Bedmates Soulmates novel Chapter 476

She knew she was just delaying the inevitable, but a desperate person would do anything. 

If, in the end, Austyn chose Deborah, she would…give them her blessing. 

*** 

The pile of files marked ‘Pending‘ dwindled while the pile marked ‘Done‘ grew bigger. 

Austyn tossed away the signature pen after he was done with the last document. 

He switched off the iMac and got up. 

His phone rang before he made it out of the office. 

His face fell when he saw the caller ID wasn’t Kira. 

‘Deborah.‘ 

Her sobbing voice travelled intermittently down the line. ‘A–Austyn…‘ 

He pulled up short. ‘What’s wrong?’ 

She sounded extremely upset. 

Her speech was incoherent, her words slurred. 

Austyn couldn’t make out what she was saying. 

All he knew was Deborah sounded to be in shock. 

He bounded out of the office. ‘Where are you?‘ She didn’t respond. 

He had to repeat the question three more times. 

‘H–home.‘ 

‘I’m heading your way. I’ll be there in fifteen minutes. Stay in the house. Lock the door. Don’t go anywhere.‘ 

He kept her on the line as he rushed towards the lift. 

Kai was nearly knocked down by his boss in the hallway. 

‘What’s wrong?‘ He was startled by the look on Austyn’s face. 

‘Come. I need you to drive.‘ 

‘Yes, Boss.‘ Kai followed him into the lift. ‘Where to?‘ 

‘Sunglade Condo.‘ 

Kai kept his foot on the gas pedal and made the trip in eleven minutes. 

1/3 

She Would Give Them Her Blessing 

Austyn opened the door of Unit 18-20 with his spare key and was immediately assaulted by a pungent smell in the air. 

As a man, he knew what that smell represented, and it made the anxious feeling in his heart spike. 

He found Deborah on the sofa in the living room. 

She was curled up into a ball and rocking back and forth. 

Her white dress was in shreds and hanging off her almost–naked body. 

Her face was covered by her dishevelled long hair. 

She was whimpering. 

Austyn approached her slowly with a sinking feeling. 

The smell in the room and the state she was in told him what had happened. 

‘Deborah?‘ he called out gently. 

Her head snapped up. 

Her eyes were red and puffy. 

Her lips were cut and bleeding. 

‘Austyn?‘ 

She blinked away the tears and finally saw him. 

‘Austyn!‘ 

She 

sprang up from the sofa and launched herself into his arms. 

Austyn stroked her back. 

He was livid. 

It was clear that Deborah had been assaulted. 

He let her cry on his shoulders for a while. 

When the wailing subsided, he gently pulled her back. 

‘Who did this to you?‘ 

Deborah shook her head. 

She tried to gather the tom shreds of her dress and cover herself. 

‘Deborah, talk to me.‘ He shook her shoulders gently. ‘Who did this?‘ 

She lowered her head. ‘I w… I want to take a shower.‘ 

Austyn stared fixedly at her for a long minute. 

Then he finally said, ‘Okay. I’ll be in the living room.‘ 

She gave a tiny nod, left his embrace and staggered towards the bathroom. 

Austyn checked the door. 

No signs of forced entry. 

Whoever the assailant was, he was invited into the apartment by Deborah. 

Austyn took in the living room. 

Everything was where it should be. 

The place looked neat and tidy, except for the mess on the sofa. 

Its cushions were ripped out and flung onto the floor. 

Fragments of Deborah’s white dress were strewn everywhere. 

Kai had been standing in the doorway, his mouth agape. 

When he finally regained the use of his voice, he asked, ‘Boss, was that…Miss Connelly?‘ 

Austyn had asked him to drive here without telling him why. 

There had been no time to ask 

When the door opened, Kai thought he had seen a ghost. 

Ten minutes later, he was still reeling. 

Austyn drew the curtains closed. ‘Yes. Deborah’s been living abroad for the past few years. She has just come back. I saw her three days ago.‘ Kai didn’t know what to think. 

He wasn’t there the night Miss Connelly was shot, but he’d heard enough from Elsie afterwards to piece together what happened. 

By that point, Miss Connelly was no longer Austyn’s fiancée, but Kai knew how traumatising her ‘death‘ had been to Austyn. 

2/2 

She Would Give Them Her Blessing 

Boss must be thrilled when he discovered Miss Connelly was still alive. 

Kai’s thoughts immediately went to the woman currently in Austyn’s life. ‘What about Young Madam?” 

Failure’s Not An Option 

Austyn’s hand froze. 

After a long while, he managed to say, ‘I’ll find the right time to tell her. But not now.‘ 

He was still processing the news. 

He had so many unanswered questions about what happened that year. 

Telling Kira at this point was only going to complicate matters. 

Kai nodded. 

He had to agree with Boss. 

This was the best way to handle this matter, for now. 

No matter how he looked at it, a meeting between the current wife and the ex–fiancée was not going to be a pleasant one. 

Besides, Miss Connelly didn’t seem like she was in a state to receive visitors. 

Kai recalled the scene that greeted him when the door opened, feeling uneasy. 

‘Is Miss Connelly going to be all right?‘ 

Austyn didn’t reply. 

He didn’t know the answer. 

His eyes flicked towards the closed bedroom door. 

Both he and Kai had an inkling of what took place in the apartment. 

But neither could bring himself to say it out loud. 

*** 

Deborah almost slipped when she climbed out of the bathtub. 

Her knees were weak and shaking. 

Her mind wasn’t doing much better. 

The water had been scalding hot at first. 

She sat long enough in the tub for it to turn cold. 

Some semblance of normality returned to her chaotic mind. 

She shouldn’t have called Austyn. 

She shouldn’t have let him see the disgusting marks on her body. 

But she had no recollection of making the call. 

The assault drove her into a fugue state. 

Her brain shut down. 

She didn’t even remember dialling the number. 

Her defence mechanism must have kicked in. 

She instinctively called the one person she could trust. 

But now that Austyn was here, she didn’t know what to do. 

Liam forced himself on her. 

She didn’t know when he’d left. 

But she was glad he did. 

Because if he hadn’t, it would have been like seven years ago all over again, with Austyn walking in on her and Liam. 

She couldn’t do that to Austyn. 

She shouldn’t have called. 

She should have washed off the marks of shame and buried this matter forever. 

She should have pretended like nothing ever happened, 

Deborah stood in front of the mirror, staring at her haggard face covered in bruises. 

She slapped herself hard. 

Her cheeks were numb. 

She gripped the edge of the porcelain sink. 

What would Austyn think when he knew she’d slept with Liam again? 

She had been back in Stamford for less than three days and already repeated the same mistake she committed seven years ago. 

Failure’s Not An Option 

He might forgive her if she told him she had been forced. 

He might take pity on her. 

But he would never take her back. 

Then she would have failed. 

She couldn’t allow that to happen. 

Deborah squared her shoulders and tried to hold her head high. 

Austyn was already here. 

She couldn’t undo the call. 

So she just had to make the best out of a bad situation. 

She sucked in another deep breath, got dressed, pushed open the bathroom door and walked out. 

*** 

Austyn was on his third cigarette. 

He stood in front of the window, looking out but seeing nothing. 

His head was lowered. 

Kai couldn’t tell what Boss was thinking. 

He stood in a corner and tried to make himself invisible. 

Boss was not in a good mood, and whatever conversation he was about to have with Miss Connelly was bound to make him feel worse. 

Austyn’s old–fashioned ringtone pierced the silence in the living room. 

He continued smoking and made no move to answer it. 

Kai had to speak up. ‘Um, Boss, your phone.‘ 

Austyn finished his third cigarette and tossed its butt into an ashtray. 

He paused when he saw the caller ID onscreen. ‘Kira.‘ 

Kira slouched in the high–backed chair and eyed the dishes laid out on the table. ‘Are you still at work?‘ 

It had been close to three hours since her last call. 

Austyn promised he’d be home by then. 

‘What’s up?‘ He didn’t answer the question. 

‘Nothing’s up, except that dinner’s getting cold.‘ 

Elsie had been hard at work. 

There were half a dozen dishes on the table and she was bringing out more from the kitchen. 

Austyn remembered Kira’s last call. 

It had totally slipped his mind. 

He had broken his promise. 

‘Sorry,‘ he said in a low voice. ‘I still have something to do. I don’t think I can make it back tonight.‘ 

Kira sat up in the chair. 

She could hear the weariness in his voice. 

‘What’s wrong?‘ 

‘Nothing. You should go ahead with dinner. Don’t wait for me.‘ 

Austyn was being more taciturn than usual. 

It got her curious. 

‘Did something come up at work? How bad is it?‘ 

He had sounded tired in their last call, but at least he had the mood to joke. 

Now there was a grim note in his voice. 

‘It’s nothing. Don’t worry about it. I’ll handle it.‘ 

‘Oh, okay.‘ Kira eyed the sumptuous spread on the table. 

Elsie was going to be disappointed. 

‘Don’t work yourself too hard, though. You don’t want to be burned out at the age of thirty.‘ ‘Okay.‘ 

‘I’ll let you get back to work then. And remember to eat dinner.‘ 

lle’s Not A p 

‘Okay.‘ 

‘Ask Kai to get you – 

‘I have to go now.‘ Austyn hung up the moment he saw Deborah coming out of the bedroom. 

Kira listened to the busy tone in a daze. 

That was rude. 

She was used to Austyn hanging up on her without saying goodbye, but not while she was still in mid–sentence. 

Whatever problem he was having at work must be a real doozy. 

Kira shrugged. 

She wouldn’t understand the business problem even if he told her. 

She looked towards the kitchen. 

Elsie was coming out, carrying a tray with a big tureen on it. 

Kira winced. 

She hated to be the one to break the bad news to the housekeeper. ‘Elsie, I’m afraid we’re going to have a lot of leftovers today…‘ 

She’s Not Pressing Charges 

She’s Not Pressing Charges 

Kai looked up when he heard the bedroom door open. 

He scrutinised the woman lurching towards Austyn. 

Yep, it was Miss Deborah Connelly all right. 

Unless she had an identical twin. 

Kai had questions. 

At the top of the list was ‘How did she survive the gunshot?‘ 

But he kept his mouth shut and plastered himself against the wall. 

Austyn made her a glass of hot chocolate. ‘Here, drink this. You’ll feel better.‘ 

Deborah held the mug in her shaky hands. 

Austyn sat down next to her on the sofa without a word. 

He waited. 

When the chocolate had gone cold, Deborah spoke up in a tremulous voice. ‘I don’t know why I called you. I can’t remember doing that.‘ 

Austyn nodded. ‘It’s okay.‘ 

She bit her lower lip and stared at the dark brown liquid congealing in the mug. ‘I’m fine now. Sorry for making you worry. You should go home.‘