Heartfelt - An Arranged Marriage with a Billionaire

Chapter 12 - Tender Moments

Kazuo pov:

I awoke to a pounding headache, my whole body feeling sore, especially my right arm, and I was exhausted. It took a few minutes for me to recall why I felt this way and I groaned as I felt pain when I shifted. I peeled my eyes open but shut them close almost immediately while wincing at the pain that went through my head at the dim light of my room. I blinked several times until my eyes adjusted and I could open them fully without feeling more than a slight throb through my head.

I looked around the room and my gaze stopped on someone who sat on the sill of the bay window just a few feet away from the bed while gazing out of the rain lashed glass. I recognized it to be Naomi soon enough and I wondered what she was doing in my room. I turned to my left a bit and pushed up on my elbow so I could sit but I gasped and fell back at the piercing pain that shot through my body from my right shoulder. That caught Naomi's attention and she was at my side instantly.

"Kazuo san, you're awake! Don't force yourself to sit up! Here, I'll help!" She said, sounding worried and moved away from me when I was comfortably leaning back on pillows. "How do you feel?"

"Not too good." I said and touched my right shoulder that was throbbing. I tensed and looked at Naomi when she placed her hand gently on my forehead. She pulled away soon enough and gave a very small smile.

"You don't have a fever anymore. That's good." She said and I narrowed my eyes.

"Were you, by any chance, here with me the whole time I was asleep?" I asked slowly.

"I was....well, I wasn't here for t-the whole time. I had to go to change out of my blood stained clothes and get something to eat and use the....I-I mean, I was worried so I stayed here most of the time." She said, a light blush rising to her cheeks in fluster.

She didn't meet my gaze as I continued to look at her while an unexpected sense of comfort and satisfaction washed over me. I vaguely remembered dreaming of her leaving me while I slept, weak and sick, and I had held her hand and begged her to say. I could almost hear words of reassurance in her soft voice as she had held my hand in hers and sat down next to me again. The dream then faded....but that brief dream had let me have the best sleep I had had in years.

I glanced at the blood stained bandages on her left arm, the shallow cut she had on her collar bone and the red marks on her neck from when her father had tried to strangle her. I recalled how violent Nagase san had been despite Naomi being his daughter and how she had cowered in fear of him until I snapped her back to her senses. He had even tried to kill her! I had felt such rage in that moment, possessiveness and protectiveness over the gentle woman I had misunderstood for all this time, and I had almost killed Nagase san. I still had my rational thinking though and I had shot him to make him merely immobile instead of take his life.

And the thought of how much more of this kind of abuse she'd had to live through angered me more.

"What happened to Nagase san?"

"Huh? O-oh, the police took him away and had me give them a brief description of what happened. They said they'll come tomorrow morning to get a full statement." She answered. "A-anyway, the doctor said that you collapsed because you were really exhausted and that you should take two or three days of rest. He's given you some light medication that you should take after you eat something. I'll go make some porridge."

She didn't wait for a response from me and hurried out of the room. I stared at the door even after she had left, many thoughts going through my mind. I felt angry for what Nagase san had done and was planning to do not just to me but to Naomi as well, relieved that we were alright and safe now and thoroughly guilty for the way I had been treating Naomi all this time. I had never taken a moment to listen to her even when she had desperately pestered me to tell me something important, I had always treated her coldly and I had done something as horrible as force myself on her in my anger and moment of misunderstanding.