/Madison's POV/
I'd just finished having breakfast when Aya showed up. She had a downcast look on her face as she walked, although it vanished immediately the moment her eyes fell on me.
Striking a weird pose as she leaned against the doorframe separating the kitchen from the dining room, she smirked. "I'm glad you look less half-dead than the last time I saw you."
"I'm sure I didn't look that bad," I defended, rinsing the last plate I'd just used for breakfast. The faint scent of toast and coffee still lingered in the air, mingling with the citrus scent of the kitchen cleaner.
I returned to the sitting room with Aya. The morning light streaming through the curtains softened her features.
"I'm glad you look better at least, really." She sounded pretty sincere about that, so I responded with a smile.
"What exactly really happened out there?" she asked, and I hesitated.
Now that I think about it, Zane's perspective about the situation could be silently flawed. Why haven't I even considered that he could make a mistake? If Allison's secret meetings with Elias were kept secret from Zane, there's a possibility Zane doesn't know all there was to know about my sister.
"Aya, what type of person was my sister to you?" I asked just as she was retrieving a bottle of water from the fridge. The door hissed open with a low hum, and cold air brushed her skin, raising faint goosebumps along her arm. She stilled for a minute before she eventually retrieved what she wanted.
"Do you want the truth?" Aya asked, turning from the fridge to face me. I nodded, then watched as she walked up to the glass table right in the middle of the sofa, standing on a stunning Persian rug. She laid down her bottle as she took a seat. I joined her on the opposite sofa, the soft fabric dipping under my weight, waiting for her to share her thoughts on the matter.
"She was a very mischievous and cautious person. Zane doesn't see it, but she wasn't always honest," Aya filled me in.
My brows squinted, wondering what that could mean. "D'you think Allison could have cheated on Zane? Was she that kind of person to you?" I questioned further, and Aya's face went pensive. She took a moment with that one, her fingers tracing the curve of the water bottle before answering.
"No, I don't think so." I blinked, surprised by her response. "Sure, I don't like her, but what I did notice was how much she loved Zane. She couldn't have cheated on him."
"You don't like my sister?" I asked, shocked even more by her confession.
"Yeah, I don't… she just put me off," Aya admitted. "No offense, but she feels like someone wearing a mask. I've known her for years, yet I can't seem to tell what type of person she is. I do know one thing though — she is a very, very jealous woman. Zane thinks it's cute, but I find it off-putting." She shrugged her shoulders, the faint clink of her bracelet echoing in the quiet room.
"Well, that's new," I muttered under my breath. "What makes you say that though?" I asked just as Aya reached for her bottle again.
"For one, she warned me personally to stay away from Zane." Aya took a gulp from her water. "Y'know, in front of Zane she's all smiles and that, but the moment Zane turned his back… she's glaring at me like she wants me to drop dead."
That's yet another thing I didn't know about my sister. My phone dinged to signify a new message, and I quickly reached for my pocket to get it. It was from Kim.
I rose to my feet, unwilling to check my new message near Aya, knowing she could be intrusive sometimes. "Excuse me for a minute," I said as I unlocked my phone and stepped away toward the kitchen.
The cool tiles met the pads of my bare feet as I walked. I had a guess what Kim had just sent me — it probably had something to do with the many things I asked her to look into, which included the identity of Allison's murderer as well as the second phone I didn't trust myself to retrieve on my own. Or it could be details about that safe thing she wanted me to look into.
"I looked into the phone and it looks like Zane's got it."
I read the message in my head, pulled myself into a forced halt, then bumped into a decorative vase at the base of the stairs. My elbow stung. I watched it come crashing down with a loud crash.
"Shit!"
I returned my phone to the back pocket of my jeans, then immediately reached down to pick the pieces. Tiny shards of ceramic pricked my fingers.
"What are you doing?" Aya, who had shot up immediately after the crash, demanded. I blinked rapidly like I didn't get the question since I was expecting it to be obvious. She sighed.
"I'll get the broom. You could get hurt with that," she pointed out, then walked over to the kitchen while I examined the broken vase.
"This looks expensive," I thought out loud after seeing the intricate design on the artwork.
Then Zane showed up, pointing a gun at me with a face drowned in panic. The tension that followed was electric — my stomach dropped as my eyes locked on the glint of metal in his hand.
"What happened?" he asked, looking around frantically as if trying to nab an invisible intruder. Then Aya showed up with the broom, and he immediately turned the gun at her.
Surprised by the gun suddenly pointing at her, Aya dropped the broom and raised her hands.
"What the hell—Zane, why'd you have a gun?" Aya demanded, her voice trembling slightly.
"You took the words right out of my mouth," I added, my pulse still hammering in my chest. Zane heaved a sigh of relief, then lowered his hands, his tensed expression suddenly finding calm.
"It's just for precaution. What happened…I heard a loud crash. I thought something happened."
"Um…I'm sorry, but I kinda broke your vase," I said guiltily, staring at the pieces because something told me that was fucking expensive. "It was an accident," I defended as Zane grew silent.
"Don't worry about it." He shrugged it off, and for the first time, I noticed he had his shirt undone. His chest rose and fell sharply — he must have come running downstairs.
Zane ran his hands through his hair — he was obviously still recovering from the shock from earlier.
"Are you hurt?" he asked, his eyes laden with concern.
"No, I'm okay," I replied while Aya helped clean out the broken shards.
"You have a cut," he noticed, grabbing my hand without warning and startling me in the process. His palm felt warm, his touch gentle but firm.
"I'm fine, Zane, it doesn't even hurt," I replied, ignoring the annoying rise in my pulse.
"You should learn to value your body better."
His words reminded me of someone I'm still struggling to forget — a comrade, a friend, a brother, and a lover. He said the same words to me once, his tone softer than Zane's but cutting all the same.
"I'm fine," I said as I retracted my hands from his. Strangely, Zane didn't like it, but he didn't pressure me further.
Turning to Aya, Zane said, "You didn't tell me you were coming."
"Yeah…I didn't think I needed to. I mean, we're still having that interview, right? It's in a few days, and since you didn't make Maddy's abduction public, it doesn't really affect the interview. You're still doing it… right?" Aya asked.
Zane briefly glanced in my direction before coming up with a response. "Yeah, we're doing it."
"Cool. Maddy has never been on TV. I figured I'd brief her on how to act, since reporters can be very pushy."
Aya explained, but honestly, I couldn't care for any of it since I was yet to recover from Zane appearing downstairs with a Colt. The faint metallic scent of the gunpowder still lingered in the air, mixing with the smell of Aya's perfume. Where the hell did he even get that?
"Maddy," I blinked, turning sharply to face Aya. "We should head over to your room," she suggested, and I nodded.
My back burned from Zane's eyes trailing me up the stairs. He's gonna burn a hole inside me like that, I thought before we disappeared at the corner, and soon we were in my room.
"Do I really have to do this interview thingy? I feel it's unnecessary. Also…I'd really like to visit Allison's workplace—oh fuck!" I jumped as I turned to find her standing right behind me, eyes narrowed at me in suspicion.
"You scared me," I pointed out, my heart still thudding in my chest, and she gently tilted her head, scrutinising my every move.
"Is…something wrong?" I had to ask since her persistent gaze was starting to get really uncomfortable.
"Is something going on between you and Zane?" Her eyes went blank while I felt my chest tighten.