Gideon couldn’t believe she was taunting him, disregarding what he had done for her. He had already ordered to punish the one who had wronged her, but she wouldn’t express a little gratitude to him for saving her.
"How ungrateful!" he muttered, annoyed. "You don’t have a sense of gratitude."
"I don’t need your favor," she fired back. "I can take care of myself."
At that, Gideon lost the last bit of his patience. He grabbed her arm, yanking her toward him with a crushing grip.
"I took you out of that place," his eyes darkened with a storm of frustration and hurt, "safely. If I hadn’t shown up, that man would never have let you leave."
But Summer was too furious to listen to him. Holding his gaze, she retaliated, "You took me there in the first place. You were aware of what kind of man he was, yet you wanted me to accompany you and expect me to entertain him – just to secure the deal."
Her words sliced him mercilessly.
Gideon fell silent. For a heartbeat, he couldn’t breathe. Yes, he regretted taking her there. He had been blaming himself from the moment he carried her out of the golf club. Only if he had verified Mr. Hill’s background sooner, none all this would have happened. Summer wouldn’t have gone through that turmoil.
That guilt was there, but her accusation that he had used her to secure a deal cut deep.
His chest tightened as if she had stabbed straight through his heart.
"Did I force you to drink?" he snapped back, his voice rising. He was not only angry, but her words had shattered his heart. "I stopped you, remember? But you still drank with him even after seeing his intentions. Don’t put the blame on me."
"Yes, you are right," Summer also shouted, her voice echoing inside the room. "You took me there with the intention of troubling me. I fell into that situation because of you. His filthy intentions were clear from the start, but you didn’t stop him. Instead, you left me alone with him. You wanted to see me in a miserable state. And when he tried to violate me, I fought alone."
She poked him in his chest. "You were not there. You didn’t help me. I escaped on my own. And I would have gotten out even if you hadn’t shown up at all."
Gideon, speechless, stared at her, his mouth slightly open. Her words were sharp, unrelenting, unforgiving, hitting him hard.
"So, don’t act like my savior," she went on. "I don’t need you. I stopped relying on you a long time ago."
She snatched her bag from the table and marched out, the door slamming behind her with a violent thud.
Silence descended, but the room still buzzed with the echo of her voice.
Gideon stood rooted to the floor, staring at the door she had disappeared through, wishing her to come back. But she didn’t. The silence around him pressed hard on him.
’She stopped relying on me,’ he mumbled in his head. ’Did I really lose her?’
An unfamiliar hollowness spread in his chest. He clasped his heart and sagged onto the sofa. He felt as though something inside him had cracked open.
"No," he grunted out. "This will never happen." Possessive determination burned in his eyes. "She won’t walk away from me. I won’t let her forget me... not again. Never."
Summer’s legs shook as she came out of the hotel. Her face flushed in rage. "What a jerk," she muttered under her breath. "He didn’t show an ounce of concern for me. And now, he wants me to bow to him with gratitude. Ridiculous." This chapter is updated first at novelping.com.
Her anger only mounted the more she thought about it. "If it weren’t for him, I wouldn’t have been in that situation. First, he puts me in danger, then he plays the savior, expecting me to be grateful to him." She snorted bitterly. "Bullshit..."
She lifted a hand, rubbing at her temples, trying to calm the sick swirl of emotions inside her. "Forget it. No need to torture myself by thinking about him. I need to go back to the hospital."
She flagged down a cab and slipped into it.
Just as the taxi sped off, another car glided into the hotel’s entrance. As it came to a halt, a tall man stepped out and hurried in with urgency in his steps. He went straight to Gideon’s room, his finger jabbing the doorbell impatiently.
"Coming." Gideon’s frustrated voice came out of the room. "What’s wrong with the people here? Is the world crumbling apart?"
As he pulled the door open, he saw a familiar figure standing tall at the threshold.
"Ben?" His brows shot up in surprise. Of all people, Ben was the last he imagined would show up at his door. "What are you doing here?"
Ben didn’t answer. Instead, he scanned him from head to toe. "How are you feeling? Don’t hide anything from me. Tell me the worst fear you’ve experienced recently."
"The worst fear?" Gideon repeated.
Images of Summer’s lifeless form in his arms flickered before him. The possibility of losing her forever was what he feared the most. But he only snorted and turned away, strolling back into the suite.
"You didn’t reply to my question. What the hell are you doing here?"
Ben shrugged, letting out an exaggerated sigh. "I rushed here to check on you, and you didn’t appreciate it. You are acting like you don’t like seeing me here."
Gideon didn’t bother responding. He sank into the sofa, pulled out a cigarette, and lit it with a sharp flick.
"Matthew called me early this morning," Ben explained, flopping next to Gideon. "He said something had happened to you and asked me to come urgently. So I came flying, skipping patients, everything. And what do I get in return?"
He widened his eyes in mock despair. "Disappointment. You don’t value me anymore."
Gideon shot him a sidelong glance but said nothing. Ben had always been like this – dramatic. No one who saw him like this would believe he was a renowned psychiatrist with a waiting list six months long.
Matthew said you slept last night," Ben continued, leaning back casually. But his eyes remained on him, still studying him. "No nightmares. That’s progress. But he also told me about the visions... and the headache getting worse."
Gideon’s expression softened a bit, and the tightness of his muscles eased. But a fear flashed in his eyes. "Yes. Those visions...are too vivid. Too real. Like memories I’ve lived through."
It’s your subconscious messing with you," Ben explained gently. "The guilt of losing Summer has been buried deep in your mind. Until you forgive yourself, it will claw its way up in the form of visions. But look at the positive side—you slept. That means the new medication is working."
"I met Summer," he said, his eyes moving to the distance.
"Oh, come on, Gideon." Ben waved in frustration, rolling his eyes. "Don’t start again."
It was nothing new to him. In every session, Gideon said this – seeing Summer at every corner of his house. Ben thought he was just talking about his imagination.
"Summer is gone for six years," he went on, not listening to what Gideon was trying to say. "She is not coming back. Accept it already. You are still alive. You need to enjoy life fully. Come on."
He stood up and tugged at his arm. "Let’s go out and have some fun. There are plenty of young, gorgeous women out there. You should meet them. Let the dopamine release in your system. You will be relaxed, and sleep will come naturally. You need this more than any medicine."
"If you want it, go for it," Gideon hissed, extinguishing the cigarette. "I don’t need this."
"Look, I’m your doctor. You should listen to me."
"Who asked you to come here in the first place?" Gideon snapped.
"I was worried," Ben said. "I need to check on you."
"Shut up, Ben," Gideon grumbled. "I don’t need you here."
Ben nodded stiffly. "Yes, yes. I know," he muttered. "You need no one. You just want to cling to a dead person."
"She is not dead," Gideon spat, his frustration rising. "She is here. She has been here all along, hiding from me."
Ben’s jaw fell apart, his eyes widening in shock. "Are you serious?"
Gideon held out his phone and showed him Summer’s photo. "She is my secretary now."
Ben snatched the phone and looked at the photo. It was really Summer. "What the..." He blinked, dumbfounded.
His fingers trembled slightly as he held the phone, his eyes glued to the screen. Even in the photo, Summer looked alive, very much real. For a long moment, he couldn’t even blink.
Back then, everyone had believed Summer had died in the fire. It was only Gideon who had not believed she was gone and had kept looking for her all those years. Now, he found her eventually.
"Is she really Summer?" Ben asked skeptically.
"Or else?" Gideon snapped. "Do you think I won’t recognize her?"
Ben kept looking at the photo with shock and disbelief, still struggling to process what he was seeing.
"She was with me last night," Gideon continued softly. "It’s her presence that calmed me. After a long time, I had a peaceful sleep with no nightmares. I didn’t take any medicine. It’s her. She made me sleep."