Jumping in fright, I whirled around with my heart in my throat.
Dark eyes met mine as he stood right in front of me.
I sighed in relief. “Oh, Arthur. It’s you.” My gaze flickered around. No one was nearby. The hallway was eerie.
What was he doing up here?
A small smile tugged at his lips. His expression tight. “You shouldn’t be wandering here alone, dear. Especially in this wing. Achilles isn’t very fond of it if someone enters here.”
My head titled. And why was that? “It’s been years since I last visited here. So, I thought to take a look around.” I shrugged. “Whose room is that, anyway?”
Glancing at the door, something washed over his face. But he masked it soon enough, not letting me understand anything. But whatever it was, it was… dark.
“It was his mother’s room.” He turned his attention back to me.
“You mean, Ophelia?”
He nodded.
I remembered that woman. Though she was sweet, I never saw her spending much time with Ace and Caleb. Both of his parents would be away from home most of the time. I wondered where she was now.
“Where is she?”
With an empty look, he replied, “Away.”
Just as I opened my mouth again to ask for an explanation, a voice interrupted me.
“Here you are, Arthur. I was looking for you everywhere. Thank God a waiter saw you coming this way,” Caleb said, sending me a brief glance. “The Simpsons are asking for Achilles. Handle them, will you? Because I’m so done giving excuses to everyone about his disappearance.”
“Of course.” Turning to me, Arthur nodded. “I’ll see you later, Emerald. And remember what I told you.”
This place was not for wandering.
Caleb’s attention piqued at that as his brows furrowed.
“I’ll keep that in mind,” I said in a polite tone. What was in this room that they marked this wing as restricted? And if everyone was prohibited from coming here, what was he doing here in the first place?
Flashing me another of his vague smiles, he walked away.
“What was that?” Caleb asked, watching his uncle’s retreating form. “What did he say to you?” The subtle look of his at the locked door didn’t go missed.
“That Ace won’t like it if he finds out about me being here, in the east wing.”
Rubbing his neck, he looked at me. “It’s not like that, Em. It’s just that a lot of his memories are connected to this place. Good and… bad. And he doesn’t want anyone to peek into them.”
He meant peek in this room?
“Anyway, the ceremony is about to begin. Let’s go.”
The sudden change of topic hinted he wasn’t comfortable talking about this subject. I let it go and accepted the arm he offered me.
Walking away, I glanced over my shoulder one last time at that room. What happened here?
After the engagement was done, the cake was cut and served. And the last dance of the night began.
I continued to look for him. He wasn’t there even during the engagement. Did he leave already? He did look extremely roused back in the east wing.
“This isn’t fair, Dad! You won’t dance with your daughter at her engagement party?” Tess complained. She has been pestering Dad to dance with her so she could take some pictures, but he kept denying due to his lack of experience.
“Sweetheart, you know I can’t dance. Why don’t you go dance with Caleb?”
“Right, we just got officially engaged, and she’s already bored of me,” Caleb commented, earning a scowl from Tess.
“I’ve already danced with him twice. Now I want my dad to dance with me. Come on, just one dance, Dad.” She fluttered her puppy eyes.
He let out a sigh. “All right, but for only five minutes. No more.”
“Done. Thank you so much!” Squealing, she signaled the photographers to get ready and dragged Dad along after her.
“Now that my fiancé left me alone here, can I ask my gorgeous sister-in-law for a dance?”
I laughed as Caleb bent a little and offered me his hand.
“Sure. Who can say no to my handsome brother-in-law?” Rolling my eyes, I took his hand.
“Oh, I’m flattered.” Grinning, he led me to the dance floor.
As the song continued, we started to move with the rhythm. A lot of other couples also joined at the last dance. Even Tobias and Mom went along with the beat.
While dancing, Caleb’s gaze went to Tess every few seconds, and the same went with her. In between talking to Dad, she threw adored glances at her fiancé. Felicity radiated off her face. I was happy for her.
At least someone got the love of their life.
“You know, months ago, I never imagined I’d be living my dream one day,” he said, gaze still on her.
“What do you mean?”
His chin pointed to where Dad was twirling Tess in an awkward way. “Tessa. Due to some complications and my idiocy, we were always on and off. There was no certainty between us. At one point, we thought we’d have no future together. Until six months ago, when we decided to give us another chance. I finally got the balls to ask for her hand last month.”
I heard he had problems committing in relationships. And Tess needed one. They had a lot of misunderstandings and arguments over it until everything turned out good. I didn’t know why he had such a fear of commitments, but I was glad he sorted it out and gave Tess what she wanted.
“That’s because you never stopped believing in your love. It’s your heart that brought you guys together again.” I smiled. “I’m really happy for you guys. Tess is lucky to have you. And I hope you won’t disappoint me in the future for feeling that way.”
He shook his head, eyes genuine. “I won’t, I promise. And it’s the other way around, trust me. I’m the lucky one to have her.”
I shrugged. “That’s true.”
He laughed, looking back at my sister.
Then something struck my mind as I cleared my throat. “When did you guys start dating?”
He turned back to me. “I liked her the moment Achilles introduced her to me. After a while, I knew that I wasn’t alone in the boat, she also had some feelings for me. And just a month before her nineteenth birthday, we started dating.”
“You guys were into each other for that long? How come I had no idea?” I asked, surprised.
“Like I said, we were never sure of anything. We decided to keep it quiet to see where it goes.”
I raised my brows. “Secret relationship, huh?”
He chuckled. “You can say that.”
Shaking my head, I laughed along. Then realization hit me, threatening my smile to fall. A month before her nineteenth birthday? A month before that night?
Something churned in my stomach. She was already in a relationship with Caleb when she kissed Ace that night?
My eyes fell on her. She was laughing at something Dad said.
Did she… cheat on Caleb?
Continuous vibrations pulled me out of my raw sleep. Groaning, I pulled my phone out from beneath my pillow.
Who’s calling in the middle of night?
After rubbing the sleep from my eyes, I squinted at the screen.
Ace?
Every ounce of drowsiness left from my body with the skip of my heart. Why was he calling me at this hour of the night?
Should I receive it?
Of course I should!
But just as I swiped the green sign, the call ended. Disappointment filled my chest as I stared at the screen, hoping it’d ring again. But it didn’t. I glanced at the clock. It was twelve thirty.
Why was he calling? Was everything all right?
I couldn’t sleep until a while ago. Thoughts of him didn’t let me. Everything that happened at the party. His past, his mom’s room, Tess and Caleb. So many things were nagging my mind.
I even thought of calling him when I heard he left without informing anyone. But I decided against it. What would I say? I couldn’t show how concerned I was for him.
And right now, I was in the same dilemma.
Should I call back? Maybe he’ll call back if it’s necessary?
My thumb hovered over the dial option, my insides urging me to tap on it. But I threw my phone in its previous place. I couldn’t just call him like that. I had to remember I wanted to keep my distance. Maybe he just wanted to irritate me again?
Biting my lip, I rested my head on the pillow. But my eyes set on the phone, heart waiting. Receiving the call won’t go against my decision, right?
I continued to wait, but the phone didn’t ring again. Even after an hour, he didn’t call. And eventually, darkness slowly pulled me back into a dreamless sleep.
Tapping my feet on the floor, I tried to locate any faults in the new designs we got for next season’s fashion. But all I could think was about him.
When I woke up this morning, I immediately checked my phone. There were five missed calls from him. I couldn’t hold myself back and called him. Again and again. But his phone was unreachable.
Since then, concern was rattling in my mind like a hurricane. The thought of if he was okay ate at me. Even in my office, I sat with the same catalogue in my hand for half an hour.
He didn’t come to the office today.
“Will you stop doing that? It’s disturbing,” Liza said, glancing up from her files.
We had to finish some work together on the upcoming project, so she decided to work from my office today with me.
“What?”
She pointed her eyes to my still tapping foot.
“Oh, I’m sorry. I was thinking of something,” I apologized, halting the dancing of my leg.
Placing the pen down, she placed her elbows on the desk, giving me her full attention. Her brown orbs watched me. “What is it? I’ve been seeing you lost all morning.”
“Nothing. Just some stuff,” I lied. How could I ask her about him?
She must have some information. Oh yeah, right. The meeting.
“When is the meeting again? Is everyone prepared for it?”
“It’s after lunch. And yes, everything is done,” she said. “Are you sure there’s no issue?”
I flashed her a smile. “Yeah, don’t worry.” Nodding, as she went back to her work, my mouth opened again. “But how would the meeting take place if Ace is not here? He was supposed to be there, right?”
“Yeah, but since he’s not here today, Caleb will handle the meeting,” she replied, not moving her eyes from those files.
Couldn’t she just say where he was?
“Do you have any idea where he is?” I probed.
She shrugged. “I called his PA this morning, and he said the boss would be away for a couple of days. He left early this morning.”
Something dropped in the pit of my stomach. Left? For a couple of days? Where? And why? Was everything all right?
Looking up, a thoughtful expression etched over her face. “Maybe he went to the UK again.”
“UK? How do you know he went to the UK?” Something dimmed inside my chest. He’d be gone for days?
“He often goes there and stays for some days. I don’t know why though, maybe for vacations. He actually needs it. Most of the time, all he does is work.” She shook her head.
“Does he have any business over there? Or any friends?” I didn’t think he’d go there for vacation.
“Nope. He’s a very closed off person. You should know that as you’re his close family friend. He doesn’t have any friends other than your siblings. Nor does he have any business over there.”
Nodding, I looked down at the catalogue again. Now I was feeling more guilty for not responding to his call sooner and not calling him back last night. Maybe he wanted to tell me something.
What happened that he’d to leave like that? Yes, he did this often, but it didn’t feel right. He was so disturbed last night.
After finally finishing with the work at hand, I delivered it to Matt and called Ace again. But again, his phone was switched off.
A heavy sigh left my lips.
Where are you?
The landline on my desk rang, snatching my attention.
“Hello.”
“Emerald, hey! It’s Matt. Can you please get me the files I sent to you this morning? I’m a little busy here. It’d be a great help,” he said from the other side of the phone.
“Sure, I’ll be down in a minute.”
“All right, thank you.”
Putting the phone down, I grabbed those files and walked out of my office. But my steps halted, spotting Tobias talking to Linn, a girl from the HR department.
“Tobias!” I approached him.
Excusing Linn, he turned to me. “Hey. How’s your day going?”
“Do you know where Ace is?” I was straight forward, not wasting my time asking what he was doing here.
“Whoa! Calm down there,” he said, watching me. “What happened? Why are you so riled up?”
Calm down, Em. Compose yourself.
I scratched under my ear, clearing my throat. “He called me many times last night. But I couldn’t answer them as I was sleeping. And now his phone is switched off. So, I was just wondering if he’s all right.”
A gentle smile tugged at his lips. “Don’t worry about him, Em. He’s all right. He left for the UK at four this morning and will stay there for a few days. Though he doesn’t keep any contact when he’s there, I’m sure he’ll call you no matter what.”
Liza was right. He did go to the UK.
“Do you know why he left all of a sudden?” I asked, ignoring the last line he said.
A somber look crossed over his features. “He always goes there whenever he needs some time alone. But don’t worry, once he thinks he’s ready to return, he’ll come back.”
“Oh. I was just asking because—”
“Em,” he cut me off, peering into my eyes. “I understand. You don’t need to explain anything.”
Gulping, I nodded and silently walked away.
So, the reason behind his leaving was he needed some time alone. It must have had something to do with his last night’s visit to the mansion. Did he want to share something with me last night? And being me, I didn’t call him back.
With the pressure in my chest, I went down to the third floor and handed those files to Matt and returned to my office to bury my head into the loads of work that was thrown into pending by me since this morning. I needed to keep myself busy unless I wanted to lose my sanity by thinking of him.
When I was halfway finished with my pending work, it was already dark outside. But I didn’t have any time to think of the time if I wanted to go home before midnight.
My phone buzzed on the desk.
Without looking away from the sheets, I put the phone on speaker.
“Yes?”
“I’m at the studio for another of my ad shoots. Guess who the producer turned out to be?” Came the chirpy voice of my best friend.
“Who?” I went along, not really interested in the answer.
“Trent, Leyla’s husband.”
That redhead friend of his?
“What a coincidence. You called me to inform this?”
She snorted. “Of course! It is surprising news. I thought you’d be interested in knowing her more, as she’s a special friend of his?” Her tone was teasing.
Yeah, he had another friend other than my siblings.
“I’m not. You told me they were just friends. What’s more to know there?” I shook my head, going back to my work.
“Oh, you’re so boring!” She rambled on about how she met him and introduced herself as a close family friend of Ace to make some connections with him. It could get her new offers. “And I found out she’s a psychiatrist. I’m thinking about how a film and ad producer met a doctor. What an interesting pair. But I’m wondering how they manage their long-distance relationship. His job is here, and his wife is oceans away in the UK.”
I stopped whatever I was doing. Now that caught my attention.
UK?
