The door clicked open and Estella entered, popping the keys on the tray next to the door, upon the desk. The clouds thundered, rain falling, and she shook in cold, her hair slightly wet. 

Walking over to the switch, she turned on the lights and her stomach did a flip. Scared at the sight of Edward on his couch, she was shocked to see him at this time. 

 Holding her heart, she yelled. "What is wrong with you?" 

 Edward seemingly lost somewhere took some time before responding. 

"Why? What happened?" 

Estella now calmer, stepped toward him. "You scared me. Why are you even sitting like that in here? And more importantly, how did you get in here?" 

Edward stood up, his features were unresting. "You gave me the key to your house. You wanted me to move in, right?" 

Now that he mentioned it, she did remember her words. "Oh yeah, sorry. My day was hectic." 

"No worries." He held her hand, pulling her closer, a sexy smile playing on his lips. Estella sensed the heat between them rising and as he brought his lips closer to hers, she resisted. 

"I'm cold, Edward!" She whispered. "I think I should change." 

She couldn't move away from him when he wrapped her closer, pushing themselves down on the couch. 

"You know  I can help you with that." 

And he kissed. She closed her eyes wanting to take her worries away and kissed back. His hand already worked on her coat and after he threw it away, he reached for her soft dress.

Estella's back arched when kisses rained down on her neck, she drew him close, wrapping her legs around him. Their eyes made a contact and she failed to find any sincerity. Her heart sank. Thea was screaming in her mind and so was her heart. 

Abruptly, she shot up from the spot, leaving Edward on the couch, and took a few steps away from him. 

"What happened?" He faced her, perplexed at her behavior. 

"I...I need a shower first, I think." She stammered, looking everywhere but him. 

Edward smiled once more. "Sure. Lemme join you." 

"NO!" She almost shouted at him, giving him the obvious hint. "I mean, you don't understand. I had a long day and I want to be alone. Just some time alone." 

Saying that she hurried to her room. 

"Dinner?" He asked and got no response. Looking away, he saw the watch that read 5:30 in the morning. 

"More like a breakfast!" He muttered to himself, suspiciously glancing back in the direction she went. 

As stated downstairs, Estella hit the shower, drenching down under the hot water. Her back ached, her eyes tired and she wanted to cry for the growing distrust inside her. 

She couldn't help earlier and hesitate. Damn it, Tanya! Damn it, Thea! Joining Tanya for the last night's event was disastrous. She wanted me to call her to discuss her thought. 

Sighing, she turned off the water, and stepped out naked, grabbing a white towel on her way. Her heart wanted to call Edward upstairs and finish what he started but the voice never came out to her and she realized the seed of the suspicion was already budding into a full-fleshed plant. A thorny one indeed. 

Looking back, she recalled where she could've been wrong about him. In the beginning, he was charming but had a stormy vibe going inside him. His eyes were dark, flirty, and charming. The beautiful smile was captivating, however, it took her more than that to let herself sway for him. 

Estella bit her lips in guilt. How could she forget what a sweet gentleman he was when he had his battle to deal with. Edward had cared for her, stood beside her in her vulnerable time, and for that, she loved him. That was what made him love him and she shouldn't insult his feelings by suspecting him. 

.....

Leaves chattered against each other, branches waving and fighting the wind as grey clouds hovered its head. Tanya withdrew her gaze from the orange tree standing proudly at the side of the road and turned her back on the very window she was gazing through. 

Climbing through the stairs was Patrick who gave her a bored and slightly irritating smile. They both now stood face to face on the platform of the stairs at the police station. 

"You don't know to give up." He commented, gesturing her to take the next flight of the stairs, and seconds later Patrick was opening the glass door of a cabin and both entered. 

"You owe me a favor." Tanya retorted, though less irritated than him. They have been mere acquaintances, often crossing paths while investigating crimes. Tipping each other with information was the only time they communicated. "Also, it's not like we are doing this the first time."

Patrick who looked absent-minded at the moment nodded and handed her the file he had tucked under his arm that Tanya had missed noticing.

"I don't see a problem in that. The documents are correct." 

Tanya didn't bother to hide her disappointment. "Well, I was hoping to get some more information." 

Patrick gave her a perplexed look. "But I thought you'd be glad. Didn't you want your friend's boyfriend to be clean?"

"I just had to be sure." She twitched her brows, scanning the documents of Edward that Estella had procured at the beginning of her business partnership. She had a copy of the documents to herself along with the partnership deed. Tanya didn't want to put Estella in a tough spot and decided to do a double-check behind her back. "But I was sure something was dodgy about that guy. My instincts hardly are false." 

"But they are sometimes." Patrick sounded dull and rounded at the coffee table and grabbed a mug. "Now stop being an overprotective nosy girl. Your friend is not a child. She knows what's best for her." 

"Of course I wanted that is why I've been waiting here for hours, using all of my energy and excuses to get these documents verified." 

"Well, I think I should rest my tensions here."

..

   Grabbing a subway sandwich from a drive-through, Tanya parked the car in front of a skyscraper and savaged a bite from her food, her tastebud dancing with the flavors. She slid the window glass down, peeked out of it to have a good look at the building, and lowered her gaze at the entrance. 

   Her phone gave a scream at her last bite and brushed her hands together before grabbing her phone; her face tensed at the sight of an unfamiliar number. She swiped down the knots in her stomach tightening further. The phone gave another crying call but she swiped down and seconds later, the door flew open from her side of the car and a man stood, carrying huge stacks of two files. 

"Scoot over!" He gestured her to the other seat, looking in the mood to drive. Tanya didn't mind and did as requested. After all, it was his car she had borrowed. "All's done!" 

"I was starting to think you'd be staying for dinner with them, Tony," she smiled sheepishly. "I was planning to call your girlfriend." 

"She would kill me if I skipped a night with her," Tony said, driving away. "Pretty hard to keep up with her pregnancy hormones." 

"You are the father. Share the suffering equally." 

"I'd been doing everything I could." He said. "It was her interview due weeks ago and filled her place." 

"Business line is her jam and ours is a crime and stuff." She said, grabbing the files from the cabinet to look at. "But Interviewing a businessman sounds fun. How was the photoshoot for the top 30 New York's business influencers?" 

"Jared took care of it. He'd be sending me some of them any minute now."

"Hmm-mmm," Tanya had opened the file, looking at elite names and their profile and a quote from each of them. "It's good." She muttered, although less impressed with how easy to gather information for the magazine. The elites always had representatives to be interviewed while she and Tony who were crime report specialists had to run miles, talk and cross-check many times for stories to add up, and handle the foul names offered to her by reluctant and mean people now and then. Worse of all, there had been high-profile cases she and Tony had investigated for months that they couldn't get published if there was a minor chance of suffering the defamation case against their firm. 

Tony was speaking all the way, though his voice had fainted long ago as Tanya divulged more into the file. She was merely reading it for fun when her eyes squint at a name. Edward Churchill Blake. 

As if someone threw a glass of water, Tanya was on alert mode, her mind racing. Under the profile of Blake's and their enterprise and among several names, she could spot the names. The eldest son. 

"Who did you photograph today?" She asked, Tony, looked confused, stopping abruptly about whatever he was talking about. 

"Smiths, Carter, and a while ago, some blakes." He responded, his face screwing in an unpleasant look. "I don't like them much." 

"Why?" 

"Umm, they were sort of unwelcoming." He said, turning the wheel to the left. The clouds gave a thundered noise. "The main man, I mean Mr. Blake kept showing off his younger son while now giving a flying fuck about his eldest son. He was smarter I could tell just by the looks of him. His brother however looked like a billboard for advertising." 

"The elder one is Edward?" Tanya wanted to keep her wits calm. She was sure it was a different Edward. Not an hour ago, Patrick gave him a clean slate. It was just a different person. Only the first two names are similar and it's not uncommon to have dozens of people with the same name. 

"Yeah," Tony snapped her out of the reverie. "Feel sad for him though. My girlfriend was fascinated by him the first time she had interviewed him. He was well known in the city, famous for his looks and charity. Though his popularity subsided. And that wasn't the interesting part. Several media were told to take down articles about him."

"Must have done something awful." She commented, unable to separate the two Edwards. "You said you photographed them. Do you have photos on you?" 

Tony threw a curious glance at her. There was a halt and the car's engine died and her house came into the view. "Just curious." She smiled thinly. 

"Jared has them." He told her and before disappointment knock her, he said. "But I have better. An extra magazine from two years back. Told you my girlfriend's fascinated with him." 

Impressed, she watched as Tony leaned at the backseats. Tanya, unaware saw magazines, not one but multiple. Tony grabbed the bunch, bringing them to her. 

Tanya saw and realized they weren't just related to business. Loads of them were about fashion and the thickest one was not even a magazine. It was a pregnancy guide. 

"One of them has his pictures. A family picture." Tony said, grabbing the guide and shoving it back. "Look for family influencers or something. I don't remember exactly." 

As told, she skimmed through pages, already filtering the unnecessary magazines and focused on the ones she wanted. After several minutes of turning and flipping, she stopped. The familiar eyes caught her like haywire even when half-concentrated, she shrieked silently in success, congratulating the voice in her head that kept pushing her to not give up. 

However, like another there was a screeching brake in her mind, she was concerned for her best friend. Her spirit died down.