Chapter Twenty Six - Party Poopers

"It was in my study."

My breathing stopped momentarily as I blinked at him, not knowing what to say.

I must have dropped my earring in his study in the morning. Shit.

"Oh w-was it?" I managed to speak.

His piercing glare made me want to hide under the blanket or probably hit my head against the headboard to pass out.

"I-I wonder how it got there," I let out a laugh but his eyes remained narrowed at me.

He took in a sharp breath. "I told you not to go in there."

"I didn't mean to but it was unlocked and-"

"You lied to me in the morning," He spoke.

I sighed. "I'm sorry, Alec. I thought you would get mad if you knew about it."

"You think?"

I let out a breath and shrugged. "I wasn't thinking straight."

"That's the problem. You don't think at all."

I narrowed my gaze for a moment and then stepped out of the bed, picked my clothes up from the floor and slipped into my tshirt.

"Where are you going?" He asked.

"To my room," I muttered.

He raised a brow at me. "So you lied to me and now, you're the one mad at me?"

I licked my lips as I watched him with tired eyes. "I'm not the only one lying here."

He frowned. "What do you mean?"

"You know what I mean," I shrugged and watched as he got up from the bed and put on his boxers.

"No I don't," He spoke, taking a step in my direction.

Letting out a dry laugh, I rolled my eyes. "Hiding the truth isn't any better than lying, Alec."

"What truth?"

"You said you have no family."

At this, he let out a frustrated groan and rolled his eyes. "Come on, Scarlet. I can't go through the same shit again. I told you they're all dead-"

"What about your brother?" I cut him off.

I seemed to have caught him off guard as he stared at me with a mixture of surprise and incredulity, which soon turned into anger.

"What are you talking about?" He snapped, trying to conceal his faltering demeanour but I could see past his act.

"I know about your brother, Alec," I spoke bluntly, pleased to have the upper hand for the first time.

"Scarlet," He spoke in a dangerously low voice, gritting his teeth in pure rage. "What did you see in my study?"

"That picture."

Once again, he seemed confused and before he could open his mouth to speak, I spoke.

"I saw your childhood picture with Walter. I know he's your brother. Your real brother," I snapped and unlocked my phone to show him the picture.

He looked down at it.

"Still wanna say you got no family?" I snapped and he glared up at me.

"You shouldn't have gone inside my study."

I let out another laugh. "Cut the crap, Alec. Tell me, it's true, isn't it?"

His jaw clenched as his piercing gaze locked with mine. I raised an impatient brow when he did not say anything and almost snapped again but stopped when he took in a deep breath and finally nodded.

My eyes grew wide. "Really?"

He glared at me. "Yes. Walter is my brother."

I didn't realize my jaw had dropped open as I stared at him in surprise.

"Then why did you lie to me?"

"I didn't keep that only from you. It's all for the public record. No one knows he's my brother and Walter and I have agreed to keep it that way."

"But why?"

He shrugged like it was no big deal. "Never gave it a thought."

I pressed my lips into a thin line. "But you could've atleast told me, Alec. I'm your wife."

He opened his mouth to speak but I cut him off once again.

"I mean of course if I am not thinking too highly of my title, now am I, Mr. Sinclair?"

His eye twitched at my words but he kept his cool as he lifted his hands to reach for my shoulders but I was fast in stepping aside and headed for the door.

"I'll see you in the morning."

"Scarlet, wait. I just gave you the truth. Why are you still mad at me?"

I let out a mocking laugh and turned around. "You gave me the truth? I don't think so, Alec. I found out the truth by myself."

"But I was atleast honest about it. I could've denied-"

"It is because you had no choice. There's no story you could've formed here."

He sighed and rubbed his hands on his face.

"And if you really wanna talk about being honest, then tell me something I don't know."

He faced me. "What?"

I took in a deep breath. "Why did you marry me?"

He narrowed his eyes for a moment and turned away from me without a word. Crossing his arms over his chest, he looked out of the glass doors that led to his balcony, observing the beautiful New York City skyscrapers infront of him.

"So much for being honest," I muttered and shut the door loudly behind me, heading straight for my room.

****

The next morning, I was having my breakfast when Alec came downstairs and I quickly started shoving food into my mouth to leave as soon as I could.

"Morning, Scarlet," He muttered with a smile as he settled down beside me.

I realized I had stopped chewing.

"Morning," I replied shortly and went back to eating.

"I'm going to meet Luke today," I announced.

Last night, Luke had texted to ask if I was free for a while today and I told him that I could meet him after my classes as he was leaving tomorrow.

Alec had stopped eating and was now glaring at me.

Great! I leaned back into my seat with a sigh.

Why can't we ever have a conversation where he doesn't end up glaring my way?

"You had a bright mood. Sorry to ruin that," I shrugged and resumed my breakfast.

"Are you not going to college today?" He asked.

"I am. I told him that I'll see him after the classes. So I'll be back at the apartment by 9 or something."

"No. You can't go."

I let out a breath and turned to face him. "I wasn't asking you, Alec."

He scowled at me in response.

"8," He snapped.

"What?"

"I want you back at the apartment by 8."

I crossed my arms over my chest. "Is that an order?"

"No. It's a curfew, Scarlet. Do you need to be enrolled in a damned school again?" He snapped.

I grunted.

Picking up my backpack and phone, I started walking towards the elevators.

"And Jeremy is going with you. Don't try to ditch him," He said.

I turned to him. "But my lambo's tyre is fixed now. I can go by myself."

"Yeah you can but you're not."

"Oh yeah? Watch me," I challenged him.

At this, he chuckled. "You're so damn predictable, Scarlet Sinclair."

"What?" I deadpanned.

He shook his head and resumed eating. "Good luck finding your lambo keys."

"Ugh," I groaned in frustration, stomping my foot like a child and called the elevators, not missing his chuckle before the doors closed.

Jeremy was already in the parking lot as he gave me a smile. "Good morning, Scarlet."

"Good morning, Jeremy," I returned his smile with my own. "How do you manage to work under that Sinclair?"

He seemed confused for a second before letting out a low chuckle. "Well, Mr. Sinclair is a very good man. Pretty generous to be honest."

"Atleast he's nice to someone," I muttered under my breath but he seemed to have heard it as he let out another chuckle when I got into the car and he started driving.

When we were halfway, my phone rang.

I blinked at the contact. Scarlet.

I don't know any other Scarlet. Am I drunk or something?

"Hello," I answered.

"Scarlet, you took my phone," It was Alec.

I studied the phone for a moment. Yes, it was Alec's phone. I must have picked it from the breakfast table. When I lost my phone, Alec had got me a new latest model, which was the same as his.

"Yeah. Our phones look the same. I'm sorry. I'll just drop by your office."

"Don't you have your classes?"

"I'm already late for the first one- wait. My phone has a password. How did you call me?"

"You don't know how to hide a password, Scarlet."

I rolled my eyes. "Okay, smartass." Then I hung up and asked Jeremy to drive me to Alec's office.

After a few minutes, as he parked the car infront of the huge glass building, I couldn't help but be reminded of the day when I was here last.

I ended up getting myself into a marriage deal.

What a complete turn over in life.

Shaking my head, I entered the building and went up to the floor I had remembered the conference hall was on but Alec's office wasn't there.

I asked an employee about his office and went to the topmost floor. Many employees were working in small cubicles and there were a few cabins along the aisles.

I spotted the one at the end of the corridor reading 'CEO and Founder Alec Sinclair'.

I walked up to the door to knock but stopped abruptly at the sound of soft giggling of a woman coming from inside.

"That's not the story, Alec. Come on," I heard her voice next.

A woman? Calling him Alec and not Mr. Sinclair? Giggling in his office?

Who the hell was she?

Without knocking, I barged inside the room and found them sitting on the same couch around a coffee table in the corner of the room. Alec was smiling while talking.

Both of their heads lifted up to look at me.

"Scarlet," Alec got up from his position and advanced in my direction. "Meet Nicole."

I studied her as she got up to meet me. Beautiful blonde hair which looked very classy in comparison to my dull brown ones. Bright blue eyes just like Alec's. Fairly tall frame that reached Alec's shoulder, unlike mine where I'd have to face his chest if my gaze was levelled ahead.

She was wearing a beautiful short black dress, which barely covered her thighs, unlike me dressed in loose jeans and a checkered shirt.

"Scarlet," Her full red lips parted to display a perfect set of white pearls. Even her smile was beautiful.

Does Alec like her?

"It's so great to finally meet you," And before I could process, she had captured me into a bone crushing hug. My senses resurfaced and I hugged her back.

"Hi, Nicole," I managed to speak, cutting a nervous glance at Alec when she pulled back. He was smiling in her direction.

He never smiles so much around me.

She looked down at her watch. "I hate to leave already when I'm meeting you for the first time but we are definitely meeting again," She gave me a bright smile.

"Of course," I forced a smile.

If suddenly felt like someone had squeezed my heart and ripped it out of my chest when she gave Alec a short hug before walking out of the room.

I cleared my throat. "Who was she?"

He walked back to his desk, almost seeming bored. "Didn't I just introduce you? That was Nicole."

There was no hint of the previous smile on his face, he seemed like he wanted to get rid of me already. "Your phone," He placed it on the desk.

I picked my phone up and placed his on the table.

"No. I meant who is she to you?"

I only realized that a lump was forming in my throat when my voice wavered at the end.

"A friend," He shrugged.

"Another friend I don't know about?" I muttered under my breath, wondering if he heard it.

He started typing something on his laptop. "I meet a lot of people, Scarlet. Some are better than others," His eyes locked with mine for a moment, then he went back to typing.

Did he just say that Nicole is better than me?

No. He wouldn't.

But what else could that mean?

I didn't have the heart to ask him as my cheeks were heating up with embarrassment and contempt and I found myself giving a nod before sprinting out of his office.

I didn't look anyone in the eye, afraid that they might see the tears welling up in mine and headed straight for the elevators, getting out of the building as soon as I could.

I put a smile on my face before entering the car as Jeremy started driving towards my college.

Why am I such an emotional dork?

I shut my eyes and waited to reach.

Thankfully, I was feeling much better now but couldn't take the image of Alec and Nicole together out of my head.

The way he smiled at her.

Ugh! I groaned and plugged my earphones to listen to some music but nothing could make me forget that. I couldn't stop thinking about them even during my classes.

Then, once we were done, I remembered that I had to meet Luke. I wasn't in the mood to talk to him or anyone but since I did not want to back out, I asked Lily and Mark to accompany me.

Lily proclaimed that I was PMSing and I wished more than anything that it was just that.

That it wasn't my heart that was aching.

Finally, when the classes were over, we went to see Luke at my favourite Burger joint I had suggested. Lily was obviosuly ecstatic about meeting Luke. She had read about him in the magazine and had once saw him at a business party her parents had made her attend. Mark did not like it one bit.

Luke was having an amazing time with us and to my surprise, Mark and him were getting along pretty well. At 7 p.m., Luke got a call and told us that he had to leave.

He promised that whenever he would come back, he would call again and that this time, we would stay in touch over text and calls.

I was about to leave shortly after he did when Lily suggested that we had some fun.

I swear this girl was such a wild one when it came to fun.

"Let's get drunk," She batted her eyelashes at me and Mark. "It's been so long since we all did."

"Are you crazy? It's a Wednesday. I got early classes tomorrow," Mark said.

"So what? Who cares about classes?" She rolled her eyes. "What do you say, Scar?"

"Nope. Not a good idea," I shook my head, remembering the last time I got drunk.

I might end up getting in trouble again.

"Please," She batted her lashes at me.

"No, Lily," I spoke firmly.

She pouted. "Okay. But can you two atleast accompany me?"

"You're not getting drunk either," Mark stated.

"Oh come on, you two. Don't be such party poopers," She faked crying and Mark gave me a helpless look while I gave the same to him.

"Fine. You can have one shot but you're not getting drunk," I finally spoke.

"Yay," She jumped up from her seat and threw her arms around me.

"But you two can have atleast one shot with me?" She asked hopefully.

"No," Me and Mark said in unison.

Well well well!

What do you think is gonna happen next?

I know it was short. I'm sorry. But to make it up to all of you, the next update will be within this week and hopefully, it will be a longer chapter.

Do let me know about your thoughts on this one!

And OMG! This book reached 20k views and is sooooo close to 1k votes. And Also, a day or two ago it was at #117 in Romance. I'm squealing!

Thanks a lot! 😍

Love you all! ❤