Chapter 2 THE WOMAN HE LOVES

CHAPTER 2

He has to find where he's going to sleep after seeing Vanessa. He needed to hear a familiar voice. He needed Vanessa his girlfriend. For three years, she had been his sanctuary. When his promotions passed him by, his bank account dipped dangerously low, the weight of his family's dismissive glances became too heavy to carry, she was the one who listened. He didn't need a solution; he just needed her presence, her beautiful smile and face and the quiet assurance she always gives, that's all he needed now.

Michael paid the driver with the last dollar in his wallet, stepping out into the drizzle. He didn't bother shaking off his soaked jacket before heading up to Vanessa's room.

​He knocked three times on door. ​A moment later, the lock clicked, and the door pulled open. Vanessa stood in the doorway, framed by the warm yellow light of her living room. She wore a tailored cream sweater and jeans, her dark hair pulled back neatly. But there was no welcoming smile, no sudden softening in her eyes when she saw him standing there, drenched and pale. Her expression was guarded, tight around the mouth. ​"Michael" she said, her voice lacking its usual warmth. "You're soaked."

​"The rain caught me outside. Michael said, offering a weak, tired smile as he stepped into the room. She didn't move to take his jacket, nor did she reach out to touch his arm. Instead, she crossed her arms over her chest, keeping a deliberate distance between them.

Michael felt a subtle shift in the air, a coldness that had nothing to do with the weather outside. "Vanessa? What's wrong? Did something happen?"

​She let out a long, heavy sigh, looking past him toward the curtained window. "I've been thinking Michael.

​"About what?" Talk to me my baby girl. ​She turned her gaze back to him, her eyes sharp, stripped of any affection. "About us. About where any of this is actually going."

"I know tonight was rough. My father... he completely cut me off tonight. But I'm going to fix things, Vanessa. I'm looking at new logistics certifications, and there's a supervisor role opening up at work next month. If I get it."

She let out a long, heavy sigh, looking past him towards the curtained window. " She got annoyed by the hallucination Michael makes.

​"If you get it, you'll make two dollars more right? she interrupted, listen to yourself. You've been talking about that supervisor role for eight months. You've been talking about starting a small business for two years. But nothing changes. You're twenty-five, and you're still living in crampled apartment with leaking roof.

​"I'm working as hard as I can," Michael said, his voice dropping, pleading despite himself. "I don't have my family's backing, you see the way they're all treating me like a stranger, everything I build, I have to build from nothing. You know that. You know how hard it is."

​"I know how hard it is to watch you," she snapped, stepping closer, her cheeks flushing with frustration. "I watch your brother drive a brand-new Mercedes while you count change to pay for parking. I watch my friends get engaged, moving into actual houses, planning real futures with men who know how to provide and Carter for their women. And where am I? Waiting for you to figure out how to survive the month?"

​The words hit him harder than anything his father had said at the dinner table. His father judged him as a Blackwood, Vanessa was judging him as a man. ​"Is that all I am to you?" Michael asked in weakness, his voice barely above a whisper. "Does it mean you will only take me seriously if I have money?" Michael asked.

​"It's reality, Michael!" Vanessa raised her hands in exasperation. "Love doesn't pay rent. Ambition doesn't buy groceries unless you actually do something with it.

Will your love buy me wigs? Oh please. I'm tired of waiting for a breakthrough that isn't coming. I can't keep living on promises while everyone else moves forward." She said.

​"Give me time," Michael begged, knelt down reaching out to take her hand. His fingers brushed against hers, but she instantly pulled back, taking a full step away from him. The rejection was sharp, deliberate, and final. "Vanessa, please. Just give me another chance. I'll take extra shifts. I'll look for another company. Just don't do this tonight, when I finally make the money, I will make sure I treat you like a queen, you know you're too beautiful, i can't let another man take you, please give me some time." Michael said with his knee on the floor.

​"No, Michael," she said softly, though her eyes remained hard as flint. "I've given you enough years and time. I don't have any more chances to give." ​ Michael stood frozen in the middle of her apartment, the warmth he had sought in her home had vanished, replaced by an unbearable emptiness. He looked at her face the woman he had loved, and the same woman he had planned a future with and realized she was looking at him as if he were a stranger who had overstayed his welcome.

​Before he could utter another word, a sharp sound cut through the quiet room. Vanessa's phone vibrated, its screen illuminating her face she glanced down Instead of stepping into another room, she swiped the screen and pressed it to her ear, keeping her eyes locked on Michael with cold detachment.

​"I told you I will be there in ten minutes" she said." She said to the person on the phone, which was Damien. ​"Ten minutes was five minutes ago, babe. I hope your poor boyfriend isn't still disturbing you? Tell him you have a rich boyfriend now, he should leave you and face his poor life." Damien said arrogantly.

​Vanessa didn't cut him off or defend Michael, she simply let out a small, weary sigh and stared straight at Michael's face.

​"He's here, he's leaving now," she said quietly, and hung up.

"Who's that?" Michael asked.