Chapter Nine
Camila felt shaken. To think she’d been fooled by the same guy again. His apology before must have been an act, but he’d looked so sincere that she’d softened almost immediately. Clearly, it was a mistake. Now she wondered if she could ever trust herself again.
She could only consider herself stupid for falling for his apologies. She knew better now, though. Not being good in bed was one thing, but to do something like this? There was definitely something wrong with Adrien.
With Samuel staring at the two of them from the doorway, she suddenly felt very cold, and very foolish.
Camila ducked her head down without another word, slowly moving closer to the table while keeping as far away from Adrien as possible. She managed to pick up her bag, keeping an eye on him in her peripheral vision, but neither of the men in the room moved. She got her bag, and immediately headed for the door.
“Camila.”
The voice came from behind her, so it was Adrien. It was just him calling her name, but his voice sounded so flat, so without emotion, that her heart trembled a bit and her stomach knotted. She didn’t stop. When she got to the doorway, she still didn’t look up, but Samuel didn’t obstruct her. He stepped to the side and allowed her to walk past him.
“Wait for me outside,” Samuel said.
His voice was quiet, but she heard it clearly, being so close to him. She wanted to look up at his face and gauge his reaction, but he’d already walked forward. Camila had stopped at his words, hesitating, but as she noticed him move out of her vision, she continued forward at a slower pace. Behind her, she could hear the twins’ voices speaking quietly to each other.
She wondered if Adrien was going to admit to Samuel what he’d done. She didn’t think Samuel had seen that part for himself, so what would he think was the reason for their argument?
Would he take her side, or his brother’s side?
If she told him what Adrien had done, would he believe her?
Camila was feeling a bit dazed by the time she made it to the front doors. They were large double doors that were usually left open during the day and closed once the day grew into evening. They were surprisingly not as heavy as they looked, so she was able to push them open on her own though she left them open as she stepped outside.
Honestly, if Samuel hadn't shown up, she would have been in a bit of a bind. The Kane mansion was quite a distance outside of city proper, and getting a taxi out here once she made it to the gate wouldn’t be possible, because none ever passed by out here. If she called for one, who knew how long she would have to wait in the cold for it to come? She was in a dress today that fell to just above her knees. She had a jacket over it, but her legs would still feel the cold.
She was going to ask Samuel if he could drive her home, or at least have someone else drive her.
“Camila.”
It was the second time someone had called her name, but she knew even before turning this time that it was Samuel. After hearing the flat way Adrien had called her name, she realized there was a bit of a difference with Samuel. Samuel’s tone wasn’t cold, or flat, it was just low and even. It was simply how he always spoke.
“I’m sorry if my brother acted wrongly toward you. I could give you a ride home, if you’d like? Or call a taxi for you if that’s your preference.”
Camila blinked at him. It had been a while since she’d heard his formal way of speaking. She didn’t know anyone else who spoke like that, so she could only take it as one of his quirks, but it wasn’t as though it was bad. After dealing with Adrien and finally being broken, just a little, by him, she even found it soothing.
“If you could drive me home, I would appreciate that,” she said with relief. She’d been thinking of asking, so if he was just going to offer, of course she wouldn’t say no.
“All right, then,” he said, walking forward. “I arrived not too long ago and I didn’t park my car far. Follow me.”
Camila had only gotten as far as a few steps out the front door, because it was dark already and she could feel the breeze, so much colder now that it was evening, washing over her. Looking toward where he was headed, she saw a car parked several feet from the house, but it was still close enough. She wasn’t sure, but she thought the house had a separate garage. She’d never seen it before, though it was probably not close. If it was around the house, for example, just the front of the mansion covered what would be a couple blocks.
Though he probably would have just asked someone to bring the car around for him. His house did have plenty of servants, even though she hadn't seen much of them when Adrien brought her over, besides when they were getting served to eat on their dates.
Dates that are never happening again,she told herself decisively.
At the bottom of the front porch steps, Samuel walked over to the car, but instead of going toward his side, he moved to the passenger side and pulled the door open, then turned to Camila. She was a bit surprised, because no guy had ever held the door open for her before, but she hurried forward and got inside. Then, she watched as he rounded the front of the car and got into his seat. She watched him pull on his seatbelt, and did the same herself.
“Thank you for this,” she murmured, feeling a bit ashamed of herself now when she remembered all the unflattering things she’d thought of him, when he was turning out to be such a gentleman. “Sorry to trouble you.”
“Not at all,” he said kindly, his voice the most gentle she’d heard since she met him. He glanced over at her with a light frown, then started the car and headed down the drive. “I feel like I should be the one to apologize to you, actually. I should have worked harder, before, to make you understand just what an… ass my brother is. I feel responsible for his actions so I can't consider myself not to blame entirely for what happened.”
“But it really wasn’t your fault,” she said, frowning over at him, some of her shame leaking into her voice. “I mean, you did try to tell me to give Adrien a wide berth. I was the idiot that didn’t listen. You can’t blame yourself for that.”
She looked at the side of his face in the light from the dashboard. His jaw clenched and a serious expression shone on his face. He looked really bothered…
“My brother being the way he is, though,” he murmured after a while. “I partially blame myself for not noticing there was something not quite right about him even before I left for the military. It wasn’t until after I left and started getting correspondence from my family that I knew. When my parents passed away, a big part of the reason why I came back was his being unstable. I didn’t trust him to look after our sister. He wasn’t very happy about me being back. But as the elder brother in the family, it is my duty to look after them and take responsibility for their actions outside of the family home.”