21 Days till Graduation. 21 Days till my life begins.

My phone says it's 4 am. 
I just cannot sleep. 
I finally decide that getting out of bed and trying to find something productive to do is probably the best idea right now.

I get out of bed, ninja style, trying not to make any sound and find my way to the hotel balcony. I cross Travis on my way there. 
He looks so peaceful and just absolutely angelic in his sleep.
I force myself to not linger there anymore and make my way out onto the balcony and that's when the freezing London air just hits me. I can feel my face turning blue. 
It's. So. Cold. 

I stay out there for a couple more minutes, before realising that this cold could kill me, and as I walk back in I end up smashing my face in Michael's chest. 

"Good Morning. How are you doing?" Michael says.

"For someone who found out that her boyfriend has completely forgotten her, I think I'm ok."

"Ah, good to know. Come in quickly, it's bloody freezing out there. I'll make us a cup of tea or something." 

I've always believed that a cup of tea solves everything. This time, I'm not really sure how well that's going to work out.

"So. What's the plan? What do we do now? You've spoken to Anne, Vincent, Sierra, or anyone?"

"I have actually. Mr Darcy sure knows how to cover up his tracks extremely well. He's a pro at this. We cannot underestimate anything he does. But like every single person in this world, he has a weakness. We have to find that weakness. I have a fairly good-"

Michael is interrupted by a series of loud bangs on our door.
It wakes Travis up and freaks me out.

Michael tells us to not make any sound, maybe whoever this is will go away or somebody from our hotel will ask him to leave.

There's an eerie silence for about a minute before the loud banging starts again. 

"Louisa! Michael! This is Francis Auréle. Please open up!"

My eyes go wide and Michael rushes to the door and opens it only to have a very, very badly injured Mr Auréle fall on him. 

He's been shot in the arm.

"Louisa get me that sweater lying there! Mr Auréle we've got to get you to a hospital."

"No, no, no. They'll find me there. I know it. It's way too risky. I first have to talk to you two before we can think about how to get me back in proper shape."

Michael takes the sweater and ties it tightly around the gunshot wound. Mr Auréle winces a bit

Travis hasn't said a word since Mr Auréle came in. 

I choose to ignore it for now and rush to Michael's side again, this time with a glass of water that Mr Auréle refuses to take. 

"Listen up you two. Especially you Louisa. Mr Darcy is not somebody you mess around with alright. I know you think you're doing a good deed and all that, you'd be saving a lot of lives in fact but trust me, it is most definitely not worth it. Your father learnt it the hard way love."

Oh, so now he knows my father too. 
Also, if I got a quid every time somebody pointed out the fact that we cannot and should not mess with Mr Darcy, we'd probably have enough money to take on Mr Darcy.

I think he notices my face change because what he says next is not how I thought he'd continue this conversation.

"That being said, it does not mean he is invincible or that you should just go back to Brighton and do nothing, which would be ideal of course."

He pauses and starts coughing violently. I offer him the glass of water again and he declines it once more.

"He has a lot of connections in the underworld, should you take it upon yourself to beat him, please keep in mind that this could end badly. A calculated risk that your father took.

So I have been informed that you both already know about 'The Girl You Knew'. My mother always loved to tell that story and never quite knew when to shut up even when I was a child, bless her. Anyways, you know that painting is worth millions of pounds. You also know that that painting happened to be one of the cheaper ones and Darcy has got his hands, illegally, on much more from the 1920s all the way back to the 1400s. Rumour has it he's got his dirty hands on a Da Vinci a well. 

He's got people down in major ports like Portsmouth. Massive containers in his name keep coming in and going out, they never go through customs, he gets away with whatever he's up to, no questions asked.

I had never been too sure what the paintings mean to him, he never struck me as a lover of art type person. The same thought ran through your father's head and he looked into it. He contacted me the same way you did, got my number from Diana, Travis's mum. I used to work for Darcy you see. It's how Diana and I met. She was in an unhappy marriage and things just happened between us, sparks flew and about nine months later, Travis was born. I left the company soon after that. You dad came to me and begged me to try to get back in Darcy's good books. I never told anyone about my affair with Diana and the only reason I left was to cover up the affair. There was no way I was going back. I gave up a perfectly good career for helping Diana and Travis, I couldn't tell your father that.

Your father embarked on a mission regardless of my incorporation and got a job at Portsmouth. A couple of weeks later, I heard that he is dead. "

Oh wow.

This is too much to take in all at once but I think Michael and I know where we're headed next.

I turn around to look at Travis and he's staring at his biological father with a blank look. He looks a little disoriented. Trying to reel everything in I guess. He then catches me looking at him and gives me a weak smile. 
I find myself giving him a weak smile back. 

Michael is trying to pick up Mr Auréle, I go and help him, Travis calls for an ambulance and we start to make our way to the hospital. Mr Auréle stops protesting to our help and gives in.

I always knew this was not just about the paintings. I did, didn't I?

Am I ready to find out what this is actually all about?

~

A/N-

Hiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii there.

Oh god. It's been way too long hasn't.
I'm so so sorry for the super long wait. I hope the chapter was good enough. Please do let me now what you think!
Thank you all for the continued support.
The notifications I get when you vote or comment or add my story to your library, honestly makes my day every time! 
Board exams coming up and I am low key freaking out. I'm not really sure when I'll update next so I apologise. Do bear with me.
Hope you are having an amazing day wherever you are :)
Thank you for stumbling upon my book. 

Without Wax,
Sanjana Ramesh