Chapter 22: The Limit of Assumption
*Alex's POV*
I waited for almost 45 minutes after Zac threw me out to go back and make sure Nikki was alive and that I didn't have to plan a funeral.
As I got closer to the room I heard some soft music playing behind the doors. Since there was music playing, I assumed Zac was done scolding Nikki and that they were on better terms. It was most probably See playing something from his cell or her cell so that Nick could fall asleep.
I knocked the door and entered when Zee allowed it. When I got in I saw both of them sitting on the bed. Zac was sitting with one of his leg folded under the other on the very edge of the bed. And Nikki was sitting with her head on his left shoulder. And he had his head rested above hers. She had his cell in her hand (it was easy to differentiate between their cells cause Nick had crazy covers on hers) and her fingers were moving along it, but she obviously wasn't typing. I assumed she was playing it and my assumption was assured when the music stopped at the very moment her fingers stopped moving. The beauty of the music didn't fail to astound me.
"So... You guys done?..." I asked, trying to understand the air around them. Zac nodded, answering my question. I waited for him to start a rant to me, but he didn't. I stood there in the middle of the room like an idiotic child waiting to be scolded, but I wasn't.
"So what? Am I getting an easy pass?" I asked, confused; because I knew I was gonna be fried on a spit too. "Nope. I called AJ and spoke to him so expect him to call you or something, soon. And you don't need to stay the night today cause I am staying." Zac said ans went back to looking through Nick's cell. I stared at him with my mouth agape, but both of them didn't bother to even look at me.
My legs started to ache so I went over and sat on the empty couch that seemed a little too inviting to my already swollen pregnancy feet.
"Nick... Have you told him about it?" I asked, wanting to know if Zee knew about Ron's return.
Plainly out of habit already, I ran my hand over my ever so slightly bloated belly. Nick finally looked up from the cell in her hand.
"About what? Your pregnancy? I thought I'd wait for you to come back." She said, looking back into the cell. My eyes almost fell out of their sockets with shock and Zee turned to me with an exact same expression.
"I was asking if you told him about Ron coming back, you idiot!" I pretty much yelled at her. I saw Zee's eyes go wider at the mention of Ron's name and Nikki flinched ever so slightly, like she did every time someone mentioned him.
"How was I supposed to know you meant Ronald if you're running your hands over your belly as you say that?" She yelled back. Almsot hissing when her wound hurt. I fell silent when I realized I was the one who messed up.
And then silence just fell upon us.
"You young ladies have some serious explaining to do." Zee said.
Yep, being fried on a spit. Both of us.
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*Nikki's POV*
“So you’re trying to tell me that you ‘didn’t think’ you would get pregnant? Did you take some infertility test or something?” Zee asked, standing in front of Alex, who was sitting with her head down. Alex shook her head. “So you just assumed you wouldn’t get pregnant?” He asked again. This time she nodded like an obedient little child. “You’re just eighteen Alex. What had gotten into you? What were you both thinking? Or were you even thinking?” Zee questioned, sounding absolutely exasperated.
“Are you keeping it?” He asked after a while and Al nodded.
“Does Luke know? Do Uncle Alistair and Aunt Addy know? Does AJ know?” All of those questions had only one answer; the absolute shake of Al’s head.
Zee mumbled something and ran his hand through his already windswept hair. He took a couple of deep breaths and seemed like he was counting numbers. A habit we shared; it was something we did when we got really angry. Though both of us knew it didn’t help our temper much, we always gave it a try.
“I donno Al. I literally don’t know what to say. I can’t even yell at you. No matter how much of a brother I am to you, I am yet, not your real brother or parent. I am disappointed Al. I am thoroughly disappointed with you. You just jumped into the deep end of the water without bothering to know whether or not you knew how to swim.” He said, taking the seat next to Al. She mumbled a quite apology. There was only so much one could do now.
It was silent for a while. Like, probably the calm before a storm, because I knew what was coming next.
“When did Ron come back?” He asked, raising his head to look at me. I felt the same burning in my chest that I felt every time I heard his name. It was as if the ghost in my chest had started trying to gnaw his way out of there again; ripping me to shreds in the process.
“Two or three weeks back.” Al answered for me. Zee seemed to calculate, “Around the time you got here.” He concluded, not looking at Alex.
“How do you know when I got here?” I asked him, not knowing how he came to know of me being here.
“You aren’t the only one who can pay people to get work done, you know? Just saying.” He answered, grinning at me. Damn! How did I even think that the very people who were ready to keep their mouths shut for a few banknotes wouldn’t open those same mouths for the same banknotes? Foolish me. I face palmed myself and the two of them laughed. “I was here to drop off El for her internship and I saw Al. I went and asked a nurse about it and she pretended to not know and then I opened my purse. You know what happened after that, right?” He said, still laughing. His laughter drained out after a while when he realized I was glaring at him.
“So getting back to the topic at hand…” He said, trying to change the topic. “What did he want?” He asked, sounding utterly serious. His ability to get dorky to serious and vice versa in under a minute was astounding, at the very least.
“Donno!” I answered, shrugging my shoulders. I felt a slight pull in the muscles around my wound. The anesthesia was starting to wear off. “Yeah… But he did seem a little too pissed when he came to know about Adrian and yeah… I don’t know if it qualifies to be called threatening, but he did say some stuff that sounded along those lines.” I said, trying to keep my demeanor as calm as possible. My palms were starting to sweat by just the mere thought of him.
“Can you tell me exactly what he said?” He asked, looking a lot more alert when I used the word, “threatening”.
I retold exactly what he said and everything and he heard each and every word I spoke.
“And then you magically ended up with a stab wound in the hospital?” He asked, a harsh mocking tone to his voice. I opened my mouth to speak, to give him the lame excuse that Alex had come up with but he cut me off before I even began, “Don’t try selling me the ‘I fell and a knife fell on me’ story Nick. You know how much I hate lies. I saw Adrian was aggressive, so strip off the act and tell me what’s going on and what’s the reason you’re in the hospital?” he asked and from the look on his face, I could tell he meant business.
I contemplated my options. And there weren’t many. I could not tell Zee about Adrian at the risk of him getting mad at me and not having him to hold my back when anything else happened or I could tell him about Adrian t the cost of not hurting anyone and I would also have Zee help the both of us at times of hardship. I chose the second option.
“It’s a long story…” I said.
“I have all the time in the world.”
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“It’s like both of you are the embodiment of problems.” Zee said after I finished my whole tale.
“No can do anything. Destiny’s a bitch.” Alex said. I frowned at her for cursing but she simple brushed off my look. “That’s the only reason I haven’t killed the both of you.” Zee said and chuckled along with Alex and I, who had already started laughing at his expression.
It fell dead silent before Alex decided to break it with her humming. She had a beautiful voice and no one ever stopped her from humming or singing. She was the one who encouraged me to sing. But regardless, no one could beat her voice. Calling it melodious would be an understatement. Heck, calling it angelic would be a lot more than just an understatement. There were no words made to describe her voice. The only thing that could, were the dumbfounded and mesmerized looks on peoples faces when she sang.
“Flowers in the fire are signs of tossed desires. If the fire melts, then the flowers grow.” She started singing off hand and waited for me to complete the line. I was too mesmerized to even think. She waited and then when she got no reply, she cleared her throat. I snapped back to reality and continued,
“You’ll have to reap what you sow” I sang along. She smiled and thought for a while. I saw Zee was waiting and typing something as we sang, presumably he was writing what were singing.
“Sometimes, what you sow isn’t what you seek.” She sang and waited for me.
“But you’ll have to live with whatever, even the bleak.”
“If the flowers are tossed desires, then, these desires might burn you down and give silence to a new sound.”
“If there’s a fire tomorrow, burn yourself in the fire and let a new flower grow.” I finished it and she gave it the few final touches and clapped like a little child when she was happy with the outcome.
She opened her mouth to say something but the vibrating of her cell cut her off. She grumbled and pulled it out from her pocket and received the call, putting it on speaker in the process. A silly habit she had; she’d never receive a call on handset. For some reason she had to put it on speaker, unless it was Luke.
“Am I speaking to Miss Jacob?” The caller asked. He sounded… Official.
“Yes, this is she. May I know who this is?” She answered.
“Sheriff Jonathan here. I am calling to inform you that today around fifteen minutes back your security alarm went off and when the security personnel came here to check there had been a case of breaking and entering. So they called us and when we tried reaching Miss Ford she didn’t receive the call. Could you please come over to check if anything has been stolen because the whole house seems to be in its place except the bedroom on the left side.” He finished.
The moment he said ‘bedroom on the left side’ our eyes widened. My bedroom.
“Alright I’ll go, Zee you stay with Nick. I’ll call if there’s anything.” She said and walked off.
I could feel my hands starting to shake. Why would someone come into the house and not touch anything but go into my room and quite possibly, have trashed it?
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*Alex’s POV*
I got in the car and raced on ahead. Right when I was about to get outta the car, my cell started to vibrate. I pulled it out and saw the caller i.d. ran ‘Nick :*’
“You home yet?” She asked.
“Nope. Why?”
“I think I know who broke in.” She said, her voice sounding like it was shaking, trembling, even.
She kept pushing aside my questions, saying she would answer them after I checked her room. I got upstairs and put her on hold when I reached the entrance and met the Sheriff there.
He went over what exactly happened in a very detailed manner and led me into Nick’s room. It was a disaster, as if a tornado had graced the room with its presence.
The first thing I noticed was a picture of Nikki alone missing from the wall. The one in which she was smiling at her cell. That picture was our favorite.
I took Nikki off hold and told her what was missing and her breath hitched. I could hear the panic in her voice and it was evidently trembling now.
“Check if the black dress I wore for the date with Adrian is still there?...” She asked, her voice barely audible. “It was in the laundry hamper.” She continued. There was no laundry hamper, everything was trashed. I told her I would call her back after searching for it and I end her call.
After almost half an hour of stumbling and searching I couldn’t find the dress, so I called her. When I told her that I couldn’t find it, she only said one thing,
“Adrian.”
I couldn’t understand what was happening, but Nikki told me to go check up on Adrian in his house and that she would send me the address. By the way she sounded, I couldn’t tell her no. So I complied.
I wonder what she was thinking and how she assumed Adrian was the one who broke in…
This guy is crossing limits and it’s starting to scare me as to how far this man would go.
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There you have it guys! Chapter 22!
Hope you like it!
Happy Reading and LoveLoads