan searches something from her face, and she is serious when she says that. His heart sank. "What do you mean by that, Hail?"

  "We might only get a divorce in the end, and worse, I committed infidelity."

  Bryan still didn't understand; he asked, "Why do you say that? Is this your way to discourage me and to hurt me? You can punish me. I will accept it as long as you let us have another chance to start over!"

  "I'm sorry, Bryan, but I belonged to someone else. Between you and me is impossible."

  He closes his eyes and presses his eyelids. Hailey's words are like lightning swords that strike his chest, gradually slicing his heart into parts.

  "Who is he?" He asked with a firm tone.

  "It's not important for you to know." Hailey snaps.

  "Is he the one you talk to on the phone?"

  Hailey glared at Bryan. She tried to rack her head as to how many times she talks to Vince today and where.

  Her heart is beating rapidly upon remembering their conversation at the yacht. She mentioned his full name!

  "I talk to several people on the phone. And why are you eavesdropping on me?" She furrowed her brows and looked at Bryan with a hateful gaze.

  The way Hailey looking at Bryan crushed him, and his heart filled with sadness. 'She does change a lot.'

  He lowered his head and spoke with a low voice, "I didn't mean to eavesdrop. It just happens that I overheard you this morning when I bring over the medical records of the wounded workers."

  Hailey remains silent. She pondered if Bryan heard the part when she uttered Vince's name. But there are a hundred of thousands who had a name, Vince.

  Not long, Bryan answered Hailey's questions to herself.

  "You mentioned the name, Vince. Is that his name? Where did you meet him? Is he trusted?" Now Bryan asked her a series of questions.

  Annoyed at Bryan, she mouthed, "Bryan, you seem forgotten."

  Bryan creased his forehead as his eyes filled with confusion. "Hail……"

  "Let's make it clear, Bryan. You have no right to question me ever again." It's not like before that you have every right in me because you are my brother! But Hailey didn't voice out and kept it to herself instead. Bryan knew this already.

  "Hail……" Bryan wanted to persuade her, but the gate of the mansion opened.

  "Princess! Why aren't you coming in yet?" A worried Jacob appeared behind the giant gate. Then his gaze shifted to Bryan. "It's late, Bryan. You can go back now."

  He could feel the tension between his daughter and the guy. If ever he didn't know yet, he would question him.

  But he was used to Bryan's habit. He is making sure that Hailey is home safely. And tonight is no different.

  And it annoys him that Bryan is still acting as if he cares for his daughter.

  "Let's go, Princess," said Jacob. He didn't wait for either his daughter or Bryan could reply to him; he marched toward the gate where his bodyguards were ready to beat up anyone if someone attempted to get inside. But the fence that surrounds here is a few meters high, with tight security and CCTV scattered around.

  On the other hand, Hailey sighs with relief upon seeing her dad walking out of the gate. She is grateful that she was saved from Bryan, interrogating her and pressuring her to answer him who Vince is.

  *

  Hailey came back to her senses. She shrugged the unnecessary emotions lingering on her chest and decided to go to her bed and slid in the quilt and tucked inside.

  She touched the space and mumbled……

  "I missed you, Vince."