The Billionaire's Son

Forever and Always

Chapter 23

Aubrey's POV

"You mean to tell me your father is giving you the company?" Anthony asked, while fiddling with a piece of my hair.

I nodded my head. "Isn't it crazy, Anthony? I'm getting the company sooner than imagined! I'll be the bad ass woman I've always wanted to be, Anthony. Isn't it wonderful?"

I felt him nod his head, but I could tell something was holding him back. There was always something holding him back, and in this case, I was catching on to it quicker than normal. I'd learned a few things from Anthony and one of them was, when he drew back and only answered in one worded phrases, that there was something going on in that head of his.

I felt his heart beat racing in my ear as I cuddled closer to him hoping this would wake him up from whatever fog was covering his eyes. Instead he started to distance himself, first starting with inching himself closer to the end of the bed. I sighed, "What's going on?"

"Nothing is going on, quite frankly there's just a lot going on in my head. That's all." He sounded like an old man. He didn't sound like the eighteen year old boy I'd slowly started fall for, he was sounding more and more like Adalyn's grandfather as time went further.

"Anthony, what's going on?" I repeated myself but he only drew back further, almost falling off the bed.

He shook his head and started to actually get off the bed. He walked towards his shoes and his jacket and started to pull it on, all while I was watching him and trying to figure out what was happening in that head of his. There wasn't a doubt about it that something was moving around, the gears were turning in his head. It was quite obvious, but if there was one thing I knew about Anthony it was how much he hated to share those feelings.

So I started to crawl off the bed and walk towards him. I wasn't trying to 'seduce' him or 'make him fall to his knees with lust,' I was just trying to have a normal conversation with him because that's what we needed to do to get our points across. A good relationship starts with honesty and that's the most important thing to start with. Especially because I've seen it first hand, and I know how much it can kill relationships.

I started to throw my hair up into a high pony while I watched him put one arm into one sleeve then repeat it with the other. The jeans looked great on him today and I couldn't lie about that, I really couldn't. But that was the least of my worries, I needed to figure out what was going on with him before it was too late.

Alex and I went down the drain because of all the honesty we lacked, and of course, I didn't need that again. I didn't need almost an exact replica of my parents failed relationship, I just didn't want that. Never in a million years.

"Be honest with me Anthony, what's going on?" I turned around and faced him from where I was originally standing. "What, are you cheating on me? Wishing you were with another girl?" I asked, almost laughing myself. But I couldn't be too sure.

He almost paled when he looked at me. "Never in a thousand years would I act like your father, Aubrey. I'm just not feeling myself," He started.

"Are you sick?"

"No."

"Dying?"

He gave me an unamused look. "Double no."

"Then what's going on?"

He went quiet. Almost deathly quiet, but we drew out the death answer so that wasn't going to happen. But there was something different about him, I just couldn't tell what was happening. It's not like I had changed anything to my appearance or made any big changes to myself. And it wasn't like he was going to stop liking me because of what I did differently, everyone needed to see differently.