Chapter 39 Give Me A Chance To Explain
Natalie’s POV
After driving for an hour without a determined destination, thinking about what I had read in the contract that Rafael showed me, I found myself standing before the door of the place I liked the most – the gathering of amateur painters. Even though I wasn’t a professional painter yet, I felt relaxed whenever I started painting.
I stood before the blank drawing board, and all I could see was Rafael’s face. An amusing thought suddenly popped into my head. I smiled a small smile and started drawing lines on the board. Every line I drew was a release of frustration and anger towards Rafael. His thick eyebrows were knit together, his sharp gaze was gleamed with evil, and his tightened lips curved into a playful smirk. That was how I imagined his facial features at that moment. Then I painted him holding a whip, poised like an executioner.
Finally, after almost three hours, I finished my initial draft and stared at the board with satisfaction. He deserves it. A hasty idea came to my mind and I smirked while still gazing at the board.
Without any delay, afraid that if I waited longer I would change my mind, I hastened my steps straight to the receptionist.
He smiled at me and said, “How can I help you, ma’am?”
“Hmm, I want to send this painting to someone,” I said, feeling awkward. The receptionist will see the painting I painted.Content property of NôvelDra/ma.Org.
“Sure, ma’am. Please give me the address,” he replied, then added, while entering some data on the desktop before him, “would you like to pay now or upon receipt?”
“Now, please,” I mumbled, handing him my credit card.
But when I parked my car outside Merrin Villa, I began to doubt what I had done. “Should I call them and cancel it?”
I knew provoking Rafael wasn’t going to pass that easily, so hesitantly, I decided to undo it. However, I went straight to my room, intending to call the receptionist at the gathering of the amateur painters. Before I reached my room, I heard Laura, the housekeeper, saying, “Hello, Miss Natalie.”
I turned around and smiled, “Hello, Laura. Is my grandma asleep? She must have been waiting for me for dinner!”
I turned off my phone after Rafael called me via Jack’s phone. I knew he would try to call me from other phones, so I turned it off.
But my eyebrows rose slightly when Laura said with a smile on her face, “Mrs. Merrin and her daughter are not home. They went to visit Mr. Jeverson,”
Mr. Jeverson was Grandma’s brother. I asked with confusion, “Why didn’t they tell me?”
“They tried to call, but your phone was off,” she said.
I nodded and then asked again, “Didn’t they say when they would be back?”
“They said they would stay for just a couple of days,” she replied.
I nodded and turned around to go to my room, but she added promptly, “Miss Natalie, should we serve dinner now?”
I stared back at her, thinking that I didn’t want to see Rafael, so I lied and said, “I already ate.”
Then, I headed to my room. I opened the door and was totally shocked. I blinked several times. Is this really my room? I took a few steps forward, eyeing the amazing flowers that covered the bed and the flickering candles around the room. The flowers and candles were arranged beautifully, with a path of flowers and candles leading to the bed. The bed itself was adorned with flowers spelling out the words, “LEMME EXPLAIN.”
As I took more steps forward, the room door was closed behind me. I turned around immediately to find Rafael standing before me, lazily leaning on the closed door, and his hands in his pockets nonchalantly.
The corner of his lips curled into a smirk as he raised an eyebrow and said in a commanding tone, “Come here!”
I was about to move my legs and go to him, but fortunately, I regained my composure and stayed in my place. I crossed my arms over my chest and asked, “What do you want?”
“Look at the bed!” he said, fixing his gaze on my face.
I stared at the bed and glared at the written sentence with flowers, LEMME EXPLAIN.
Even though this gesture moved my heart, I rolled my eyes, trying to seem indifferent. I sneered, “This meant nothing, Raf. I don’t want to hear anything from you.”
He took a few steps forward, his tall figure standing before me, and mumbled, “You didn’t even continue reading the contract!”
“I don’t wanna read it, Raf. It meant nothing to me. I believed that you wanted to give us a chance, but I was wrong,” I said with contempt.
“Could you at least finish reading it?” he retorted with a flat tone, but I could notice the frustration in his eyes.
However, I ignored his request and turned around the room, taking in the effort he had made for this romantic gesture. It wasn’t the most elaborate romantic decoration a woman could have, but his effort was clear.
I lifted a flower, played with it between my fingers and said, “I never imagined you as a romantic man.”
“I’m not. But here I’m trying my best to please you,” he smiled patiently.
“So, the master wants to please his slave. Isn’t that odd?” I smirked skeptically, unconvinced.
“You didn’t look high at me, did you?” He asked with a gloomy expression.
“You urged me to. Is there a man with his full brain asking his wife to be his slave?” I asked, genuinely wanting to know.
“It’s not what you think, Natalie. The contract is meant to serve and protect you, not me. I’m afraid I might hurt you, so I wanted you to secure your rights under any circumstances,” he explained.
“So, let me take this straight. You want to protect my rights by making me a slave?” I asked, my eyes welling up with tears.
“This will go nowhere, Natalie, if you haven’t read the contract,” he insisted.
I surprised myself when I heard me saying, “Okay, I’ll just read it, Raf. Don’t expect anything”
His face lit up, and he smiled. “Yes, that’s all I want you to do, just read it.”
He handed me a paper from his pocket, and despite the tension, I couldn’t help but laugh. “Do you walk around with contracts in your pockets all the time?” I teased him.