"What are you searching now? I have tidied everything today Ella! You are only ruining..."
She interrupted, "I'll keep everything properly, mama. It should be somewhere here," murmured Ella. "What are you going to find from at this hour of the night?" Ella was actually searching through her belongings in the attic. The moment she discovered from Nick about herself, she had foregone all the time needed to assist Helen and almost ran from the shop to her home as fast possible. After reaching home, this was where she had crashed into. It only made sense that Nick could be somewhat related to her past in London. She regretted talking to him like that. But the situation was out of her control that she didn't think anything and snapped. She had taken all extra measures to cover her background. Then how was it that she was found within two years! She had not yet said anything to her mother as she didn't want her to be worried. But more than that she was worried about the company and its CEO. If Roy were to ever know that she was here, he would use all of the world's resources to get to her. And it was too much of a risk for Ella to digest.
"This girl sometimes becomes so difficult to handle!" tiredly said Emma Kingsly interrupting her thoughts.
"Really? You haven't handled Helen Willow then," replied Ella.
"Go to sleep mom! Or the mice might enter your room." Knowing her mother was scared of them she patiently waited for her mother's reaction. Her mother grumbled under her breath and left saying, "You are going to clean all of that Ella or I will throw them away!" but not before closing the attic door a little too firmly.
Finally having her mother gone, she went ahead to look for the suitcase, safely hidden from the crap in the front, in which she had stored everything relating her life in London. The attic's bulb had enough light to show Ella where it was located. She doubted her mother would have looked into it, as she had locked it with the key only in her possession.
She dusted the case. Yeah, mom has surely not even touched it to bother cleaning it, thought Ella. While bringing the case to the middle of the attic below the direct light, she saw some mice who were residing behind the case; Now she understood why her mother left that part of the attic, chuckled Ella to herself. She glanced behind her again, to ensure her mother wasn't lurking around and removed the keys from her jeans pocket. Unlocking the case, she found everything was there the same way as she last saw it. The frames, pictures, her high school uniform, diaries, notes, and other stuffs. She had wanted to burn it all since the day she left London for good, but some things just felt necessary to hold on to.
Ella sat cross-legged comfortably and went through the case. There has got to be some way she might have met Nick for him to know about her existence. If only she had not befriended him, then he might not have searched about her or anything about her! The inquisitive girl sitting in the attic went through the photo frames and pictures which involved of her and her classmates. But if it would have been someone of her age, she would have surely recognized it.
That was when Ella realized that Nick looked older than her, by at least 3 years; Which would explain why she was not able to recognize him. She looked into the diaries of any mention of Nick, but found none. While searching the case, she found a faded brown book which was a slam book as she remembered. She went through it for any clues, as it was possible that Nick was related to any of her classmates. The book looked to have not seen the light of the day since ages, the pages had turned yellow. After all it belonged to her life, five or six years ago. Her finger was skimming through every part of the page in the book. Now that she looked at the book, it seemed childish as all of us were mostly boasting about ourselves. Ignoring that she continued her search. She came to a page where the slam was about, Callie B, whom she couldn't remember at all; was this one thinking herself as Cardi B? thought Ella. But that wasn't what caught her attention it was a question, 'Who is the most irritating person around you?' in the slam, which Callie answered, 'my cousin ni...' Ella tried but couldn't make what was written after that. This girl's handwriting was horrible than hers. She smudged that area with her fore finger then with her thumb, but that resulted in the word disappearing lightly and almost leading to a tear in the page. Frustrated she threw the book and lied on her back with those crossed-legs, and hands clutching her hair, breathing hard.
It wasn't helping. It was in moments like this that she missed Roy. He would always know what to do next. Mainly he would always know how to calm her and not lose hope.
"It's not helping Ella! You have to forget him and not use him to relieve your stress!" She said to herself.
After taking deep breaths, she calmed down, and thought of this problem as her test. She tricked her brain into listening to her that it was a test she had to fight alone.
Her mind went through all the possibilities of whatever happened till now- Nick came from London to meet his friends, who would probably be around his age. If he came to meet his friends here then it meant that his friends were staying here, and there was a very slim possibility of those friends to know everything about London. Her being the expected heir of the Kings Corporation was only news to the inside members and directors involved closely with the company. And for Nick to find out in a span of one day was something to do with inside information only. This could explain that Nick was somehow related or acquainted to someone from the Board or of anyone close to her father.
Narrowing down her points she got up, finally feeling better to have somewhere, to start from. She packed up away everything in the attic or her mom would make a fit tomorrow morning.
In the middle of packing the suitcase which she had unlocked, something shiny caught her eye. Not very shiny, but evident enough. Her hand took that shiny piece when she discovered it was a locket. That locket was supposed to be missing. Yet it was here? It was the locket given by her father. Normally Ella avoided possession of any jewelry, even if they were gifted by her parents or family, in the fear of losing it. Her father had gifted this on her 18th birthday, but it was her decision; whether to wear it. She supposed in the happiness of the big day she hadn't realized that she had kept it with herself all this time.
Ella pocketed the locket, locked the case and the attic. She went to her room, into her bathroom in front of the mirror; unhooking the silver locket, she wore it around her neck. It wasn't a very dazzling one, but had a simple small diamond shaped pendent, rolling along the chain as she moved.
Now all she had to do was find Nick and question him.