A/N: Happy New Year Guys. May you have a blessed year ahead and may all your dreams come true.
Love you guys.😍
VANESSA
27th December
"You still don't agree, do you?", I asked Adrian, who was sitting beside me.
"I can't. You say Charlotte loves Bryan. She loved her first husband too but then things didn't work out and she got divorced."
"But she says this is different."
"Trust me, it's not. She always jumps to conclusions too fast. She is infatuated with a guy and he likes her back and there you go, she thinks it's love. She has committed a blunder once, I'm not going to let her do it again."
"You speak with a lot of conviction, especially for a man who has never been in love.", I mocked him, putting my coffee cup down.
"You've been in love once, how are things going for you?", he said and then drew a sharp breath, realising how awfully mean he sounded but I laughed, "That was a good one."
I picked up my coffee cup lying next to the several others that we had finished over the course of the night.
We started off with lighter topics and I told him about his antics from yesterday...though I didn't talk much about what happened in his room.
Thinking about that still made me feel a little fuzzy.
Later, I decided to talk to him about his sister. There was enough quiet and I had a gut feeling that he'd listen to me, especially after asking me to stay last night.
Now, I looked back at Adrian, who was smiling.
"What?", I asked.
"What what?"
"Why are you smiling?"
"I can smile if I want to, can't I?",he replied, a mischievous grin still lingering on his face.
"No, that's not it. You were smiling at me."
"Well, your past doesn't seem to affect you as much as before."
"Jacob putting a ring on my sister was the best closure I could have ever asked for.", I sighed.
"That was really harsh, proposing in front of your ex, especially to her sister. Geez.", he scrunched up his nose in disgust.
"Let's get back to Bryan and Charlotte' story, shall we?", I smiled, a little discomfort still lingering.
Things like what had happened three years ago weren't so easy to forget...or forgive.
"What if Charlotte gets hurt again?"
"Then let her."
"Excuse me?", he frowned.
"Why do you think she didn't tell you?"
"I...I don't know. Because she knew what she was doing was stupid and she knew that I'd be mad when she told me?"
"No. It was because you wouldn't let her make her own mistakes."
"The last time I let her, she ended up at our doorstep, crying with a two year old by her side. What if that happens again?"
"Then you console her and let her be."
"Seriously? What kind of brother would I be, if I did that? I'm sorry but I get it that your siblings are assholes and you won't understand this but in our family we don't just let people be.", he said, his temper and pitch, rising.
"Not even if that's what she wants?", I said, trying to prevent his words from hurting me.
"And how would you know that?"
"She was afraid of telling you because she thought it might jeopardise your friendship with Bryan. Just in case it didn't work out and she would break up with Bryan, who would you blame?"
"Not telling me didn't help my friendship either.", he sighed.
"You should talk to Bryan."
"I don't think so. Not after the tape."
"He didn't leak it."
"But he recorded it. It was in his bloody phone! Why did he even have to have it?"
"I can't answer that.", I rolled my eyes," But what I can do is tell you that it's okay to let Charlotte make her mistakes and that it's not necessary that this relationship would also end in misery. If you keep trying to keep her safe, you'll never see her happy."
"So you are saying that I should let her."
"Yeah. Life is full of risks, Adrian. If we start to think more practically about half the decisions we take, we won't be able to enjoy it."
"I don't get the concept of love.",Adrian rolled his eyes, falling back on the sofa.
The sunlight softly fell on his face and I didn't think he could look better than he already did but right now, he did.
Damn those blue eyes!
"Earth to Vanessa!", he waved at me.
"Yeah?"
"You didn't hear any of what I said, did you?"
"Sorry.", I smiled guiltyly.
"Go home."
"What? Why?", I frowned.
"Because you look tired and come on, you have been here long enough."
"I'll wait till your mom comes. We can go back together then."
"I'm starting to feel that you like my company.", he smirked.
"Well. You've grown on me.", I smiled," Or maybe my tolerance level has."
"Oh really?", he said in disbelief as I laughed.
"Well, I guess you are right. I should go home.", I stretched, stifling a yawn.
Adrian nodded as I got up, straightening my crushed formals and fishing out my car keys from my bag.
"Bye.", I smiled and swiftly turned around to go.
Adrian warned me," Caref..."
But it was too late.
I hit the table in front of me and almost fell but a pair of strong hands held my arms, stabilising me.
I turned around to face him and he coyly smiled, "You have made this a habit."
I laughed in embarrassment and then looked back at him. His hands were still holding me, the distance between us almost absent. It was just like the last time when we...kissed.
The very thought of that made heat rush up to my cheeks and I could tell by the look on Adrian's face that my face had turned red and he had figured out why.
There was something, unspoken but certainly felt by the both us. I saw his eyes soften as a sudden need to kiss him took over me.
My heart began pacing wildly and I was afraid, he would hear it as we locked our eyes.
Suddenly, he looked away and stated,"Go home.", his eyes devoid of any emotion and his hands gone, leaving behind a void.
It wouldn't hurt me so much if I didn't know why he did this but I knew. I could very well see, his intentions weren't any more chaste than my own but what I had done the last time we kissed, held him back.
I whispered,"Bye.", before quickly leaving the place.
I drove back home, still pondering about what had just happened and once I reached, I knew exactly what to do.
I had a confession to make and a decision to take and the best person to talk to right now was Charlotte so once I informed Paula that I was back, I went directly to Charlotte's room.
"Hey", I said, barging in through the door.
"Hi! You're home.",she replied, looking up from her phone.
"I really, really, really need to talk to you about something."
"Okay", she frowned.
I began with how Adrian and I talked through the night and gave her the details of when I talked regarding her and Bryan.
"I just hope he comes around.", she sighed.
"He will. He has to. But..."
"But?", she arched her eyebrows.
"That's not what I so needed to talk to you about."
"Go on."
I told her exactly how things went down and admitted something I would never have before.
"I think I have feelings for him."
"I kneeew ittt!!", she squealed in joy and I just smiled, slightly embarrassed.
"So I am confused and there is something I need your opinion on.", I said, fidgeting with the button on my left cuff.
"Oh...Kay?"
"Blake and I were supposed to go on a date yesterday but you know what happened. I want to ask him out on a date today and when we go there, I'll tell him I can't do this anymore."
"So you are just going to break up with him?"
"He's a great guy, Charlotte. I am not entirely sure of my feelings for Adrian but I am very sure that as long as these feelings are there, I would never be able to give Blake my hundred percent and he definitely doesn't deserve that. So, I need to let him go."
"But you like him."
"I do, but that's just because he is a sweet guy and everything. I don't have feelings for him. I don't have that faith that I have with Adrian, that if anything goes wrong, he'd be there for me and that's why, I need to break up.", I sighed.
"If that's how you feel, it's the right decision.", she smiled, putting a hand on my shoulder reassuringly, "I better get you a breakup dress."
"The what now?", I laughed.
"You got to look pretty even when you break up, you know. So I'm going to find you a dress and you go call him."
"Yes ma'am.", I saluted her as I went to my room.
I checked my phone for the first time since last night and saw eleven missed calls.
Shit!
I forgot all about Steven!
I quickly drove out of the mansion and to the airport where Steven had been waiting for me for over an hour. He was quite a short tempered man and the fact that what I was asking him to do was getting on his nerves. The only reason he was doing it was because I was his brother's best friend and he also happened to harbour a teeny tiny crush on me, something I was sinfully using to my advantage.
I reached there and spotted him sitting in front of a Starbucks.
"Took you long enough!", said the tall ginger man, crossing his arms.
I smiled apologetically before he rolled his eyes and said,"Thanks to you, we have wasted enough time already. Let's go."
Whatever!!
"This way", I pointed towards the exit.
He nodded and followed me out and we directly went over to the Grey's mansion.
On the way I filled him in about Matthew's accident. He suggested that it could be linked to the person behind the tape leak and that got me wondering.
We decided to focus on the leak first and then dig deeper into the information we had about the accident later.
I lounged about my room that I had so generously offered to Steven asking him every now and then, if he found anything.
Hacking happened to be a much slower process than I had originally imagined, thanks to all the crime fighting tv shows and movies.
I finally told Charlotte what I was upto and she agreed to help and to not tell anyone else. I couldn't let Adrian find out yet, otherwise he might try to punch out of the situation once he got to know who was behind all of this.
Meanwhile, I texted Blake to meet me at Le Bernardin and got fitted in the 'break up dress'.
I dressed up in a peacock-teal ombre halter-neck short dress along with stockings, brown boots and a brown overcoat. I put my hair up in a top-knot and put light make up on.
Before leaving, I checked on Steven again, who was deep into some kind of code decoding so I let him be but before leaving, he asked me to leave my phone with him and gave me a spare that he had.
I drove to Le Bernardin where Blake was already waiting for me.
"Hey!", He waved at me.
I smiled, though deep down I felt really sad.
He was such a nice guy and here I was, going to break his heart for someone whom I might never even confess my feelings to.
I walked over to him as he got up to greet me. I extended my hand to greet him but he spread his arms wide, expecting a hug.
Okay?
I gave him a distant hug and then we sat down to begin dinner. We ordered the food and then began chatting.
I was relatively quieter, not knowing how to break it to him that this was over. The food arrived and we began eating our respective dishes.
I looked at what I had ordered. It was small and I would need atleasr three of whatever that was to feel fully saited but once I had some of it, I decided against ordering another plate. I flicked up the grilled chicken piece and dipped it in the white sauce which oddly tasted like mushroom soup when I ate it.
"You aren't talking much today.", Blake frowned.
"So much happened these past few days. I am really exhausted...mentally.", I sighed.
"Let's change the topic then. I'll tell you about the weird people I met when I was conducting an interview."
"Why would you conduct your own interviews?"
"I usually don't. But when one of my board directors decided to retire early, I decided to choose candidates myself..."
Blake rambled about what happened and I laughed whenever I found something funny but soon I zoned out.
I needed to tell him, a part of me said.
The other part, didn't want to.
I really liked him. Not romantically but as a person. He was genuine and didn't deserve what I was going to do but I had to do it.
I slowly began, "Blake, there is something I need to tell you."
"You have a serious face. What's wrong?"
I drew in a deep breath.
It was now or never.
"So, I was saying...I...I need to pick up this call.", I blurted out as my phone began ringing, the soft christmas melody escaping out of my bag.
"I'll be back.", I said, heading for the restroom.
I picked up the call, "You do have perfect timing, don't you?"
"Vanessa, where are you?", said Steven.
"Le Bernardin. I am on a date with Blake."
"I found something."
"Who is it?", I asked rather impatiently.
"Do you just want the name or the details too?", he asked, the faint sound of typing still audible.
"Everything!", I stated.
Blake would have to wait a little longer, I suppose.
"Okay. So I hacked the Greys Internet service provider's mainframe and tracked the history. This guy who leaked the tape got it from your best friend's phone."
"You mean Bryan?", I frowned.
"Nope. I mean Charlotte."
What the f...
She didn't say one word when Adrian was screaming at Bryan.
"Go on.", I said, truly pissed with Charlotte.
"I tracked the IP address to a company called Green Ivy."
"Doesn't ring a bell.", I said, trying to recall if I had ever heard the name before.
"That's because it's a shell company."
"So dead end?", I frowned.
Many companies had shells, tracking who it belonged to would be one heck of a task.
"Would have been if I hadn't suspected something."
"Okay?"
"So...This guy got the tape from Charlotte's phone because he was tipped by someone. Now take a wild guess, who?"
"A guard?"
"Nope. You!"
"What?!"
"This guy hacked into your phone on 22nd December and has been keeping tabs on the Greys ever since."
"What the hell! How?", I panicked.
"Well. That's an interesting story. But what's more interesting is what I found when I looked into Mr. Greys' accident. Guess what, the car he took was a blue Maserati with the no. 5690. Would you happen to know it's owner?"
I knew very well who and then I realised what he was implying, "You are saying the accident could have been staged for Adrian?"
My heat skipped a beat. The very thought scared me to death. The condition Matthew was in, with bandages, drips and surrounded with machines...that could have been Adrian!
"It's a strong possibility. Unfortunately Mr. Greys' car broke down in the morning and he took Adrian's car."
"Who was it?", I asked, scared of what the answer was going to be.
"Well do you remember anything important from 22nd December?"
This questionnaire slowly started to get on my nerves as I replied, "The cover of Eccentric was released."
"And you had a date?"
I was about to reply but then things just suddenly started to come together in front of my eyes, piece by piece.
He asked me what Adrian's favourite car was.
He drifted away from me during the Christmas party.
He saw the cover but he didn't react.
Why?
Because I wasn't what he wanted. What he wanted was to settle scores.
And he used me.
I was a pawn in his game and I...I defended him, time and again. I defended him, every time Adrian said I shouldn't trust him, that I shouldn't mingle with rivals, let alone dating one.
"Was it Blake?", I asked, shutting my eyes and balling my fists.
I think I was more disgusted of myself than I was of Blake.
"Vanessa..."
"Was it Blake?", I repeated, louder as my voice cracked.
"Yes."
That sentence broke me.
I fell to the floor as tears began falling from my eyes.
It was all my fault.
Charlotte's tape...my fault.
Bryan and Adrian's fight...my fault.
Matthew's accident...my fault.
Hell! Shawn was dead because of me...I killed a man and why?
Because I blindly trusted a man who I knew was a rival.
I trusted my fate to finally be good even though it has given me just a shit ton of bad luck everytime.
Why did every guy I date turn out to be a lying bastard?