Chapter 144 - BAD NEWS
When Claire caught me looking at her, she gave me a soft reassuring smile as if telling me it's alright. She completely understood the shock I felt after hearing everything.
I took a deep, steadying breath. When I finally had enough courage, the words I'd been dying to ask smoothly flowed out my lips. "So Lucas Nicholas was the one who told Lady Ravenwood about all this?"
"Fortunately, he doesn't need to tell me to understand it all." Claire replied calmly as if she wasn't about to tell me another revelation. "I own the investigation agency Lucas Nicholas worked at and I have all access to every report." She added and her facial expressions didn't change a bit.
Holy moly, I must have been too blind not to notice the mystery surrounding Claire. The?colossal ironed gates, a dozen of security guards posted inside and outside the Claymore mansion, the suspicious men in black going in and out of Claire's office say it all. I was so damn naive to notice it all and not race a single question.
As I look at Lady Ravenwood now, I wonder what other secrets she was keeping. If Enigma is a person then she must be Claire.
"Lady Ravenwood's parents, the Duke and Duchess of Claymore, were Clarissa's close friends." Alexander explained, throwing Claire a grin in which she reciprocated with a smile full of warmth.
"And so we became best friends too." Claire agreed, there was a lively glow upon her sapphire eyes as she looked at him. "Alexander was the older brother I never had." She added in a tone filled with pride. "Unfortunately, things ended when we parted ways. My father succumbed?to an illness and my mother needed to take care of him. I was sent to Belavia, to my mother's distant cousin." The last sentence was spoken in a painfully soft voice.
I caught the sudden shift in her cheerful mood. Her face momentarily filled with sadness after she mentioned Belavia. The place was where she met Ace's father. The place is where her misery and demise began.
She swallowed the lump in her throat and smiled but it was forced, and the glow barely reached her eyes.
Alexander Crawford reached for her hand and smiled. In a fleeting moment when their eyes met her face lit up then a genuine smile curled on her lips.
The bond the two shared was too strong to be ignored. If the two didn't walk their separate ways, if Claire wasn't forced to come to Belavia, and if Alexander didn't leave for Cordova to handle the family business, the two could have ended up more than friends.
Unfortunately if the two ended up together, Ace and I would have been born differently and chances are, we will never meet. Practically, things happened for a reason.
Speaking of Ace, now is the chance to ask them about him. They might have a clue to where he was.
I filled my chest with air then released it into a sigh before I spoke. "About Ace…. I-I want to ask a favor to help find him.?He went to Belavia a few days ago, since then I haven't received a call from him. He wasn't answering my texts and calls either. I wonder if something bad happened. I'm worried."
Lady Ravenwood and Alexander exchanged meaningful glances that made my pulse quickened. There's something they knew which they haven't told me.
Father rose from his seat. But before he vacated the chair, I heard him take a deep intake of breath.
Claire took my hand and clung to it tightly as if she's giving me some kind of support.
The sudden change in the atmosphere confirmed what I dreaded. A bomb was about to be dropped in front of me.
My wide-stretched eyes landed on my father who was pacing back and forth in front of the table while occupied in his distant thoughts.
"W-what happened to Ace?" My voice rose several octaves. Realizing that I was almost shouting the words and was now standing on my feet, I gingerly sat back on the chair and asked the same question, in a much calmer tone. "Please… what happened to Ace." I pleaded breathlessly, fighting the urge to cry.
Alexander stopped pacing back and forth and turned towards me. He took a sharp intake of breath before he began. With my chest heaving, I listened to what he had to say."
"The night Vince's gambling addiction was?exposed to the public, and the same day Greyson Company was?announced bankrupt, Lucas Nicholas flew to Belavia. He visited the Crawford Mansion to give me the full report about Vince. We were in the middle of a meeting when Lucas received an important call from Ace." Alexander paused. His eyes surveying my face and weighing my emotions. I may look calm and composed on the outside but from the inside, I am like an active volcano waiting to erupt.
My fingers clenched in frustration as I waited for him to continue. The suspense was killing me and yet I waited patiently.
"Ace was in trouble…. A huge one. Vince's wife was found dead inside the Greyson Mansion…. The police arrived at the crime scene with Ace soaked in blood, and the knife used to kill Angela was in his hand."
It felt as if a bomb was dropped in front of me. My jaw dropped to the floor and my eyebrows shot to the ceiling.
For longer than I expected, I sat paralyzed on my seat with cold sweat forming on my temples.
I digest the information with great difficulty.?I felt as if I'm knocked unconscious and I'm under some kind of hellish nightmare.
"Ace would never kill anyone." I screamed but the words came in a barely audible whisper.
Why is this happening?to us? And here I thought we would become a family again.
I snapped out of my seat, the chair rolled backward from the force. Wordlessly, I walk towards the door and pull the door open. Alexander jerked out of his seat. "Where are you going?" He asked, his tone hard and firm.
"To Belavia. I'm going to see Ace." After that, I closed the door while he and Claire watch.
This 𝓬ontent is taken from fre𝒆webnove(l).𝐜𝐨𝗺