A Love Trap

"Ellie! Stop... talking... like that!" he spluttered.

Francis might have been with a lot of women, but he took nobody seriously. Those women knew it and they didn't mind.

But Ellie was different. He never thought of treating her badly.

He could not fathom why she had to hurt herself like that.

He was really upset. Not because of what she thought about him, but because of how she saw herself.

The worst part of it was that she called him "Mr. Francis." The fact that she called him "Mr. Francis"

hurt him the most.

Ellie closed her eyes and pursed her lips. She didn't say anything.

Francis grabbed both her shoulders and forced her to look at him. "Ellie, please tell me you're joking." He looked at her, his eyes firm with pleading and frustration. "Please tell me you didn't mean any of what you just said."

Francis' eyes spoke sincerely to Ellie.

She couldn't take another look at him. She needed strength to say what she was about to say, "No, I meant everything I said."

Francis could see right through her lie. He shouted, "Look me in the eye and tell me again! You didn't mean any of that, right?"

Ellie looked into his eyes, her visage as fierce as the crunching in her chest. "I meant it. I meant every bit of it. You may leave Mr. Francis."

Ellie pointed to the door gesturing for Francis to leave.

"Fine!" Francis clenched his jaw and gnashed his teeth in anger.

He let go of her and turned around to leave.

The thud that came from the shutting door made Ellie flinch. As the door closed, the room fell into silence.

Ellie could only look at the direction where he had gone.

her shaking arms to

felt as if all the tough facade she had shown him earlier

now. Everyone had left for real. She was really all

reason why Ellie went to L City was to

with them. But none

surprise them and didn't call. But when it was getting

really got an answer. All of them just looked at

to panic after she didn't hear anything about her grandparents for the whole day. She went to

tried to avoid talking about them at first. She tried to

had passed away and it had

lives, but this sickness caught on them all of a sudden. With their age, it took their lives very quickly. No

they passed. They told the neighbors not to tell Ellie. They said that they might fight it through and they didn't want to make her worry. They also told them that if the sickness got worse, they would

hearing the story, she didn't believe them.

were fine during their last visit to J City. She didn't believe that any sickness

would not agree to let

she decided to

house and saw her sitting on the bed, holding her knees, her head buried

felt really bad. He wondered why it was so hard for her to accept that they had spent a night

a breakfast platter on the table

looked up at him, surprised, "Why

red and swollen, but she couldn't keep her tears from

to her, Francis sighed, "Did you forget what I told you last night? No matter what happens, I will

looked at him with a blank

know if she should trust

sounded really tempting when he told

over Ellie.

what to do.

marriage had left a huge traumatic mark on her. She had stayed away from men for many years.

didn't hate the idea of getting close to him.

realized it, but she was happy when he

sure about what she was feeling, but she knew that she cared about him.