Chapter 33 - When the cats out of the bag.

"We should leave here, do you want us to go somewhere else?"

"Jean's been coming over quite a lot lately."

Nicholas said as he ushered Cara in.

Cara nodded.

"I saw her at the spa and yea, she seemed to think something is still up between the two of us."

Nicholas did a double take at her and paused.

"You look so beautiful by the way. I'm sorry, I was so distracted earlier."

He said and Cara nodded.

"No, it's fine. But thanks, I had a facial."

Nicholas grinned and touched her face lightly, her face was all smooth and it was glowing.

"Thanks."

Cara's cheeks warmed.

"I got you something, I was planning on giving it to you before you left."

"Just something to help you have fun and create memories."

He handed her a wrapped box and Cara looked up at him in bewilderment.

"What is it?"

She asked and he shrugged, he wasn't going to tell her, but it was a Polaroid Now+ instant camera. He had been thinking of something thoughtful and a camera came to mind.

"See for yourself. But maybe check it out later, I did take a lot of time to wrap that up."

"Wasn't as easy as I thought it would be."

He sighed and Cara looked at the box more carefully, he did a good job wrapping but she could still see the sides where he had done a really sloppy job.

"Okay. Thank you. I wasn't expecting this..."

She trailed off, wondering what he got her.

"I know you won't be gone for a long time but I just wanted you to have fun on your trip."

Cara sighed.

"Let's hope I actually have some fun, with Jean around, I'm not too sure."

Nicholas sighed.

"I'll talk to her, I promise. She'll stop bothering you."

Cara looked around the living room.

"So are you guys now close or something?"

Cara asked as she fiddled her thumbs, unable to look at Nicholas who had a silly grin on his face.

"Are you jealous?"

Jealous?

As if!

"I'm not! I was just curious."

Nicholas sighed.

"I told her to give me some space, that I need some time alone. And she has been respecting that. But sometimes she likes to drop by unannounced."

Jean wanted to know if they were still seeing each other, that could be the only reason she kept popping in unannounced.

"Anyways, I think that's my cue to leave, wouldn't want her to catch me here."

"Oh no! We can always go somewhere else and spend sometime together. We could go out for lunch or to a park."

He quickly suggested.

Cara nodded. That was a great idea, seeing as she didn't want to go back to her apartment, at least not after what she told Alexander.

She lied about the time of her trip so she could spend time with Nicholas.

"Alright, let's go!"

Nicholas said as he picked up his keys and opened the door, he paused to give Cara a quick kiss on her lips. She smiled sheepishly and touched his cheek affectionately.

As they turned to the door that was left slightly ajar, they found it wide open, with Alexander standing at the door.

Cara's heart dropped.

The box dropped from her hand, she looked like she had just seen a ghost.

Alexander on the other hand looked calm. He looked at the two of them and slowly walked into the apartment, shut the door and locked it.

"I thought you had a flight to catch."

He said to Cara and she flinched.

She opened her mouth but she couldn't even find the words to say. She had never been so blank before in her entire life. She had no words and Alexander, he looked so calm, he looked unfazed.

How did he even find them here?

She felt her hands suddenly become shaky, the situation was very uncomfortable.

"We need to talk." she finally said and Alexander raised his eyebrow.

"Oh! We need to talk?"

He asked with emphasis on the 'we'

He chuckled slowly while Nicholas pulled Cara to the side.

He turned to her and whispered into her ear.

"Go. I'll handle this."

Cara nodded and glanced at Alexander.

The smile on his face disappeared as he saw that Cara was leaving.

"Where are you going?"

He asked harshly and Cara sighed.

"We'll talk about this at home, before I leave for Vegas."

He watched Cara leave, even when she was long gone.

Then he turned to his brother.

Nicholas had his hand out, he was truly sorry Alexander had to find out about them in such a way.

"I can explain, Cara didn't want this to happen the way it did."

Alexander nodded.

"Oh! Okay. How long have you been fucking my fiancée?"

Nicholas flinched.

"Alexander, you need to calm down."

"Calm down?!!"

"How do you expect me to be calm! You've been sleeping with Cara all this time and you expect me to be fucking calm!"

"Are you mad!"

He smashed the nearest vase on the floor. Oh he was furious and even Nicholas had no way to deescalate the situation without more violence.

He stayed calm while his brother slowly spiraled out of control, he didn't know what to say to him. Sorry? Oh that wouldn't do anything, that would barely make up for the things he had done.

Did he regret it? No, not really. He only wished he had done things differently with Cara, tried things a different way, not like this.

Never like this.

"We never wanted you to find out like this..."

Nicholas said and that seemed to infuriate Alexander more.

"We?! So what? You guys are together now?"

"I'm sorry Alexander, it's entirely my fault. We didn't mean for you to find out this way."

"You know what, I don't even have anything to say to you. Not right now."

"I mean, if I stay here any longer God knows what I'm going to do to you."

With that, he walked out of the office.

Her hands were shaking on the wheel, it was even a miracle she got back to her apartment in one piece. Alexander knew, he already knew and she didn't know what to do.

She had no reason to hide anymore, she just had to tell him the truth.

What she was going to say, she didn't know yet.

She was back in her apartment and she tried to pass away the time by rearranging her suitcase, something which did very little to calm her nerves

She heard the door rattling and slam in anger and she knew she wasn't alone. She walked to the living room calmly and found Alexander waiting.

He was pacing around and paused when he saw her.

She gulped hard.

Her heart beating wildly in her chest.

"Alexander..."

"The nerve of you Cara. The fucking nerve!!"

Rage gripped him and he finally snapped as he hit his foot on her coffee table. The table rattled so loudly that all the boxes on it came tumbling down.

It was a wonder the table didn't fall too.

Cara took a few steps back.

Alexander had a very bad temper and it was only recently she started seeing such side to him. She never really thought about it for a long time, until the night at the dinner where Nicholas had saved her.

He could hurt her.

He could really hurt her.

"You had the fucking guts to tell me we need to talk. What could you possibly talk to me about?!"

"What?!"

"Alexander lower your voice. Let's talk about this."

He felt a flash of irritation at her calm voice, the fact that she was trying to pretend like he didn't just catch her cheating was infuriating.

He scoffed as he gave her a menacing glare.

"Lower my voice?! Why? Don't want people to know about your dirty little secret?"

He sneered and Cara sighed.

"It's not that. It's just that..."

"You are the most important person in the world to me and you broke me Cara!"

Cara flinched. The amount of sheer emotion in his voice made her knees wobble.

She didn't even have the words to say. She couldn't even look him right in the eye.

"Look at me."

Alexander said slowly, tears pooling in his eyes.

Cara shook her head, her head still lowered. No matter how much she tried she still couldn't do it.

"I said look at me!"

He groaned as he walked up to her and forced her chin up.

"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry Alexander."

Cara bursted into a fit of sobs. She was right, she was sorry but he didn't seem to be listening to her and when she looked into his blue eyes she felt as if she could see all the things running through his mind.

All the emotions.

"God. I love you Cara. I really do."

She continued mumbling her apologies, like they would help but they didn't help the situation, Alexander was barely listening.

"I will never forgive you for this. I swear it."

He let go of her and Cara crumbled to the floor.

She pulled away strands of her hair from her face and slowly stood up.
There was a long silence between the two of them.

"And how long have you two been going on?"

He asked and Cara sighed.

"Since that night."

"The night where we had a fight and I called off our engagement."

Alex scoffed.

"You spent the night with him then didn't you?"

She slowly nodded, unable to bring herself to say the words.

Alexander shrugged.

"Well... That explains a lot. You didn't want me to touch you and you were always sneaking off somewhere."

There was another long silence, Alexander was mulling over every detail of their encounter, the ones that had seemed off to him, how she had looked so uncomfortable around Nicholas whenever he was around. He finally had the key to the missing puzzle in his mind.

Cara cleared her throat slowly.

"I understand if you want to call the wedding off. I take full responsibility for all my actions."

She said and Alexander turned towards her sharply.

He smiled slowly.

"Oh that would give you great joy wouldn't it?"

He asked and she raised her head, confused.

Joy?! She couldn't even bear to imagine the amount of disgrace and humiliation she would face if the story came out and she was positive that Alexander would waste no time in telling everyone, just to hurt her.

"What will you do after that? Run off into the sunset with my brother."

He spat out in disgust.

"No."

He finally said.

"No?"

Cara repeated. She didn't understand him.

He still wanted the wedding on?

"The wedding is still on."

He finally said and Cara felt her heart drop.

What?

She looked at him, all the anger and rage was gone and all that was left was a cold man with calculating eyes.

"What?"

Cara forced out.

"At least now I know the one thing that my brother can never have."

"And that's you."

He said with a smile on his face.

"And I'm going to hold on to you for as long as I can."