CHAPTER 5: A Stranger in His Eyes
Elodie's POV
My feet immediately locked to the floor. The cold linoleum beneath my shoes suddenly felt like quicksand, pulling me down and refusing to let go.
I couldn't move. I could barely even breathe. I only stood there in the dim light of the backstage corridor and stare at him.
Reese Bennett stood half swallowed by the shadows, leaning casually against the brick wall. He looked exactly the same yet completely different from the man I used to hold.
His broad shoulders filled out a dark, custom-tailored suit that screamed old money and untouchable power and those eyes….
God, those beautiful eyes used to look at me like I was the only breathing thing on the entire planet. They used to hold so much fire. So much warmth when we were crammed into our apartment eating instant ramen. Now, they were just... searching. Curious and blank.
My heart slammed against my ribs so violently I thought he might actually hear it echoing in the quiet corridor.
"You..." the single word slipped past my lips on a ragged, breathless gasp before I could stop myself.
He didn't offer the cruel, icy glare he had given me on the night I slammed the divorce papers onto his desk.
Instead, his tense posture relaxed and he took a slow, deliberate step forward into the light. He pulled his hands from his pockets, leaving them open at his sides in a gesture of peace.
"I am so sorry," his deep voice echoed against the walls.
The sound of it sent an uncontrollable shiver straight down my spine. It had been three long, agonizing years since I had heard that voice speaking directly to me.
"I really didn't mean to startle you. I know I shouldn't be back here."
I swallowed the massive lump forming in my throat and squeezed my hands into tight fists at my sides. My manicured nails bite deeply into my palms to ground myself.
*Don't cry. Don't you dare cry in front of him, Elodie. You are a principal ballerina. You are a mother. You are stronger than this.*
"What are you doing back here?" I managed to ask.
My voice sounded thin and fragile. It was completely stripped of the commanding confidence I had possessed on the stage just ten minutes ago.
Reese offered a small polite smile. A polite smile for his ex-wife. For the mother of his hidden child. The absolute absurdity of the situation made my chest ache so badly I wanted to scream until my lungs gave out.
"I just wanted to say congratulations," he said softly, closing the distance between us by another careful step.
As he moved, the intoxicating scent of his cologne wrapped around me. It was like a ghost brushing against my skin.
"Your performance out there tonight... it was incredible. I have never really been a fan of the ballet, to be completely honest with you. I usually find these sponsored events incredibly boring but the way you danced tonight... it pulled me in. You move with so much emotion. It was impossible to look away."
He meant it. I could see the absolute sincerity burning in his gray eyes. He wasn't mocking me. He wasn't playing some sick twisted corporate game designed by his mother to break me down.
He truly, genuinely did not know who I was.
The realization hit me harder than the physical slap Helena Bennett had delivered to my cheek three years ago. It shattered the last, tiny pathetic piece of hope I hadn't even realized my heart was still foolishly holding onto.
He was gone. My Reese was really, truly gone.
"Thank you," I choked out as I forced my chin up and squarred my shoulders.
"I appreciate that, Mr. Bennett."
I used his formal name as a barrier to keep him at a distance but he flinched slightly when the words left my mouth. A tiny, confused furrow appeared between his dark brows.
"You know who I am?" he asked.
His head tilted to the side in a way that Chloé did whenever she was trying to figure out a puzzle.
"Everyone in New York City knows who you are," I replied quickly.
I kept my tone as flat and professional as possible. "You are the CEO of Bennett Technologies. You sponsored tonight's show. It is my job to know the people who pay for the stage."
"Right. Of course." He let out a low, self-deprecating chuckle and ran a large hand nervously through his thick dark hair.
The deeply familiar gesture made my breath hitch in my throat. "I guess I just... well, this is going to sound completely crazy but do I know you from somewhere?"
The air vanished from my lungs.
I stared into his handsome face, desperately searching for a flicker of real recognition.
A spark of our past, a flash of our wedding day. Anything. But there was only vulnerable confusion etched across his features.
"Why would you ask that?" I whispered. I felt my heart breaking all over again and splintering into a million tiny pieces on the floor.
"Because since the moment I saw you step onto that stage, I haven't been able to shake this feeling," Reese admitted, his voice dropping to a low, intimate murmur that vibrated in the quiet hall.
He took one more step closer. He was close enough now that I could feel the heat radiating from his body.
"You seem strangely, impossibly familiar to me. The way you hold yourself. The way you look at me. Even the sound of your voice just now, it feels like an echo in my head. Have we met before? At a charity gala maybe? Or a corporate event?"
I took a panicked step backward terrified that if he closed the distance and actually touched me, I would completely fall apart.
I would shatter into tears and confess everything right here in the dirty backstage hallway. I couldn't do that. Not when his toxic mother was still pulling the strings of his life.
"No," I lied. The word tasted like foul ash on my tongue.
"We have never met."
Reese's jaw tightened and his eyes narrowed slightly as he studied my face.
"Are you absolutely sure? Because my memory... I had a terrible car accident a few years ago. I lost a massive part of my past. Standing here right now, looking at you... I feel…."
He trailed off and swallowed hard as he pressed a hand flat against his crisp dress shirt, right over his heart.
Tears burned the backs of my eyes.
"I am very sorry about your accident," I said with my voice trembling violently.
"But you must be confusing me with someone else. I am just a dancer."
"You are not just a dancer," he shot back quickly.
His steel-gray eyes locked onto mine with a sudden, fierce intensity.
"You're..."
Before he could finish that sentence, a bright light flashed between us in the dim corridor.
A harsh grating ringtone sliced through the emotionally charged silence of the hallway. Reese blinked rapidly, as if waking from a trance, breaking our eye contact.
With a heavy sigh of annoyance, he reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out his sleek expensive phone.
I didn't mean to look but I couldn't stop my eyes from darting downward. The screen illuminated his sharp features in the dark and the name flashed across it in bold letters felt.
*Betty. With a heart*
Reese stared at the ringing phone. His thumb hovered over the green accept button but he didn't press it. His jaw clenched tight and a muscle ticked wildly in his cheek.
Slowly and deliberately, he silenced the ringer with a click of the side button and lowered the phone back to his side ignoring the call.
He looked back up at me, his eyes softened instantly as they found my face again. "I'm sorry about that."
"You should answer that," I said bitterly, wrapping my arms tightly around my waist. I tried to keep my body from shaking.
"Could be your wife. She is probably waiting for you."
"It doesn't matter right now," Reese insisted, taking another eager step toward me.
His need to be close to me was almost desperate, as if an invisible thread was dragging him in my direction.
"Please, don't leave yet. I just want to talk to you. I just want to know your name."
"My name does not matter," I lied again, my voice finally cracking under the immense weight of the moment.
The tears were right at the very edge now, blurring my vision and making the hallway lights look like fuzzy halos. If I stayed in this corridor for one more second, I was going to break down sobbing.
I couldn't let him see me cry. I had to protect my pride and more importantly, I had to protect Chloe from this world.
"I have to go," I whispered, side-stepping him to clear a path to the exit.
"Wait," Reese called out, reaching a hand out toward my arm.
I dodged his touch with a dancer's swift reflex, knowing deep in my soul that if his warm skin met mine, I would never be able to walk away.
"Please, just leave me alone Mr. Bennett. Have a good night."
I turned and walked away fast. I didn't run because ballerinas never run. We glide but inside, I was sprinting. I was fleeing for my life.
"Wait, please!" he called out again.
His voice was thick with a strange, heavy desperation that tore at my heartstrings.
I didn't stop. I kept my head down, blinking rapidly as hot tears finally spilled over my eyelashes and burned fiery trails down my cheeks.
When I reached the end of the long hallway, right before turning the corner toward the exit doors, I couldn't stop myself.
My body betrayed me. I paused and placed my trembling hand flat against the cold plaster wall to steady myself. Then threw one final, devastating glance back over my shoulder.
Reese was still standing exactly where I had left him in the shadows.
His phone was in his hand, the screen brightly lit once again in the darkness. Betty was calling back but he wasn't looking at the screen.
He was staring straight down the empty hallway at me.
Our eyes locked one last time before I turned the corner and disappeared into the night...
Aksara