Chapter Twenty Five - Earrings

It was Monday morning again and I was dragging my slothful form downstairs to have breakfast when something caught my attention.

The door to Alec's study was slightly ajar.

I was sure I had heard him leave a while ago when I had just woken up late enough to skip my first class.

Did he really leave? I peeked my head to look at the empty living room and empty dining table.

A frown fell upon my face. He would never leave his study like that.

My head turned to the door again and I debated if I should go inside. This could be my chance to work on my self proclaimed detective activities.

Without another thought, I pushed the door open and stepped inside. The lights were turned off and I concluded that he probably forgot to lock the study.

I switched the lights on and glanced at the empty room. Nothing looked suspicious here. Just a normal study. I started tapping my hand gently against the walls like an idiot in hopes of discovering a secret room but obviously, there was no such thing here.

Next, my gaze fell on the drawers. Taking in a deep breath, I pulled the first one open, thankful that it wasn't locked. There was just some extra stationary and a few papers.

I shut it and opened the next drawers but there was nothing besides his work files.

The last drawer was the biggest one and as I tried to pull it, a frown formed on my face realizing that it was locked.

This is it.

The chamber of secrets.

I opened the other drawers again, hoping to find a key there but something else in the corner, deep into the drawer caught my attention.

It was a picture.

Two very young boys were smiling cheekily at the camera, their arms around each other's shoulders. I ran my finger across the picture of the one with dark brown hair and bright blue eyes.

Alec

Something broke deep inside my chest at the sight of him being so carefree, grinning like a fool.

A feeling of familiarity sprawled across my senses once more and I was reminded of the day I had met him for the first time in his office's parking lot.

The way he had manipulated me into the marriage deal, leading one thing to another, with us sleeping together, all that time we spent in Barbados, me on the verge of falling for him and here I was now in his study, spying on him.

I shook my head at the thoughts and focused back on the picture.

The other boy seemed a little younger with emerald green eyes and blond hair. My eyes grew wide as I slowly recognized him.

Walter Reed.

Walter said that he met Alec in middle school. This picture seems way before that.

Did he lie to me?

Oh God! What if...?

No. Alec had no family.

There's no way they could actually be brothers.

Right?

Was Walter hinting at something when he joked about being Alec's brother?

What if they really are brothers?

Blinking, I fished my phone out and clicked a picture of the photograph and placed it back in the drawer. There was nothing else left to see so I quickly shut the lights off and left his study.

After having my breakfast, I was leaving for my college when I spotted Alec's car entering the parking lot.

I placed my backpack in my car and waited for him to step outside.

"What are you doing back here?" I asked.

"I think I forgot something," He threw me a skeptical glance and I stared at him in confusion. Was he talking about locking his study?

What else could it be?

Should I tell him I went in?

No, Scarlet, no.

"What?" I asked.

His eyes narrowed further. "Did you go into my study, Scarlet?"

I gulped as he approached me.

"Y-your study? How can I when you keep it locked?" I didn't realize I was moving back until my back pressed against my lambo.

"Oh wait. Is that what you forgot? Did you forget to lock it today?" I asked in surprise.

He raised a brow at me.

"Shoot. I can't believe I missed the chance to be in that boring place," I shook my head in fake despair.

At this, he rolled his eyes and turned towards the elevators. "I'll be right back and then, I am going to drop you off to your college."

"No thanks. I was about to leave anyway."

"It's on my way today. I'm dropping you," Before I could protest further, he went inside the elevators, leaving me standing there frowning at him.

I decided to wait in his car and quickly put on my seatbelt. Making sure that he wasn't back yet, I opened the image in my phone.

Walter and Alec seemed to be standing in an open grass field.

Just as I was about to zoom in, my phone rang.

I blinked at the contact, not being able to believe that I completely forgot about him.

"Luke," I grinned.

"Scarlet," He said back with a laugh. "How are you?"

"I'm awesome."

"That you are," He sang.

I burst out laughing and just then, Alec got into the car, giving me a weird look as he started the engine and drove out of the parking lot.

"How are you?" I asked.

"I'm good and guess where I am right now."

"Where?" I asked in confusion.

"New York."

I gasped audibly. "Really?"

"Yep."

"That is so great. We have got to meet."

"Why else do you think I'm calling you?" He seemed to have deadpanned.

My eyes narrowed playfully even though he couldn't see me.

"That hurt, Williams," I fake cried and just then, Alec gave me a look to which I gave him a blank look in return.

Oh right! He didn't like Luke very much.

Alec narrowed his eyes at me. "Who is it?" He whispered.

"Luke," I mouthed at him and turned to look ahead at the road.

"Oh come on. You're talking like you were missing me," Luke spoke.

"Well maybe I was missing you. You see, I didn't have much friends to keep me company in Barbados after you left," I spoke as a joke but only realized what it must have sounded like to Alec.

I turned to him.

A sexy frown was plastered on his face as he looked ahead and drove.

"What about that husband of yours?" Luke chuckled.

"That's a different matter," I said a little uncomfortably and then I heard some shuffling on the line.

"Scarlet, my secretary just came back with all the files," I could hear him flipping the pages as he was probably holding the phone between his ear and shoulder.

"Oh no problem. I'll talk to you later."

"Sure bye."

"Bye," I hung up and turned to Alec.

"Alec-"

"So you're going to sit right next to me and talk about the good time you had in Barbados with that asshole," He gritted his teeth.

"That's not what I-"

"There was no one to keep you company after he left? Why didn't you just leave with him?" He snapped.

"What? Like I was allowed to," The words left my mouth involuntarily.

A very wrong choice of words.

I watched as he clutched the steering wheel tightly, his knuckles turning white.

"Well, what if you were? Would you?"

"No," The reply was firm.

He took in a deep breath. "Did you two...?" He trailed off and for the first time, I saw a hint of uneasiness on his face.

"What?"

"Did you sleep with him?"

"What? NO," I snapped. "What even made you think that? And what part of 'friend' do you not understand?"

"Oka-"

"And even if I did, don't you think I would have told you that day on the tree?"

He shrugged. "I guess so."

I narrowed my eyes at him. "I should be really mad at you, Alec."

He chuckled lowly. "You have some nerve telling me that after what you said on the phone."

"Excuse me? I didn't realize that it could offend you. I only meant it as a joke but you, Alec Sinclair, just asked me I slept with Luke probably thinking that I kept it a secret from you. Why you would ever think that is beyond me. But something must have made that cross your mind. Is it something you did? Why, tell me, did you sleep with another woman after our marriage? Seeing that you had one the day I moved-"

I stopped abruptly when he placed his hand on my thigh and gave it a gentle squeeze.

"No. I did not."

I don't know why I was so relieved to hear that.

I heaved a long sigh.

"The last I saw Luke was the day I came back to cottage to find you drunk," I said.

He nodded at me. He believed me.

I licked my lips as another thought crossed my mind. How could I forget that night so easily?

"Alec, can I ask you something?"

He nodded.

"What happened that day?"

A frown fell upon his face and he withdrew his hand from my thigh, leaving a tingle there.

"Why were you feeling so low? Why was it a bad day? Was it because of some deal or something related to your fam-"

"Get out."

I blinked at him. "What?"

He turned his head in my direction, an indifferent look plastered on his face.

"Get out, Scarlet," He said firmly.

I frowned at him. Was he going to leave me alone in the middle of the way?

Without a word, I turned to open the door but found my college campus infront of me.

"Text me whenever you're done with your classes and don't go to any random cafe."

Pressing my lips into a thin line, I nodded at him, not wanting to argue about the cafe thing and stepped out of the car, muttering a small thanks before shutting the door.

He drove away while I started walking towards the building.

Will he ever tell me things about his life?

Shaking my head, I walked into my class and found Lily in the last row. She looked up and waved at me with a smile.

I waved back and settled down beside her.

"How was your date with Mark yesterday?"

She batted her lashes at me. "Amazing as always. We went for that new romantic movie."

I blinked at her.

"But we had plans for that movie, Lily."

"I'm sorry. It was a sudden plan. I did consider inviting you but you wouldn't want to be the third wheel, now would you?"

I sighed. "Right."

Soon enough, the professor entered the class and began the lecture. I only realized how sleepy I was when Lily nudged me to keep my eyes open saying that it was an important lecture. I started taking down notes and tried to keep focus but my thoughts kept drifting back to Alec.

What could have happened that night?

And what could that picture with Walter Reed mean?

Why did Walter lie to me?

Was Alec lying too?

Ha! Screw lying. He hasn't told me anything in the first place.

I kept listening to the professor, writing down stuff in my notebook and the class got over soon. The rest of the day went by pretty fast and finally we were walking out of our last class.

"Is that trend back again?" Lily asked suddenly.

"What?"

"Wearing just one earring?"

I lifted my hands up to my ears and found my left earring missing.

"I must have dropped it somewhere," I threw a glance at the floor behind me.

"Nah. It's been missing since morning."

I raised a brow at her while removing the other earring and placing it in my backpack. "Why didn't you tell me?"

Maybe I dropped it in Alec's car. I'll have to search for it.

"I thought the trend was back," She shrugged and let out a laugh.

"Talking about earrings, when are you returning my blue feathered ones?" She asked.

"I haven't returned them?"

She raised a brow at me. "Please tell me you know where they are."

I pressed my lips into a thin line. "They must be somewhere in my room or I would have remembered packing them with my other stuff for moving to Alec's."

"You know what. Let's go to your house and we can find them together. I really need them to match with my blue dress for my date tomorrow."

"You're going on a date again?"

"Mark insisted," She gave me a lopsided grin while I shook my head with a laugh.

"Okay. Let me just call Alec."

"Okay. I'll be right back," She said and went to the restroom.

I dialled Alec's number but he didn't pick up. Then, I remembered that he gave me his office number once and I quickly dialled it.

"Sinclair Enterprises. How may I help you?" A woman's voice greeted me.

"Hi. This is Scarlet Sinclair. Can I speak to Alec?"

"Mrs. Sinclair, hello I'm Mr. Sinclair's secretary. He is busy in a conference at the moment. May I take your message?"

"Oh. Can you just tell him that I'm going to my dad's? He doesn't need to pick me up."

"Sure, anything else?"

I debated in my head if I could ask her anything else, since that became my favourite hobby recently.

Could I get some information about Walter from her? But wouldn't it be weird if I asked about him out of nowhere?

Could I trick her?

I don't think so, Scarlet. She must be smart.

Should I start with something that could concern me?

Like a deal with my dad's company?

Yes! I could do that.

"Umm Erica, right?" I asked.

"Yes. That's me."

"You know that Sinclair Enterprises recently invested in my dad's- I mean in Price Industries, right?"

"Yes, Mrs. Sinclair."

What can I ask about that deal?

Oh God! I should have thought this through.

"Um what was the exact amount of the investment?" I asked, thankful that I found a sensible question and didn't end up making a fool of myself.

"I'm afraid I can't disclose that information, Mrs. Sinclair. It's confidential and I don't have the orders from Mr. Sinclair."

"Oh! No problem. It's alright."

"Anything else?"

"No. That's all. Thank you."

"You're welcome. Have a good day."

"You too," I spoke and hung up.

Next time get a plan, Scarlet.

Lily drove us back to my house. I rang the doorbell and Jimmy opened the door. His eyes grew big.

"Scarlet," He reached for me with a surprised laugh and I engulfed him in my arms.

"I missed you, Jimmy."

"I missed you too, Scar," He pulled back and let us come in.

"How are you doing, little champ?" Lily ruffled his hair while stepping inside.

He groaned. "Not my hair."

"When is dad coming back from work?"

"He must be on his way already," Jimmy looked down at his watch.

Me and Lily looked for her earrings in my room. They were lying on my dresser and I couldn't understand how I didn't see them before.

The doorbell rang and I ran up to the front door excitedly, swinging it open.

Dad's eyes grew wide as he let out a surprised laugh, pulling me in his arms. "Scarlet, what are you doing here?"

I pulled back with a teasing smile. "What? I can't come here?"

He chuckled. "You know what I meant."

I stepped aside to let him enter the house. Sadly, Mrs. Byrne was on a leave today as she had to attend a family event. I missed her so much.

I didn't even realize how the evening went by so soon as we all had lots of snacks and watched a movie. Jimmy had so much to tell me about his school, dad was doing good at work and I couldn't be more happy looking at them like that.

At around 7 p.m., Lily was ready to leave for her house and I waved her goodbye. I went back to the living room to get my backpack ready and book myself a cab to go back when the doorbell rang again.

What did she forget?

I swung the door open and gasped at the figure glaring down at me.

"Alec?"

His jaw was clenched tightly as he watched me and I wondered what I did this time.

He looked really mad at me, his eyes seeming dangerous and his posture like that of a predator causing my heart to thump loudly. "How dare you-"

"Alec?" Jimmy's voice echoed around us as he appeared at the door, seeming really excited for some reason.

"What are you doing outside? Come on in," He appeared beside me, held Alec's hand in his little one and dragged him into the house.

The scowl on Alec's face had disappeared as he looked down at Jimmy with mirth.

"Can I get you something to drink?" He asked.

"No thank you, James. I'm good."

"Are you here to pick up Scar?" Jimmy asked.

"Yes," Alec cut a furious glance at me and I resisted the urge to scream and ask what I did wrong this time but it did hit me pretty soon.

Oh God! He knows I went inside his study.

He said how dare I. Oh no!

Just then, dad appeared in the living room. "What's all that noise abou- oh! Alec. Hello."

"Hello, Mr. Price," Alec nodded as they both shook hands.

"I'll go and make some coffee," I announced and started towards the kitchen but Alec's voice stopped me.

"It's getting late, Scarlet. We should get going," He spoke.

Before I could open my mouth to speak, Jimmy interjected.

"No you can't leave right now. I got a new gaming console and I can't wait to beat you at it," Jimmy spoke with excitement.

To my surprise, Alec let out a laugh at this, a good hearty laugh with the smile that reached his eyes.

"I would love to but it's getting late-"

"Please," Jimmy stood infront of him and blinked his green eyes innocently. That little trickster.

That move always gets me. But, dear brother, it won't show any effect on-

"Okay," Alec sighed.

WHAT!?

"Yay," Jimmy jumped excitedly and pulled Alec up from the couch and started dragging him upstairs.

"Scar, please make that coffee," He shouted on his way up.

I rolled my eyes while dad shook his head, laughing.

Dad helped me make coffee and I carried two mugs up to Jimmy's room.

"Not your good day huh?" Alec was smirking at the screen.

Jimmy was focusing on the screen with a frown, his thumbs hitting the remote keys furiously. Alec was winning and I saw him leave the hold of his controls as his player got defeated, causing Jimmy to rise up from his seat and shout in victory.

With a smile, I went inside the room and handed them their coffees. Jimmy was still in his over excited state as I handed his coffee to him. I avoided Alec's gaze while handing him the mug but I could feel him watching me.

Save me, God.

Jimmy ran out of the room, my horrified gaze following him. Please don't leave me alone with him.

Without wasting any time, I followed him outside and feeling Alec following me, I suddenly rounded the corner and went inside my room, hoping he didn't see it.

I sat down at the edge of the bed for a few moments, glad that he didn't know where I was but my relief was short lived as the door to my room opened and Alec stepped inside.

I got up but he was fast in shutting the door, advancing in my direction and backing me up against the wall.

His eyes accused me once again and I opened my mouth to speak but he beat me to it.

"How dare you, Scarlet," He gritted his teeth in anger.

"I-I am sorry. Please-"

"Is it true?"

"Alec, I didn't mean-"

"Are you leaving me?" He snapped.

I blinked at him in confusion.

"What?"

He slammed his hand beside me, against the wall causing me to jump in my spot.

"Are you leaving me, Scarlet?" He asked again.

"I d-don't know what you're talking about," I managed to speak under his piercing glare.

"Stop pretending," His tone was menacing and I really did not understand what he was talking about.

"You told my secretary that you're coming here and I didn't need to come and pick you up. You asked about the investment amount. Tell me, now that your father's business is on track again, are you planning to return the amount and get rid of me?" He growled.

I didn't realize I was gaping at him like a lost person unless it hit me.

Is that what he thought about that phone call?

Now when I think about it, it does make sense.

Before I could contemplate, my hands went up to his face and cupped around his cheeks.

"Get rid of you?" I spoke in what came out as a soft whisper. "I could never do that, Alec."

The scowl vanished from his face but he still seemed to be judging my every move carefully.

"What did that phone call mean?" He enquired.

"I just called to tell you that Lily needed her earrings back so we came here for that. That's what I meant when I said you don't have to come and pick me up from college. And about that investment amount, I don't know, really. You know my levels of curiosity. I don't know what came over me when I asked that but I had no idea of leaving you."

He scrutinized my face closely, probably looking for a hint of lie but when he didn't find any, he let out a long sigh and nodded.

He almost pulled back but I tightened my grip around his face, holding him close.

"You don't want me to leave you?"

My eyes bored into the depth of his intense blue ones.

"No," He spoke in all honesty.

"Why not?" I whispered.

For the first time, he seemed to have run out of words as he opened his mouth to speak but shut it without a word.

A smile formed on my lips as I leaned closer and captured his lips in a lingering kiss.

He responded immediately, wrapping his arms around my waist and pulling me up to level with his face.

My heart skipped a beat when he carried me over to the bed and reached for the hem of my tshirt but I stopped him.

"We're not doing it here. Dad or Jimmy can be here any moment."

He didn't stop trailing kisses across my jawline and biting on my weak spot. "We're going home," He muttered against my skin.

I nodded. "Yes, we are."

******

I was lying beside him on his king size bed, exhausted.

My eyes went to the night stand watch. 10 p.m.

I stretched my body and buried my face into his chest, stifling a yawn.

"Scarlet?"

"Hmm?" I mumbled.

"Is this yours?" I could feel him moving around and I opened my tired eyes.

He was holding the earring I had lost in the morning.

"Oh yes, it's mine," I spoke as he handed it to me. "I was about to ask you for it. I must have dropped it in your car this morning."

"No."

"Oh then?"

He watched me closely.

"It was in my study."

Hey guys!

I'm really sorry for the late update but homeworks and class tests kept me from writing. 😭

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