Chapter 25

I was lying on the floor when the flash of light when the door opened came through and then a man was rushing in my direction. He quickly grabbed me and wrapped me around his arms. I was crying, I couldn't talk straight, I was shaking. He was just holding me and trying to comfort me, but I was too scared of this shit. My heart was pounding fast. I don't know if I had passed out. Everything was dark. I was alone.

Later on, the lights switched on and lit up the whole place. I closed my eyes and tried covering them with my hands but I got blinded by them. The man above me tried shedding the light away from my eyes so it was easy for me to adjust my vision, and slowly, I realized that the person who came for me was Konstantin when I thought it was just the chauffeur—I thought it was the chauffeur.

"Hey, hey, it's fine. . . You're safe now. I'm with you. . ."

"Kons. . ." I mumbled. "I'm sorry. . ."

I noticed his jaw clenched, but he shook his head. "We'll talk later, but we have to get you out of this place as soon as possible."

"Wait, wait. . ." I tried to stop him from leaving as I remembered Harold.

"It's been settled," he said, and I don't know what that means. "Come on. Let's go. . . Let me take you home."

"But. . ."

"No buts, Atissa. I'm taking you home. . ."

I took a deep breath before I got up on the floor. He held my hand and helped me find my balance as I stood up on my feet. When we were about to leave the studio, I hesitated because I might end up seeing Harold. Konstantin was holding my hand tightly and I knew at that point, I should trust him. 

I tried to get some courage by exercising my breathing, and walked out with him and found our way to the elevator. We even passed by the front desk who just looked at us. I looked like a mess and I couldn't look him in the eyes. I didn't say a word when we were heading down to the ground floor, and as we reached the lobby, we found his chauffeur waiting there for us and we just followed him as we walked out of the premises.

As we settled inside the car, I felt sorry about what I had done. I thought I could do something for a change, but I made it look so much worse.

"I'm sorry. . ." I uttered, not even looking in his direction. "I didn't tell you—"

"You don't have to explain yourself," he said. 

My shoulder dropped because I could sense the disappointment in his tone. "You left the event. . . Your father would—"

"Don't worry about it, Gaia was still there. I wouldn't let you go through that by yourself. I'm sorry that this happened to you. . ."

"It was my fault."

He took my hand and held on to it without saying a word. I don't know what that meant, but it was a genuine gesture and I thought he wasn't faking it this time. We were quiet along the ride. I knew he would be mad at me. He was just trying to save whatever bad things he would say to me later. I prepared myself because after all, this was just an act and he doesn't care about me.

When we arrived back in the mansion, I felt a huge wave of sad emotions had gotten into me. Konstantin told me that I should go to my room and he would see me in a moment.

I went upstairs straight to my room and lay down on the bed as if all the energy had been taken out of my body. I texted Vaia, but she didn't respond and I thought she was busy hanging out with Argus today. 

I clearly had no idea what I should do as felt like I ruined everything. I put myself in a situation where I thought I could get the best thing in life when in fact, it was the opposite of what I was hoping for. I curled up on the bed, watching the clock pass seconds by seconds. Why was the day taking too long to end?

The knock on the door woke my senses up. I got up on the bed to see who came to see me, but then I got nervous when I saw Konstantin coming up to me. He was holding a glass of water and handed it to me as he came closer. I gladly took it from him and drank some water which I thought I wouldn't need, but I was thirsty.

He sat on the edge of the bed. I noticed how he was taking deep breaths. 

"How are you?" he started.

"I'm okay now. . ." I answered. "Thank you. . ."

"I've talked to Franklin. We know he's a model and I asked him if he encountered a man named Harold who does modelling projects. He told me, he met him when he was in Germany. He was a scam he said. He wasn't giving any projects out. He was buying these models some stuff that eventually he would pay them double or triple if they argued against him. I don't know why he wasn't arrested yet, but I would do something against him. He would see it."

"Wait. . . How did. . . Did you pay him?"

He shook his head. "No, I didn't pay him a single cent. I wouldn't do such a thing. He was a scam and he had to pay for what he did to you. I just did a little punch in his face and then gave up." He smirked. "But hey, I hope this won't happen again. . ."

I nodded. "Yes, and I'm sorry again. . . I don't want to ruin—"

I wasn't able to continue my words when Konstantin kissed me. I didn't expect he would do it. My eyes widened as he was still kissing me. I was trying to understand what we were doing, but I just closed my eyes and let it happen. A second later, he parted his lips away from mine.

"I would let you rest for now. . . Please change into comfortable clothes. I'll see you tomorrow. . . Good night, Atissa. . ."

I nodded. "Okay, good night. . ."

I watched him leave my room and what he did left me. I don't know why he would kiss me. Was that his way to show that he cares? I didn't understand it, but I could feel that whatever he was trying to do was make me feel okay and I could see that. No doubt.

Just as he said, I changed my clothes into a comfortable one. I looked around the shopping bags on the floor and I felt like the trauma lived on me. I tried forgetting about it as it won't do good to me. I slept on my side and there I was, tears just ran down my face, and let my pillow catch all these tears away.

The next morning, I woke up when Konstantin checked in on me in my room. He was asking about what I was feeling and all. I knew he already asked that last night and that I just told the same thing to him, but that made him feel fine. Gaia also came into my room showing how much she cared for me. She was scared for me. Well, I took a little sermon from her that I shouldn't do that again and let them know if anything was going on. I didn't really intend to tell them about that gig, but I just didn't expect that it would end that way.

They both insisted I should stay in the house while they would go to the event. I told Konstantin that I wanted to come, but he didn't want me to. Over the weekend, that was our routine and I'm getting kind of used to it, but I knew I shouldn't. This was temporary and there's no such thing that they would keep me around when we were back in Mykonos. Just like the others, they wouldn't care about me.

The event was successful and even though I wasn't there to see how it all went, I'm proud that the Galluccio siblings were there for their father's presence. Supposedly, Konstantin was planning for us to go to Palawan for a side trip. He had already talked to someone there named Douglas but said we wouldn't continue going there and might do it next time when we came back to the Philippines. It was sad, and I knew he had to do it because of what happened to me.

So, here I am, packing all of my stuff. I thought I should leave all of the things that Harold bought for me or give them away, but Gaia had a suggestion to donate these clothes to the LMS Foundation or Bukang Liwayway Foundation, whatever I decide, I would be giving them away as I don't want to take all these traumas with me back to Mykonos.

Gaia joined us when they dropped us at the airport. She wouldn't come with us back to Mykonos, but she said would be visiting soon once she was done traveling to the ASEAN countries. We bid our goodbyes to her. As we entered the building, I noticed a family of Filipino-Indian who were hugging a woman, and she was crying. Before they let her go, we looked each other in the eyes and I smiled at her.

I don't know her, but she seemed nice.

Konstantin and I went inside the airport, as usual, we boarded the private plane so we were assisted where we should go. After passing through the immigration, we went on the ground to board the plane.

I took a deep breath as stared at the plane, and then I noticed Konstantin who was asking me to hold his hand. I smiled at it and took his hand then we boarded the plane together. This time, we sat together inside the plane, and for another more than fifteen hours of flight, I didn't know how I would keep myself sane, but hoped to God, that once we were back in Mykonos, there would be no more tears. . . And scammers—and that was just karma on me. 

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