Intrigue

Chapter 64

Malcolm's POV 

I stepped away from Sean as Ella looked up and we made eye contact. She looked from me to Sean, her gaze stopping on him for a second as she frowned. I could tell that she was asking himself why she was seeing me with him. She said something to Edward, gesturing towards me, and he looked up, almost nonchalantly.

I froze. I could tell that Ella hadn't seen me kiss Sean, but I wasn't quite sure if Edward had. He almost didn't react to seeing me with him. Had he seen us before? Was I going to have to tell them right now?

I didn't want to tell them, not like this.

"Was Edward looking this way?" I asked Sean quickly without looking at him, as I watched them make their way towards us.

"I don't know," he answered quietly.

"Fucking hell," I muttered, looking straight ahead. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Sean frown at my foul language, which seemed to have tripled ever since he and I had started arguing with each other these past few weeks.

Ella stopped in front of me. "Malcolm," she said. "What's going on?"

"Um," I murmured. My eyes flitted towards Sean's. He looked back at me, waiting for me to speak up. "I just bumped into him," I said. I watched Sean out of the corner of my eye, as the expression on his face faltered. He glanced at me briefly, his eyes broken once again.

Shit. Why had I said that?

Edward turned to Sean. "You're always around lately, aren't you?" he asked him.

Ouch.

Sean just shrugged. "I live around here." I admired him for keeping his composure.

Ella was looking at me. "So you do recognise him," she said, referring to what I'd told her about not remembering him at all, that one time when she'd seen me with Jeremy after she had bumped into Sean herself.

"Yeah," I answered.

"So I guess you had watched the footage?" she asked me now.

I watched Sean's jaw harden. "Please don't mention that anymore," he said softly.

"I wouldn't, but I keep seeing you everywhere," Ella told him with a glare.

Sean's hand gripped around his scarf, as if he wanted to find something to distract himself with. This must be torture for him. He turned to look directly at my sister.

"Ella, I am sorry," he said. His eyes moved to Edward too. "Both of you. What I did was wrong, and I'm not proud of it."

They both looked back at him in disbelief. "Somehow it's not easy to believe you," Edward said. "Given the way you acted."

"I know, but it's true... I'd apologised even then." Sean sounded slightly desperate now. I longed to reach out to him, but I couldn't.

"Yeah, for hurting my back when you pushed yourself on me on the sofa," Ella said. Our sofa. The one Sean and I had just used...

"You threatened me after," Ella added. "You didn't apologise for what you did."

Sean looked out into the distance, appearing distressed. "Yeah, alright." His eyes moved towards the two of them again. "But I am sorry. Really. I've changed, I'm different."

I wanted to dig a whole and crawl into it. If I was feeling this way, I couldn't imagine how Sean was feeling...

"You certainly look different," Edward commented, glancing at Sean's hair as his grip on Ella tightened. "What's with the new hairstyle? A new look for a new person?"