The Bodyguard's Baby ✔

Ch: 22 🌻

Gulf's POV

I didn't know where I should start my search for Mew. My first thought was that I should call him, but then I worried about how he would handle the news that I had run away to be with him. I remembered our last conversation about running away together hadn't gone well.

There was also the possibility he wouldn't want me after what I had done. He would probably tell me I had to go back to my dad and fulfill my duty, even if I was pregnant with his child, because I had put his family in even more danger by running away.

It felt like my only hope was to find Mew and reason with him in person. Maybe if he saw me, he would change his mind about running away. I didn't know where I could find him, though. He would probably go back to his family first, but I had no idea where they lived.

Besides that, there was only limited time that I could be on the run before my dad would find me. I needed Mew's help if I wanted to succeed at this and if I wanted for us to make a life together with our baby.

Finally, I decided, my only option was to call him. With the unlikely possibility that I could make it to him before my dad found me, calling seemed like the only way. I would just have to make him understand how serious this situation was and how much I needed him. I would have to convince him that I couldn't live without him now. If I could show him how impossible it would be for me to live the lie my dad was forcing me into, maybe he would see that we had to be together this way.

I was just about to call him when there was a knock at the door.

I wasn't expecting anyone, and I hadn't ordered room service, so I was a bit confused as to who it would be. Maybe there had been a problem with my reservation, or maybe the clerk wanted to know when I would let them know how long I was staying. There was no way my dad could have found me yet. I had been so careful last night.

Whatever it was, I was so deeply convinced there was no way it could be anything bad that I opened the door without checking to see who it was.

That was my first mistake. My second was not slamming the door the moment I saw Mark's face.

"Mark?" I was confused. Why would he be here, and how had he found me? Surely my father wouldn't have told him that I had run away, so what was going on?

He pushed past the door open and came into the room, shutting the door behind him. “So lovely to see you, Gulf,” he said, leaning over to try to kiss me on the cheek.

I shrank away, and he looked at me with what seemed like disappointment. Underneath the disappointment, I could see something like disapproval.

“Aren't you happy to see me?"

“I want to know what you're doing here,” I said carefully, still not sure what his intentions might be. I would have to be aware of what I was saying, so that I wouldn't give too much information away. Maybe he had somehow seen me in passing, and he didn't know what was going on. I knew it couldn't be that, but I still clung on to that hope. I couldn't lose hope. Not now. Not when I was so close.

“I'm here to get you, of course. You're so far from home. I know your father must be so worried.”

“I don't know what you're talking about,” I insisted.

"Oh, you do. You know that the two of you were supposed to be coming to visit me today, and you know your father doesn't know where you are right now. I'm sure he must be up and in a panic, with you disappearing like that.”

“Get out," I said, beginning to feel panicked.

“No, I don't think I will."

He advanced on me a little further, and I resisted the urge to shrink away from him. That was what he wanted. I had to stand tall. I had to show him that I wasn't afraid of him. If I didn't, there was no telling how he would react.