Chapter 38.1

MAX returned to the house feeling blue and disheartened. After settling Laura's engagement with a business man, Bailey Williams, he all but ran back to the Adenhart mansion. His heart leaping to his throat when he noticed Dolly's clothes packed in a small bag.

She didn't even pack the things Max had brought her.

"Dolly..." Max swallowed when he saw her face devoid of any emotion. His Dolly shouldn't be like this. She's the source of joy for him. She shouldn't behave like this. This is not how she usually acts with everyone. 'Where's my always smiling sweetheart?'

"Did you love her, Max?" Her quiet voice send chill on his spine. He can't imagine the last time he felt this way. Anxious and scared that something important for him is being snatched away. "I want the truth. Did you kill them?"

"Dolly, you have to understand that it's all in the past. Milani is twelve years dead! All I have is you! Why can't you see that?"

"But you won't tell me what happened, Max. I had to know from a stranger. What kind of a person have I fallen in love with!" Dolly smiled. The tears in her eyes had long dried. All that's left is determination. To leave and go away from him. "Why can't you answer me, Max? Did you love Milani? Did you harm those people?"

'Not now, please.' Max closed his eyes briefly. He doesn't want to lie. He doesn't want to tell her about Milani because somehow, he know that she will ask the same question. 'Did you love her?' 'Did you kill her?'

How can he possibly answer something that he never experienced before? Had he ever loved someone aside from his family members? He can't remember.

But he did feel something for Dolly.

And so was when he's with Milani back then.

He might not be the one who personally killed the girl, Max played a huge part on the thing that had pushed her to the end.

'How can I tell you this without hurting you?'

Max avoided her blank stare. He sighed noisily before answering, "Back then, I intended to bond with her... when she was still alive."

That was neither yes or no. That shouldn't hurt Dolly.

When Max raise his eyes in her direction, the realization hit him that it only devastated her more. The rim of her eyes reddened, and fresh tears poured out. Along with an odd sound that resembled a sob. She blinked furiously. "If she... hadn't died, then you would've stayed with her, right?"

Max wanted to respond 'no'. He did imagined bonding with Milani but with the entire time that they were contracted as master and servant, she was never even called a 'friend' of his. Their relationship never progressed.

Max wronged Milani.

He entertained the thought when the loneliness gets too much but he never acted upon it. The elders won't agree and Janette will scold him for being impulsive.

Dolly didn't give him a chance and laugh. It was an ugly sight. The sound break something inside him. "I only got you because I'm your fated mate but she... she must be a great character. A very beautiful woman... since you personally picker her..."

'Why is she like this?' Gulping a greedy gasp of air to calm his nerves, Max rake a hand on his hair furiously. He spat, "Wasn't it the same for Fin, Dolly?"

"If I didn't intervene that time, you would've agreed being tied to him for life! You would've allowed him to mark you—"

A slap halted Max' lament. Even his breathing stagnated for a second. Dolly had raised a hand on him. He nodded sagely. "You wouldn't listen to me. I know it was my fault for not telling you about Milani but Dolly, Milani came to my life when you were just on your teenage years. I didn't even know I have an existing fated mate that time because I am old. I've been living for five hundred years. I could've missed my fated mate already, who knows? But Dolly, you don't care. Milani is dead, and so is his brother. Maybe I love Milani, maybe not. We should've focused on what we have now, but you won't listen. You wanted to go."

"If the pressure is too much for you and that you can't accept a murderer like me then you're free to leave. I wanted to tell you when I'm sure about my emotions. I want to tell you about Milani when I can finally answer your question wether I loved her or not. Until now, I don't have the answer."

Max lowered his head and stepped aside. His feet heavy and almost immovable. "Maybe it's for the best."

He planned to ask the butler to send Dolly somewhere far. Then order a few guards to follow her around. Once they both had calmed their nerves, he will go and try to talk with her.

His brain raced through different ideas about how to win her back. He walked away with a frown, massaging the dent on his chest. 'It's going to be alright. She's going to be alright.'

Her scent is everywhere in this mansion. How can he calm down with this?

"You said you don't know..." Dolly muttered, "does this mean... you can't say that you love me now? Because Max, I've fallen for you since the first time you called my name. Why is it not the same for you..."

Max turned. The expression in Dolly's face made his knees weak. She wanted his hug at the moment. He can see it in her eyes. The way she usually does when she had a rough day, or when she missed her parents back home.

"Max, please tell me you like me more."