Mistaken by the Billionaire Marquess

CHAPTER 16: Call

– LIA –

I BURPED minutes after I finished eating. I touched my stomach, which is now bloated because I ate a lot of food. I am just sitting here for several minutes because I can’t even stand!

Kelleon is just looking at me ridiculously. I feel like he really wants to laugh at me because of my situation and just help himself not to laugh. He keeps on taking deep breathes and a small smile escapes from his lips from time to time.

“If you want to laugh at me, feel free to do so,” I said while glaring at him.

He raised his eyebrows to me, feeling innocent on what I’m saying. “What do you mean? I will not laugh because there’s nothing to laugh about.”

I tilted my head to my right side and glared at him more. “You look like you’re gonna fart from holding back your laugh.”

His lips formed a smile. He looks amused even though there’s nothing to be amused of! Is he on drugs?

I didn’t wait for his answer. I stood up and started cleaning the table. I was about to put the empty containers on the plastic bag when I noticed that he is just watching me.

I raised my eyebrow to him. “Aren’t you going to move?” I asked him. I saw Kelleon looked at me, then to the plastic I am holding, then back at me.

“What are you doing?” he asked. Actually, that is the dumbest question I heard in my entire life.

“Cleaning the table, duh?” I even showed him the plastic I’m holding and the pointed the dirty parts of the table that was soiled by the gravy and ketchup.

I put my other hand to my waist. “If you’re just gonna watch me clean, better stand up now and don’t block my way. Or else, I’ll throw you outside like this plastic bag.”

He stood up even though he looks a little bit shocked on what I said, or maybe on what I am doing. Is there something to be shocked at about cleaning?

“Get me some wipes, tissue, or old cloth,” I told him while putting the containers and pouches inside the plastic bag.

“For what?” he asked.

I turned my head to him with my furrowed eyebrows. “I’m going to wipe this dirt. Want do you want me to do with it? Wipe it in your face?” I asked sarcastically.

“Oh,” he responded. “Okay,” he added then walked towards somewhere inside the room.

It didn’t take him long to come back and give me the wipes that I am asking for. I grabbed a piece and wiped it in the table. I continue doing that until I was already satisfied with its look and smell.

When I finished cleaning, I extended my arms and give him the plastic that contains our trash. Well, most of these are my trash, but he also has a trash here so technically, it’s our trash.

He grabbed the plastic and didn’t say anything. He left the room and I don’t know where he went to. It’s either he will put the trash outside the house, or he will ask a maid to do it for him. However, base on my observations, I think that he will do the latter.

While waiting for him to come back, I sat on the edge of the bed. I feel bored. I want to go outside but I’m sure that Kelleon will not permit it.

I want to escape, but I realize that soonee or later, he will still find me. He may not be too forgiving the next time. Besides, I still want to talk to him seriously.

He opened the door and walked inside his bedroom, but I didn’t bother looking at him. Instead, I asked the question that I should have asked earlier.

“Where’s Chynna?”

His step stopped beside me. He’s standing tall and I can feel his stare, as if he is judging my whole identity.

“Why do you want to know?” he asked as he sat down beside me. I felt the foam moved because of that. There’s a few inches between our arms but I can still feel his warmth.

I was about to answer when he spoke.

“You told us that you’re not Dennise. So, if that’s true, then you have no relationship with Chynna,” he stated. “If that’s the case, why are you worried about her being?”

He’s right. Chynna knows me as Dennise, and not Lia. If that’s the case, they will really think that I am Dennise and I’m just lying to them!

I take a deep breath before staring at his amber eyes. These eyes, I felt like I have seen them before. They look familiar.

“I’m worried because she has nothing to do with this!” I exclaimed. “She’s just a victim, too! Like me! You don’t have to put her in this situation!”

“If you want to find Dennise, then do it in the right and legal way!” I added, shouting my lungs.

He glared at me while he clenched his jaw. “That’s what I’ve been doing for the past year, but nothing happened.”

I was taken aback by his response. I didn’t expect that he will say that. I thought that he’s the kind of man who’s used on getting things he wants by doing illegal things.

I think I judged him so quickly.

“I’m getting tired of following laws and policies. The process is so fucked up that we can’t get any single lead. That’s why I have to resort to this,” he said as he stares to my eyes. He stares so intently that I feel like I was being hypnotized, or my soul being sucked by it.

“I can help you,” I said, not cutting our stares. “Chynna told me a few things about Dennise. My senior is helping me to investigate about her.”

Hesitating, I gently hold his hand. It made him take his breaths deep. I leaned a little more closer to him and stared at his eyes.

“I know that you don’t trust me. I know that you’re thinking that I’m Dennise. But please, let me prove myself to all of you. I will help you find her. I can think of ways on how we can get her out. You just have to put a little trust in me,” I explained genuinely. “If ever that you felt that I was playing you, or if I betrayed you, feel free to punish me.”

He didn’t respond. We looked at each others eyes as if it’s our only mode of communication.

Slowly, his hands travelled to my arms. It send shivers to my body. It is the first time I felt something like this. His touch was firm, but gentle at the same time.

His hand found my nape. He grabbed it with his palm. The touch of his fingers made my body tingled. It made me excited.  My mind is already making up of scenarios of what might happen after this.

I didn’t even notice that our faces are so close. We just got back to our right minds when we felt a little part of our lips touched. We felt like a huge amount of electricity stroke our body that we both moved away from each other.

We were silent after that. It was Kelleon who broke the tension.

“I sent Chynna back to Spain. He’s being guarded by a friend.”

His answer was late. It’s obvious that he said that so we can forget about what happened, but I can’t forget that easily!

“I’ll just call my parents and tell them about what we talked about,” he said while walking towards the door.

Before he stepped outside, he spoke again. “Your things are on the uppermost pary of that drawer. I’ll be back.”

After he closed the door, I hurriedly opened the drawer and found my sling bag inside. I opened it and grabbed my phone.

Thankfully, my phone is now working. I opened it and I was not shocked when I saw a lot of messages and calls from my friends, mostly from Althea.

To ease their worries, I sent a voice message to our group chat.

“Hi, guys! Sorry for making you all worried. I’m fine. Something just came up and I’ll explain it once I came up. Love you all!”Còntens bel0ngs to Nô(v)elDr/a/ma.Org

It didn’t take long for them to see my message. The group chat became more chaotic. They demanded me to have a video call, which I was about to agree to when I saw my senior calling me.

I typed a message to our group chat.

Me: Sorry, guys. My senior is calling. Brb

After I sent it, I immediately answered Detective Javier’s call.

“Hello, sen–,” my sentence was cut short when she shouted at me.

“Lia!” she exclaimed my name. “Where are you?! What happened?! Why aren’t you answering my calls?!”

She started asking a lot of questions that I wasn’t able to understand any of them. I can even hear Darwin’s and Nick’s voice from the background, but those were inaudible.

“Senior, relax. I’m fine,” I assured her. “Something just came up so I wasn’t able to answer your calls yesterday.”

“Better explain to me what came up that you weren’t able to contact us! Your friends and our team are so worried about you! We thought you were kidnapped!” she shouted. I just replied with a ‘hehe’ because I was really kidnapped.

“And what do you mean yesterday? You haven’t contacted us for like two days!”

My eyes widened at her statement. Two days? That’s impossible. Does that mean that I was asleep for two days?

I removed my phone from my ear to check the date. My eyes almost left my head when I saw that what my senior said is true!

“I’m so sorry, senior,” I said. “I promise, I’m not hurt or anything. I just need to finish something.”

I heard my senior sigh on the other line. “Alright. I actually called because of the case you asked me.”

I got up from sitting because of what she said. “Do you already have a lead?” I asked.

“I can’t really say for sure but, this information I have here is kind of suspicious,” she responded.

I squinted my eyes. When Detective Javier found something suspicious, then I’m sure that there’s something wrong with it. She may said that she’s not sure if that’s a lead, but I’m sure that it is.

“Tell me. What did you found out?” I asked, getting impatient on her answer.

I heard the sound of flipping pages on the  other side. “You said that the woman’s name is Dennise Lopez, right? And that she came from the Philippines before going to Spain?”

I nodded even though she can’t see me. “Yes, senior. That’s right.”

“Well, I searched on the database of PSA,” she said. “And there was no Dennise Lopez on the record.”