🌹R O S E III🌹

🌹CHAPTER TWENTY - THREE🌹

"Absolutely not. She is the one that shot us, Rose. There is no way that you're going to see her" Alexander says and I roll my eyes. I put my hand on his cheek and caress it. "I need this. Besides she shot us because she had no other choice and we're alive. She made sure that we'd survive those bullets and we did. My father could've sent someone that would make sure we'd not make it alive but she did" I tell him.

I knew that he was going to refuse but I need this to make me feel better. All of this hangs over me like a dark gray cloud that I can't get rid of and it wants to pour heavy rain on me but that can all go away if I just talk to her. He sighs as he pulls me tighter to his body.

I can feel his heartbeat against mine and how it beats in sync, like they are the same heart and in a way that is the truth in its purest form. Our hearts belong to one another and they are the same and the love is strong enough to go through anything. We've survived so much together and I know we can survive this, if we are together then we can do anything.

"Fine but I'm going with you and not leaving your side for even a second" He says and I let out a giggle. I already knew that he would want to come with and I would not object to that. I want him to be there with me and hold my hand. "Even when I'm in the bathroom?" I ask him.

We both burst into laughter. "Yes, even in the bathroom. Believe me when I say this, Rose, I'm not losing you again and even if I have to watch you sit on the toilet. Besides we're engaged to one another" He tells me and that is enjoy to keep me laughing. I shake my head. "Just because we're going to marry each other doesn't mean that you can watch me on the toilet" I tell him and eye him.

Alexander chuckles but I can tell in his eyes that he's serious. "Then I suppose I will just have to hold it in" I tell him and he shakes his head as we laugh once more. "Now, eat something. We need to build your strength up" He says and I nod my head.

I sit down and the two of us start eating then snacks that were given to us before and I smile to him. I know that there are so many things that we still need to talk about but I feel like we have a start that is going into the right direction and in time everything that we need to talk about will be talked about.

His phone rings and he stands up and leaves to go somewhere else to answer the phone which I find rather odd but I don't question it as this phone call really isn't any of my business. I sit there and eat the last thing of the tray and then I lean back on the couch that I'm sitting on.

Alexander has been gone for more than five minutes and I'm starting to worry about him and wonder why he's taking so long at talking with someone but all that goes away when I see him walk into the living once again with a bright smile on his face.

I raise an eyebrow at him as he comes over to me and hugs me before landing a big kiss on my cheek. Leaving me happy and confused at the same time and I raise an eyebrow at him which he doesn't seem to be able to pick on my confusion as he's smiling and he's happy.

"Who was that?" I ask him. He just hugs me and adjusts himself in the couch beside me. "That was my lawyer and we have the contract for the biggest deal of the year and trust me. This will benefit you as well because our company is growing larger" He says but that brings me even more puzzled confusion.

"What about it?" I ask him. I still don't get why he would be this happy about a deal like this. Perhaps that is one of the changes that happened during the year that has past, Alexander being happy about a deal. Which is rather odd but a change is a change.

He just smiles at me. "Our company is going to be expanded worldwide" He tells me and I nearly choke on my own saliva when he says that. Until now his company has been in every country but my company or our company now has only been in this country and no where else.

This could mean the world to us to have our company in other countries as well. Spreading the influence, it's unreal. I smile as I hug him. "This is amazing, how did you do it?" I ask him. When I was working for the company it was only a thought but it had not gone any further than that.

He shrugs. "A magician never reveals his secrets" Alexander says with a smirk on his face. A smirk that I would've want to wipe of and I can. "Well, you aren't a magician and you should reveal this so called secret to me since we're co-CEO's and we're engaged so I deserve to know.

With those words his smirk does fall and one comes across my face. "You certainly have not changed, Rose" He says and hugs me. Suppose I've not chanced that much. "My secret is that I fell in love with a woman that I would do anything for. Even make this dream a reality. I had hoped that I would be able to do this before you woke up but celebrating with you now is better than anything" He tells me.

The blood rushes to my cheeks when he says that and I can already feel myself blushing by his words. One thing has not changed and that is his ability to make me blush and me sol affected by his words and his voice that just continues to drag me to him.

Like if he were a siren and I'm being pull without able to control myself but I want this, I want to be pulled to him and taken deep into the sea by him. "No, seriously, what did you do to make this possible?" I ask him with a raised eyebrow and a look that I'm hoping he will tell me.

Something like this must have come with a cost because these things are the things that drive most business people to the ground but he has done it and I want to know why. "If I'm to be your wife then you must share everything with me" I tell him and the looks deepens.

He knows that he can't resist that because I'm speaking the truth, we need to trust one another if we're going to marry one another, which I know we will. Someday. He sighs as he looks at me. "Are you always going to hold that against me?" He asks me and I nod.

He's trying to stall and somehow I know that I want to know how he did that. When I had thought about it before everything happened, I also thought about how I would be able to do it. So many have failed when it came to this and lost their company.

That was mainly the reason why I did not do that but I wanted to and now he has done it, how? "Alexander, out with it" I say and he rolls his eyes. "The only reason that this is possible" He tells me then he stops. Something tells me that whatever he did, it could not have been that good because he gives me a look of sorrow.

"And what reason is that?" I ask him. He squeezes my hands tightly but not too tight that he'd hurt me but enough to make me feel his nervous he is. "Blackmail" He tells me and I gasp. I would've never thought about that before and I'm sure the thought would not have crossed my mind. Though, I don't blame him for it nor do I think of him any differently for that matter.

.•🌹•..•🌹•..•🌹•.

Standing in front of the prison is not easy and I can feel my heart beat faster and for some reason I am terrified but I don't know why I feel like that. Alexander stands beside me, holding my hand. If he weren't here I'm not sure that I would be able to do this.

But I know that I need to. "You all right?" He asks me and I look at him and into his eyes, the eyes that can calm me down even when I'm in doubt. "Yes, just nervous I suppose" I tell him with a soft smile on my face. Though I feel like this is much deeper than nerves of any kind of matter.

"That is why I am here with you" He says to me as we start walking inside the prison and with him by my side I feel like I can do this and I feel like I can do anything. He doesn't let go of me as we walk in through the doors. My heart only speeds up when we walk into the prison and it's unlike what I had imagined.

I barely remember what happened next but before I knew it I was sitting in the visiting area on a table and the doors open and in handcuffs and chains I see her and she sees me. The look in her eyes nearly breaks my heart as she sits down across from us.

For a moment none of us said a word as we stare at each other and a tear slips down my eyes that I wipe away with the other hand. "I'm glad you're awake" She says to me and I sadly smile at her. "Why?" I ask her, not knowing what else I could say.

It has already been explained to me but I want to hear it from her, in her own words. I need to hear it to make it the truth because so many people have lied to me before and this time I want the truth and the whole truth. "What I told them was not all of it" She says and I gasp.

What more is there to this? "I wasn't just your mother's hairstylist and friend to begin with" She begins and I can see how much this breaks her to say and how she doesn't want to but now she has to say. "I was there to keep an eye on her and you" She says sadly.

The way that she looks at me I know that is the truth. "Your father was angry at her and he wanted you. He wanted a child and he needed to someone to be there, someone that both of you trusted and I did my part well but not only out of duty for the money that he offered but because I had no choice" She says.

"Why?" I ask her before I could even stop myself from asking her that. The horrible feeling of betrayal isn't new to me as I've felt it so many times before but it never gets any easier to feel it inside my body and the heart inside my chest doesn't like this and it almost breaks, though it has already been broken before so this isn't new.

"Because I had a duty to my family because your father is my older brother. Rose, I'm your aunt" She says and my jaw drops open when she says those words.