Recommence ° Edward Cullen[Rewriting]

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Chapter Fourteen | Not Quite As Planned

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The days passed without much event, Alex and Edward watching Luke Newton—if that was who he really was—throughout the days but there was virtually nothing out of the ordinary. Or so it first seemed. The third day, after what Alex thought she'd imagined the day before, the young woman knew for a fact that there was something unnaturally different about Luke. 

Watching him closely, the boy didn't look. . . like Luke. There were moments when Alex was observing that he appeared weaker and in another blink, he looked fine. The glimpses were so few and far between and so brief that Alex didn't have reliable details, just a projected image that she understood but couldn't verbally explain. 

"Have you noticed anything?" The pair were standing by Edward's Volvo, Alex propped against the car as she regarded the group of friends that stood across the parking lot. Luke was among them as well as her sister, the two none the wiser.

"Hmm, no? His mind remains consistent—nothing odd." Edward said, his gaze fixed on her rather than the group.

Alex frowned, her eyes lingering on Luke for a moment in which she couldn't seem to look away. For a brief and bewildering moment, his hair seemed inexplicably thinner. She tore her gaze away a second later. "Oh." That particular observation had her doubting herself, doubting if what she was seeing was truly accurate because if Luke's mind remained clear of anything damning, then how could she possibly trust what she was seeing?

The chances of the boy knowing enough to hide his mind completely from Edward wasn't likely—in fact, it would be extremely rare. At some point, there'd have to be a slip-up, especially since Luke couldn't possibly know what Edward could do. Either he was doing it, completely unprovoked, or he had nothing to hide. And in turn, nothing to give to help Alex figure any of this out. Nothing to fix the situation he put her through and still was.

"Alex, is there something you can see? Something that's different?" Edward's gaze was a bit too knowing as he looked down at her and it didn't lessen as she shrugged, "No." It wasn't entirely a lie but not the complete truth either. Alex didn't trust it enough to put it out there and have nothing to back it up.

His gaze lingered but Edward didn't push further, accepting her answer for what it was as he looked away.

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It was lunch and Alex, on a rare occasion, was on her own in hers and Bella's truck. She didn't feel the need for additional company and Edward had been compliant in letting her go, Bella frowning at the idea of her by herself but surrendered the keys to her nonetheless. 

So there she sat, entirely in her own head trying to map out the next few weeks of her life in where she could find the solution to the thing in her head and a way to ensure the safety of her family. Time was her biggest issue because Alex didn't know how much she had left—it posed the risk of her final day being as soon as tomorrow or as far into the future as ten years. Neither was ideal.