Page 131 of Penalty to the Heart

She links her arm to his and mouths ‘thank you’ to me as Trent leads her out the door.

This meeting did not transpire as I had predicted it would.

The aim was to confess all my sins, and as a result, Trent would be forced to accept my unwillingness to keep Caleb as my patient.

But all I ended up doing was cement my role as his therapist.

Great.

Just great.

What am I supposed to do now?

I stare at my phone like it has teeth.

I shake the thought away and pick it up, knowing there is no use avoiding the inevitable.

Me: You win. I’m still your therapist. See you tomorrow at six.

As soon as I send the text, I drop the phone on the coffee table and get up from the couch, preferring to pace back and forth, waiting for his reply.

After a few minutes without a response, I pick up the phone again just to be sure the damn text went through. I frown when I see that he’s read the message but hasn’t bothered to reply.

Why I’m disappointed, I don’t know.

Angry at myself for acting like a schoolgirl, pining over a text from her crush that will never come, I chuck my phone away to avoid being tempted to stare at it all night.

Before I have time to go upstairs to my room, there is a knock on my door that halts me on the spot. Intrigued about who it could be, I walk over to it and look through the peephole.

“It’s me,” Caleb says on the other side of the door.

My heart hammers in my chest as I spin around and lean against the door.

“What… what do you want?” I ask nervously.

“For you to open the door, Roxie.”

“No.”

“No?”

“Yes.”

“Is it yes or no, Roxie? I’m confused.” He chuckles.

I pinch the bridge of my nose because his amused laughter wreaks even more havoc on my already frazzled nerves.

“Just open the door, Roxie. I promise I won’t be long.”

I take a deep breath and consider my options.

If I don’t open the door and let him in, he’ll probably spend the night on my doorstep just to aggravate me.

Knowing that I don’t have many options, I turn around and open the door.

“What?” I ask a bit too aggressively.

“Well, hello to you too, love. Aren’t you going to invite me in?”

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