Irresistible Deception

32

"Please, can you move? I-I need to go now--"

"You will, don't worry. One of my friends just wants to help you with your hair, it's messy."

Duria said to one of her friends in the foreign language, and that friend locked the door of the bathroom to block anyone else from entering.

"What are you--"

Another one advanced toward her and tugged on Blair's band that kept her hair in check, pulling on her hair at the same time. Blair let out a shriek in pain, struggling to pull away. Duria grabbed her jaw to face her, her long nails dug into the skin and Blair winced from the pain.

"I heard he took a woman to his private house. What did you do for him to take a lowly thing like you?"

Blair tried moving away, but her jaw was pinched harder, and her hair pulled further away from her scalp. Her vision blurred as tears welled up in her eyes.

"Oh wow, you are crying," she mocked.

Duria smirked when she noticed how she had affected Blair. This was the girl Adler liked? Laughable. She looked so meek and not able to stand up for herself.

"Your parents should have taught you better. You're an embarrassment of a daughter."

This time, tears ran down Blair's cheeks at what she just said. The worst part was that it was true. Her parents thought of her as a disgrace and were ashamed to bring her to any events. She was always addressed as the other daughter. She had always been the shadow of her sister. A second thought of every decision and event made.

"I-I'm sorry..."

Duria let out a surprised laugh. "You stutter quite a lot; do you have some kind of vocal dysfunction? You are pathetic. I feel so sorry for you." She removed her hand from her jaw and told her friend to let go of Blair's hair.

Before leaving, Duria looked back at Blair with a grin. "I'm hope you're not dumb enough to tell Mr. Adler about this. You will waste his time, you know."

And with that, they all left, and Blair stood there alone. She then sank to the floor, folding her legs against her chest. She was so stupid. Why couldn't she just fight back? And if she did, it would cause a scene and may not look good for Ameo, who warned her several times not to cause trouble. What would happen if Alessia was here, she would know what to do, she always did.

A knock startled her.

Blair turned her head to the door, her heart escalated as seconds passed by, and another knock made itself present again. She stood up from her sitting position, staring at the door. She came closer to the door, pressing her ear to it, but abruptly jumped away from it when a light tap hit the wooden wall once more; this time a voice followed suit.

"Blair?"

She closed her eyes and rested her head on the door, letting out a sigh. The concerned tone hidden in his voice made her mind at ease. Blair opened the door and there he stood, waiting patiently for her.

Ameo looked at her features as she stepped out of the bathroom. The hair on her head was scattered everywhere. Her eyes were pink with flushed cheeks and the long dry stain of tears on them. What made her cry? Maybe she didn't like this place or perhaps the unwanted attention was too much for her to adapt, which was understandable, as he hadn't planned the whole thing through.

"Do you want to go back and eat?" he asked.

Blair averted her eyes away from his, not wanting him to suspect anything. The thought of eating had stopped crossing her mind as she had already lost the apatite. Suddenly, the restaurant was caving in on itself and she could hardly breathe. She just wanted to leave and hoped not to see Duria and her friends ever again.

A touch had softly landed on her cheek, drawing her away from her distraught mind, and she looked up to meet his eyes. She was almost hypnotised by his gaze; his eyes, with hues of greens and blues, almost turquoise, were staring intently at her as if curious of her, interested in her, wanting to know her.

"Ameo, am I pathetic?"

He had a slight frown of puzzlement on her saying. "Why would you say that?"

Blair shook her head. "No, it-it's nothing." She moved away from him and the warmth of his hand resting on her cheek. "I... I want to go back to the house..." her quivering voice was barely over a whisper.

"Did something happen?"

"I'm just not hungry. You didn't order the food, did you?"

"No, I didn't want it to be cold by the time you came out."

"Okay, thank you." She scurried past him and towards the stairs, maybe that would help her calm down for a while. She found the car and entered it, waiting for Ameo to come.

Blair said nothing throughout the ride and immediately ran up to her room when they reached back to the mansion.

Ameo took the elevator and went to Blair's room. He knocked on her door, but no one opened; he knocked again and yet... again, no one answered. Slowly, Ameo's patience dispersed bit by bit as the waiting and knocking prolonged.

Finally, he gave in when things were going nowhere. He shut his eyes, running a hand over his face. They were back to square one. He turned away and headed to his study room.

"Don't disturb her and let her be for the time being, is that understood?" Ameo said over his shoulder in a measured tone.

"Yes, sir!" the workers responded in unison as he slammed the door to his office.

Ameo busied himself the next few days to distract his mind and keep it from floating back to Blair; she had barely left her room. He had asked her what the problem was, but she was still adamant not to talk about it and assured that it wasn't something to be worried about.

What happened to her in the restaurant really took a toll on her, as he hadn't expected that would happen. Now that he thought about it, it has been a while since the last attempt to force out the identity of Blair.

Ameo ran a hand through his hair, a bit conflicted and deep in thought. How did those people know about the location? It's not even a lavish restaurant and the amount of recognisable people there was shocking. There's no way they would be informed of this unless...

He paused and his eyes hardened, his blood boiled just by the mere assumption. That woman. Of course, she was the one. Those spies really managed to identify the suspicion before he caught them.

The echo of his phone ringing interrupted his train of thought.

He glanced down at the caller ID that glared at him.

His father.