Build And Break novel Chapter 53

But was she still in love with him? Of course she still did. But not like she once used to. She couldn't love the man who brought her so much hurt the same way as she once loved him.

She was contemplating if she should scuttle away from under his latching arm or not when the ringing of a phone startled her. Steven's phone.

Angela nudged Steven to wake up. "Steve."

"Let it ring." He groaned as he snuggled further in bed, closer to Angela without any intention of waking up.

But the ringing never ceased. Must be important or urgent.

With a sigh, Steven blindly searched for the phone on the side table and checked the caller name through his still blurry vision. It was Jack. Crap, he knew exactly what the call was about.

Steven sat up in bed, the bed sheet falling off to reveal his sculpted chest. His fingers ran through his spiked up hair, messing it further before answering the call.

"Steven. Let me speak to my daughter and don't even think about arguing about it." He knew exactly why Jack wanted to speak to Angela. He was supposed to tell her something himself but never found a good time. And that moment wasn't either. The call was already interrupting his supposedly blissful morning with Angela beside him.

So he did argue about it. "I don't think now's the best time."

"Just passed that phone to her, Morris."

Jack was a stubborn head. So without further argument and a sigh, Steven offered the phone to Angela who stared at him flabbergasted. "It's Jack. For you."

Angela thought about it for a long second before she accepted the phone. "Hello, father."

"Angela. I was more expecting you to hang up on me." Jack admitted.

"I've thought about that."

"Listen to me. Steven was supposed to have told you this days ago but he never did. Said you didn't have the mind for this. I planned a dinner for us tonight at my house to toast our merger and you must come."

"I'm really not in the right mind for any of this stuff. Daniel's in hospital again."

"I know. Steven told me."

"I have to go see him tonight."

"You can come by afterwards."

Angela pressed on her temples. A headache was forming. Before her father called she was racking her brain about Steven. Now her head felt like spinning.

"To get a shower." Angela spoke not meeting his eyes, not looking at his nakedness.

Steven's brow rose. Angela quickly perceived what was passing through the corridor of his brain. "I'm going to take a shower alone."

Steven's face fell. The call from her father had lowered her spirits. He expected her to spend the morning snuggled to him, blissfully happy. But Jack had seemingly ruined it.

"Alright." Steven said with disappointment clear in his tone.

Angela didn't wait another awkward second to leave the room. At that moment, all she wanted was to get away from Steven.

Steven watched Angela retreat away from him. His mind was suddenly in overdrive. He hoped that Angela seemed detached only because of the call. He hoped she wasn't escaping what had happened that night. He hoped she wasn't regretting it all. He surely wasn't.

* * * * * * * * * * * *

With a quivering leg, Angela sat on a chair nearby the empty hospital bed where Daniel was before the doctor and nurses took him for some tests. On the opposite side of the room, Steven leaned casually to a wall, peering at Angela. The silence in the room was deafening and nerving.

Since their conversation that morning, she refused to look at him. All the ride to the hospital, all the while they chatted with Daniel before he was taken away and all the fifteen minutes they'd been alone in the room, she hadn't uttered a single word at him, hadn't even peaked at him.