Chapter 21: The Xavier Effect

***The next morning***
Rachael glanced at Xavier with absolute wonder. He stood not too far from the house, making a call while his Men packed their things into a truck. He wasn't joking around when he said he was going to get her off the premises as soon as possible. His protective side was very attractive, but something she rarely thought he had. He was always good at ignoring her, giving her the notion that he didn't care, but that was untrue on her part.

She bit her lips as she watched the wind tousling his hair, enhancing his irresistibility and charms. Instead of watching from a distance, she moved closer to him and he abruptly ended the call when he noticed she was headed toward him. That was suspicious, but Rachael didn't think to put that in mind. She halted in front of him, looking up at him with squinted eyes as a result of the breeze that affected her eyes.

"Thank you" she blurted out. The only thing Xavier did was nod. "But why are you doing this?" She added in confusion. It was wrong to interview his humanity, but she couldn't help it. He was doing too much from her viewpoint.

"I feel like I caused all of this".

"You feel?" She raised her eyebrows. "You caused everything alright, but you can always cut off all ties with me and leave me to my fate. But you are helping me"

"I'm not that heartless miss Anderson. I take responsibility for the things I do. I initially thought Magnus would come for me instead. The possibility of him having a weird obsession with you didn't occur to me at all"

"What do you mean? He isn't obsessed about me, he wants to kill me"

"Trust me, Magnus doesn't like drama. he only comes after what he is interested in"

"So what? he's gay now?" She furrowed her eyebrows, staring at him perplexed.

"No, he is onto me for a whole distinct reason. If that's what you mean" he corrected already getting pissed by her questions.

"What reasons?"

"Miss Anderson...."

"For God's sake call me Rachael. That's the least you can do after almost getting me killed"

He twisted his lips tiredly, looking at her with frustrated eyes. "make sure you get all your things packed. I'm not going to let you come back here for anything" he stated and walked back with his phone.

She scoffed, striding away. Of course, she loathed how he always enacted the end of any conversation she had with him, but nothing could be done about it. Sometimes she even wondered if he could hold a chat for over an hour. If he could, then she would gladly indulge in one with him. Those green eyes sure had a lot of stories to tell.

She walked back to where her mother and Chloe were. Her heart plummeted the moment her eyes met with her almost lifeless mother's. Mrs. Britney was in a crucial stage of her sickness and the symptoms reflected on her face. Her cheekbone had become so noticeable and the dark circles under her eyes were more elaborate. Rachael swallowed hard. She was scared of the end point of all of this and how fast it was approaching. It had gotten so bad for Mrs. Britney that she couldn't even raise her head without the aid of someone. That same woman that fought so much for both Chloe and Rachael. She fought to feed them, fought to put a roof over their head, but now she sat there vulnerable and tired of life itself

"I don't trust him" Chloe scowled the moment Rachael got to where she was.

"He is only trying to help, you have to learn how to trust him"

Chloe stared at the apartment for a while. "Great, just when I was starting to like this apartment" Chloe folded her arm, rolling her tongue against her cheek. "Girl, what were you thinking when you too took the apartment from Magnus?"

"Chloe we already talked about this"

"Don't fuckin Chloe me. You were the one who got us into this mess in the first place"

"And I'm trying to get us out of it" Rachael yelled in frustration, drawing the attention of Xavier who was on another call.

"Boss, it's done," the heftiest-looking man said to Xavier and he nodded at him.

The long phone call eventually came to an end as Xavier dipped his phone back into his pocket. "You can enter the car behind," he said to Rachael who still had a frown on her face from the quarrel she had with Chloe.

Chloe brushed past Rachael and went into the car, leaving her to battle with her mum. She didn't complain, driving the wheelchair into the car door and helping her mother out to sit comfortably on the seat. After that was done, she folded the wheelchair, turning to Xavier to ask where to put it.

"Leave it, I'll help with that," he offered.

Rachael said nothing. She opened the car door and sat down.

After struggling with the wheelchair for over 2 minutes, Xavier finally put it in the car trunk. Even though she ought to help, she didn't lift a finger. If she couldn't tell him how much she hated this predicament, she could at least show him how annoyed she was. Xavier didn't pay her any attention, signaling that it barely worked.

He got into the car, filling the car with his expensive aura. Rachael was sure Chloe even noticed because the hard look on her face practically softened. It was called the Xavier effect.

"Did you make sure they carried everything" he turned to look at her. Oh great, she shouldn't have sat in the front seat with him. It only gave him more opportunity to boss her around. Don't blame her for her crankiness, it emerged from the exhausting scenario.

"No, but I'm sure they did"

"Hmm," he humphed and started the car as his strong veiny hands gripped the stirring of the car.

********

Just when she thought she had seen it all, boom! Xavier's house hit her like a grenade. To think she was practically on her knees when she saw the apartment that he got her. His apartment was out of this world. A place she never thought she would stay at in her entire lifetime. Judging from how big it was, it took quite a while for the car to arrive at the main mansion. It was so big that if 10 people lived there, they might spend the whole summer without a clue of themselves being neighbors.

The environment had both nature and luxury embedded in it with Flowers and trimmed plants growing around the whole place. Rachael popped her head out the window throughout the car ride. Chloe also didn't fail to show her amazement with her mouth dropped in awe.

The main house stood out from the other houses that they had seen from the main entrance down to where they currently were. It stood tall, painted all white with giant windows that reflected the pearly early morning sun that glowed. Around the nestled big mansion, grew some tree ferns that stayed on both sides accompanied by some Delphinium flowers placed almost symmetrical around the house.

Despite how cold Xavier acted, it didn't affect his surrounding. He seems to have made an effort in making it as lively as possible. For all Rachael knew, this wasn't his only house. He was wealthy enough to have as many houses as he wanted.

"Are you going to get yourself settled in?" he asked, snapping her out of wonderland. It was then she realized how much she stared. Oh how embarrassing!