Filed To Story: The Trap Of Ace Book PDF Free
Kissing his chest, I looked up at him.
“I’ll keep it in mind.”
“Good.
Now can we go home?
I want to spend some quality time with my Rosebud.”
I nodded, not saying anything.
What secret he was hiding from me?
His gray eyes narrowed.
“What happened, baby?
Is anything bothering you?”
Raising my hand, I touched his cheek.
“Ace, now that we’re in a relationship, I want everything to be perfect.
There should be no boundaries between us, no restrictions, no hesitations.”
Cupping my cheeks, he brushed his lips against mine, kissing the corner of my mouth softly.
“There are no boundaries between us, my rose.
And if there are, I will wipe them off.
Nothing can come between us, not even a single gust of air.”
“I want to know everything about you, Ace.
Everything that I don’t know.”
“You know everything about me, baby.
What more do you want to know?”
He frowned.
I held his gaze.
“Your past.
Everything about your past.”
He stiffened.
Something flashed across his eyes.
But it was gone soon as he kissed my forehead.
“What do you want to know?”
I was surprised at the ease his stance was radiating.
I’d have believed he wasn’t bothered by my words if his gray eyes weren’t so blank that I couldn’t even trace a hint of emotions in them.
And it unnerved me.
“Where’s your mom?”
I asked.
“After your father’s death, she was gone from your life.
Where is she, Ace?”
His face remained neutral as he said, “She’s in Italy now.”
“Why did she leave you and Caleb like this?
You had no one to look after you.
Didn’t you try to stop her?”
As far as I knew, she always adored Ace and Caleb.
I didn’t understand what had gone wrong.
His grip tightened on my hips.
“As I told you before, after my father’s death, she couldn’t take it.
So, she left.
Due to her depression and habit of consuming alcohol, she needed an escape from her life and this place.
To get herself better, she left us with Arthur and went to Italy for treatment.
She couldn’t come back.
This city held too many bad memories for her.”
As he spoke, I didn’t find a hint of hatred towards his mother in his voice.
I thought he hated her for leaving him like that.
But he didn’t.
Instead, he was giving me justification for her.
She went to Italy for treatment and stayed there.
Didn’t she even try once to meet her son?
“You’re still connected to each other?
I mean, I understand why she doesn’t want to return, but doesn’t she wish to meet you once in a while?”
He nodded.
“I do meet her on some occasions.
Especially on her birthdays.
But except that, we talk sometimes on the phone.”
The edge in his voice had my heart clench.
He missed her a lot.
I noticed how he didn’t say she wanted to meet him, instead he said he met her every once in a while.
What made her turn like this?
Didn’t she miss her son?
“Do you miss her?”
I whispered.
A muscle of his jaw ticked.
“Sometimes.”
I rubbed his chest to provide some comfort.
“Why don’t you talk to her every day?”
He averted his gaze.
“Because she doesn’t like that.
She got out of her depression with a lot of difficulties.
And seeing me and Caleb, means her past, brings her… unwanted memories.”
Seeing her own son brings unwanted memories?
“But she does try.
That’s why we talk sometimes,” he added.
He still loved her, no matter how much she stayed away.
My heart tugged for him.
Nodding, I cleared my throat.
Come on, Emerald.
Ask it.
“What happened to your father?”
My eyes held his stormy grays.
“Why did he commit suicide?”
FIFTY-FIVE: THE DEMONS OF THE PAST
H is entire stance tensed as soon as I asked the question.
His eyes still away from mine as he took a deep breath, his jaw locked tight.
“Rosebud, we just got together.
Let’s keep the bitter chapter of my life out of our new beginning, shall we?”
Gray orbs met mine.
They held desperation for me to understand.
“I don’t want to relive my past when all I want is to make new, beautiful memories with you.”
I knew it hurt him to talk about it, but I couldn’t let this go.
I had this intuition that whatever Arthur was talking about was related to his father’s suicide.
I needed to know everything to sort things out.
Even though it pained me to torture him with his memories, I didn’t back off.
“Until you let go of your past, you can’t start fresh.
You can’t be truly happy.
I can see it, Ace.
You’re battling with something.
There’s something bothering you.
And it’s not just Antonio.
Please tell me, what is it?
What happened to your father?
I want to know everything.”
Closing his eyes, he pulled away and showed his back to me.
Facing the window again, he stood there with his hands fisted.
“There’s not much to know, Rosebud.”
His voice came out cold.
“I used to always look up to my father as my idol.
I wanted to become like him.
Until I got to know his real face.”
I didn’t dare interrupt him, fearing he would switch off again.
I just stood there silently, listening to him.
“He was a womanizer.
After some years of his marriage with Mom, he started to cheat on her.
And that broke my Mom,” he revealed.
A gasp slipped through my lips.
“But even after being unfaithful, he loved his reputation more than anything.
He was always discreet about his affairs.
He wanted his image to be great before the society and his children.
Mom had always doubted his activities until one day he wasn’t careful, and she caught him with one of his girlfriends in their own bed.”
I stood there immobile, shocked at the revelation.
That’s why they never had a good relationship.
“And it wasn’t only Mom who caught him.
Caleb and I were also there, and so were Tobias and Tess.”
His broad shoulders were rigid.
“And not being able to handle the shame, he ended his life.”
Silence.
He stood with his tensed posture.
Only his heavy breathing reverberated across the room.
Something clenched in my chest at the pain he wasn’t willing to show.
I knew how much it was affecting him.
Padding closer, I wrapped my arms around him from behind.
My hands rubbed across his chest slowly, trying to provide some comfort.
“I’m so sorry,” I whispered.
Grabbing my hand, he pulled me in front of him and engulfed me in his arms.
With his arms wrapped around me tightly, he nuzzled my neck.
And I hugged him back, running my fingers through his hair softly.
“It was the worst day of my life.
That night still haunts my dreams sometimes.”
It pained me the way his voice cracked.
I placed a kiss on his shoulder.
“I know saying it is easier said than done, but you’ve to let it go, Ace.
I know whatever happened would be traumatic for anyone, but you can’t let it affect your whole life this way.
Let it go.
I know you still can’t accept it.
But you have to.
Accept it and move on.
I can’t see you suffering like this.”
“I’m trying.
But the demons of my past pull me back into their darkness whenever I try to move on.”