Crossroads

Chapter 269

Stephanie rushed inside, quickly sliding the glass door shut behind her.

The wind and rain battered against the glass. Soaked to the bone. Stephanie opened her right hand and looked at loose

at the small screw that had fallen

It was early evening, and the st

storm was raging outside with flashes of lighting and booming thunder.

The bright lights inside the room offered a small comfort. She tried to convince herself the screw had simply loosened on its own.

Stephanie cast one last glance at the gloomy balcony, shook off her unease, and headed to the bedroom to change her outht

But her heart was still filled with anxiety and insecurity

She double–locked her bedroom door and turned on every light. The storm outside was a stark contrast to the silence in her room. Even the

sound of her own ragged breathing seemed loud and clear.

Stephanie peeled off her damp clothes and towel–dried her face and hair. She reached for fresh clothes on the bed, her eyes f

falling on the faint scar on her abdomen, a remnant of the C–section.

She stared at it, her cool fingers tracing the nearly invisible line. Oscar had given her some kind of cream, and even the stretch marks had vanished.

It was as if her pregnancy and brief marriage to the Wellington family had been nothing but a dream. All traces were gone, and Dominick had disappeared from her life…

Suddenly, her phone buzzed, shattering the silence.

Her nerves were on edge. She glanced at the phone on her vanity table and hurried over. It was Oscar calling

“Babe, I’m outside,” he said.

Stephanie fraze for a moment before responding “Oh, hold on a sec. She hung up, quickly dressed, and checked her appearance in the vanity mirror.

Suddenly, something caught her eye, and she stared at her reflection.

Stephanie gathered her hair into a bun and lifted her chin, tilting her head to the side. On the smooth skin of her neck, just below her left earlobe. was a faint reddish mark.

Her fingertips brushed against the strange mark. It looked like a hickey.

“A hickey?”

let her hair down, dismissing the thought. It must have been from sleeping on it wrong,

for Oscar. He stood

strode inside, closing the door behind

“Take off your coat. Are you soaked through? Why would you

towel and roughly dried his

clear blue eyes and paused before

“There’s a thunderstorm”

expressionless. The house was brightly lit, and Oscar continued to stare at her. After

snapped back, irritated by

Then, he laughed

When he smiled, his eyes crinkled at the comers,

rarely smiled, and the sight of it now was bewitching.

laughing! I said stop laughing? Stephanie yelled, and her cheeks

could spar with him like this.

around at the brightly lit room. All the lights were on, yet she claimed not to be afraid. But he wouldn’t

Chapter 269

He loved

he

ever perceptive. He had picked up on her discomfort within minutes of arriving.

racing with paranoid thoughts.

glancing towards the

herm

said stiffly, clearly

the end of it. And with that strange mark on her neck, she was even more

she opened the fridge and

and actually pretty tasty,” she added, intending to offer him

a can of chowder and started cooking.

maneuver around the cramped kitchen. She couldn’t help but say again. “You don’t have to go to all this trouble. Something simple would be

moved efficiently. Watching him cook was surprisingly captivating. His serious expression when he stirred

think about how much of a failure she was as a woman, feeling guilty as she glanced at the pile of three or five plates at the side. They were the dishes she used for takeout a couple of days ago. She had planned to wash them all at

guilt got the better of her, and she stepped in to

efforts, taking some clams from the fridge. cleaning them, and adding them

at her with a hint

her cheeks flush. She glanced down at her hands, covered in soap bubbles. It seemed like

she just rinsed the dishes and put them away.

they were together, Stephanie was often the one causing problems, leaving Oscar to clean up her messes without a word of complaint. And now

each with a bowl of

while. It’s awful” Stephanie took a bite