“Penelope, can you for a moment…”
She stepped back.
“No. Don’t say my name like that. I do not need any of this. Pretending you still care, that’s not kindness, Alexander. That’s cruelty.”
“How are you so certain that it is only pretense?”
“Because I am.”
“So I see that your stubbornness has blinded you here as well,” Alexander shook his head. Penelope felt at a loss for words.
What was he trying to get at here? Was he somehow suggesting that none of this was pretend and that he might actually care for her?
“Now, you are playing games with me,” she said at once. “And I do not appreciate it, even for a moment.”
“There are no games,” Alexander walked closer to her. “You act as though you are so smart, but then you cannot figure out what is right in front of your eyes.”
Penelope opened her mouth to speak, and then closed it again. She was not quite sure what he was trying to say.
“Really?” Alexander urged her. “Do you really wish for me to spell it out for you?”
“Considering how you confuse me with every single action of yours, I believe that it is the right thing for you to do,” Penelope nodded. “I do not understand your little riddles, as much as I try to.”
Alexander rubbed his open palm against his face, and then willed himself to look at her again.
“It’s my fault,” he said.
“What?” Penelope blinked. It was rare to see him take blame for anything.
“It’s all my fault,” he said again,louder this time. “Not yours. I know you feel guiltyabout what happened at the park. But none of it had anything to do with you. I am not so naive that I would put the blame on you.”
“But you did,” Penelope spoke again. “That is exactly what you did, when you asked me to leave the estate. You said that I can no longer be trusted. How can you take that back now?”
“I said that to make you leave,” Alexander pressed his lips together. “But now, I realize that it was a mistake. I thought I could send you away and keep you safe. I thought it was the only way to do so.”
“For my own safety?” Penelope repeated, aghast. “You sent me away from both of you for my own safety?”
“It won't make sense to you,” he sighed. “And you can choose not to believe me. But this is the truth that I have been carrying inside for the last few days. But it’s been eating me up . I have thought about you every moment since you left.”
Penelope paused at that. Her heart was thumping loudly inside her chest.
“You thought about me?” Penelope stuttered. “I.. I had assumed that you would not spare me a single thought, and I would be forgotten.”
Alexander shook his head, laughing dryly.
“If only it were so easy, then I would have been in a much more convenient position,” he sighed. “But it is not. You are the greatest inconvenience of my life.”
Penelope did not know whether she should rejoice or take offense .
“I am not trying to be an inconvenience…”
“But you are,” he was smiling now. “It is entirely inconvenient to love you, but I do, anyway.”
It felt like the world had suddenly come to a halt. Nothing else seemed to matter except the words that had just come out of his mouth.
“You…” she said, flushed. “You… what?”
“I love you,” he said simply. His words had shifted the very air in the room.
