My Mate Adored His Sweetheart, Only to Beg Me Back After My Departure

"That photo. Don't misunderstand,"

Frank stammered.

"Her father passed away. Before he died, he entrusted Julia to me. I'm the only family she has left in this world."

I listened in silence.

Frank's actions had long since crossed the line.

At first, Frank's care for Julia was nothing out of the ordinary. He made sure she had a roof over her head and food to eat.

But as the days turned into weeks and the weeks into months, his involvement in her life grew increasingly invasive.

He meddled in her every decision, from the clothes she wore to the friends she made.

I thought about the fact that in just a few days, I would be leaving this place, this pack, and Frank behind. There was no point in holding back anymore.

"Don't worry about me misunderstanding. You just keep taking good care of Julia..."

"What's wrong with you? Julia sees me as nothing more than an older brother. Do you think she's as promiscuous as you?" Frank lashed out.

He was right in a way.

Julia was nothing like me. I had been so naive, so blindly in love with Frank that I had allowed him to manipulate me, to use me.

I had been following his every command.

My eyes welled up with tears.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean that..." he said, his voice softening, but it was too little, too late.

In that moment, a surge of courage welled up within me.

"Frank, I..."

Frank's phone, shattering the tense silence.

Frank snatched up the phone.

The voice on the other end, Julia's, echoed clearly in the stillness. "Frank, I'm in such agony. I have a fever... I'm so dizzy, I can barely stand," she whined.

"Hold on, Julia. I'm on my way," Frank replied.

Without a second thought, he grabbed the nearest piece of clothing, a tattered old shirt that reeked of his and Julia's shared scents, and hastily pulled it over his head.

As he reached for the doorknob, he paused for a fraction of a second, as if suddenly remembering my presence. "Julia's sick. I have to go," he muttered.

Before I could utter a single syllable in response, the door slammed shut behind him.

The next morning, I roused from my slumber to a cacophony of noise that seemed to pierce through the fog of my sleep.

My head throbbed with a dull ache, and I massaged my temples in a futile attempt to ease the pain as I groggily made my way out of bed and towards the stairs.

As soon as I reached the top of the staircase, the sight that greeted me in the living room was nothing short of chaos.

The once - orderly space was now a disarray of toppled cardboard boxes, their contents - clothes, trinkets, and other personal items - spilling out haphazardly across the floor.

Frank was hunched over, straining to heave a large, cumbersome suitcase across the room.

Beside him, Julia stood with a sickeningly sweet smile on her face. She flitted about the room.

"Careful, careful! That box has something breakable in it," she cooed.

I froze in my tracks, rooted to the spot by shock and disbelief.

Frank, sensing my presence, looked up.

Our eyes met for a brief, charged moment, and I saw a flash of panic in his gaze.

But just as quickly as it had appeared, his expression hardened.

Julia, on the other hand, skipped over to me with an air of nonchalance. "Oh, darling!" she exclaimed, her voice overly cheery. "Frank was so worried about me living alone. He thought it would be better if I moved in here. Now we can be like sisters, looking out for each other. Isn't that wonderful?"

I turned my gaze back to Frank. But he refused to meet my eyes. "Julia's health is delicate," he mumbled.

"Having someone around to take care of her gives me peace of mind."