The CEO's Painted Skin

Alex"s height, his body built, his mannerism and the way he moves even his voice, are so like John, but his eyes and face aren"t John! She"s getting more confused than ever...

"W-who are you, really?" she asked fixing her gaze to him, she was looking at his face intently wanting to know the whole truth.

"I will explain, Cath, I will explain to you everything upstairs," he murmured softly in her ears.

He was about to hold her hand but she moved away from him.

"Don"t touch me!" she glared at him.

He released a dep sigh.

They climb the stairs towards the second floor. She walked towards the kitchen where the fresh Calla Lily flowers were beautifully arranged in the vase above table. She sat down on the chair, he sat on the opposite chair facing her.

"Do you like the flowers?" John asked her, his gaze never leaving her face.

She looked at the flowers. "So, don"t tell me that the secret sender of these flowers was---you?"

He nodded.

"So, who are you really?" she asked him again. Her head was starting to hurt with all the confusing revelations that are not making sense to her right now.

"You know who am I Cath. It"s me John, your heart knows that it"s me," he said.

Yes, her heart whispers it"s John, but still she wants an answer to everything! Her mind was totally confused right now.

"Start explaining now!" her face started to darken.

Using his fingertip John took out the blue contact lenses one by one from his eyes and placed them in his palm. Then he stared right into her eyes without blinking.

Catherine was now seeing John"s black eyes staring at her. He was indeed the John she knew, his voice and eyes were clear evidence that he was telling the truth.

"W-what happened to your face?" she asked. The ugly scars were all gone from his face and the one sitting in front of her right now is a handsome guy.

John started recounting the past events in the last six months...

"While you were gone, I decided to undergo plastic surgery to remove all the scars in my face. What you see now is the new me, this is how I will look like if those scars didn"t mar my face in the first place. Nothing had changed in my face, the plastic surgeon just peeled away all the scars from my face and give me back my old face. This is me the real John, without the scars," he explained.

Catherine was ma.s.saging her temple. She wanted to know everything. "Keep going..."

"I went through six months of h.e.l.l and torture trying to find you. Thankfully after 6 months my men finally find you. I have to undergo several disguises just to see you from afar. I only intend to reveal myself to you after one year, but when the news of the owner selling her property reached me I did not hesitate to negotiate with the owner to buy her property, thankfully she sold it to me. Now I"m the new owner of this property, destiny has brought us back together! I"m very happy that I found you again!" he said in a jubilant voice.

Catherine stared at his face for a while...

She stood abruptly. She pointed at the room on the corner. "That is your room, you can sleep there. I"m going to rest now," she said and left him alone in the kitchen area.

John watched her entered her room and closed the door behind her. He took a deep breath. He already expected her cold treatment, she needs some time to process everything, at least he understood that.

He rose to his feet and went downstairs to retrieve his traveling bag and his laptop.

Twenty minutes later, he already settled himself and his things inside the vacant room, he arranged his clothes in the closet and put his laptop and cell phone in the bedside table.

He lay down in the bed and fixed his eyes at the ceiling while the only noise that can be heard around him was the gentle humming of the ceiling fan above him.

He can"t sleep, he was tossing in the bed. John exited the room and knocked on Catherine"s room three times.

"Catherine, open the door! Are you angry?" he wants to cuddle with her desperately and badly, he wanted to erase all the confusion in her eyes and make everything alright again between them.

"Go to sleep, John!" she replied behind the door. "I will talk to you tomorrow..."

"Okay," at least now she acknwoledges him as John, he finally gives up and sauntered towards his room. Once inside the room, he forced himself to sleep. Although he was prepared for this chains of events he still found it hard to accept that he didn"t even see an ounce of happiness on her eyes the moment she finally knew who he was, instead, she left him alone and flees to her room. So typical of Catherine, that is why he loves her the more, she is so adorably unpredictable! He was totally whipped by his love and obsession for her.

"I love you, Cath!" he murmured to himself.

Unable to sleep, he tried contacting her in the messenger but she was offline, he tried to call her in her phone but her phone can not be reached, she totally blocked all communication with him, that means she doesn"t want to be disturb.

Finally he gives up. He placed the phone beside the laptop in the bedside table.

After staring at the ceiling for a few minutes, his eyelids start dropping he"s finally on his way to sleep.

>>

While in Catherine"s room...

Her eyes were still wide awake staring at the ceiling.

She left John for six months to have some free time for herself, to breathe and enjoy her own s.p.a.ce after all the tragedy that had happened to her life way back home. She did enjoy some peace time, was it six months? Yeah, more or less six months of finding peace amidst the chaos.

Yet, he eventually found her, now he owned the workplace she was working at.

She took a deep breath. What"s next for now that he finally located her?

Would she run away again? If yes, where to and why? What is the reason why she would run away this time again?

She actually has no reason to run away again. It all depends on what he wants out from her and would she agree to anything that he wants from her? Of course, she knew what John want"s from her, it"s all been about the wedding, starting a family and for her to stay by his side forever.

Is she ready to settle down?

She doesn"t want to entertain those thoughts right now, she pushed those thoughts at the back of her mind, she has to focus first on the business side. She has to introduce John to all the crew this Monday, it"s his business after all and she is one of the employees.

She will act as one of the employees...because at present situation he is the owner and she is one of the employees.

As for their personal relations.h.i.+p, well, she just has to get used to his new look, but why she got this feeling that she like his old look better compared to now? Why she misses the old John with the scars? There"s something unsettling with his new look as if she was seeing a stranger.

She falls asleep that night with that uneasy feeling troubling her mind.

>>

The Next Day...

John walked up to a new day, the sun was already s.h.i.+ning brighter outside the window of the room.

He arises from the bed and exited the room to look for Catherine.

He checked her room she wasn"t inside, he checked the toilet she"s not in there, she"s not everywhere!

OMG! Did she run away again while he was sleeping?

His heart was beating faster, he runs downstairs outside the building to find her...