VANESSA

I saw them, Bryan and Charlotte, sitting in a corner in the restaurant and I was damn sure that it wasn't just a friendly meeting. Their body language, especially Charlotte's hand in his screamed 'It's a DATE!!!'.

No, I wasn't being skeptical. Afterall, if it was just a friendly meeting, why would they lie about it, saying they are meeting a school friend or a cousin. I still couldn't believe this, Bryan and Charlotte?! Bryan and Adrian's older sister?!

Oh shit! Arian! He, I bet a million dollars, had no idea about any of this and if he saw them...well, it wouldn't be a hyperbole if I said that hell would break loose. I gulped a big lump of air stuck in my throat and debated what to do as soon as I got myself out of this shocked state.

I felt a tap on my shoulder and I quickly snapped my head in its direction, "ADRIAN!"

"Huh? Why? Were you expecting someone else?"

Good lord! I had to get him out of here, right now!

"No, absolutely not! I just had an idea."

"Go on?"

I walked out of the line, letting the people behind my go a few steps forward, deeply pleased.

He eyed me questioningly as I said, "I'll explain outside." and taking his hand, led him out to the street.

I couldn't risk him turning around, seeing his sister and his best friend together and then create a nice little piece of drama for everyone to see and if accidentally there was a media person in that restaurant, he would probably get a new tabloid blog, not titled 'Playboy Billionaire's New Fling' but probably something like 'Hidden Secrets of the Greys Mansion" or "Keeping up with the Greys" and so many more cringeworthy headlines.

"Didn't you want to eat here?"

"I changed my mind. I want a burger now!", I said desperately trying to come up with something believable.

"Seriously? What about my soup?", Adrian furrowed his eyebrows.

"We can get that made at home, remember?"

"It won't be as good as here, remember?", he quoted what I had said before.

Charlotte really owed this one to me. I made a mental note to talk to her when we returned home.

"Well! What I wanted was out of stock! Sorry!"

He shook his head in disapproval, probably convinced with my excuse.

"So , there is Burger King around the corner, I'll get myself something.", I said, "You could wait in the car if you want. You don't look so well and it's cold." I examined his face, he looked visibly ill.

"Alright then! Don't be gone too long. I have to work when I get back home.", He said and then I quickly found the Burger King, ordered a Chicken Royale burger and then munching on it, I returned back home.

It's funny how comfortable calling the Grey Mansion home was. I wish I could do the same for the Hudson estate. That was more of a house than a home. I kept denying that it wasn't my fault, but deep down I knew I was wrong.

I am adjusting, I have always been so but a home is defined by the people who make it and if they aren't welcoming, there isn't much that one can do, right?

As soon as we reached home, I went up to my room, changed into some comfortable pyjamas with Minnie mouse drawn all over it and then lay down on the bed watching  an old movie.

13th December

Charlotte came back very late, almost by 1 am. God knows what she was doing all this while. Actually, I do know and I just wish I didn't. I sighed and picked my tired self up to talk to Charlotte, this was important and needed to be done now!

I knocked on her door which she immediately answered, "Vanessa? You still up?"

I studied her face, as cheerful as ever. I could never believe that she could ever hide something like this but perhaps that is how she dealt with her divorce too, masking her feelings. Would she even open up to me?

I would try my best!

"Yeah! I wanted to talk about something.", I gave a vague reply.

"This late? Okay. Come on in."

"Thanks!", I said and I entered her baby pink room with white butterflies painted across the wall. I sat on the sofa, crossing my legs and preparing myself for an interrogation.

"Don't mind me but those pyjamas are hideous.", she scrunched her face.

I just chuckled as my cheeks flushed in embarrassment and then carefully approaching the topic, I said," So how was your dinner?"

"Huh?", she said as she got startled.

"You went with your school friend, right? "

"Oh! Yes! Right?"

"Hmmm...I love Les Saisons too. The food is delicious."

"Yeah, I...wait...how did you know...when...what?", she looked at me cluelessly.

"You know, you really owe me?"

"For what?"

"Adrian was there with me in the restaurant. He would have seen you, had I not persuaded him to leave that place and I am really sure you didn't tell him about your thing with Bryan, now did you?

Her face coloured deeply, "No! I didn't but you are not going to tell him either, are you?"

"Well...depends. I have a few questions and if you answer them correctly...I won't.", I looked at her with arched eyebrows, "How? When and where?"

"Ok. I started seeing Bryan about a month ago. Well, Bryan had got my number from Adrian's office and he called me up to help him arrange a secret birthday party for Adrian. That was back in the last week of October and a few days later, he asked me out for dinner and we just hit it off from there."

"Wow! That's...ummm...sweet but I remember Bryan going to the club where you passed out, he was with some blonde chic."

"Yeah! I know. That was Alicia. I asked him to go with her so that Adrian wouldn't suspect anything wrong."

"So, how long are you deciding to go about it like this?"

"I don't know. I haven't given much thought to it yet.", she shrugged.

"Take a piece of advice from me. The sooner you tell him, the better. Sometimes, you keep secrets from the ones you love because you are trying to protect them but you actually end of hurting them."

"I know when someone is speaking from experience. Who hurt you?", Charlotte asked.

Flashbacks popped up in my head. That dreaded night, those wretched secrets...

I shook my head to get rid of those thoughts. I wasn't going to let my yesterday's demons define my present. That is why I had left for London, I reminded myself and then with a pained smile, I said, "It doesn't matter anymore and anyways this is about you, not me. You like Bryan?"

She blushed brightly "I do. He is an amazing guy. He is extremely funny and Kevin likes him to. He...", she went on to say every good thing that she knew about him and I sat beside her, listening to a lovelorn girl speak fondly about her lover, with a smile on my face.

"You will never hear me speak a word about this to anyone, ever but do remember, you have to tell Adrian and it would be best if you do it before its too late." I said as I held her hands in mine, squeezing them reassuringly and smiling warmly as I left her to her thoughts.

I made my way down the hall and to the office where I had left my laptop and not to my surprise, the lights were still on.

Adrian! He should be resting and not doing this. I had to do something about it and so I went in.

ADRIAN

I finished another paragraph as I took a sip from my third cup of espresso. It just didn't seem to help me anymore since my head was pounding as if someone was having a rock concert on top of it and I could barely keep my eyes open.

However, I continued typing in a few more words which by now did not make much sense to me as I kept losing track of my thoughts.

That little piece of shit! It was his job to finish this, not mine but here I was, doing this presentation. Had this project not been so valuable for my company, I would have gladly taken a nap.

I squinted my eyes to focus better and entered another two lines into the word file. As I changed the paragraph indent, the door opened to reveal Vanessa.

I decided to ignore her so that she would leave on her own but she walked over to my chair and leaned over it, peeping into my laptop screen. She gave me a wierd expression and then began laughing, saying, "The order of the blanket and the profit of the pillow. Wow! That is an interesting project."

I blinked a few times before I looked back at the screen and saw those very words in my presentation.

"You could seriously use some rest.", she stated as I hastily deleted that out of sheer frustration and embarrassment.

"I have a lot of work pending. Sleep is not in my cards, at least not for now.", I said as I looked up at her.

She placed her hand on my forehead and before I could swat it away, she cried out, "Dude, you have a high fever!"

"I have taken some medicine, I'll be fine.", I lied. She drew her hand away from my face and frowned, "Well, it won't work if you don't get some rest...ummm...if you want, I could wake you up in an hour, you could do your work then."

"No! Thanks. I will manage.", I said and then returned back to my laptop screen. What she did next caught me completely offgaurd. She picked up my laptop and ran to the other edge of the table.

"Seriously?", I said irritably.

"I will wake you up in an hour, I promise. You are not typing anything sensible anyway."

I tried to argue with her but the moment I tried to raise my voice, my headache began to kill me so I sighed and walked towards the door.

"Wait! Give me your phone too!", She said, placing her right hand out, in front of me.

I rolled my eyes and gave it to her. I was too tired for any sort of arguments, especially not with her.

I just asked her to wake me up by 2:30 am at any cost and she nodded positively. So, I left to my room and as soon as my head hit the pillow, I drifted into a dreamless sleep.

■■■

My eyes fluttered open as the sunlight coming through the window began to bother me. I got out of my bed and got ready for office, a daily routine.

It was while I was combing my hair that I remembered my conversation with Vanessa last night and the presentation. I looked at my watch: It was 8 am!

I couldn't control my anger anymore. She promised to wake me up and I trusted her! Why would she do such a thing? I hope it was not some stupid revenge prank again cause I'm sure as hell that I would kill her for that.

A/N: What now? Come back next week to know more...