THE FORGOTTEN HEIRESS

"Are you okay," Shawn asked in a voice that could melt the hardest of hearts into a puddle.

Kathleen lifted her eyes and was drowned in the tenderness overflowing from his eyes.

She seemed to have also forgotten about her surroundings as the depth of her soul got stirred.

She snapped out of her trance when the flash light from the camera somehow penetrated her eyes and from the corners of her eyes saw that people were taking pictures of them.

"I’m fine now, let me go," she said and tried to wriggle out of his arms. She was getting embarrassed at the strange glances people were throwing their way.

"Are you sure?" He could tell that she was embarrassed but what was that compared to what would have happened to her if he didn’t intervene.

Kathleen was speechless, is there something wrong with his sight? Couldn’t he see there were people staring at them?

"I said I’m okay, is that so difficult to understand?" Kathleen chided through gritted teeth

Shawn’s expression turned bitter at her sudden outburst.

"I just saved you. Is that how you thank me? I didn’t know you to be this ungrateful in the past," Shawn complained.

"This is the present, Mr President and for the records, I don’t need your saving. I can very well handle my own affairs," she retorted.

"I’m damn sure you can," Shawn threw back, looking aggrieved. "I thought I could help."

"I can take care of myself," Kathleen snapped, and tried again to move from his embrace.

’Why does that sound so familiar?’ Shawn thought and then he remembered that was the same thing he had said to Kathleen yesterday when she offered to help him at the Hudson manor.

Suddenly, the corners of his lips spasmed in a smile, "Are you angry with me?" His hold on her didn’t slacken at bit despite her struggle.

"Why should I? I don’t have what it takes to be angry with the Almighty Shawn Hudson."

Shawn released a deep breath as he found her cute.

"Alright, I’m sorry for refusing your help yesterday." If apologizing will settle the issue, he didn’t mind shouting it out to everyone’s hearing that he was sorry.

Kathleen stared at Shawn then blinked slowly, taking in his words. She didn’t know what to make of his fluctuating behavior.

Just yesterday he had shunned her and asked her to get lost, and here he was today playing the knight in shining armour saving the princess and apologizing out of the blues.

"Whatever," she spat out without any emotion.

"The more you insist on getting angry, the more you look delicious and too tempting to resist. Are you sure you want me to kiss you in the presence of all these people? Is that what you want?" Shawn threatened.

"Don’t even think about it, you asshole," warned Kathleen. Shawn could see her ears turning red and a frightened expression in her eyes that quickly darted around.

He chuckled to himself and finally released the intoxicating woman. If he held her any longer there is no guarantee that he wouldn’t put his threats into action.

They were busy arguing with each other but to others they looked like they were having an intimate lovers conversation.

From where she was restrained by the security officers, Mrs Beazell saw the affectionate exchange between Shawn and Kathleen and a fresh swell of rage tore through her.

"Don’t be fooled by this slut, all she knows is using her shameless face to seduce innocent men. Before it was president Jason, now him, I wonder who her next victim will be?"

She was no longer bothered about maintaining her image or what anyone thought of her after all she was now a woman with a criminal record. What was more humiliating in this life than such a fate?

But she promised herself that she was not going to take this lying low, she would bring Kathleen down with her. There is no way Kathleen will live a peaceful life while she wallowed away in jail.

Hearing Mrs Beazell’s defaming words, Shawn felt a stab of anger and with just two strides from his long legs, he got to where Mrs Beazell was huddled up between two guards.

"Do you dare call her names again?" he barked, his eyes shooting daggers.

Mrs Beazell glared at the man he had always rooted for as a son-in-law and was disappointed. "What would you do? You are just a little..."

Suddenly, she felt a bone break in her chin and she couldn’t talk again but broke out in cold sweat.

Shawn’s hand on her jaw tightened and his expression turned ferocious.

The officers tried without fail to make him release her. It was only when he felt Kathleen’s delicate soft palms on his hand and the pleading look in her mesmerizing eyes that his hand on Mrs Beazell’s jaw slackened.

After giving Kathleen one last lingering look, Shawn strolled off, with one hand stuck in his pocket, not sparing the gossipy reporters a single glance.

He was totally different from the passionate man they saw a few seconds back.

All the while Mr Beazell sat in his seat soulless and detached from all what was taking place in the courtroom.

It didn’t look like what was happening had anything to do with him. All he was thinking about was how the wife he had been living with all these years turned out to be a cuckolding monster.

Up till this morning, he still believed she was innocent as she kept on insisting that she had no hand in what she was being accused of.

Because of that he spared no resources in getting her the best available lawyer after it was made clear by Ms Moore’s previous actions that she was already on Kathleen’s side.

Who would have imagined he had been living with such a chronic liar all these years.

Even when they dragged his handcuffed wife out of the courtroom he didn’t have any reaction. It was only their daughter Linda who followed her mother, sobbing relentlessly.