Just one day after Nicholas's departure, the house that usually felt warm and lively had turned into a silent space that felt too vast. Every step I took echoed in the empty hallways, reminding me of the loneliness I faced. Gaby, my solace, had returned to her own home, leaving me with a silence that felt increasingly piercing.

I entered Nicholas's room, as we had been sleeping separately since Gabriella stayed over.

While folding his favorite gray suit jacket, something slipped from its inner pocket and fell with a soft sound onto the wooden floor. A tube of lipstick. I picked it up, and my heart instantly stopped.

The lipstick wasn't mine. It was a pastel pink shade, a color I never used because it didn't suit my skin tone. But that color... was so familiar. I felt like I'd just seen it. Then, as if struck by lightning, I remembered. It was the exact shade Gabriella often wore. Its distinctive brand, with the iconic gold casing, further confirmed the nauseating suspicion.

My mind raced, trying to find a logical explanation. Maybe it was a gift for me? But Nicholas knew I didn't like colors like this. Or... maybe it was left by another guest? But why was it neatly stored in the inner pocket of his jacket, like something precious or... something he wanted to hide?

Suddenly, my phone's ringtone shattered my chaotic concentration. The lipstick tube felt like it was burning in my grasp. With trembling hands, I took the phone from my pocket. On the screen, Nicholas's smiling face was displayed clearly, even though the signal was sometimes choppy.

"Sweetheart..." he said.

But this time, his smile no longer felt warm. It felt like a mask hiding a lie, and the lipstick in my hand felt heavier, like silent, screaming evidence.

"I miss you, Judith," he whispered, his voice a faint hiss from the speaker. "So much. So much that... I want to make love to you right now."

His blunt words should have ignited my longing, fueled the pent-up passion. But what I felt was a vague unease. My smile was forced, feeling stiff at the corners of my lips. There was an invisible distance that suddenly separated us, even though we were technically connected.

"I miss you too, darling. We've only been apart a few hours," I replied, trying to match the tremor in my voice to his desire. But my heart rebelled. My mind, without me realizing it, drifted to another image—to the sensation of a shared breath in the elevator, to the disturbing gaze of blue eyes. A sharp sense of guilt immediately assaulted me.

And then, tonight.

The rain was pouring heavily, hammering the roof and windows like thousands of pebbles. Suddenly, with a short click, the entire house plunged into darkness. A power outage. My heart pounded, but I tried to calm myself. I was no longer a little girl afraid of the dark. Carefully, I felt along the wall for candles and matches.

In the silence of the night, broken only by the rumble of thunder and the downpour, the sound broke through: Ding-dong.

The doorbell.

Who? Who could come on a night and in weather like this? Nicholas? Impossible. Or... Gaby? But she didn't say she was coming. An instinctive alertness prickled throughout my body. Carrying a newly lit candle, I took a small kitchen knife and approached the door with cautious steps.

"WHO IS IT?!" I shouted, trying to hide the tremor of fear in my voice.

No answer.

Holding my breath, I gripped the knife handle and opened the door slowly.

There, shadowing the doorway with his tall, large frame, stood a man. The pouring rain had drenched him completely, his usually neat hair plastered to his forehead, dripping water. The flickering candlelight hit his face, highlighting a pair of blue eyes staring straight into my soul.

"Judith..."

That voice, deep and slightly hoarse, was one I recognized. Kenny.

After convincing myself that the tall shadow behind the door wasn't a stranger threat—though perhaps a threat of another kind—I sighed and let Kenny step inside. The scent of rain and something masculine—perhaps his woody cologne—immediately filled the stuffy living room.

He sat on the sofa, his large shadow projected by the dancing candlelight on the wall, making him look like a giant inhabiting a cave. I stood before him, holding out a gray bath towel.

"Why are you so drenched?" I asked, my voice slightly higher than usual, sounding anxious. "Did you walk in the rain without an umbrella?"

He lifted his face. The dim candlelight caught his firm jawline and his wet cheekbones. His eyes, blue like the deep ocean at night, stared at me with an intensity that made me slightly dizzy.

With a slow movement, he raised his hand to take the towel from me. His cold fingers accidentally touched the skin of my hand, making me hold my breath. The touch was brief, but it felt like an electric shock.

I thought he would take it, but what happened was far beyond my expectation.

The world seemed to spin quickly as my wrist was seized and my body thrown off balance, pulled by his large hand that still felt cold from the rain. His grip wasn't rough, but very certain, causing the towel to slip from my grasp and fall silently to the floor.

"Ah—!"

With one strong yet measured pull, my body was dragged, losing its balance. The world spun for a moment before I landed, not on the floor, but on his lap. The heat of his body seeped through the wet clothes still clinging to his skin, feeling scorching.

In the dim, dancing candlelight on the wall, my eyes locked with his pair of blue ones. No longer the cold sea blue, but a blazing lightning blue, piercing straight into my soul. My breath caught.

"Leave that man," he hissed, his voice hoarse and deep, echoing in the quiet room filled only by the roar of the rain. Each word felt like a direct blow to my core. "And marry me."

Reason screamed. I tried to pull away, pushing against his hard chest, but it was futile. The arm encircling my waist was like a steel cable, tight and unyielding, pressing our bodies together in a dangerous proximity.

"Kenny," I protested, sounding weak and breathless even to my own ears. "Let me go."

"He's not worthy of you," Kenny whispered, so close I could smell the rain and something deeper, more dangerous, from him. "He's not the man you think he is. He's not a good man."

His arm tightened, as if wanting to merge our bodies into one. I could feel the hard beat of his heart, thumping in sync with the chaos within me.

"He's not worthy of you," Kenny whispered again, his voice a low, dangerous rumble. "He's not the man you think he is. He's not a good man."

His arm tightened further, as if he wanted to fuse our bodies into one. I could feel the powerful beat of his heart, keeping time with the turmoil inside me.

"I've been watching you for a long time," he confessed, his hoarse voice full of an intensity that made me shiver. "For a long time. And the longer I let it go, the tighter my chest feels watching you be fooled by him."

"Fo... fooled?" I stammered, still breathless. "What do you mean? Nicholas is..."

"Good? Faithful?" Kenny interjected with a bitter tone. His other hand rose, and for a moment I thought he would touch me. But he just rubbed his temple, showing how frustrated he was. "Judith, you're too good for him. Too trusting."

"Give me proof, Kenny! You can't just throw around accusations like that!"

He brought his lips almost to my ear, his whisper like a lightning strike in the night. "Do you think his three-month business trip is real?"

"Yes, of course! It's for a big project—"

"A big project?" he cut me off, his voice low and dangerous. "I am his superior at his company, Judith. There are no out-of-town projects that last that long. His position doesn't require it."

The blood seemed to freeze in my veins. "But... he..."

"And haven't you ever wondered why he's been 'working late' so often lately? Even before the engagement?" he probed sharply. "Or why there's sometimes a woman's perfume, that isn't your scent, on his clothes?"