Chapter 3

Chloe's POV:

One week later: I sat in the restaurant, sipping slowly on the glass of wine in my hand. I was on my second glass and it still didn't help to shake off the unease I felt.

Prosperity sat across from me, eying the swells of my breasts that peeked out of my dress. He was Lily's sixteen-year-old brother, who had taken a liking to me right from the moment I dropped on the doorstep of their apartment.

When Lily had told me her family was based in Ontario, I had not expected to meet a one room apartment and a drunk mother, with a teenage brother who seemed too ambitious for his own good.

“Prosperity?"

No reply. His eyes remained glued to my chest and with the way he lost, I was sure that he was already long gone. I slammed my palm on the table and he jumped at the sound of the noise, his blue eyes immediately lifted up to meet my green ones.

He raised a hand to clutch at his chest. “Gosh...Chloe, you scare me!”

I rolled my eyes at his dramatic display. “Well, you would not have been so scared, if you weren't busy gawking at cleavage.” I scoffed when his face heated up in embarrassment and his eyes lowered.

It has been over six hours since Lily contacted me and told me that Mark might have disclosed my location to Marcus and he was sending people to come get me. I had to leave and when I asked Prosperity to help me out, he said only if I would go on a date with him. Luckily for me, my date companion didn't have any problem with sitting in a little restaurant in the middle of nowhere, for hours without end.

The nervousness I felt hadn't permitted me to stop looking about the hall and through the see-through glass. It felt like Marcus was going to pop out of nowhere and I wouldn't want any drama.

It was already bad enough, as it is. Lily's mother has stumbled upon me sometime in the week, when I was sipping on a glass of blood. She had screamed from the shock and fainted, while I busied myself in clearing up any evidence of what she had seen me doing. When she awoke, she wouldn't let me come close but I convinced her that I was sipping on just water and maybe she had imagined something else. Goddess bless her bottle of liquor, she believed me without much of an argument.

So far as her family knew, Lily was staying abroad with a boyfriend of hers and she wasn't coming back home anytime soon. They had asked for her phone number to which I honestly told that she didn't have one, not even a phone to begin with. They hadn't believed me anyway.

Prosperity's eyes were back on my chest and I decided to ignore him, indulging him as I could. Had to give it to him, he was the most persistent person I had met after Marcus and he knew just how to keep a girl flattered. He stared at me like I was some hidden treasure that he longed to find and for a minute, I longed for Marcus to gaze upon me like that again.

It felt like ages since he looked at me without trying to make himself into a living rock. Because he has so much inside to hide, he always kept his face bare so I wouldn't see through him, so I wouldn't see the fears he had. He thought so low of me, that I couldn't handle whatever got handed to me so he always tried to protect me and that is what kept me pissed.

I wasn't some frail doll who would break apart from the slightest push, I was more...and he needed to recognize that before he came looking for me. I was not afraid when I left the house, I only wanted to avoid some drama for the peace of my hosts and their neighbours.

I had been sending messages to Lily, but she hadn't responded in the last two hours. It made me feel disconnected, like I had been cut off the link. However, I shouldn't feel that way, but the situation just didn't sit well with me.

“How long are we going to stay out here, can we please go home already?” My searching eyes came back to focus on the boy before me. He truly looked tired and I felt selfish for exhausting him. So I nodded, getting to my feet and urging him to follow me out.

“Stay close to me and do whatever I tell you to do.”

An amused chuckle left his lips, while a frustrated groan left mine. “Relax, will you? We're only going home, not like we are walking into a war ground,” he said carelessly.

I hoped so, I really did.

We took a taxi and faster than I would have wanted, we were home. We got out and I paid off the driver, who zoomed off almost immediately, leaving me and Prosperity alone in the dark street.

I quickly grabbed his hand, a wave of strong emotions that took over his features. I fought the urge not to roll my eyes, as I pulled him towards the house quickly. Just as we got to the door, it cracked open, revealing a half drunk Julia.

“Mother, were you drinking again?” Prosperity asked beside me. He gave the lady a look, and it was funny to see how she panicked in front of her teenage son. “You were, weren't you?”

“Err...you see,” she started, her eyes darting about as they refused to meet Prosperity's. She searched for every lie in the book and as if finally resolving with herself, she sighed deeply. “Maybe I had a few bottles with the gentleman who came looking for Chloe,” she said, with guilt plastered all over her face.

My body tensed, and I also felt Prosperity's head whip in my direction as his grip on my hand tightened.

“A man came looking for Chloe?!”