"You know what," Eniola began, sprawled out in the corner of the large couch facing the top to bottom windows in front of us. "I have to say... I'm glad I saw what I saw."
My head shot in her direction abruptly, brows furrowed as she gave me an amused grin. Her eyes darted over to Esmond giving Aiden and Aude a walk-around through the apartment; my sister's eyes probably never having been wider.
"Elaborate?" I almost pleaded, my cheeks a light pink at the memory of the encounter. "Because I'm not," I went on, amusement lingering in my voice now.
She scoffed, waving me off with a smile that made her dark skin crinkle around her nose and eyes, toffee brown eyes twinkling in amusement.
"No, it's just—" She cut herself off, raising her wine glass filled with water up to her lips to take a sip before she continued. "You two seemed kind of... strange around each other, you know?" She shrugged, eyes diverting back outside of the window.
The words almost made me choke on my own drink, eyes widening slightly as she went on as if nothing happened. "Kind of, I don't know how to say this, forced? My god, I sound stupid," She huffed, then. "I was just a little worried about you, is all," She concluded, a small pout on her lips as I tried to give her the warmest smile I could.
"Really?" I asked, hoping the caution in my voice wasn't noticeable. "No idea why you'd pick up on something like that," I went on. "You know... The System never—"
"—Fails. Yes, of course I know," She cut me off in light amusement. "I know, it was stupid of me to think," She admitted, when in reality, she wasn't stupid for it, at all.
Maybe even too smart for her own good.
The sound of the front door loudly falling into its hinges kept me from replying. And before I saw who entered it, I was a little grateful for it, even.
"Are you expecting anyone else?" She asked, her tone softer and her voice a little quieter.
Everyone seemed to still in their movements; even Ellis looked up from the screen in her hands as Esmond made his way over to the entrance at a relatively fast pace. His brows were furrowed, his jaw clenched in... anger?
Before he managed to leave the living room into the entrance corridor, though, the uninvited guest stepped through the organically arched doorway.
My eyes widened — just like everyone else's must have — and my breath hitched painfully obvious. Enough so to make Eniola's eyes snap away from Monroe stood in the living room and onto me.
Behind him, two men in suits just as white as his, their arms crossed in front of their chest and faces blank, while Monroe gave all of us a wide smile.
Esmond came to a halt as soon as he recognised the man, though he didn't falter in his obvious displayed anger as his presences only seemed to fuel more of it.
"Well, I have to admit, I didn't expect to see you here, my dear," He said calmly, then, his attention on Esmond's sister. Her eyes were wide, phone dropped onto the table she was still sat at.
His eyes darted over in my general direction afterwards, taking in Eniola first before ultimately landing on me. "Can't say the same thing for you—" He began, head tilted slightly before Esmond cut him off.
Out of habit, I went to protest; knowing nobody should be interrupting Monroe, though dropped it as soon as Esmond's eyes darted over to me; a kind of hatred in them I don't think I've ever seen, despite our history.
"How did you get in here?" He seethed, attention on the man again and voice dangerously calm. I wondered why that was his first question.
Monroe scoffed, his brows rising in amusement. "Well, it's mine, after all. Isn't it?"
My brows knitted together tightly in confusion, Aiden restless in his spot on the opposite side of the living room. His eyes continued darting back and forth between Monroe and Eniola, probably weighing out his options on getting to her without drawing attention.
Everyone could feel the sudden tension in the room before a single word had even been said.
"You know just as well as I know that you left it to me. I have it in writing, if you'd like?" Esmond scoffed, eyes narrowing as he took a step towards Monroe, the two men behind him taking two steps towards Esmond in return.
"Should you behave," Monroe corrected. "Clearly, you haven't," He shrugged, huffing in amusement at Esmond's growing anger. "Anyhow," He quickly muttered, shaking his head and directing his attention towards the rest of us.
He whispered something in his men's ears, effectively making them leave the room. Turning back with a smile, he said, "I must admit, I'm a little surprised I wasn't invited to this little family gathering." A fake put on his lips that quickly turned back into a condescending smile. "I can't help but feel... excluded."
His eyes snapped back over to Esmond, the latter's hand balling into a tighter fist with every word coming out of his mouth.
My eyes flickered through the living room, then, landing on my mother's shocked expression first; her skin pale and her lips dry as she wasn't quite sure what to say or how to react. She stayed quiet.
My sister had squeezed into Aiden's side, his arm around her shoulder as they watched the events unfold in suspense, the ginger's eyes still darting over to his fiancée every now and then.
When nobody replied, his hands clasped together in front of him with a delighted sigh. He nodded, eyes roaming over all of us once more before he said his last words to us.
"Well, family gathering or not— would you all be so kind to leave me talking to mine?" His eyes flickered behind him, both men stepping back into the living room. "Steve and Steve will show you out."
And we left, of course, the two men in white suits making sure none of us said a word about the strange encounter to each other.
At least for now, as they escorted us towards a nearby corner before pushing me into the direction of my own apartment while splitting up to continue monitoring Aiden and Eniola as they left in one direction and my mother and sister into the other.
I swallowed thickly, looking over my shoulder before taking a right instead of a left as I hurried out of Arcan City, passing by a single digital poster I noticed which said, "The system is with you every step of the way."
A few months back, the words would've been nothing more than a great reassurance; something that would make me smile on my way to work — if I would've noticed them in the first place. But now, not quite sure who The System was or what was going on for the first time in my entire life, it did quite the opposite as I hurried along my way.
My feet carried me faster the closer I seemed to get to their house, my head turning over my shoulder every other minute to assure no one was following me.
My heart was racing still, even after I had made it to Esmond's house, now hammering against the door, as well as ringing the bell multiple times. Though, I never heard a sound coming from it; pretty sure it was broken.
The vigorous knocking seemed to be enough, though, as the door opened a minute or two later. Arley's brows were furrowed, his white hair wet and a few wet patches on the pale blue shirt he was wearing.
"Amidelle?" He asked, rather confused by my sudden entrance as I pushed past him into the house and quickly shut the door behind me. "Are you alright?" He followed up, probably noticing the shock and confusion on my face and the way my fingers absentmindedly twirled a strand of hair in between them.
I wasn't quite sure how to bring up what had happened back in that apartment. I wasn't quite sure which question I'd like to have answered first. And then I remembered, I wasn't even sure if Arley would have the answers I was looking for.
So, I decided not to beat around the bush with it; not wasting any time and stilling my need to know both at the same time.
"Who is Mr. Monroe?"
His brows knitted together even tighter, and when I heard the words coming out of my mouth, I understood why. I repeated myself, wording the question less vague.
"—To you," I added, quickly shaking my head. "Or Esmond, or— I don't know—" I cut myself off with a frustrated sigh, the tension accumulating in my head getting worse with every second I thought more about the situation. "I honestly don't care as long as someone tells me who he is to who."
Defeated by my own mind running overtime, I collapsed onto the green sofa, another loud and long sigh escaping my lips. My eyes batted open, then, to look back at the silver-haired man still standing in the archway towards the living room, a little dumbfounded by my rambling.
Again, I couldn't really blame him.
"He showed up," I added, and those words finally made his eyes widen in recognition. "To brunch—"
Arley was sat next to me before I even finished the sentence, his eyes wide and back hunched over just slightly to level my eyes. The royal blue of them pierced into mine, and he swallowed thickly before they shrunk to their normal size, the rest of his facial features turning serious, too.
He seemed concerned by the event, which didn't do anything to calm my nerves, either.
"What happened?" He asked, trying his best for his voice to calm down. It was never a good sign when someone had to try to sound calm.
As best as I could, I recollected the events of this morning — from start to finish — though left out what had happened in the kitchen; the way Esmond's lips felt on mine, the way his hands roamed my body and the way I regretted nothing about it, at all.
The thought alone made me blush furiously, though I covered the sudden slip-ups in my talking up with coughs, and my red cheeks with my hair.
"I don't think I should be the one to tell you any of that," He said then, after a long silence that almost killed me, only for him to do it with his bare hands afterwards.
Because I didn't know how much longer I could wait without imploding.
"But you know—?" He nodded before I was able to finish my sentence. Not quite sure whether that made it better or worse, I groaned in frustration, head falling back against the sofa right as I heard a key rustle and a door open.
I didn't think I had gotten up from anywhere quite as quickly as then, taking the short cut of jumping over the backrest of the couch to get to the entrance rather than taking the longer way over the stairs.
Ellis hurried past me without a single glance at anything but her own two feet, jacket and shoes still on as she turned into the corridor before disappearing into a door.
She shut it loudly, the sound of it still lingering in the air a few seconds later.
Arley appeared behind me right then, both of our eyes probably equally as wide as we waited for Esmond to say anything.
He scanned the both of us intently, eyes dragging up and down my body before his eyes landed on mine, a harsh glare in his expression. I wasn't quite sure if it was directed at me, though.
I didn't notice at first, but I held my breath until Esmond made a sound; a sigh rattling through his throat as he pinched the bridge of his nose and disappeared into their kitchen.
Arley and I followed him quietly, my head tilting slightly as he poured himself a drink; the bottle holding the dark liquor landing back on the kitchen counter with a thud.
And then he mirrored the motion with the empty glass just moments later, placing it on the kitchen counter with a sound similar to the bottle's
Pouring himself a second glass, he sighed. "What did you tell her?" He asked, not bothering to look at his friend as the words left his mouth.
"Nothing."
He didn't pour the liquor right down his throat this time, instead turning to lean against the white kitchen counter, the hand holding the glass swirling slightly in front of him. His dark eyes fell on me, and he gave himself a stern nod before he spoke.
"Ellis is my half-sister," He began, interrupting himself immediately after to down the second glass of liquor in the span of minutes. "My mother had me quite young. Her countdown hadn't run out when she met my father, but I don't think she cared much— I didn't think she knew how much others would."
He swallowed thickly, eyes diverting to fall towards the window over their sink. "Anyways—" He cleared his throat. "I don't know much about him, but they loved each other. I know that much."
He interrupted himself with another deep breath, eyes flickering back over to me with his brows slightly furrowed, scanning my face and seemingly reconsidering whether he should really tell me what he was about to.
I nodded slowly, not even quite sure if my head actually moved with how subtle the gesture was.
"When her countdown did run out, and she met... Monroe, she tried her best to avoid him— I was around six at the time, so I noticed something was wrong, I just—" He took a moment to think. — "'Just couldn't quite put my finger on it."
A humourless laugh escaped his lips as he shook his head – brown hair bouncing lightly – and poured himself another drink. "Long story short, a few months later, my father mysteriously disappears, and next thing I knew, we moved downtown. Ellis on the way five months after."
My breath had picked up just slightly, my eyes not leaving his figure once until it seemed he was done talking. When they darted through the kitchen quickly, I noticed Arley was no longer there.
Trying to process the sheer amount of new information I had just been presented with, the only thing that came to mind was, "Where is she now?" The question making Esmond's eyes snap up to mine.
"What?"
I was certain he understood what I had said, though I repeated my words anyway.
"Your mother," I clarified. "Where is she now?"
Swallowing thickly, his eyes darted back down towards the ground. The hand holding the filled glass tightened, knuckles turning white before he shook his head and muttered quietly;
"I'm not quite sure."
-
Scrumptious.
So much information provided in this chapter hehe
What do you think? How do we feel about this?
I hope you liked it. <3