I don't know how I reached my apartment. Once inside the building's parking lot, I realize I've been speeding down the lanes. The entire ride didn't register in my brain.

Because, of course, the ever-consuming tornado named Gracie Stewart has re-entered my life, just when everything had finally started working out smoothly and turning normal.

A few pointers from my talk with William kept ping-ponging inside my head.

Gracie getting pregnant with that bastard's child. Gracie becoming my sister-in-law. And at last, William dismissing the idea of swapping me with his stupid son in the marriage part of the contract because I would never agree to it. But maybe I would have agreed-

Christ, why am I even sparing a thought on these things?

None of my business. Whatever Gracie does, has nothing to do with me and it does not affect me the slightest.

It doesn't.

It shouldn't.

Then why the fuck is it?

I groan and throw my head back into the seat, squeezing my eyes shut.

I hate you so much, Gracie.

I can't let her marry Kristian. No, I have to stop it, but how? William is dead set on this contract... maybe if I tell her William has plans for her company, she'll back out?

I sigh, taking off my glasses and rubbing my face. If I know Gracie an epsilon, she'll outright, without a heartbeat's hesitation, refuse and dismiss me.

Can't she see she'll be ruining her life though?

I suppose she doesn't care. And neither should I.

Fidgeting with my glasses I stare at what once was a white wall and now is a light shade of grey.

Not only does her presence mess with my peace of mind, I know she'll try to bankrupt William when the time comes; I'd hate for Saff to lose this lifestyle.

On top of that, Julia will probably leave too if William loses the company. And I have to act like the responsible older son and help out William rebuild his empire. I roll my eyes at the term.

No. Too much. That's just plainly too much for me to handle.

Gracie Stewart must not enter the Wright family under any circumstances.

I rub my temple with my index and middle fingers already a headache building its way up.

There has to be a way.

I open the door of the car, grabbing my bag from the passenger seat before climbing out, and shutting the door with one hand. I put my glasses back on and roll my shoulders back.

As I make my way to the elevator, I ponder over my options.

Of course, I have the petty option, telling William some parts of the truth, such as half of the money Gracie started her work with was technically mine, maybe even more. I never got down to the calculating part, all I wanted was to just wipe her out of my life as soon as humanly possible.

I step inside the elevator and hit the button with the number sixteen on it.

As the door slides shut, the second idea resurfaces in my head.

Talking Kristian out of this shitshow. It's worth a try, even though it's highly unlikely but maybe I'll be able to open his eyes to the madness he's giving in to.

This isn't enough though. I need a backup plan too.

I scratch my chin.

Gracie is doing all of this for bringing down Ben Stewart... if I could find something against him and hand it over to her...

My eyes widen. That's it! The proof will get her out of my life.

The elevator halts and its door slides open. I step out and head straight to my apartment's door. Fishing out the key from my pocket I ponder over the situation. Even though it's a solid plan, the occurrence of it is highly unlikely. If William and Gracie couldn't find anything for over five years, how the hell can I do that?

I push the key to the keyhole, to my great surprise, it's not locked and with the first turn of the key, it clicks open. With a frown, I enter the place, and just as I get past the threshold, Julia comes into view. Her dark blue dress is a bit too formal for wearing at home and her hair still holds the precise curling she spent over thirty minutes this morning for achieving. 

Her eyes light up. "You're back early?"

I curtly nod, guilt churning my insides. Sparing thoughts on Gracie feels like cheating on her. I sigh as I shut the door.

"How was work?" she asks, following me to my study.

"It was fine," I mumble, dropping my bag next to the desk and turning to face her. "Didn't you have a meeting?" I ask, raising an eyebrow as I busy my fingers with taking off my wristwatch.

"It got postponed." She waves her hand dismissively.

For an insane moment, Gracie pops back into my head, her stupid habit of waving her hand around whenever she answered my questions replays. I blink them away, shoving them into the furthest corner of my mind.

The problem with Gracie re-entering my life is she starts re-appearing in everything. It's like my brain is subconsciously trying to find her in everything and anything.

I have to get her as far away from me as possible.

"Amanda called," She starts as we walk out of my study.

I press my mouth into a thin line, waiting for her to continue.

"The party she was talking about the other weekend, she has worked out the details and it's set to be on the coming weekend." Julia halts and spins to me, her dark hair flying around in the process. A small smile tugs at her red-painted lips as she takes a step toward me.

I open my mouth but she quiets me with a sharp look.

"We have to go."

"But-"

"It's a must. Kris is going to propose to Gracie, and you, as his loving older brother, have to be there." She adjusts the collar of my shirt, her big brown eyes fixated on me. "And I want us to match, so we have to go shopping together, clear a day for me."

My mouth hangs open for a stupidly long moment, the proposing part replaying like a broken tape inside my head, twisting my gut. "What? No!"

She huffs, "All the investors and business partners are going to be there, and I'm sure Gracie is going to shine like a diamond, and Kris is going to be the platinum diamond holder. We can't appear anything less than them."

Diamonds don't shine. I squint at her clenching my jaw. "Why don't you choose something for both of us?" I suggest through gritted teeth.

Julia sighs and pats my chest. "But I want us to spend time together too."

"We can spend time through anything except shopping too."

She giggles and rolls her eyes. "Fine, I'll see what colors Gracie, Savannah, and Amanda are going with for their dresses then choose something different for us."

She turns and saunters away, leaving me to gaze at the entire glass wall on my right side, overlooking the skyline.

In a few days, Gracie is going to be Kristian's fiancée officially. The thought is unsettling. Everything is happening too soon.

I shut my eyes and inhale deeply. I don't care.

"Dinner's ready," Julia calls out from the kitchen, dragging me out of my miserable thoughts.

As I walk to the dining table, Julia picks up two plates filling them up with our dinner but my focus zooms in on the black marble kitchen island.

Memories of the night I called her over to my place, kissed her while she was on top of that counter, felt her, touched her, made her moan, and scream my name as she came undone flood my mind.

"Are you alright, Spencer?" Julia's question snaps me out of my uncontrollably spiraling thoughts.

I blink a few times, gathering my bearing as I realize, I'm standing like an idiot with one hand around the chair and stupidly gawking at the kitchen island. Awkwardly I nod. "Yeah, I'm fine." I pull the chair back and flump down on it, desperately trying to clear my head.

I hate the entire Stewart family. Except for Kathryn, she's different, she's the only sane person between those jerks... how come she agreed to her daughter marrying under these circumstances?

"Are you sure everything's fine?" Julia asks again as she sits across from me.

"Yeah." I nod again, avoiding her gaze.

She twirls the fork in her hand, the ring's diamond catches the fluorescent light and cuts into my guilty conscious. It's the same ring I asked her to marry me.

Yet here I am, thinking about the last person I should be thinking.

Her sigh grabs my attention and at last, I meet her dark eyes. "You're doing it again. You're pushing me away and locking me out."

I purse my mouth and rub my brow. "You're making a big deal out of nothing."

"Ever since we came back from William's place you've been acting weird. I know you don't want to be a part of this show, but you are a part of the Wright family and you just have to... and it's only for a few months." She lifts her shoulders and raises her brows.

"Five years," I correct her harsher than I intended to, making her frown.

"But we have to support this act for a few months." She air quotes the word support.

I release a deep exhale, leaning back into my seat.

"After they're married, everything will settle down and they'll carry on with their lives and we will with ours."

I stare at one of the faraway skyscrapers visible from my vantage point, absently nodding at her and folding my arms in front of my chest.

She's right. I only have to see Gracie frequently for a few months then it'll be over.

But I can't.

I know I can't.

Just the thought of seeing Kristian touch her, kiss her is outright painful, like my heart is being ripped out of my chest kind of painful.

"Is there something else you're not telling me?"

I glance at her as she lays her fork back down on the table.

Before I can answer though, she goes on, "Has the ex you didn't want to talk about returned?" She presses her lips into a thin line, her brown eyes widening the slightest as her brows draw together while she leans towards the table.

I gape at her, words failing me. Unable to decide in a split second how much of the truth I'm willing to share with her, I change the direction of the discussion. "I met William today, actually I was coming from his office."

"Oh?" she drums her fingernails. "It didn't go well, as usual," she says, a corner of her lips going upwards, but her shoulders remain tense.

I shrug and gaze out of the window.

"You didn't answer me though," she reminds me after a long moment of silence.

At last, I decide to be as truthful as I'm willing to be with her. "I saw her recently."

"I see," she mumbles, leaning into her seat and nodding.

"But I've told you, there's nothing between us, nothing you need to worry about."

She eyes me suspiciously, clearly not buying into my words, not that I can blame her. I wouldn't believe me either.

I wonder what her reaction would be if she figures out this ex of mine is no other than Gracie Stewart.

"How's she doing?" Julia tries to ask brightly, forcing a smile on her pale features.

I lift a shoulder. "Fine, I guess."

"Are you going to meet her anytime soon again?" She twists the ring around her finger absently.

Uncomfortably I shift on my spot. "I hope not."

"Can I at least know her name?" she forces a laugh, tumbling out breathy and fake.

"No." My gaze sweeps over the dining table, searching for wine or anything with any amount of alcohol in it.

Unfortunately, there is none.

Julia purses her lips again with irritation.

To stop her from continuing to interrogate me, I dive into the food, scarfing it down, hoping to rush to the privacy of my study as Julia fills in the silence with her day's events, the highlights, and the meetings she had.

I try to bring myself to care, but keep failing. It's hard to give a damn about a bunch of people who you know are backstabbing liars.

At last, a much-needed silence envelopes us but it's short-lived. Just as I'm about to get to my feet, Julia straightens herself, her eyes locking on me.

"We need to talk."

Oh shit. I school my face into a casual expression, nodding nonchalantly. "Sure." I push my glasses up my nose, waiting for her.

"I really don't want to be pushy or anything, but don't you think it's time to decide a date?" She plays with her ring, a hopeful gleam in her brown eyes.

My gaze darts between her hand and face. A date? Fuck.

"I get it we're not in a hurry, but everyone's been asking... I've been wondering too."

I scratch the back of my neck. Every single siren and alarm goes off in my head. Damn it, I'm not ready for this conversation.

"It's been six months, but whenever I bring up the subject you avoid it." she gives me a pointed look.

I run my hand through my hair.

"So, I've been thinking, since Gracie and Kristian are going to get married in three or maybe four months, we should either settle on a date two months from now, or after they come back from their honeymoon."

My eyes widen with shock. "Honeymoon?"

"Obviously."

"But it's all a show." I wave my hand around, my insides churning from the idea.

Julia rolls her eyes. "Exactly, they have to act like a happy couple, which includes going on a honeymoon too, but that's not the point of our talk, Spencer."

"Yeah, right," I mumble, looking away.

What's wrong with me!

"In two months we probably won't be able to throw a grand wedding party, all the resorts are probably booked, but I know you're not into fancy stuff, so it shouldn't be a problem." She offers a hopeful smile.

Two months only? Holy fuck.

"Uh," I scratch my chin and get to my feet. "I-I'll think about it... I'm really tired right now, a-and I need to get a few stuff done... for t-the uh research center, and uh..." my voice trails down as I point at my study. "How about we talk about this after their date is fixed?"

Her face pinches with annoyance. "You do want to marry me, right?"

I force a chuckle. "Of course, babe."

She narrows her eyes and stands up. "Fine. I'll ask Gracie and we'll decide."

I nod a few times before turning and hurrying to my workroom, shutting and locking the door behind me.

Finally, in the safety of my room, I run my hand over my face, careful not to smudge my glasses.

Damn it.

What's wrong with me! I proposed to her myself... but turns out, asking someone to marry you and actually marrying them are two entirely different cases. One I'm not ready to tackle yet.

It's all her fault. I was doing fine, going about my life, living the boring life of a guy who once was a professor and now works in research centers.

But she's back.

Gracie Stewart is back.

I glower at the wall on my left, covered with books, but my focus is fixed on only one. My fingers itch to stretch to it, pull it out and rip away all the papers I've hidden between its pages, but I resist the temptation.

I go behind my desk and pull out the bottom drawer, picking up the metallic bottle, my personal booze stash, saved away for times like now.

I plop down on my seat and unbutton the first few buttons of my shirt. God damn it, she didn't even give me the chance to change. I take off my glasses and throw them on the desk as I turn my seat to face the window behind me.

The sun has already set but the highways and buildings' lights prevent the world from going pitch black.

I gulp from the bottle, welcoming the familiar burning feeling as the alcohol travels down my throat.

I try to focus on the passing cars down below, but it's too hard especially with my glasses off and everything appearing blurry.

Eventually, I give up and stare at the sky, taking swigs from my drink. After being convinced I've had enough to blame every thought that passes through my head on being drunk, I allow myself to think of her.

Gracie Stewart. The girl who ruined my life.

The person who I saw a few days ago after five years and that's when I realized how desperately I've been trying to ignore the hole she left in me. Each time I caught her forcing a smile, I found out how much I miss her smile, the real one that lit up the damn room and used to make my day. The sound of her voice, the melody of her laughter. Her scent, her touch. Even the way she made me feel. Simply, I missed everything. 

I glare at the small wooden cabinet on the corner of the room, fighting against the urge to just unlock it and reach for my other phone, the one I had while Gracie was in my life. Instead, I push myself to my feet and head straight to the thick book placed at the farthest corner of my library. I pull it out and flip through the pages until I find the papers I've kept in it.

Once I have the papers, I put the book away and unfold the papers. Even though without my glasses I can't see much, and maybe that's for the best, I gaze down at Gracie's handwriting. Everything she wrote for the solution we published. I run my fingers over her messy scribblings, tracing the ink as breathing gets harder.

Why did you have to use me for money? Why did you lie to me so many times?

Why did you have to enter my life and light my world only to set me on fire and leave me in ashes?

I hate you. I hate you so fucking much.

I crumble the pages and throw them to the other side of the room. I should've gotten rid of them the second I found out about her tricks and games.

Damn you.

I march back to my desk and down the rest of the drink. Planting my palms on my desk and watching the dark sky, the irritation dies out, and instant regret flares up in me.

Like an absolute idiot, I rush to the crumbled papers, kneeling on the floor, I pick them up and carefully smoothen them out. Once I've gotten rid of most of the wrinkles, I neatly fold them and put them back between the book before returning to my chair.

The alcohol finally begins to kick in as I gaze out of the window. Slowly my thoughts grow messier and a hazy fog settles over my brain.

Trying to come up with a plan to stop this stupid wedding from taking place is pretty much useless. I groan and rub my forehead. Tomorrow. I'll find a way to stop Gracie.

But until then...

I hate you with every fiber in my body, Gracie Stewart. 

❦ ♥︎ ❦

Phew, that was a long chapter xD but I hope it was enough to make up for the long wait =) And I hope you enjoyed it [vote if you did =D]

Hmm... so Spencer is obviously mad at Gracie for using him, but do you guys think he hates her as much as he claims?

Also, what are your thoughts on Julia? Are you guys feeling bad for her? Or not? =)

And... Spencer has kept Gracie's handwriting! Were you guys expecting he'd be holding on to her like this? Or not? :D And he has his phone from 5 yr ago... any guesses why he's holding on to that too? 

So... the past few days were really rough for me, but I'm kinda past that... actually it led me to make a decision, a hard one too :) I'm not going to say right now what it is, but because of that particular decision, I have good news for you guys. This story is going to be updated way more frequently.

On top of that, this story rn has about 870 reads and The Solution has about 19.1k, so yes, we're quite close to the milestones for both of them (TR's milestone is 1k and TS' is 20k), which means you guys have 2 double updates coming your way full speed =) who's excited about that! [Aaahhh I need to start writing ahead lmao XD]

I just want to thank you guys for reading my messy imagination, it means the world to me :') Thank you so much. I honestly never thought Gracie and Spencer's story would go so far!

The next chapter will be up tomorrow.

Stay safe, lots of love, happy reading <3