Escape from the Witch Hunters ✓

Chapter 23

Dude. The drama in this chapter...I'm not even sure why I wrote this...Thank you SarahPortlockAuthor for reading, voting, and commenting the whole way! :D

 She dropped his shirt and moneybag, her mouth gaping. "Excuse me."

She quickly turned tail and scurried back down the stairs out of the inn and into the woods. What was he doing? What was he thinking? she breathed heavily, trying to keep her eyes dry.

How could he? Does he not know how much it'll hurt me? How did the girl even get in there? her emotions won over her will, tears starting to fall. Couldn't he have at least waited till I was gone?

~~~

"Ryia?" he called as he ran down the stairs and out the door. His head was pounding and he felt like it would split open any moment. "Ryia!"

He saw a flash of red dash into the woods and he ran after her. He knew how bad it had looked. Another girl in their room.

But it wasn't how it had looked.

He caught up with her when the trees started to get denser. "Ryia stop!"

He grabbed her arm and whirled her around. "Listen to me."

Her face was tear stained and, as much as he hated to admit it, was glad that it affected her as much as it did.

She tried to yanked her arm away, but Gillian had a firm grip on her arm. "It wasn't the way it looked."

"Then tell me, what was it all about?" she looked at him with contempt, and Gillian hoped she would never look at him like that again.

"She came into the room and well. She kind of threw herself on me." he ran a hand through his hair, and Ryia noticed he had haphazardly put his blue shirt on, not bothering to button it up.

"And you couldn't stop her?" she shook her head, disappointed in his excuse.

"I was pushing her away when you came in." he told her. "You have to believe me."

"I can get to Carenthia now. I can make it by myself." she let her gaze drop.

"I'm not letting you go by yourself." he brought her chin up, making her look at him.

"Once I'm gone you can go gallivanting off with whoever you want." she told him bitterly.

"I'm married and I promised not to do that! You have to believe me when I tell you I didn't want it to happen!" he banged his fist against a tree, regretting it immediately. Pain shot through his arm. He rested his head against the tree and tried to calm himself down. "You have to believe me when I say that I don't care about any other women."

He looked back at her. "I told you about Chloe, remember?"

She looked down and nodded.

"Look at me," he held her chin in his hand, "I didn't love her. I thought I did. But I was in love with the idea of her. I wanted to be like my father. I wanted a beautiful wife. It was her looks that attracted me. Not her personality. Nothing about her except for her looks. When we were together, she was demanding. She would manipulate me and make me buy things for her. She took advantage of me and my money. I just wanted her for her beauty. As much as I detested the man, I wanted to be like my father."

Ryia frowned. What does this have to do with anything?

"I've never loved any girl before." he looked at her sadly. No girl besides you.