21 Who asked you to leave?

Tiana looked at the thermos flask in her hands and she knew that she didn't have a choice but to go up herself. It was almost ten o'clock. He must have gone to work, so there was no much big deal there, was there?

All she needed to do was walk up the stairs, open his door, walk to his fridge, put the flask in and step out, there was nothing there. Come on, she wasn't afraid of an empty room, was she?

She masked up her nervousness with those words and walked towards the stairs; once she was on the second floor, her heart started beating.

'It's an empty room, Tiana! Get a hold of yourself!!'

She mentally knocked herself as she breathed out heavily. As she approached his doors, the hands that held the flask became sweaty; she rubbed them one after the other on her silk gown;

It's just a room…

An empty room…

Nothing to be afraid of…

She repeated the words again and again in her head as she walked to his door;

Standing in front of his door, she pulled herself together, getting ready to open it;

Since he had gone out, she didn't knock, she just pushed open the door and stepped in, closing it behind her quietly.

She stood still beside the door, weighing her surrounding. When she was certain that no-one was in, she looked towards the parlor and her eyes fell on the large fridge; lifting her feet off the ground, she walked quietly to it.

There was literally no-one in the room, but she didn't know why she felt as though he was there, maybe it was his aura, it was still prominent in the room even though he was not there.

Tiana opened the fridge, and her eyes widened in shock. There were over twenty bottles of pills, and over ten boxes of cigarettes, which were still untouched.

She couldn't even move an inch; she just stood there, staring at the contents of the fridge, forgetting her reason for coming there.

Was he that sick? Mentally sick?

Tiana wondered what must have happened to him to cause him to take so many pills! After staring for a while, she put in the thermos flask and closed the fridge; just as she was about to leave, her eyes fell on something in the parlor, and she paused in her steps;

Instead of walking towards the door, she walked deeper into the parlor; there were pictures of people hanging on the wall; Nicklaus looked so much like the woman who had a beautiful smile on her face; she was so pretty. Was she his mother?

Her eyes fell on another picture. It was a man and there was a third one, a little girl, barely four. There was a huge familiarity between those people and Nicklaus, and Tiana realized that they were his family.

Were they dead?

Her eyes widened as the thought came to her mind.

Could his whole family be dead? Was it what happened to him to cause him to become so cold?

She was still contemplating the answer in her head when she heard a door open and feet shuffling into the room; her head immediately turned to the direction of the sound and at that moment she wondered why the ground didn't open and let her fall in.

Nicklaus had a towel tied around his waists as he stepped out of the bathroom; his hair was wet, and a bunch fell over his face; his torso was bare, thus exposing a good amount of his chiseled abs, there was a flames tattoo on his left chest and on his ribs inching downwards to his waist line which was incredibly sexy;

Tiana was scared to her bone marrows, but she didn't know why her eyes were still checking him out; her face was pale with fear and panic, she didn't even know what to do.

Nicklaus was yet to believe what he was seeing; was there a woman in his room? Or was he just seeing things?

The towel he was using to dry his hair was still hanging in the air as he stared at Tiana shocked, they stood still, staring at each other for over a minute, with the same expression written on their faces before Nicklaus finally spoke;

''What are you doing? ''

His voice was deep with authority and his brows creased in anxiousness; he wanted to know what gave her the guts to come into his room when he was taking a shower and walk into his parlor like it was some playground;

Tiana felt chills run down her spine and huge goosebumps formed on her skin. If she had known that he was there, she would not even think of coming up there, no matter the consequences she might face.

What would she do? How would she explain that she came to put his tea into his fridge when she was standing in his parlor about seven feet away from the said fridge?

Tiana knew her death was near, she just prayed it would be less painful.

''Mr. Nicklaus… I can explain… ''

She said, raising her hands up in the air;

Nicklaus didn't speak, he just kept watching her; Tiana took it as permission to go on;

''I… I forgot to give the maids your chamomile tea yesterday, so… so this morning, I gave it to Ma Lee and she told me to bring it up myself. Mr. Nicklaus, if I had known you were in, I wouldn't have come, I thought you've left the house, I'm sorry for barging into your privacy.

I'll be on my way now. ''

She turned immediately and dashed towards the door, but Nicklaus's voice stopped her before she could reach the door;

''Who asked you to leave? ''