Elizabeth, woke up with a jolt when she heard Aaron's voice, "Why are you sleeping here?"
"Ahhmm!! I wanted to see the sunrise and I dozed off, I guess," she lied. Elizabeth felt something was odd about Aaron since the previous night. She herself didn't know how long she sat in the balcony and kept thinking before she dozed off.
"Okay," Aaron nodded when Elizabeth was keenly observing him. Aaron noticed her gaze upon him but pretended to be unaware of it.
"We will be leaving in the afternoon," Elizabeth heard him say and before she could respond to his words, he left the place.
Elizabeth had been busy since her return from honeymoon. She had to finish up a pile of work and then attend meetings, her schedule had been hectic. They seldom looked at each other even though they lived in the same house and stayed in the same room. Aaron has been coming home late since three weeks. Elizabeth thought that, him being busy was just an excuse to avoid her. The few moments they shared that night brought no change in her life. Elizabeth felt that there was no way for her to go beyond the barrier which Aaron has set between him and her, no matter how many times she may try. The girl has finally understood that all she can do is to wait for him to cross the invisible barrier.
Roseline went to school like any other day and looked for Ryan and found him talking to his friends. She didn't look at any other side after finding him. She kept her gaze fixed upon him until she was bumped into someone.
"Ouch!! I'm sorry," Roseline apologised immediately before she saw who it was.
"Why are you being formal?" she heard Claire's voice.
Roseline shook her head, "I... I thought it was someone else."
"Is something wrong? You've been lost for a few days," Claire asked her.
Roseline looked at Ryan before answering Claire, "Nothing. I'm fine."
Since the day Ryan overheard Rosleine's conversation with her friends, she has been waiting for a chance to talk to Ryan but the guy has been avoiding her for more than three weeks. No matter how many times she tried to approach him, she failed all the times. She was guilty that she hid her feelings for him from her friends and at the same time she wanted to confess Ryan about everything that happened. She wondered if he would accept her feelings for him even after what happened, but little did she know about his intentions. Roseline understood that there's no way she could talk to him in the school or on the call.
After reaching home in the evening, Roseline saw her parents sitting in the living room.
"We received an invitation from the Winchester's," Roseline overheard her father's conversation with her mother as she was ascending the stairs.
"Is it?" her mother asked and she saw her father nod.
"They invited us on occasion of the old man's Seventy-Fifth birthday," John replied looking at the invitation card.
"When is it?" Rosleine's mother asked when Roseline walked towards them.
"Next week," John replied, placing the card aside and removing his glasses.
"I have to talk to him, no matter what!!" Roseline was determined.
Elizabeth had her dinner early when the maid informed her that Aaron would be late again. She returned to her room after dinner and saw her wardrobe being a mess. She took all the clothes and threw them on the bed, all at once. Taking each dress one after the other, she placed them back in order. While she was taking another piece of her clothes, she bent a little to have a closer look, when her eyes captured something under her clothes. She sighed looking at the envelope that was under her clothes. She opened it and took out a letter from the envelope. The letter in her hand seemed to be an old one. It was a letter written by Elizabeth's diseased mother before her death, the things her mother wrote In that letter were her mother's last words about that incident. Even though her mother didn't tell her daughter in detail, Elizabeth understood that, her mother had her own reasons and trusted her. There were flashes of that particular incident which took place when she was eighteen years old. The day that changed her life. The day she could not forget no matter how many times she tried to forget it. That day, Elizabeth's mother took Elizabeth along with her saying that she had to meet her friend. After reaching her mother's friend's house, Elizabeth caught the sight of her mother's friend lay on the bed. Upon her mother's request, Elizabeth went to fetch water from the kitchen after she was directed by her mother. By the time she returned from the kitchen, Elizabeth saw the person on the bed lay motionless and to her horror, her mother had a gun in her hand. Elizabeth snapped out of her thoughts, when she heard Aaron's footsteps. She immediately put the letter and the photo in the envelope and placed it back under her clothes.
Aaron looked at her quizzically when he saw her standing near the wardrobe.
"You...How come you are here?" Elizabeth asked him.
"Where else would I be if not here ?!" Aaron replied, losing his neck tie.
"No. What I mean is, I was told by the maid that you would be late and I was shocked to see you..." Elizabeth said.
"Shocked?" he asked her walking towards her.
"Yes. No," Elizabeth exhaled deeply before continuing," Yes, I was shocked and was happy to see you," Elizabeth smiled sheepishly.
"Why were you happy?" he asked her.
Elizabeth bit her lips instead of answering him." You are behaving differently, Lizzy," she heard him say.
"Am I? " she asked him.
"Are you hiding something from me?" he asked her.
" I'm not," she retorted when she felt him come closer to her. Aaron knew that Elizabeth was hiding something from him by the way she reacted, but he chose not to ask her when the girl was not ready to tell him the truth.
Elizabeth deeply exhaled when she saw Aaron leave to the washroom to take shower. Elizabeth didn't want Aaron to know about her grave secret. Aaron was the last person whom she would want to know about the things that took place in her life. Everybody has their own secrets which they do not wish to reveal. She has her own secret too, something she has been hiding since the past few years, a secret of her and her deceased mother which she could not reveal.