Chapter 103: Tear It Wide Open

The next morning arrived far too quickly, though for Rosa, the night had felt agonizingly endless. She hadn’t slept a single wink. Every time she closed her eyes, the image of those glowing runes burned behind her eyelids—the vibrant, golden phoenix pulsing on Don’s left shoulder, and the sharp, blood-red wolf glowing like molten fire on his right. The heat she had felt beneath her fingertips still lingered on her skin.

By six-thirty in the morning, Rosa was already fully dressed, her bag slung over one shoulder. She stood right outside Don’s bedroom door in the hallway, pacing back and forth on the smooth rug before coming to a stop.

An earlier message has already been sent to Mia, so she didn’t need to bother about coming to pick her up.

She had spent the entire night strategizing. Screaming at him hadn’t worked. Demanding answers while he was naked and flustered had gotten her nowhere. So this morning, she was taking an entirely different approach. She was going to play it cool, cheerful, and overly sweet—kill him with kindness until his guard dropped.

The lock on Don’s door suddenly clicked. The handle turned, and the heavy wooden door swung open.

Rosa jerked to the sound and froze.

Don stepped into the hallway, fully dressed in his pristine office wear, his dark hair neatly styled. But the moment his eyes landed on Rosa standing right outside his threshold, his expression darkened.

“What are you doing?” Don asked, his voice flat and thoroughly exasperated.

“Good morning!” Rosa chirped, forcing the brightest, most radiant smile onto her face. “Did you sleep well?”

Don narrowed his dark eyes at her, holding his bag by his side. “Rosa. It is seven in the morning. Why are you standing in front of my door like a ghost?”

“Oh, no reason!” Rosa said smoothly, clasping her hands behind her back and swaying slightly on her heels. “I was just thinking… since we both go to the exact same campus, and we live under the exact same roof now, it only makes sense for us to head out together!”

She took a half-step closer, maintaining her enthusiastic expression. “Can you give me a ride in your car today? Please?”

Don went completely still.

The exasperation on his face vanished, replaced by an unsettling, heavy silence. His reaction wasn’t at all what she had anticipated. She had expected a sharp comeback, a sarcastic remark, or maybe even a playful mock-refusal.

Instead, Don just stared at her.

His expression turned deadpan and ice-cold. He looked at her with a chilling level of indifference, his dark eyes hollow and unreadable—as if he didn’t even recognize who she was. The sharp-mouthed, teasing, light-hearted guy who had literally dragged her into his massive mansion yesterday had completely vanished. In his place stood a total stranger.

Rosa’s cheerful smile slowly began to falter. An eerie, uncomfortable knot tightened in her stomach under the weight of his vacant gaze.

“Don?” she asked softly, her confidence wavering. “Is… is that a yes?”

Don didn’t smile. He didn’t blink. He just shifted his bag to his other hand and brushed past her shoulder without making eye contact.

“Get in the car if you’re coming,” he said, his tone flat and distant. “Don’t waste my time.”

The walk down to the garage was drowning in awkward silence. Rosa followed a few paces behind him, staring at his broad shoulders, her brain working overtime. Something was deeply wrong.

She watched him select a car from his fleet of luxurious vehicles. He picked the SUV, same as yesterday.

Don unlocked his sleek black car, climbed into the driver’s seat, and started the engine. Rosa opened the passenger door, slipped inside, and pulled the door shut. The familiar rich smell of leather filled the air, mixed with the quiet, powerful hum of the engine.

As Don pulled out of his estate and onto the main road, the silence inside the vehicle became suffocating. He kept both hands firmly on the steering wheel, his eyes locked straight ahead on the road, completely ignoring her existence.

Rosa cleared her throat, adjusting her seatbelt as she launched her strategy into motion.

“So…” Rosa began, keeping her tone light and conversational. “Crazy weather last night, wasn’t it?”

Don didn’t answer. He didn’t even shift his posture.

“I mean, seriously,” Rosa continued, turning slightly in her seat to face him. “I spent half the night sweeping broken glass off my bedroom floor. The wind was so insane! Are you going to do anything about repairing the windows today?”

Silence. The car glided smoothly over the pavement.

“And what about the building’s wiring?” Rosa pressed on, throwing out endless questions to keep the conversation moving. “The lights were flickering so badly right before the storm hit! It was almost like a scene from a horror movie. And those loud groaning sounds outside… man, it felt like one of your wild beasts escaped its prison.”

Don’s grip on the steering wheel tightened slightly, his knuckles turning pale, but he remained dead silent.

“Didn’t you hear it, Don?” Rosa asked, leaning in a fraction closer. “The groans were so loud! They were literally rumbling through the walls. But then, poof! Everything just stopped. Everything went totally quiet. Super weird, right?”

No response. Don kept staring straight at the traffic ahead, his jaw tightly set.

“And then finding you lying in the hallway…” Rosa added, her eyes narrowing as she watched his side profile. “I still can’t wrap my head around that. Where did your shirt go, anyway? Did the storm rip it off? And what about your pants? Did you ever find them?”

She paused, waiting for him to snap, to offer a sarcastic excuse, or to tell her to shut up. But Don said nothing. He acted as if she were completely invisible, driving with a stony, robotic calm.

“Come on, Don,” Rosa said, her voice rising with growing impatience. “You can’t just ignore me! We live together now! You brought me to your house! You can’t just pretend like last night didn’t happen!”

Silence.

“Are you listening to me?” Rosa insisted, tapping her fingernails against the dashboard. “Is your arm okay today? Does it still hurt? Because last night you looked like you were in pure agony!”

Still nothing.

She gritted her teeth.

“Mr. Don! Hey! Are you deaf today or what?!” Rosa yelled, her artificial cheerfulness completely shattering under the weight of his silent treatment. “Talk to me!”

Don slammed his right hand down against the steering wheel with a loud, sudden THACK.

“Shut up, Rosa!” Don barked, his voice booming inside the enclosed car like a thunderclap.

Rosa flinched, pulling her hand back from the dashboard as her heart slammed against her ribs.

“Just shut your mouth and sit there!” Don turned his head for a fleeting second, glaring at her with eyes full of pure, lethal hostility. “I am not in the mood for your relentless, annoying chatter! Not today!”

Rosa stared at him, her mouth opening slightly in shock.

A sharp, unexpected sting pierced straight through her chest. It hurt—strangely, deeply hurt. Yesterday, even when he was being arrogant or demanding, there was an underlying warmth to his attitude, a playful spark that made her feel like they were on somewhat equal footing. But this? This was cold, genuine venom.

She bit her lower lip, swallowing down a sudden wave of embarrassment and hurt. Why did his harshness affect her so much? Why did she care that he was pushing her away?

She looked away from him, staring out her side window at the passing trees, her chest heaving softly.

The hurt didn’t last long. Within seconds, it mutated into a hot, prickling wave of pure agitation.

She had tried being nice. She had tried playing his game. She had tried beating around the bush with casual small talk, and he had thrown it right back in her face.

Fine, she thought, her fists clenching tightly in her lap. If you want to play dirty, let me show you how it’s done.

Rosa unbuckled her polite facade entirely. She turned her body in the seat, confronting him head-on with an icy, dangerous focus.

“You know what? Fine,” Rosa said, her voice dropping into a razor-sharp register. “Forget the nice act. I tried to be friendly, but you clearly don’t deserve it.”

“Good,” Don replied coldly, his eyes fixed on the road. “Then keep your mouth shut for the rest of the drive.”

“No,” Rosa demanded sharply. “We are done beating around the bush, Don.”

Don scoffed, his jaw flexing. “Rosa, don’t—”

“What were those glowing tattoos on your shoulders last night?” she asked directly, cutting him off without a shred of hesitation.

Don didn’t answer, but his body visibly locked up.

“I saw them, Mr. Don,” Rosa pressed, her tone completely uncompromising. “I touched your skin. I felt the heat coming off you. You had a golden phoenix glowing on your left shoulder, and a bright, blood-red wolf on your right. They were burning like liquid fire right against your skin!”

“You were hallucinating,” Don grunted, his voice tight.

“I was NOT hallucinating!” Rosa shouted back. “Don’t you dare try to gaslight me! You can lie about mild earthquakes, you can lie about tripping in the hallway, but you cannot lie about what I saw and felt with my own two hands!”

“Drop it, Rosa,” Don said, his voice dropping into a low, threatening rumble.

“I am NOT dropping it!” Rosa yelled, leaning closer to his side profile. “What are you, Don? Why were those marks glowing? What was making those groans outside my door?!”

Right as the words “glowing tattoos” and “groans” cut through the heavy air between them, Rosa saw it.

Don’s right hand—gripping the top of the steering wheel—suddenly twitched violently.

It wasn’t a subtle movement. A sharp, nervous tremor rippled through his fingers and wrist, causing the steering wheel to jerk a fraction of an inch before he caught himself.

Don instantly clamped his left hand over his right, squeezing the wheel so hard his skin turned ghost-white, desperately trying to conceal the shake. His chest heaved as he forced his breathing to remain steady, but the slip-up had already happened.

Rosa caught every single millisecond of it.

Her breath hitched in her throat. Her eyes widened slightly as her gaze dropped to his locked, trembling hands on the wheel.

He’s nervous, she realized, a wave of profound shock washing over her mind. He’s actually rattled. He’s trying so hard to act tough, but he’s terrified I know something.

The agitation inside her instantly transformed into a calm, razor-sharp certainty.

“You’re shaking,” Rosa whispered, her tone shifting from angry to dead serious. “You tried to hide it, Don… but I just saw your hand shake.”

Don’s jaw clenched so hard the muscles in his cheek bulged violently. He didn’t turn to look at her. He refused to give her a single glance.

“I am driving, Rosa,” Don said through gritted, tight teeth, his voice strained and unnaturally stiff. “Keep your eyes on the road and shut up.”

“You’re hiding something,” Rosa said softly, staring straight at the side of his face. “Something massive. Something you are utterly terrified of me finding out.”

Don didn’t respond. He couldn’t. His hands remained frozen on the steering wheel, his knuckles stark white, his breath coming in rigid, shallow bursts.

Rosa leaned back slowly into her seat, her heart pounding against her ribs—not out of fear or hurt anymore, but out of absolute, unyielding determination.

She looked out the windshield as the grand gates of the campus pulled into view down the road.

He could act as cold as ice. He could lock his doors. He could bark orders and lie to her face all day long. But that single, nervous tremble had exposed everything.

Whatever you’re hiding, Don… Rosa thought, her eyes narrowing as she watched him pull into the school parking lot. I’m going to tear it wide open.