The Bachelor - David Dower (freenovel24 .txt) 📗

even seal it with wax tinted with the dark red liquid!

He tried not to fume, but he was walking beside his father and he could very well feel that invisible energetic waves between them. His blood was raging it could shatter a damn BP apparatus.

Calm down, he ordered himself. Yes, he had to calm down. But he had to talk with Julianne first.

 *****

An hour later, Sister Samuel left them, Mrs. Astor and her husband walking away with her, leaving the girls and Zach in a classroom with the children.

The ladies, desperate to impress Zach, chose their own children to talk with. Julianne hesitated at first, but she saw one little girl in the corner, playing with her doll. Slowly, she approached with a gentle smile.

“Hi,” she greeted. The girl looked up, her blue eyes curious and alarmed. Julianne knew how she felt. The girl was probably aged five or close to that and yet, she was here, alone with a bunch of other kids, in the mercy of other people’s money.

She saw herself in that girl. Well, her past self. Growing in an orphanage would make you cautious. It would make you think that everyone who approached you was up to no good.

“I’m Julianne, what’s your name?” She also learned that being asked what your name was would make you feel important—that you somehow mattered.

“Kim,” the little girl answered, tucking her blond curly hair behind her ear. She was conscious, Julianne knew that.

“I have a friend named Kim,” Julianne said, forcing her voice to sound enthusiastic. “But she’s not here. She’s sick.”

“Where is she? Why is she sick?”

Julianne bowed her head and looked at the girl conspiratorially and motioned with her finger. A smile broke on the girl’s face, excited to know another secret. “She’s actually not sick,” Julianne whispered, “she pretended to be sick so she can be with the guy she likes.”

The girl giggled and after a few seconds, she looked at Julianne and said, “I don’t like guys though.”

“I don’t either,” Julianne said with a whisper, her eyes flickering towards  Zach who was standing in one corner, watching Liam cuddle a baby.

“They make fun of me,” the girl pouted. “Especially Jonathan. He’s bad,” she then motioned her head towards a brown-haired boy with thick eyebrows sitting beside Chloe.

“Boys tend to do that,” Julianne nodded. “But that doesn’t mean they’re bad.”

“But he’s always calling me names,” Kim continued to pout.

Julianne smiled and sat down beside the child on the floor. “Maybe he likes seeing you cry. You shouldn’t let him see you cry.”

“Really?”

“Yes,” Julianne nodded. “Or maybe, he likes you,” she chided. Okay, so you shouldn’t teach children about those things yet, but she couldn’t help it.

“No, he doesn’t,” Kim shook her head.

“Anyway, how do you enjoy it here?” she asked. She could ask the child why she was here, but that was against the rules of orphan ethics. You should never ever ask where they came from.

“It’s fun most of the time. Sister Samuel is very nice.”

“I know,” Julianne nodded.

“And she gives us cookies when we behave.”

“Is that why you’re here?” she asked, looking at the doll. It looked tattered, but she knew it meant a lot to Kim.

“Yes, I’m behaving,” Kim said proudly.

“That’s very nice,” Julianne uttered, her voice trailing off. She didn’t know what else to say.

“Is that your boyfriend?” Kim asked, pointing at Zach. Julianne followed her gaze and saw that Zach was looking at them with a grin. The guy looked much better now that his father was out of the room.

“No, but he wants to be,” Julianne whispered to Kim. “That’s a secret, okay?”

Kim nodded vigorously, eager to please her. “Oh, he’s coming!”

Julianne sighed when she saw Zach coming over.

“Should I go?” Kim asked.

Before Julianne could answer, the child was already skipping away with her doll towards the blackboard. She began drawing with a chalk, oblivious of everything behind her.

“Why did she go away?” Zach asked, sitting beside her.

“You scared her,” Julianne lied.

“I see you don’t hate children, so what’s with you and orphanages?”

Julianne snapped her head towards him. She was startled that he deducted she has some issues with orphanages.

“I was an orphan,” she answered, her voice small. She could see the other ladies looking at her. They obviously didn’t like it that Zach chose to approach her. But she didn’t care at the moment. She was guarding her emotions and handling Zach at the same time and it was not easy.

 *****

Zach was shocked. Okay, maybe he wasn’t that shocked. The thought actually crossed his mind the other night.

“And you hate orphanages,” he stated matter-of-factly.

“No, I don’t,” Julianne answered, shaking her head.

“Then…” he urged.

She was silent for a moment. “I hate the man who left me in one,” she finally answered.

“Your—”

“Father, yes,” she cut in before he could finish his answer. He was hesitant to ask further. It was obviously a sensitive topic and he didn’t know how to tackle it. “He promised me he’d come back.” Her voice broke for a moment and it startled him. He didn’t expect she’d explain or something. He was looking at her, her eyes looking straight ahead. And when she finally turned her head to look at him, her eyes were brimming with tears, “I learned how not to trust men since I realized he would never come back,” she uttered with conviction and stood up.  “Excuse me, I need to go to the bathroom,”

Zach was speechless. She was walking out of the classroom door.

For a moment, he considered the other ladies who were watching them earlier. But what the heck, he could do whatever he wanted.

He shot to his feet and went after Julianne. Chapter 24

“Stop following me!” he shouted at the camera guy as he stalked out of the room, frantically looking for the bathroom or something close to it.

The camera guy walked off without argument. Lately, they had been shoved aside by him and today was no exception.

There was a door at the end of the hallway that indicated a washroom of some sort and he stormed right towards it and did not bother knocking. “Jules,” he nearly shouted and he heard a yelp.

A female child ran out of the room, glaring at him. “Can’t you read?” the child asked, pointing at the word, ‘GIRLS’.

“I’m sorry,” he murmured, stepping aside.

“Go away, Zach, really, I’m serious,” Julianne’s voice said from inside one of the stalls. “I just need a few moments.”

“You’re depressed,” he stated, closing the door behind him and locked it.

“No, I’m not. I just told you—”

“The reason why you can’t trust me when I say I love you?” he interjected. “You’re trying to make yourself believe that what my father said was true, aren’t you? Well, he’s wrong.”

There was no answer.

“You’re using the excuse that your father left you so you won’t feel obliged to worry about our situation. You take comfort to the thought that you can never trust men because your father left you. Well, news, Jules, I’ll never do that.”

“That’s what he promised me,” she sniffed.

Zach didn’t answer for a moment. Well, maybe her fear of trusting men was that deep after all. “You’ll be sick of my presence, I promise you. I’ll never do what your father did.”

“Don’t promise something you are not certain you can keep, Zach,” her voice rose a notch higher, indicating he was getting into her nerves. “Our life in this show will be completely different once we’re outside,” she said, opening the stall door. Her eyes, the ones still damp with tears from earlier, looked at him, “You can never be certain of what you will feel once everything is over, Zach. That’s why I think your father is right.”

“And you’re crying because?” he asked stupidly.

“Because I’m feeling a lot of emotions today. This place is not helping.”

“Because of your father.”

“Yes, and because I know how those children will feel when we go later.”

“What?” he asked in a whisper.

“They will feel lonely because they’ll be alone once again. Then their hopes will go down because they will think we didn’t like them because we left. That’s not a very pleasant feeling, I tell you,” she said, wiping the last of her tears.

“Hey, come on, calm down,” he walked towards her and pulled her in his embrace.

 *****

Julianne didn’t know how their conversation went from one subject to another. Maybe because she was feeling everything at the moment, and she was weak to guard off the other worries that she had regarding Zach.

It always happened to her every time she was reminded of her father. Everything that she had put off would all come rushing in whenever that great gigantic wall came crashing down.

But as always, she learned how to build it up as quickly as she could. Like that moment, she let Zach hold her for a while as she struggled to put everything back—every single worry—in their own respective boxes.

“I’m okay…I’m fine…” she pushed away from him after a while.

“Jules…”

“Zach, I’m fine…Leave me alone for now…” she sniffed and pushed him away.

He stared at her reluctantly for a long time before he nodded and backed away from the room. When he was finally gone, Julianne faced the mirror and tried to rearrange herself.

“So,” Chloe’s voice said behind her. She did not need to turn her head because the lady’s reflection was clearly painted on the mirror. Her usual mocking look stared back at Julianne through the glass and she continued, “Tears really work, huh…”

“Want to cry yourself?” Julianne snapped, startled that her voice sounded stronger. “What are you doing here, Chloe?”

The blond girl sighed dramatically and uttered, looking at her fingers, “I just checked out if you’re okay…”

“I’m fine…thank you for the concern,” Jules said sarcastically. “You can go now. But don’t turn the wrong way ‘coz hell is quite eager for your company.” She was doing really well at this, she thought.

“Seems like your head is getting bigger, Jules. You don’t fight back like this before.”

“When you’re forced to live among devils, you learn how to,” she retorted, almost tasting the tension growing between them. It was typical of girls to hold back from scratching each other’s faces unlike the male population who would jump at the chance whenever provoked.

Chloe stepped forward, her eyes and nostrils flaring. “You bitch!”

“Took after you, I guess,” Julianne answered, shrugging her shoulders. “Please, I don’t want further useless arguments with the likes of you, Chloe, so kindly step out of the room.”

“You think you’re too high because you’re freaking J. Green? And you think you’re worth every damned rose Zach gives you? He’s just making fun of you—”

“I think…” Mrs. Astor’s voice said from the door, silencing Chloe. Julianne turned and took a step back, facing the woman, “if my son did make a wrong decision, it was choosing you.”

Mrs. Astor looked calm, but anger was imminent in her eyes as she stared at Chloe.

Chloe was a fighter, so what did you expect? That she would cower? No, she lifted her chin and walked away.

“Mrs. Astor…” Julianne stammered. “I’m sorry about that…”

“About what?” Mrs. Astor asked innocently like nothing happened. “Were you crying? What did Zach do this time?” she was frowning as she asked.

“No,” Julianne shook her head. “It’s not Zach…I’m sorry…I need to go…”

“Of course,” Mrs. Astor said,