Sofia's POV
The baby finally drifted off to sleep, and a quiet calm settled over the cave. I leaned my head back against the wall, a peaceful smile on my face. "See? I knew it," I said softly. "You're a natural-born protector."
Eric didn't respond, just sat there, watching over the baby with a quiet intensity. The silence wasn't awkward; it was comforting, a testament to the bond that was forming between us. I closed my eyes, a sense of hope blooming in my chest. We were a family, not by blood, but by choice.
When I opened them again, Eric's gaze was no longer on the baby but on me. The intensity in his eyes was palpable, and for a long moment, we just looked at each other. He seemed to be wrestling with an internal battle, his gruff facade cracking just enough to reveal a flicker of vulnerability. The thought of us as a team, as a family, hung heavy in the air between us.
Suddenly, he broke the gaze and stood up, his movements tight with unspoken emotion. "I need some air," he said, his voice low and strained.
Without another word, he walked out of the cave, leaving me alone with the sleeping baby. I sat for a while, the silence of the cave feeling heavy and strange without Eric's presence. Boredom, a luxury I hadn't felt in a long time, began to set in.
Deciding to explore a little, I started to wander around the edges of the main cavern. Tucked away behind a stack of supplies was a small, worn wooden box. Curiosity got the better of me. It wasn't sealed, so I lifted the lid. Inside, among a few old photos and a rusty knife, was a small, leather-bound journal. The cover was scarred and faded, and I felt a pang of guilt as I picked it up.
I knew I shouldn't be snooping, but the lure of understanding the gruff man who had become my protector was too strong to resist. I opened it to a random page and started to read Eric's messy, scrawled handwriting.
"...she was so beautiful, a true artist in her own right. I'd never met anyone who loved the world with such a fierce passion. My parents... they saw only a tool for their own power. A marriage to a socialite, a deal struck in cold blood, a contract to merge two empires. And then she came, this model, this whirlwind of beauty and selfishness. She was nothing like the woman I truly loved. The woman I was forced to leave behind."
My breath hitched in my throat. Eric, forced to marry? He had loved someone else? I quickly turned to the next page, my eyes scanning the lines.
"...she left. A 'photo shoot' in Italy, she called it. A chance to escape the cage my family had built for her. But when she returned, she found out about her. About my true love. She threatened to destroy her career. Her life. She said she would kill her if she didn't get out of my life for good. I had no choice. I had to let her go... I had to let them both go."
A wave of sympathy and sorrow washed over me. This explained so much about his guarded nature, his unwillingness to let anyone in. I was so engrossed in the journal that I didn't hear him come back.
"I warned you once before, Sofia," Eric's voice, low and dangerous, cut through the quiet. "Stay away from things that don't belong to you."
I flinched, my head snapping up. Eric stood in the entrance, his face a mask of fury. Before I could even stammer an apology, he strode over, snatched the journal from my hands, and stormed out of the cave again, leaving me alone with the sleeping baby and the echo of his rage. The comfortable silence we had shared just moments ago was gone, replaced by a cold, unsettling quiet.
A cold, unsettling quiet filled the cave, far more oppressive than the comfortable silence they had shared moments before. I sat there, a knot of guilt and shame twisting in my stomach. The warmth that had bloomed in my chest was gone, replaced by a deep chill. My heart pounded against my ribs, and my hands trembled slightly from the shock of his anger. I had messed up, big time.
I looked over at the sleeping baby. The tiny, peaceful face was a stark contrast to the turmoil I felt. This little one was the reason for all of this—for the fragile bond Eric and I had started to build, and for the box that had revealed the painful secrets he so fiercely protected. I had seen a part of him he never wanted anyone to know, and my clumsy intrusion had shattered the trust we had only just begun to forge.
Minutes stretched into an unbearable eternity. Every shadow seemed to be Eric, every rustle of leaves his return. When he finally did re-enter the cave, he didn't look at me. He moved with a grim purpose, his jaw clenched as he grabbed a small sack of food. The leather of his jacket creaked as he crossed his arms, standing in the middle of the cavern like a statue carved from stone.
"Eric, I'm so sorry," I said, my voice barely a whisper. "I shouldn't have looked. It wasn't my place."
He didn't respond. He just stared at the flickering fire, his eyes distant and hard.
"I... I understand now," I continued, desperate to bridge the chasm between us. "About your parents, about her… I didn't know you had to go through all that."
That was the wrong thing to say. His head snapped toward me, and the look in his eyes was pure ice. "You don't know a damn thing about it," he said, his voice low and dangerous. "And it's not your business to know."
"But it helps me understand why you're so… closed off," I pleaded, my voice cracking slightly. "I just wanted to know more about the man who's been protecting me, protecting us."
He let out a humorless laugh, the sound harsh and brittle. "Don't. Don't try to make this about you or your curiosity," he growled. "You invaded my privacy. You had no right. And now you've gone and made things complicated."
He took a step towards me, and I flinched involuntarily. "There's nothing to understand," he said, his voice dropping to a fierce whisper. "My past is my own. It has nothing to do with you. Or this." He gestured dismissively toward the sleeping baby, and the action stung more than any of his angry words.
"Yes, it does!" I shot back, my own fear giving way to frustration. "It has everything to do with us! We were a team, you said it yourself! You can't just pretend like none of that matters now that you're angry!"
He shook his head, looking away from me and back to the mouth of the cave. "It's just what you do," he said, repeating the phrase he'd used earlier, but this time, the words were devoid of any warmth. "When you find something helpless, you help it. That's all this is. Nothing more."
The silence that followed was suffocating. He had rebuilt the wall between us, brick by brick, and it felt taller and stronger than ever before. We were a family a moment ago, but now, we were just two strangers coexisting in a cave with a baby.