Chapter 110
[MIA]
Alex was spending the day with his younger brother and father at his dad’s office.
I was home with Sofia, and Aurora who had to finish a meeting over lunch and would be back by evening.
When I was at Alex’s house, I was always watched. There was Lana, who wasn’t loyal to anybody except her master and didn’t break no matter how much I tried to talk to her, I hadn’t befriended her yet.
Alex had long confiscated my phone, and there were no computers lying around. If I did somehow manage to get my hands on an iPad, they were password coded and I had no hacking skills. If I could somehow get in, they were Alex’s. I assumed they were always under surveillance.
I couldn’t exactly google the fires in the last six months around me.
But here, I could.
I felt guilty lying to Sofia, but beggars can’t be choosers. “Sofia?” I called for her when her nose was buried in a book on the couch, and we were lounging together post lunch.
“Yes, sweetheart?”
The guilt weighs in when I hear her endearment, but I shake it off. I wasn’t putting her in any danger of sorts. I was just trying to be a little
sneaky and that was only because her son was forcing me to. “I broke my phone before our flight here. Is it okay if I borrow yours to make a
call?”
Her eyebrows knit. “Sure.”
She grabs her phone, unlocks it, and hands it to me after opening the keypad. The first thing I do is dial Jenny’s number from memory, and
hope I remembered it right.
The phone rings, and nobody picks up for a long time. That is when I remember it was post-lunch, which means she had probably taken her
medicines and was fast asleep.
So, I dial a nurse whose number I had taken for emergencies, praying she picks up despite being at work.
“Hello?”
“Hi. Hi! June, is that you?” I say, almost hastily. “It’s me. Mia!”
“Mia?” She sounded confused, “Jenny’s Mia?”
“Yes! Yes! Thank God.”
Sofia looks up at me warily at the way I squealed, and then gets up and leaves the room, probably thinking I needed privacy.
I brush up my conversation with June, trying to keep it early so I can google. June tells me Jenny is sleeping, and I ask her to let Jenny know I love her and I would come visit her soon, I just ran into an unexpected inconvenience. I also add to not let Jenny call back on the number l had dialled her from, just for good measure./
Chapter 110
As soon as I could disconnect, I did, and taking the opportunity of Sofia’s absence, I opened her Internet browser. Keeping an eye out, I immediately searched for any news of fires six months ago in my city, and there were 3 in the same month.
One, obviously, a faulty fuse fire that killed Alina and her parents, leaving only Jenny behind. There were two others, one in a restaurant killing one and injuring six, and the other there was not too much information about except the area and the owner of the house.
There were three.
Damn the hope that rose in my chest. I knew logically that even if Alex wasn’t involved in Alina’s fire, he was in someone else’s, but the rising liking in my heart could deal with him being morally grey. I didn’t know if I could take him being the villain of my story.
I searched him up next. Alex King. I wondered if he had a public profile, if people in the normal world knew anything about him because l certainly didn’t.
Not much came up just like I had expected, except the link to another girl. Hannah Terrano.
My brows knit, and I wondered why that name seemed so familiar. Was she his ex?
I clicked on the article that mentioned their names together, but before it could load, a voice broke my reverie.
Startled, I jumped in my place, almost dropping the phone as I stared at the younger version of Alex with lighter brown eyes and a concealed mischief.
“You must be Mia,” he was looking at me with suspicious, pointed eyes. With shaking hands and not taking my eyes off him, I removed the tab from Sofia’s Internet, and deleted the logs just as quickly..
“I- I am.” Words barely made it out of my lips.
“I’m Ronan.” He walked closer, studying me. “All day Alex was desperate to get away from work as if he was afraid you’re going to run away from here.”
I gulp, unsure what to answer while I hide Sofia’s phone behind my back.
His eyes narrow. “Are you going to run away, Mia?”
“N- No?”
“Good.” A grin cracks on his lips, “Because I’m going to teach you exactly how to annoy the living hell out of my brother when you both return.”
I nervously chuckle, keeping the phone aside as he throws himself on the couch and indicates me to do the same.
“Did you know Alex is allergic to pollen?” He tells me, “It’s a mild allergy, but he hates it. He thinks of it as weakness and he demanded immunotherapy to get rid of it for his fourteenth birthday gift.”
I stare at Ronan, unsure if he was serious or not but when I realised that he was, a smile breaks on my lips. “That does sound like him, yes,” I chuckle.
“And… he hates sugar. He treats sugar as if it’s poison. The best way to annoy him? Put a teaspoon of sugar in his morning tea. It’ll make him grumpy for the rest of the day.”
“Wait, what?” My eyes widen. “He hates sugar?”
Chapter 110
“He hates anything sweet.” Ronan makes an unimpressed face. “It’s as if that man was made for everything bitter and nefarious.”
My lips part. “Are you sure he hates sugar?”
“Yes… why?”
“I’m a pastry chef,” I mumble in a low voice.
–
Ronan’s jaw falls. “You mean to say you make dessert for him?!”
“I make dessert for dessert, you know. After dinner,” I mumble in a low voice.
“And he eats?!”
I painfully nod. “A piece or two here and there.”
Ronan stares at me as if I was an alien before a laughter so loud escapes him, it echoes through the house. “He must really, really like you.”
“No he does not.” Flustered wasn’t the right word to describe my state right now. “He calls me an inconvenient pain in his a**”
Something twinkles in his eyes. “You want to try something?”
“Try what?” I ask, dubious.
“Just come with me..” he gets up, and then offers his hand to help me up from the couch.
“No…?” I hesitate.
“Just come.” He grins, and I reluctantly put my hand in his, letting him drag me to the kitchen for whatever evil was going on through his
head.
