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CHAPTER 40

CHLOE decided to give Cross and his mother some privacy to talk because she felt that the atmosphere around them thicken for some reason. She wasn't sure what went wrong but Cross had that weird expression on his face even though he was acting normal.

Upon entering the cabin house, she ran into Raven who was about to go out to ask Cross if they would grill all the meat and fish or leave some for cooking another dish. He asked her and since she wasn't sure about it, she decided to go back out to ask Cross but imagine her surprise when she overheard what he just said.

Painful was understatement and she couldn't react right away. She felt like something pierced her heart in the worst possible way because of how painful it was and she wasn't exaggerating. She knew herself to be a strong person when it comes to handling her emotions but this time, it was impossible to do so.

Her eyes watered right away but she didn't want to breakdown in front of him. She felt like that was the only thing she hasn't given him yet and if she breakdown in front of him, then nothing has left. He took everything from her even her respect to herself.

She walked out, intending to leave but he followed her and stopped her. Because of that, she slapped him without intending to. She was just too mad and hurt to listen to reasons.

She thought, he would let her get away after that slap but he remained determined not to let her go as he held her by the hand.

"Please. Don't leave like this." His begging eyes almost felt like penetrating her very soul and she knew better than to remain staring into those eyes. She could see her downfall in those tantalizing aquamarine eyes of his. Not now.

"Why?" Was all that came out of her lips full of resentment. Her chest felt so heavy and painful as if an invisible hand was squeezing it mercilessly. She thought she could prevent herself from crying in front of him but it was too much to bear. She wasn't a robot not to feel the pain. She broke down.

"You're misunderstanding me, cariño." She laughed mirthlessly.

"Misunderstanding? Really, Cross? Is that all you've got to say? Don't you have any better alibi other than that? I'm not a child, you know. I know what I heard and you can't fool me by telling me these excuses." She wiped her tears with the back of her hand angrily. Her throat was tightening as the intense flow of negative emotions dominated her entire being.

"That's not a lie nor an alibi, cariño. Please, listen to my explanation."

"After what I've heard, why would I stay and listen to you? Give me a reason to do so." They stared into each other for a couple of seconds and when he didn't answer, she chuckled humorlessly, trying her best not to totally breakdown even though it was next to impossible.

She slowly pulled her hand from his grip and thought that this was the end but he still refused to let go. To her further surprise, he pulled her by the hand and led her out of the gate.

Her chest tightened even more, thinking that he wanted to drive her out of the premises without his mother seeing it. He even closed the gate behind them.

She faced him with a pained expression on her face as her stubborn tears kept on falling. "If you didn't love me, then why did you have to deceive and use me like this? Why didn't you grow balls and told me beforehand what the real score between us would be?" She shook her head. "I thought, I've felt the worst three years ago because of what Liam had done to me but the pain of what you've done is way painful than I could imagine.

"How could you do this to me? I've been nothing but honest to you and yet, you were probably laughing at me everytime I tell you how much I love you. I'm so stupid. How could you make me fall in love with you that when I finally fell head over heels in love with you, you let me fell straight to the ground without catching me. You're so cruel." She uttered the last sentence full of resentment, pain and anger.

She wanted to hit her head because even though she was trying her best to stop her tears, they were unstoppable. They just fell continuously like waterfalls.

"I know what I've said back there was cruel and I'm sorry because you heard it and got hurt without my intention. Please don't say that you're stupid because you're not. If there's someone who's stupid here, that's me because I let you get involved in all this mess. Please forgive me for saying hurtful things but it's not like that at all. I just did what I thought was right." She looked at him in disbelief.

"Right? So, it's the right thing to hurt me, is that it?! You said to your mom that you don't care about me nor love me without even blinking an eye so don't try to justify it because I already got hurt. How can you be so cruel, Cross? I thought I already know you but it turns out that I don't."

"Chloe..." He looked like he was having a hard time but whatever he was planning to say didn't come out of his lips as something caught his attention at the gate. She followed his gaze and saw his mother.

She was looking at their direction with furrowed eyebrows.

"I'm leaving. I don't see any reason for me to stay here anymore."

Cross' jaw flexed and didn't answer right away. But when he opened his mouth to speak, her heart sank. "It would be better if I'd drop you off to where you're planning to go." His voice was low and almost inaudible.

New batch of tears fell from her eyes upon hearing that from him. She smiled mirthlessly. He really didn't care about her. Even after what she had heard from him a while ago, a small part of her was expecting for him to stop her from leaving, ask for her forgiveness and explain but he didn't do anything of the sort.

"No. I can manage." She uttered coldly without looking at him. That was when he slowly let go of her hand and she wanted to breakdown once again but she deserved better than to weep like a desperate and weak woman in front of him. It took all the strength she had to stop herself from doing so.

While walking away, she began sobbing so hard uncontrollably. She covered her mouth with her hand, silencing her sobs but it was impossible. She didn't know where she was heading to but she didn't care. All she wanted to do was to get out of there as soon as possible.

"AREN'T you going to stop her from leaving?" Cross got pulled out of his reverie when he heard his mother's voice. His fists tightened even more.

"She already made up her mind and knowing Chloe, it's impossible to stop her when she's this mad." She nodded her head.

"Are you sure? You look like you're on the verge of running after her."

"Mom, please. I will not follow Chloe and that's it. Can you just go inside so that you could at least rest before eating lunch?"

"Okay. Whatever you say, son." She then went back inside. Cross quickly took out his cellphone and dialed a number.

"Hello. I need you to do something for me."

INSTEAD of getting on the cable car, going to the center, she sat on the bench nearby and cried her heart out. She couldn't believe what just happened. One moment, she and Cross were so happily in love, and the next moment, he broke her heart without even a second thought.

Yes, he apologized but that wasn't enough. Knowing that Cross never cared and loved her contrary to what he made her brelive the most painful part.

She gave her everything to him but he just used and deceived her like she was nothing but a worthless garbage.

"Chloe?" She looked up and quickly wiped her tears upon seeing Nevaeh. It looked like she just arrived using the cable car. "Why are you crying? What happened?"

She swallowed hard, giving her best to stop herself from crying but she just didn't have the will and strength to do so. Then, she found herself being consoled by Nevaeh. She told herself that this would be her last time to cry over it. She just needed to let everything out before her chest explodes.

"Now that you've finally calmed down, care to tell me what happened?" She remained silent. "If you're not comfortable sharing it with me, then it's okay. For now, we should probably join the others at Cross' cabin. I think, everyone is already there." Chloe shook her head right away.

"I don't want to go back there." Nevaeh's forehead creased full of confusion.

"What? Why?" She asked quizzically and looked at the direction of the cabin. "Where is Cross anyway? Oh, God. What's happening here? Don't tell me, you're crying because of him? What did he do to you?"

She smiled bitterly as her eyes watered once again. They just wouldn't stop. "He just used me..." She uttered almost inaudibly.

"What?!" Nevaeh's face was full of disbelief and confusion and Chloe chuckled mirthlessly.

"You heard me. I don't have any place in Cross' life from the beginning and I don't want to force myself onto someone who doesn't value me. Yes, I love him but I will not stay with him knowing that he doesn't love nor care about me."

"He doesn't love you?! So, you mean to say, he was with you the whole time but never loved you?!" Nevaeh gasped and cupped her mouth upon realizing what she just said.

"Sorry, Chloe. I didn't mean to—"

"—It's okay. Your term was right anyway. He was just with me for a reason I didn't want to know without loving me and that's the most painful part of it because I gave him all the love that I could ever give. He was the only one I've loved and yet..." Her voice started trembling as her emotions began to go haywire once again.

"That motherf*cker! I'm going to punch him the moment I see him!" Now, Nevaeh looked pissed as she stood up as if she was going to a war or something.

"Aren't you being too judgmental here?" Chloe and Nevaeh both looked at the direction of the one who suddenly spoke and Chloe's forehead crinkled upon seeing a handsome guy standing a couple of feet away from them, looking at them full of seriousness.

This was her first time seeing him. He had a wavy ash brown hair, tall and muscular and like Cross, one glance at this guy and she could tell that he was a womanizer.

"Excuse me? What did you just say?" Nevaeh answered with a hint of irritation as she stood up and faced him. The corner of his lips twitched.

"You heard me. You don't even know the real story behind it and you're already mad at him. Are girls really like this? I mean is it really that hard to listen before running away?" Chloe felt like all the blood in her body rushed up to her head.

She was about to answer him but Nevaeh spoke first.

"Are men really this stupid? Of course, we girls would run away when we get hurt and feel that we're not being valued. It's easy for you to say things like that because you don't care about other people's feelings." Chloe looked at Nevaeh's face with furrowed eyebrows and saw the unspoken resentment and anger.

"Girls are so dramatic and that's a fact. You don't know when to listen but you cry over it. Is it really hard for you to stay and just listen even for a minute or two?"

"You—" Whatever Nevaeh wanted to say was cut off by him and shifted his gaze on Chloe. "So, are you going to stay and listen to him or just run away with these unanswered questions in your head right now? Just tell me your answer right now because if you choose to leave, I'll drop you to where you wish to go."

Chloe wiped her tears and took a deep breath. "And why would you do that? Who are you anyway?"

"Why don't you ask her? I'm sure, she has a lot of things to say about me. Well, I'm sure, they're not nice things though." He answered, referring to Nevaeh. Now, Chloe was confused of what was happening. She could tell that it wasn't about her situation anymore.

"Sorry, Mr. Wolfe, but I don't have anything to say about you. In fact, I've already forgotten everything about you other than your name." Nevaeh's voice was cold.

"Oh, really? But the fact that you still remember my name says something. Anyway, what's your decision, Ms. Rosenberg?" He was looking at her as if he was already expecting her to just be a coward and run away with her tail between her legs.

Chloe wanted to ask how did he know her but it was obvious now. This guy was one of Cross' friends.

Now that she thought about it, running away with all these unanswered questions in her head wasn't wise at all knowing that she wouldn't be able to sleep nor stop crying over it, wondering what went wrong.

She remembered about three years ago. She ran away thinking all the negative thoughts about Cross. Even though they just spent one night together, she still got hurt and left wondering what did she do wrong to deserve what happened.

Now, she didn't want to wait for another three years to know the answers from him. She wanted to know now because she wouldn't run away this time.

She met Mr. Wolfe's gaze and raised her chin. "I changed my mind. I want to go back there." That seemed to impressed him.

"Good. Not like some other girls out there." He then turned his back on them. "Let's go then. Everyone is waiting. Now, everything became interesting."

"Jerk." Chloe overheard Nevaeh mumbled as they followed him. 

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What do you think? Is it wise for Chloe to go back?

What do you think of Cross' actions in this chapter?

Doesn't he really love Chloe?

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