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Chapter 20: It’s None Of My Business
Travis casually strode into the room and waved Arianna in to follow him. He stood by the window and pulled a cigarette box out of his pocket. He lit the cigarette and then brought it to his mouth.
After a leisurely inhalation, he said, “What a coincidence, we have met again.”
Arianna stepped into the entrance of the room and just looked at him.
He passed the cigarette box to her, “Try one.”
She caught the box, but he noticed he did not get a reaction out from her. He shallowly smiled, “What? Did you forget how to smoke?”
Arianna spent a lot of effort speaking, “Why?”
Travis looked coldly through the smoke of his burning cigarette.
More forcefully, she repeated, “Why?”
He slowly put out the half-burnt cigarette in the ashtray on the windowsill. He still spoke very casually, “You need to read some useful books instead of your nonsense love stories. You don’t learn anything practical from those books.”
Snickering, he continued, “They only make you look more and more stupid.”
His indifferent attitude finally drove Arianna into tears. She let her tears slide down her cheeks, holding back her sobs.
“What an innocent girl. Will it really help if I come up with some bullshit explanation for you? The truth could be more torturing than you imagined.”
Arianna couldn’t hold her sobs back anymore. She knew continuing this conversation would only cause her to suffer more.
Travis lit another cigarette, sat down, and continued to watch her cry.
When she finally realized that the more she sobbed, the more pleased he became, she gradually stopped crying and stared at him through her bloodshot eyes.
A smirk reappeared on Travis’s face. Finally, he said, “Fine, let me tell you why. Given much more than others, a rich girl like you still feels like the world owes you everything. A little dissatisfaction is a catastrophe.”
He continued, “You always do as you please, regardless of the thoughts of your family. So I’m willing to step up and teach you a lesson about the real world. But you’ve realized all of this by now, right?”
She bit her lip until she tasted blood. Her ears were buzzing. She had not, in fact, realized what he had done to her.
Neither of them spoke a word for a while. He started to walk towards her, but she suddenly began to speak, making him stop in his tracks.
“That night then…. Did you set up those two men in the alley to attack me?”
“You actually learned to think. Great progress.” Travis laughed mildly, “But remember, the second time, it was you who came back to me, remember? I even reminded you not to trust anyone so easily, but unfortunately, you were too caught up in your own world to listen.”
Arianna’s tears spilled over her bottom eyelid once more.
He said to her more gently, “If you think your luck is terrible, I might as well say a few more words. The night I met you, I didn’t plan to do anything. That was the day of my mother’s death, and you reminded me of her.”
After taking a puff of his cigarette, he said, “That’s why I took you home and left you alone. But you didn’t realize your luck then. It could have been anyone else. I didn’t make you come find me after you left that morning.”
Arianna was stunned and struggled to make any sound when she said, “Why didn’t you just leave me to those two?”
Travis looked at Arianna and tried to keep his patience, “I also regret that a bit. Leaving you to them might have taught you a better lesson. It would have left you unable to yell at me as you’re trying to do right now.”
He sighed, “Well, okay, if there’s a next time, I will be sure to remember your wishes. But for now, you better wash your face and go home to bed.” He then opened the door and left without turning his head.
Arianna could see the woman from earlier outside the door standing over a pile of cigarette butts. Travis laughed at her, “You have no morality.”
The woman gave Travis a playful punch to the shoulder, “fuck you! I only damaged the carpet a little bit. It’s not a problem.”
She finished, “And what you did was the real demonstration of a lack of morality.”
“Watch your language,” Travis flatly said as he stepped on a glowing cigarette butt. He took out a cigarette of his own and grabbed her cigarette-holding hand to use her cigarette to light his.
After smoking for a couple of seconds, he asked, “Were you eavesdropping for my sake?”RêAd lat𝙚St chapters at Novel(D)ra/ma.Org Only
“Take it easy. But Johnny went crazy. I can’t take care of him anymore. You better go see him.”
Travis wanted to leave, but the woman kept saying, “Hey, did you take care of her inside?”
“No.”
“Don’t you worry she might commit suicide in there?”
“It’s none of my business.”
The woman shouted, “Goddammit, Travis! Can’t you ever do something right? All men are damned!”
Travis Cooper walked away without another word.
****
The woman sighed as she took the last inhalation of her cigarette. She tapped it out on the metal railing before adding another to the pile of cigarette butts on the ground.
She began to walk towards the room before turning around to scoop up as many cigarette butts as she could. She tossed them into the garbage can nearby.
Seeing that her hands were speckled with nicotine, the woman had no choice but to enter the bathroom. Arianna was sitting there on the floor with her hands wrapped around her knees.
Though she had stopped crying by now, Arianna was shivering rapidly.
The woman calmly stepped over to the sink and began to wash her hands. She said to Arianna, “Don’t be afraid. I’m not with him.”
Arianna lowered her head to her knees and did not speak.
Raising her eyebrows, the woman said to her, “Go wash your face. I’ll arrange a ride to take you home.”
She shook her head slowly, “I can leave on my own. Please leave me be, miss.”
“You can call me Helena.”
Arianna looked up to meet Helena’s eyes.
“What a beautiful little girl you are. Don’t put horrible men in your heart.”
She put her head back on her knees and tried to hold back her tears. Helena handed her a glass of water and remained silent for several minutes before telling story after story.