“Yes, I was there. I was always there for my rose.” He cupped my cheeks. “I always had my eyes on you, even if I was far away from you here in LA most of the time. But I was there on your every special day. I was there whenever I thought you needed me. And trust me, it wasn’t for you. It was for my own sanity.”

“That means, that means… you were there all these years?” I asked, tears rolling down my cheeks. He didn’t abandon me. He was there all this time when I thought he didn’t even care to call once.

He nodded, wiping my tears. “Yes, I never left you alone. I could never leave my Rosebud alone.”

A flare of fire again lit inside me. “Then you saw how much I suffered! You didn’t consider confronting me. Didn’t once come before me. Why did you do that? Why?”

My struggle began again, but he held me firm against him.

“I know you suffered. And I’m extremely sorry. But you have no idea how much agony I went through staying away from you, Rosebud. Especially when…” A muscle of his jaw ticked as his nostrils flared. “Especially when I had to see my girl dating other men. I had to endure it all. Trust me, they were lucky I took it as my punishment for pushing you away from me. Otherwise, they’d be dead right now.”

Surprised, subconsciously a blush crept up my neck remembering those guys I dated back then only for some days. I couldn’t even stretch them for a week. Because all I felt towards them was nothing. Not even a bit of attraction.

And then my temper rose. Jabbing a finger in his chest, I gritted out. “Do you know how guilty I felt to date them? Even after I thought you wanted nothing to do with me, even after I was single, do you know how much it hurt me to feel like I was playing with others? Just to get a little distraction. Just to forget my heartache for some time! And all because you were being too great by keeping me away from you! And now that I’m finally with a guy who is great, you appeared all of a sudden declaring me as yours? The nerve of you!”

His lips pressed. “I know you were hurt. And seeing you in pain only doubled my agony. But it was for your own good. And I didn’t just appear out of nowhere.” Greek accent was dense. “You were always mine. I was waiting for you to finish college and for me to be stable enough to be worthy of you. Though I was stable for a long time before you finally graduated.”

To be worthy of me?

Something tugged inside my chest at his words.