Argued
"Could you please stop? This is absolutely not appropriate. We're on hospital grounds."
Jackson and Alice turned to see who dared to interrupt.
"Rish," Jackson muttered. "What are you doing here?"
"I'm here because Mom wanted to talk to you. So why don't you go and talk to her?" Rish replied, walking towards them.
"Okay," Jackson said, giving Alice a final glance before walking away.
Alice's eyes narrowed as he looked at Rish. "Are you here to threaten me too? Weren't you the guy shaking in that jewellery shop?"
Rish just smiled, not getting agitated by Alice's comment.
"Why are you smiling? Did you lose your two brain cells?" Alice asked.
"I haven't. But I'm not here to threaten you. How could I threaten you? I know my place," Rish said in a calm voice.
"Good," Alice replied nonchalantly.
"I have something I need to tell you," Rish began, fumbling over his words, unsure how to say it, but determined to do so before Alice heard it from someone else.
To be honest, Rish wasn't even a werewolf, so he was human for now and didn't know when that would change. Alice was human too, but he was much stronger, so Rish didn't want to start on the wrong side.
"Speak, I'm already fed up," Alice said. He didn't like talking or listening to people much, except for Alisha. With her, he could talk forever.
But not now. He had wasted all his energy on Jackson, and he wasn't in the mood to repeat the cycle for his own sake.
He could already feel sleep coming on. He wanted to take a nap. The sooner this conversation was over, the better.
"Those rings were sapphire stones, not ordinary silver rings," Rish said, stumbling over his words but determined to say them. Alice might have acted like he didn't know, but Rish didn't know if he had been there, and didn't want to risk Alice hearing it from someone else.
"You think I don't know that," Alice replied.
"You do?"
"I've bought more jewellery in my life than you've seen in that shop. Do you think I'd be dumb enough not to know? I did know. I just didn't want to stress Alisha out, so I pretended they were normal stones and acted like I believed you.” Alice smiled lopsidedly.
Rish's eyes widened in shock. He wasn't expecting this at all.
"Are you serious?" Rish blurted out, caught off guard by Alice's revelation.
Alice chuckled softly. "Yes.”
Rish frowned, trying to process the situation. "But then why did you...?"
"Act like I didn't know?" Alice finished his sentence. "Because Alisha wanted silver rings and I knew that store was exclusive for the big stones. So I choose to pretend.”
Rish nodded slowly, still trying to make sense of Alice's words. "Wow.”
“Yup, but I didn't expect you and Levi to be so skilled to pull that stunt.”
"Damn," Rish muttered, still processing Alice's words. He hadn't expected this turn of events.
Here, he thought he and his sister had done so well making Alice believe them, but it was totally different. He couldn't believe what he was hearing now.
"Is there anything else you wanted to talk about? I hate liars, which is why I had your boss give you lectures. If someone else were involved, they'd have their tongues cut out, but I dropped the idea since you both played your cards well and even Alisha believed it," Alice spoke emotionlessly.
To be honest, that day he didn't do anything because the next day was his wedding, and he didn't want to have blood on his hands. Even thinking about the whole marriage thing hurt his guts, considering how Alisha had just run away from it.
He did want to punish her for that - for now, he just wanted to rest.
Alice sighed heavily, his thoughts swirling with a mix of frustration and resignation. He glanced at Rish, who stood there looking unsure and a bit guilty.
"I did want to talk to you about something else," Rish admitted reluctantly, sensing Alice's mood but knowing he needed to push through. "It's about Alisha."
Alice's jaw tightened slightly at the mention of her name, because why does everyone have to talk about her? He is fed up with everyone just bringing her name again and again.
He gestured for Rish to continue.
"She's... she's struggling, Alice," Rish said quietly. "The truth about everything is something very new for her too.”
Alice's expression softened slightly, a flicker of concern crossing his face before he masked it again.
"I know," he said flatly. "I've noticed."
Rish hesitated, unsure how to proceed. "I think you should try to mend things up?”
Alice's eyes narrowed. "Why are you telling me this?"
Rish took a deep breath, steeling himself. "Because I think you need to talk to her.”
Alice's expression darkened, and he turned away, clenching his fists. "I don't want to hear this, Rish."
He tried to talk to her and she behaved so much worse just an hour before there was no way he wanted to have any conversation, at least not when he was not in a good mood.
"Don't be mad, Alice," Rish stated. “I am leaving.”
Without waiting for a response, Rish turned and walked away, leaving Alice standing there, his emotions churning. He wanted to ignore Rish's words, to bury them deep down and move on. But a small voice in the back of his mind told him that maybe, just maybe, Rish was right.
As Alice stood there, the stress of his emotions pressing down on him, he couldn't help but feel torn. He wanted to rest, to escape from everything, but he knew that some things couldn't be ignored forever.
Though he didn't want to ignore Alisha for anything, she made it hard for him now.
‘You make everything hard for her too,’ his conscience stated.
‘I don't do things the way she does,’ Alice argued.
He did agree that he had done a lot of things wrong, but she had pulled more stunts than he had.
‘It doesn't make any difference. You can think you're not wrong, but at the end of the day, you know you are,’ his conscience gave him a reality check.
Alice clenched his fists, feeling the weight of his conscience pressing down on him. He stood there, silently battling with his thoughts.
‘She's not innocent either,’ Alice muttered to himself, trying to justify his actions.
His conscience didn't relent. ‘Maybe not. But that doesn't change what you did.’
Alice shook his head, frustration building inside him. He hated feeling vulnerable, exposed to his own shortcomings.
“She left me,” Alice said aloud, his voice tinged with bitterness. "She chose to run away."
‘Did you give her a reason to stay?’ his conscience countered, its voice calm but piercing.
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