Chapter 30
After making up her mind, Alice took a deep breath and blurted out, "Juniper and Celeste somehow figured out I’m crashing at your place. They wanna meet up and told me to scram. They said the cash they’re offering is enough to get me through college and keep me fed even if the Baileys kick me out."
Alice shot a glance at David and added, "They also said I should steer clear of you. Living with my future brother-in-law, am I trying to be a side chick or what?"
"What?" David frowned, turning to face her.
David thought, 'Since when did I become Celeste's hubby?'
Alice sniffled. "They also called me a bitch, just like my mom."
Before she could finish, David suddenly stood up, the chair scraping against the tile floor. Alice immediately clammed up.
She lowered her head, clutching her clothes with both hands. She could feel David's intense vibe without even looking up, making her super anxious, almost ready to spill everything.
"You should go back to your room and chill." David said.
Alice bolted upstairs and vanished in a flash.
David stood alone in the living room. After a long while, he cleaned up the table and headed upstairs.
The next day, David drove Alice to school. He didn’t bring up Juniper or Celeste, nor did he say a word to her.
Alice clutched the seatbelt with both hands. When they stopped at a red light, she looked at David cautiously, "David, why are you giving me the cold shoulder?"
David glanced at Alice, "I'm not. Just got a lot on my mind."
'What could be so important that you can't even say good morning?' Alice silently griped.
At the school gate, just as Alice opened the car door, David suddenly called her. "Last night, I got a text from your teacher, Declan. Heard there's a quiz today?"
Alice nodded blankly, cursing Declan under her breath.
"Okay." David nodded, looking lost in thought, "You can go now."
Even after the car disappeared, Alice still couldn’t figure out what David meant by that.
Feeling super annoyed, Alice ditched school and hit the arcade.
But she was so bummed, even the arcade wasn’t fun.
But then again, she had skipped school, and usually, David would’ve called by now. Why was there no reaction today?
"Yeah, I know she skipped school. She's in a funk and needs to chill. Don’t push her too hard. Girls her age are sensitive and fragile. Push too hard, and they might do something crazy."
Garrett held a file, listening with a blank face as Mr. David Tudor lectured Oliver.
However, half an hour ago, it was Oliver lecturing David.
Oliver, thrown off by the role reversal, nodded and agreed, finally managing to deal with David. He quickly hung up the phone, let out a long sigh of relief, and instinctively wiped the cold sweat from his forehead, thinking that talking to David was really nerve-wracking.
Alice skipping school was no surprise to him. He sent a text to a certain number, and David put his phone aside, took the file from Garrett, and opened it to sign his name.
"Got any updates on what I asked you to look into?" David asked.
Garrett took the file and said, "Yeah, the restaurant's surveillance footage is still there. We paid the manager to let us check it out and brought in a lip-reading expert. This is the translated convo."
Garrett pulled a piece of paper from his pocket and handed it to David.
David quickly scanned it and said, "Thanks."
Garrett was flattered, "Just doing my job. If there's nothing else, I'll get back to work."
After Garrett left, David read the conversation again, lightly and slowly tapping his finger on the table. In the end, he couldn’t help but chuckle. "My worry for Alice was for nothing."
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