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"Who is that?" Alice broke the strange silence between us.

I eyed the sleek black car in my driveway, surprised to find it there. I hadn't ever seen that car before. Neither could I think of any reason why it would be here –right now– in my driveway.

"Who is it?" Alice repeated her question, looking at me this time before stopping her car in front of my driveway.

I frowned and shook my head. "I don't know." I really didn't.

My hand hovered over the door, ready to leave the car. I needed to know who that was.

Alice glanced at me. "You want me to come with you?"

I broke my gaze away from the car in my driveway and looked at her. "No. I'll be fine. Thanks."

Though something in my gut tugged itself as I opened the door and got out. Alice was still looking at me. Once I was out, closing the passenger door behind me, she glanced at me again with one last smile before driving away from my house towards her own driveway.

Taking in a deep breath, I turned around and started heading for my own house. Opening the wooden fence, I went sideways towards the driveway.

I had to squint my eyes as I neared towards the car, harsh sunlight right above it. It was quite hard to make out who was inside it.

My gaze swept over the expensive looking car before stopping at the gold letters encarved at the front of the car.

My eyes widened a little in recognition. Almost the exact second, the backdoor opened and somebody stepped out of the car.

Right. I should've seen this coming.

"Cynthia." I spoke up the moment she closed the door behind her.

She looked up at me and a smile almost immediately came over her lips. Then she started walking towards me. I froze in my position, hearing the clicking of her heels as she neared towards me.

"Grace, honey. How are you?" Her voice somehow sounded even sweeter than before. Which just increased the tugging feeling in my gut.

"Um...I'm good." I spoke up slowly, eyeing her and her car behind her. Now that the sunlight wasn't coming directly in my eyes, I noticed the driver; a man entirely in black, a grim expression on his face.

"That's great." The smile didn't leave her face. "Are you ready?"

I looked back at her almost immediately, a frown forming on my face. "Ready for what?"

Her smile twitched a little before she took off her sunglasses. "To come with me to the Research Department. To help you with the...messed up stuff. Remember?"

Messed up stuff.

I looked away from her, at my front door. "I never agreed to it, Cynthia. I think you got this all wrong."

Of course, she got this all wrong. When in the hell did I even agree to this?

"Oh, but didn't you call me?" She asked, her eyebrows furrowing up slightly.

I blinked, inhaling deeply. "I did. But—"

"Well then, it's settled. I did ask you to call me when you're ready for this. Now seems like a really good time, don't you think, hun?"

I frowned again at her. "I just came back from school." Not to forget that I had my shift at Welsh's Bar in the next few hours.

"Ah, school can be a bit stressing, right?" She wrapped an arm around my shoulders, steering me towards her sleek black car. "It'll take few hours, hun. I'm only trying to help you."

Help me.

I let her walk me towards her car. When I was just a step away, I stopped. "You'll help me find my parent's murderers."

She looked at me and nodded. Her auburn hair looked like fire under the sunlight, her eyes showing nothing but genuineness. I tried to think of a reason to not go with her. Any reason.

Dad knew her. She worked with him. She was the only person who must know the reason behind my parent's death.

This was the only way I could save Jack.

My gut clenched again as if telling me how bad this idea was. But then I thought about Jack. I was living a normal life here, which I clearly didn't deserve.

And Jack out there was living God knows where. I needed to see him and this seemed like the only way.

"Okay." I nodded. "Just give me a minute."

She removed her hand from my shoulders and nodded. "Sure, honey. I'll be in the car. Come inside when you're ready."

Instead of going inside my house, I went over at Luca's. Not to see Luca, of course. I hadn't seen or talked to him since...that day. He hadn't bothered doing any of those things either.

I don't know why.

I wasn't planning on seeing him. Not right now especially. And so, when I rang the doorbell, I was a little taken aback when he answered the door.

His warm brown eyes registered me for a second before he raised a brow at me. I made no move to say anything. Because this all reminded me of that day. And I wanted to ask him why he had–

Kissed me.

However, the blank look on his face prevented me from doing that. He looked like he didn't care.

He kissed me. Wouldn't he have cared?

"Rose," He spoke up, breaking me out of my thoughts before leaning against the doorframe. "I don't have the whole day to stand here and watch your face."

My heart clenched a little at that.

"I came here for...Frost." I finally spoke up, not really looking at him. I didn't want to. Even if he was good at acting like nothing happened, I wasn't. I couldn't act like nothing had happened between us.

"He's inside." Luca made a move to leave but I stopped him.

"No." He registered me with a frown this time. "I'm not here to take him back. Just keep him with you. Until I come back."

The frown didn't leave his face. "Where are you going?"

I looked at him, in his eyes. "Somewhere important. Should be back in few hours." I took a step back. "Tell Marleen that I'd be really grateful if she can take care of him."

He opened his mouth to say something but decided against it. I looked at him for the next few seconds, willing him to say something. Anything.

But when he didn't, I turned around and left, walking back towards my driveway.

And I really wished I could've said something more to him. Something that could've fixed this mess between us. Because I really didn't know what was about to come next.

Something that I should've known.

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Crystal 🌿