Her Secrets

22

During the entire party, I kept a close eye on Sean. His actions were not suspicious at all but I knew better. I watched as he grabbed two glasses of wine from the platter before he made his way towards me. I straightened myself and pretended that I was not just spying on him.

"What, you think I haven't noticed your not–so–discreet stares, darling?" He questioned, handing me a glass which I took with a shrug. "Why are you spying on me?"

"I'm not spying on you." I scoffed, taking a sip of the drink. He rolled his eyes at my words, "yeah, right."

"What do you want with my sister?"

"She has something of mine," he replied, both our eyes going to Clarissa who was talking to an older woman, "and I want it back."

"How'd you know that she would agree to dine with you?"

"I've known for two months now that your sister has a stupid crush on me," he stated, "I'm merely using it to my advantage."

"What is it that she has of yours?" I asked, tilting my head to the side in curiosity.

"That's none of your business, now is it?" He asked back, smirking lightly when I shot him a glare. "Do whatever the fuck you want to but do not toy with her feelings. You'll find that she can be quite sensitive."

"I don't have the intention to play with her, Athena," He said, rolling his eyes, "I just want to use the fact that she has a crush on me to my advantage only once. This... thing she has of mine is very important."

"Yeah, yeah," I waved my hand around in a dismissive manner, "I get that. Just don't make it so she comes running home with tears streaming down her fucking face. I don't like it when people I care about get hurt. I will haunt you down."

"Athena Romano caring about someone," he mocked, making sure to keep his voice low so no one would hear, "is the world ending or did I hear wrong?"

"The word's been ending for a thousand years now," I finished my drink, my eyes fixed on a man walking towards me from behind Sean, "you'll get used to it. Now off you go, Blackwood. I have good impressions to make."

Before Sean could say anything, the man approached us, "ah, Ms Greene! How lovely to see you here!"

"This is my fucking house, Johnson."

He raised his hands in mock surrender, "didn't mean to offend you, love. I see you're in the company of good people." He shot a nod at Sean who had his cold face on again, "Mr Blackwood," he greeted, "I'm sorry about your sister. Pretty woman, wasn't she?"

Sean only nodded at him, not bothering to say a word to the man. Johnson sighed, shaking his head, "I knew she wouldn't last. I mean, she was dating Alessio Romano and she was your sister. Bet you didn't see that coming."

Without thinking twice, I stepped on his right foot, my heel digging into his brown leather shoe making him hiss in pain, "bet you didn't see that coming."

"L–Let g–go," he muttered, his jaw clenched as he didn't want to show that he was weak. "P–please," he added, hissing every now and then. Smirking, I took a step back, "fuck off, Johnson."

"I'll see you around," he shot me a glare before turning and walking away, disappearing within the crowd of people in my sight.

"I thought you said you wanted to make a good impression?" Sean asked, raising his brows at me. I shook my head, nodding towards the retreating figure of Johnson, "not to that motherfucker. He's an old friend of my step dad."

"Your step father was Gerard Greene, right?" He furrowed his brows to which I nodded, narrowing my eyes at him in suspicion and curiosity, "how do you know that?"

"I know a lot of things," he looked at me, "do you know how he died?"

"No," I lied, shaking my head as he let out a sigh while I spoke, "his body was delivered to my house. Apparently, he failed to repay a debt on time. He was dealing with bad people."

"He was the one who had this thing of my dad's—" he paused, "—but well, now it's mine. Your sister happens to have it with her."

"Maybe if you tell me what thing then I might help and save you from going on a date with her," I suggested making him stare at me for a while before rolling his eyes, "it's not a date but whatever. What I'm looking for is a flash drive. I don't know how it looks like but your sister there has it kept somewhere safe."

"Well," I clasped my hands behind my back, swinging on my tip toes, "what does it contain?"

"Nice try," he let out a fake short laugh, bringing his hand to my face before he flickered my forehead making me scowl. "If you wanna help, darling, all you have to do is sneak in your sister's room and go through her things. Once you find the drive, give it to me. Do not look into it."

"You know I'm definitely gonna look into it, right?"

He nodded, smirking which made me narrow my eyes at him, "yeah but it's coded so have fun trying."