"It was all Janet's fault! She said that to me on your phone!"
"…"
Max froze after hearing that and he immediately realized what was going around here. Sweat slowly started pour down his forehead as he knew that they had been caught.
Just when he was trying to console himself that it could have been way worse and it was still better…
His luck had to come in and put the icing on the cake.
WelI, how about now? It got fricking worse!
If there was a thing such as luck, he could clearly imagine the b*stard laughing at him right now.
'Damn it!'
'No wonder she was staring at us and questioning like that,' Max really wished to die now.
"What did you mean robbing my mother away?" Lear who had started to calm down finally asked after properly arranging the contents of their conversation in his head, this time in the right manner.
"Correct your words, I said I robbed her of her stuff. Baggage and stuff nothing else, okay! That too because I wanted to stop her from leaving. She could only depend on us without a penny after all and your father obviously should be fine with it. Not to mention I still have everything of her with me which I will return to you!" Max was getting angrier with each extra word he spoke.
He really couldn't believe this guy.
"Calm down! It wasn't entirely my fault, Janet misled me!" Lear tried to retort but it was very clear that he should have talked it with Max first before going crazy.
"Who was the girl by the way?" Lear suddenly asked.
Max's face turned ugly. Now that this guy had all this tensions thrown out of the window, it was obvious that this a*shole was looking for some fun.
"I would like to maintain my privacy here!" Max obviously wasn't going to divulge such information.
"Who else could it be?" Wilson muttered calmly with a smile making Max's face twitch. He could tell from the conversation that the person was no stranger to Max. So, if Lear's mom was down in the dinning lobby and Janet was on the phone with the Lear….then..
A smart person could easily guess who it was.
"Enough of this sh*t! I am hanging up! And you," Max suddenly paused mid way and before a smile leaked out on his face, "Come to Trinity, I will prepare a surprise gift for you, dear Lear."
With that he hung up the phone.
Lear couldn't help but gulp nervously. He was suddenly having a bad feeling about it. He really wanted to cry now. He wanted to shout 'I am the victim here!'. Hell, he almost killed himself. It was all Janet's face why in hell did he have to deal with Max's wrath now?
Wilson shook his head and walked out of the room.
"Bro, where are you going?"
"Hello? You listening?"
"Untie me first!"
Lear continued to shout but Wilson just left him hanging there like that with no one else to help and with all those injuries and exhaustion from the competition, he didn't have a single ounce of strength left within him to break free of the restraints.
….
Roxley House, Trinity.
Lora was currently around in the house. She had arrived early as well before the rest of the members of her team since it had been a while. She wanted to spend some time at home.
"Can't believe that people are treating him like a hero, his acting was so obvious.." She smiled looking at the different social forums online while checking about Lear around.
"What are you looking at dear?" Amanda, Lora's mom, asked while looking at her phone from behind her.
"Mom! How many times do I have to say don't sneak up on me like that?" Lora immediately jumped around while hiding her phone behind her.
Amanda smiled at her before speaking, "ok, I won't do that."
She then continued onto the main topic, "I heard your boyfriend's best friend as well your two friends are here."
"I don't have a boyfriend yet!" Lora retorted in anger.
"Yet? It seems you do have plans of making one soon? My little girl has grown up so soon," She sighed while looking at Lora.
But it only made her red and she couldn't help but cry out in frustration, "Mom! I said stop it already!"
"Fine! Fine! I won't say the truth…" Amanda still ended up giving her a last jab before leaving the matter aside.
"What were you talking about friends?" Lora asked with a sullen face, her happy smile was clearly wiped away by her mother's teasing.
"I heard Max is here, why don't you invite him here? He is Lear's good friend after all," Amanda said with a smile.
Lora was taken back a bit.
Yeah, Max was Lear's best friend and was supportive of them. She treated him like a friend as well. And she would even love to invite him. But why was her mother telling her to do that?
Let's be honest, only when something catches her interest does she go after it. She knew her mother very well.
For Lear it was his relationship with her daughter. But for Max, what could it possibly be? She wondered.
She had no idea that every Noble House had their eyes on Max right now because of his importance to the Ancient Families coming out.
So all of these people were actually thoroughly researching him. And her mother found out that Lear was someone very close to Max and hence Max had a friendly relationship with Lora. In that case, Amanda didn't mind befriending him as well.
….
Max shivered slightly as he felt a chill.
"Is it cold, Sir? Should I turn up the temperature?" The receptionist asked looking at Max. She knew he was an important person and had to be treated with utmost care.
"No," Max shook his head. He himself was surprised about it. When did he started to feel cold?
…
On the other side..
Seeing that Max was taking his time to return, Janet slow slid her chair towards Elly and then passed something to her, "Take this."
Elly looked at her in surprise before giving her hand out below the table and then Janet put something on her palm.
It was a phone and a blindfold.
Elly didn't have any idea about the phone but the blindfold, her face immediately twisted as she turned her head down towards the floor. Her entire face turned red and she felt extremely embarrassed about it. This was her first time reacting like this and Janet couldn't help but feel amused about it and tease her a little more, "You know who this belong to don't you? Kindly pass it to him.."
"And yeah, keep it a little down the next time. I could almost hear you two out in the hallway," She further added giving a devastating finishing blow to her.
'How do I explain it to her?' Elly really felt like crying. It was her fault to begin with. What was she supposed to say? Her imaged had been shattered to pieces today. And she didn't have any explanations to give.
A few minutes later Max returned only to find Elly in a half dead state from embarrassment.
When she passed him his phone and blindfold his face twitched and he saw Janet staring at them.
After the group was done with breakfast, they decided to return to the room.
Lesia was the first to go ahead as she was feeling tired after the long journey.
Janet was pretty energetic and wanted to go out as they had planned.
But, Elly turned her down saying that she was feeling tired and they would leave to meet her Aunt in the evening. It was half true as for the other half, she didn't know how to look Janet in the face.
Max sighed when he saw Elly like that and as she was about to go ahead slowly while limping as she had 'apparently' hurt her ankle, Max grabbed her hand pulled her towards himself. This immediately surprised her and she was taken back when Max lifted her up.
He then turned to look at Janet and spoke, "We are dating, indeed."
Janet's eyes turned wide and she couldn't help but smile in joy.
Max was sure that she would have continued to tease them and give those smug faces until she got her answer. Even if he was fine with it, it didn't seem Elly was.
With that, he took Elly to her room.
....
"Were you sure about it? I though you didn't want to tell anyone about it." She asked looking at Max.
"I don't know, things surely have gotten complicated. But for now just say I did what I felt like," Max said as he faced her.
As he was about to leave, Elly grabbed his hand, "Our deal wasn't broken right?"
Well, they never reached any conclusion so it technically wasn't.
"In that case, I still have the right to spend some with you," She said as she pulled Max down on the bed. "Accompany me till I am asleep."
It indeed seemed childish but Max assented to it and accompanied her while having some random conversation until her eyes started to turn heavy and she fell asleep.