Chapter 5

Lorelei rounded her eyes slightly. A panicked look flickered across her eyes.

Standing by the entrance was Liam, his face full of anger.

He looked completely different than his wasted self the other day. He was sober now, piercing eyes freezing cold, giving off an intimidating aura.

“…Liam?”

Lorelei forced out an awkward smile, “What brought you here?”

Liam paced into the foyer with a sneer, “This is my house. I can come back here whenever I want.”

He turned to glare at the security guys and snapped, “Did you hear what I just said? Let her go!”

The security guys shivered and quickly let go of me. I stood straight and rubbed my wrists, which were bruised under their iron grip.

“Liam! She is a thief! Are you covering up for her?” Lorelei gritted sullenly.

“Thief? What have she stolen then?” Liam demanded.

Mrs. Jones nibbled her lips nervously and replied, “She wasn’t given a chance to make a move. We found her creeping among the maids and digging through the boxes. So we quickly took her down—”

Liam cut her off, “So you have got evidence at all. Mrs. Jones, you have been our housemaid for almost 20 years already. Maybe you’ve grown tired of it and want to get hired elsewhere.”

Mrs. Jones’s knees almost gave in horror, “No, please, Mr. Sinclair, don’t fire me…I simply acted under Ms. Monroe’s order!”

“Ms. Monroe?” Liam let out a sarcastic laugh, “When does she have any right to give order around here? This is the Alpha’s residence! The only persons who can give order to you are my brother, his wife and me! Lorelei is fucking nobody! My brother didn’t even recognize her as his mistress!”

The foyer lapsed into a deathly silence with servants and maids exchanging nervous looks with each other.

Lorelei clenched her fists, her long nail digging into her flesh, her knuckles white.

“What were you trying to find, Mia?” Liam asked me.

“…My laptop, work cells and some files.” I answered lowly.

Liam nodded and motioned for the guards to go upstairs and search the place. Suited men acted at once. They walked pass by Lorelei and went into the second floor.

The idle smile had disappeared from Lorelei’s face. She was now staring at Liam and me grimly.

“When your brother hears about this…” she gritted.

Liam sneered, “Go ahead. Bitch about it all you want. I am not afraid of him and definitely not afraid of you!”

They glared at each other with hatred gleaming in their eyes.

…They seemed to have a long-standing grievance towards each other.

The guards reemerged from the second floor with a couple of boxes in their hands, “Mr. Sinclair, we found the laptop and files!”

Liam sneered, “Where did you find it?”

“Inside of Ms. Monroe’s room!”

There were a round of gasps among the maids. They started shooting Lorelei skeptical looks.

“Who is the thief now?” Liam snorted.

Lorelei remained indifferent as she said, “I didn’t know about it. Someone must have put her stuff into my room by accident while cleaning the house.”

I noticed an aggrieved look on the maid’s face—Lorelei was blaming this on them.

“You haven’t changed at all, Lorelei Monroe.” Liam sneer, “It’s always someone else’s fault, not yours.”

Lorelei looked back at him defiantly, “I told the truth. If you don’t believe me, shall we wait for Adrian to come back from his meeting and ask him to settle this?”

I started to get a headache.

I didn’t want to see Adrian.

And I knew that he would never side with me even if he were here today.

“Let’s go.” I gently tugged at Liam’s sleeve.

He nodded and we left the house together.

The crisp evening air outside cleared my head. I felt my previous grievance and anger dislodged.

Tuning around to face Liam, I gave him a smile, “Thank you. I don’t know what would happen if you weren’t here today.”

He gazed down at me, eyes intent, “Anything for you, Mia.”

My heart swelled. This was the Liam that I used to know, cool and deliberate, a real noble, not that drunk addict that I met at the party.

“I almost it didn’t recognize you yesterday. But it’s good to know that you haven’t changed too much,” I teased.

He blinked and advanced on me. Now we were standing face to face with only a couple of inches away from each other.

I could feel his warmth, smell his enticing scent.

My heart suddenly lost a beat because of it.

“Haven’t changed too much?” he said in a hoarse voice, “Take another look at me…Do I really still look the same?”

I gulped and felt my face burning. I didn’t even dare to look at his muscular chest and broad shoulders.

In terms of appearance, he did change.

He left a boy and came back now as a man, now looking a lot like his powerful brother.

I used to treat him like a little boy. But I could hardly think that way anymore.

“You have grown up. It suits you.” I answered honestly.

He chuckled, “Only by growing up can Ie finally seize what I want.”

Before I fully understood what he meant by that, he took a step back and gave me a brisk smile, “Come on. Let me take you home. No parties and drunk dudes this time I promise.”

His Cullinan was parked outside of the house. I got into this millions-dollar car carrying my belongings and drove away from the mansion.

Adrian’s text arrived when we were a few blocks away from the apartment:

[You came over today?]

“You are not going to answer him, are you?” Liam asked abruptly.

Looking up, I found Liam staring at my screen sullenly, his hands still on the wheel.

“Eyes on the road.” I warned.

“Are you?” he persisted.

“Liam…”

“Mia, you can’t have him affect you over and over again!”

I remained silent.

“You two haven’t filed for divorce officially, right?” he gritted through clenched teeth, “Text him back and tell him that you two will meet a lawyer get the paperwork done.”

I sighed.

Liam was right about this. I should officialize this divorce.

I couldn’t allow myself to have any illusions anymore.

“OK. I will text him. But you can’t keep offending your brother for me. You still live off your family, don’t you? Messing with him and Lorelei does you no good.”

Liam rolled his eyes, “You still think of me as a 3-yeas-old, don’t you? I’m not afraid of Adrian. Now text him!”

So I texted Adrian back:

[We should meet with a lawyer to get the divorce paperwork done.]

A few minutes later, Adrian texted back.

Only three cold words:

[As you wish.]