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.

herself with her shaking arms to

all the tough facade she had shown

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

L City was to visit her

going to spend some time and have a few nice meals with them. But none of that ever happened. What was waiting for

surprise them and didn't call. But when it was getting dark, and they were still

got an answer. All of them just looked at her with sad faces and tried

she started to panic after she didn't hear anything about her grandparents

talking about them at first. She tried

neighbors told her that her grandparents had passed away and it had already

all of a sudden.

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

she didn't believe

their last visit to J City. She

would not agree to

she mourned until she decided

to Ellie's house and saw her sitting on the bed, holding her knees, her head buried between them

so hard for her to accept that they

a breakfast platter on the table in front

looked up at him, surprised, "Why are you still

swollen, but she couldn't

forget what I told you last night? No

him with a blank expression.

know if she should trust

when he told her she

took over Ellie.

know what to

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

She didn't hate the

was happy when he was around.

she couldn't see him, she felt lost. She wasn't sure about what she was feeling, but she knew that she cared about him.