This chapter is dedicated to @debrlynn! Thank you so much for your constant support! Your comments make my day ❤

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"Hey Eric, let's go."

Eric snapped out of his trance and looked towards the source of the voice, it was Emma. He looked at her for a second, he didn't feel like responding, didn't feel like doing anything really. He just wanted to sleep. Emma cleared her throat and motioned him to get moving. The others were already a few steps ahead of them.

Sighing, he grabbed his luggage and walked in the same direction as others. He was so tired and it took great effort to even move. Why was he feeling this way? Maybe the fight with Anthony?

He always hated it when they fought, which was getting frequent now that he thought about it.

Ever since...

No, he wouldn't think about it, he had promised his parents. It had left a huge, dark mark on his life, tainted it into oblivion. He wasn't about to let it ruin his trip too. And that was final.

He walked past by Emma while in his thoughts, her expression only registering in his mind a few seconds later. She looked hurt. Hurt and worried. But why? He was so confused. But then realized he had practically ignored her. He mentally kicked himself.

Soon, he was going to tell her everything soon, he vowed to himself. Eric hated seeing his childhood friend like this and it killed him to keep his darkest secret hidden from her.

An hour later, they were all seated at the hotel reception, waiting for their room keys. The hotel was definitely something. It was built like a mansion and was luxurious in a minimal, sophisticated style. It wasn't very big, the whole setting was very intimate and cozy and the friends felt comfortable as soon as they had entered the hotel.

They were greeted by the hotel manager, Robert, who extended a warm welcome to the group, making them feel at ease instantly. He offered to give them a tour of the hotel to which they all agreed, even though they could barely walk now. But who could resist the beauty and charm of a cozy and luxurious hotel?

There were two floors of the hotel, with the top one partitioned into four sections and the bottom partitioned into two sections, the West and East wings. The top floor hosted all the rooms, each wing containing 8 rooms, making it 32 rooms in total on the whole floor. The East and West wing had a terrace at the ends of the corridor, whereas the other two sections didn't.

The ground floor had the dining room, common room, and a beautiful library loaded with books. When Anthony heard about this, he couldn't stop beaming from ear to ear. Books were his whole life.

The whole mansion was littered with subtle clues about Christmas, but once the friends made it upstairs, it was hard to ignore the huge Christmas tree glowing in the middle of the intersection of the four wings. Once again, the group was left speechless but also felt at home seeing the familiar setting.

They had all been assigned the North wing, with Scarlett, Anthony, and Emma at one side of the corridor, and Eric and Carter at the opposite side, facing their rooms. The manager informed them about the dinner timing and with that, he parted with the rest of them to give them time to freshen up.

Minutes later, they were all gathered in Emma's room, urging her to hurry up before they leave her alone and go downstairs to eat. But their threats only fell on deaf ears as she still insisted on wearing the perfect loungewear for today. Anthony didn't know how many times he rolled his eyes at that. Women.

"God, how many bags do you need for one trip?!" Anthony asked her.

All of them had a different bag opened before them and were scavenging for that one particular loungewear. It almost drove them mad, both with hunger and irritation.

All except for Eric.

He was sitting on a chair, watching the scene unfold in front of him silently. There would be a hint of a smile here and there as he witnessed his friend's antics.

Anthony noticed and felt a little bit of tension leave his body. But just a little bit.

However, it hit him back full force when Eric started to clench and unclench his hands repeatedly.

"Here, I found it!" Carter said, holding out the dress like a trophy.

"Oh, thank goodness! You have 30 seconds Emma." Scarlett glared at her friend, tapping her foot on the ground with a steady rhythm.

Emma took the silent threat seriously, she didn't want to mess with a hungry Scarlett. Nobody did.

As they all exit one after the other, Eric grabbed Emma's hand just as she was about to leave. They were alone in the room and his action startled Emma.

"Do you need anything?"

"No, but I do want to apologize... for earlier," Eric cleared his throat. Apologies never came easy to him. Emma knew that and instantly her whole attitude softened.

"It's okay. Let's go," Said Emma as she managed a smile.

"One more thing. I need to talk to you. To tell you something really important."

"Yes, I believe it's long overd-"

"What's taking so long?" Carter cut Emma off midsentence. He had come back to call them after the group noticed that Eric and Emma were still in the room.

Carter's gaze dropped down to their intertwined hand and his mood darkened instantly.

And then turned defeated.

"We'll be waiting," said Carter curtly and was then out of sight.

"We'll talk soon, I promise," Emma said as she squeezed Eric's hand. He smiled.

Within a couple of minutes, they had entered the dining room. As soon as they did so, they saw four new people already seated on one side of the huge rectangular table, and their friends sitting on the opposite side. Emma went ahead and joined the others. Eric followed suit.

The dining room wasn't very big, but it was certainly luxurious. A huge chandelier hung directly above the middle of the table, casting a beautiful glow all over the room.

Emma looked past the new guests and noticed that it was snowing outside. The windows gave her the perfect view of the moonlight casting a silver glow on the snow-covered ground and trees, giving the illusion that the snow was actually silver dust.

Emma focused her attention on the other guests staying at the hotel and her eyes immediately zeroed in on the man who was busy peeling an apple. His hair was a rich brown shade, with the ends of it just wisping across his eyebrows. He diverted his attention from the apple and focused his sharp eyes on the new group. His eyes, Emma noticed, were the perfect blend of brown and green. They were so beautiful.

"Hey Scarlett, look," Emma whispered while discreetly pointing at him.

When she didn't respond, Emma called her again, and only then did she break out of her trance. She had a weird expression on her face.

What was that about?

"I'm pretty sure he's married, Emma," Scarlett said with half a smile after she focused her attention on Emma.

"I know... oh, he looks so intelligent! It's the intelligence I'm attracted to. All the rich snobs I meet don't even have half a brain." she snorted.

Emma noticed the woman sitting beside him, trying to pry the apple away from him. Emma heard something along the lines of, "You eat too much apple." Definitely his wife, Emma smiled, and a gorgeous one at that, she had to admit.

She shifted her gaze to the couple sitting beside them. This one was a much older couple, maybe in their fifties, Emma judged by the laugh lines on their faces. The husband had a sour expression on his face, whereas his wife was smiling at them. Or Emma thought she was, her expression was divided into a grimace and a smile. Still, she couldn't deny the grace of the woman.

After getting comfortable and making quick introductions, Emma learned the young couple was named Charlotte and Levi, whereas the older were Ella and Mark. Before she could ask any further questions, Robert came in and announced the first course that they would be having.

At hearing this, Levi finally allowed his wife to pry the apple from his hands. However, despite the delicious aroma of swiss and bacon dip attacking his nostrils, his attention was solely focused on the newcomers. He loved assessing people and strongly believed that the first look could tell a lot about them. Well, at least he could. Levi leaned back in his chair, smirking to himself.

He started with the one sitting on the farthest left, Carter, he had mentioned. Average build, focused eyes, and a strong jaw accompanied his black hair. Were they dyed? No, he concluded. And was that... yes, it was definitely a tattoo peeking out from just beneath the collar of his sweater. Levi wished he could see it, he loved deducing tattoos.

Tattoos were very important, years of his profession had taught him that. Levi looked at Carter's face again. He looked like a serious man, and did he detect something dark lurking underneath his cool facade? He couldn't wait to find out.

Levi's eyes shifted to Anthony as he had so formally introduced himself. He definitely had a gracefulness to him. Levi suspected his deductions had something to do with the way he was dressed.

Anthony was wearing a sharp grey coat which looked like it was tailored just for his athletic body. It probably was, Levi judged as he took in the rest of his appearance.

He had 'rich' written all over him. Brown hair, handsome features, well built and to top it all, rich. The perfect formula of a dumb, irresponsible rich boy. Except, he didn't look like the part. In fact, he was the only one who emanated the most responsibility and soberness. Interesting.

Levi then looked at Scarlett, sitting right beside Anthony. She seemed normal enough but Levi could detect hints of worry radiating off of her. Worry or just tired? Maybe both.

He tilted his head and took in her features. Brown eyes, pert nose, small lips. She was pretty to put it in simple terms. Nothing special, except for her hair. Levi could bet on his life that she was named Scarlett after her red hair. Oh, the human mind. So simple, so dull.

Scarlett was hard to read, for sure. Her smile was completely natural and her demeanor relaxed as she talked to Anthony, but her eyebrows would slightly pull together from time to time in the few seconds that Levi studied her. Her attitude was laid back, but her eyes said otherwise. Not to mention, she was also biting her lips.

Was she nervous? But why? Levi frowned. He'll figure it out later.

Emma was next. Right away, Levi noticed how charming she was. Her personality was probably the loudest of all her friends and had a confidence about her. However, Levi also detected hints of intelligence and a caring personality in the way she served the appetizer to Scarlett before serving herself first. So not your average snobby rich blonde. Interesting.

But why did she look worried? Levi guessed it had something to do with how she constantly stole glances at Eric, worry etched into her every feature.

This bought Levi's attention to Eric. He looked like all shades of disturbed and anxious. He barely touched the food sitting on his plate. Barely even looked at it, in fact. He was just staring out the window, quietly. Only when Emma said something to him did he come back to reality and picked up the bread reluctantly.

Why would anyone behave that way, when they were on a vacation, nonetheless? Levi slowly smiled to himself. He loved mysteries, this was the number one reason he became a detective.

Number two was justice. His expressions suddenly hardened at this word, justice. He scoffed internally.

Heaven if served right, and a walking nightmare if it wasn't.

Levi reminded himself of the other reason for becoming a detective, the most important reason.

He forced the thoughts away and looked at Eric again. Deep down, he knew he wanted to get to the bottom of Eric's anxiety because he wanted to help him, not because of his love of mysteries. However, he failed to acknowledge that side of him, the human side.

He glanced at the group of friends. What an intriguing bunch, he thought. This vacation is going to be fun, Levi smirked.

Little did he know, there was a real mystery just lurking around the corner, awaiting him.

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