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.

shaking arms to

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

had left for real. She was

Ellie went to L City was to

with them. But none of that ever happened.

they went out for some groceries. She wanted to surprise them and didn't call. But when it was getting dark, and they were still not home, she figured that

All of them just looked at her with sad faces and tried to

about the way they looked at her. However, she started to panic after she didn't hear anything about her grandparents for the whole day. She went

to avoid talking about them at first. She tried to

the neighbors told her that her grandparents had passed away and it had already been a month.

them all of a sudden. With

before 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 tell Ellie

story, she

City. She didn't believe that any sickness

would not agree to let

she decided to return home.

her sitting on the bed, holding her knees, her head

He wondered why it was so hard for her to accept that they

breakfast platter

him, surprised, "Why are you

red and swollen, but

you last night? No matter what happens, I will be with you.

him with

know if she should trust him.

sounded really tempting when he told

took over Ellie.

didn't know what to do.

left a huge traumatic mark on her. She had stayed away from

different. She didn't hate the idea of getting

just realized it, but she was happy when he

about what she was feeling, but she knew