Ruth's POV
For just one moment, I was glad that I wasn't the only one who jumped at the sound of an ice cold voice reverberating through the corridor as a tall figure immerged from the shadows.
Ana let out a tiny yelp just as I flinched and we both looked around Tristan's shoulders and towards the source of the sound.
The only one who didn't turn, or even so much as react was Tristan, but his body went rigid as he recognised the unmistakable heavy voice a moment later and turned.
"Fancy running into y'all here, but shouldn't I get to say this at the party?" His lazy drawl was seemed casual, if not for a steely coldness in them as Leo's huge body emerged from the shadows of the stairwell and onto the landing.
"Shouldn't you be in New York right now playing the good son, Leo?" Tristan asked coldly, to which Leo replied with equal coldness.
"Shouldn't you be at the party playing the second fiddle as usual, Tristan?"
I saw Tristan's jaw tighten and it seemed like he was about to say something but by then Ana had sufficiently recovered. She glided ahead of her husband and in front of Leo, as if standing guard.
"Oh stop squabbling, you two. Its Christmas eve and we have a party to attend. Can we all not fight just today?"
Leo kept a steely gaze on Tristan for another moment before dropping it to Ana and I watched him deflate like a balloon. It almost looked like his anger was steaming away from him and I could totally understand why.
Ana was looking up at him with her innocent sky blue eyes like a delicate china doll. She didn't look like a married woman in her mid-20s, but instead like a little girl asking something from her elder brother and Leo being a marshmallow practically melted under her gaze.
He exhaled harshly and muttered, "I suppose we can."
Ana gave him a brilliant smile and then a genuinely warm hug, which he returned just as affectionately while I stood dumbstruck watching the scene unfolding in front of me.
It surprised me of how different Leo reacted to Ana, as compared to Caleb even though they were blood-relatives. But I didn't have much time to ponder over this because Ana pulled back from her hug and spoke up.
"Its so amazing to have you here, Leo! Even though I am a bit surprised. Weren't you in New York just a few hours ago?"
"No. I was on my way out of New York a few hours ago. You know my compulsive streak, Ana. I couldn't stay so far removed from the drama for too long."
Ana gave a tinkering laugh as she placed her hands on his chest and replied, "I do. But how did you convince Aunt Lydia to let you leave?"
"I couldn't. So I had to smuggle her all the way here with me."
With Ana and Leo facing each other in the small corridor and dim lights, it should have been difficult to read their expressions. But surprisingly, it wasn't.
Maybe because not only did both of their usual happy expressions left their face, but suddenly air felt thick with unspoken tension.
"You.... Brought her here? Here as in Seattle?"
"No. Here as in here." With his index finger he pointed at the floor and I saw Ana's eyes widen and Tristan mutter something unpleasant under his breath.
It was as if someone flipped a button. Ana didn't look like a youthful fairy princess anymore. She looked scared.. and bitter?
The transformation in her demeanor was so sudden and unexpected that I blinked and squinted, trying to read it but just like it had appeared, the look vanished and she pasted a smile on her face that looked too painful to be real and stepped away from Leo.
"Well, isn't that great? She really flew all the way here. It looks like a family reunion, doesn't it?" Ana turned to me with the question and I straightened, suddenly remembering that I was watching the Cross family drama unfold in person and not on a television.
"Uh, yeah?" I looked up at Leo and then Tristan for help but both of them were looking intently at Ana who was pulling her coat snugger against her.
"It is. I guess we shouldn't expect anything less from the Christmas eve, isn't it? And speaking of, we are so royally late for the party. Dad will blow a fuse if he and Caleb reaches there before us."
"I suppose you're here to pick up Ruth?" She asked Leo, but it didn't look like she cared what his answer was - not that he offered any - as she straightened and looked back at me.
"Well then. You're in much safer hands now. I guess I'll see you there, Ruth."
"Sure." I replied to hers and Tristan's back as they climbed down the stairs without a backward glance as if the hounds of hell were on their tails.
"What the hell just happened?"
I jumped when someone spoke the very thought running through my mind aloud as Shy appeared next to me out in the corridor, looking at the corner where Ana and Tristan had disappeared just a second ago.
"Weren't they determined to chauffeur you to the party just a moment before they turned tails and ran?"
"Were you eavesdropping?" Leo's voice didn't carry as much accusation as it normally would have and I paid closer attention to his face.
He looked exhausted, the circles beneath his eyes prominent and his fake blond were a few inches longer showing off dark roots.
"Oh, I'm sorry. Was that a secret conversation that you guys having in the corridor?"
Leo opened his mouth to reply, but then just shook his head and sighed before looking back at me.
"So you ready to go?"
"Go where?"
"The party, Ruth? Where else?"
"You flew all the way here from New York to take me to this illustrious party when Caleb couldn't be here on time from 30 minutes away?"
"I didn't fly 'all the way here from New York' to take you to some party. I flew so certain people cannot pull the shit that they are bound to pull in my absence. And yes, it does include rescuing you from those two. Good thing I was here on time before you left with them."
I had no idea why Leo was looking at me as if I should be grateful to him for his grand rescue, because all I felt was anger. Did he really think I was some damsel in distress with no brain to need rescuing from his family?
"You really thought that I was going to leave with them?" Even though I tried to suppress my anger, it seeped in through the tone of my voice.
"Weren't you?" Leo asked, frowning as if he didn't understand. And it seemed he really didn't.
"You really think I am dumb enough to go to the party with people that Caleb obviously doesn't like?"
Somewhere in my mind I knew blasting off on Leo was bitchy of me. He was only looking out for me afterall. But all the uncertainties of the evening, the shocks and implications just made my words boil over.
"Well, its just that—"
"Maybe you think I am just one of those timid, insecure people who needs a chaperone to escort them and hold their hand to the gatherings fearing that they wouldn't have anyone to talk to if they didn't?"
"Ruth, I know you're not tim—"
"Or you just think I'm in this for a free ride and if Caleb didn't appear then anything else would do?"
"Woah, what? Where did that come from? I nev—"
"You really think I'm some pathetic, one brain-cell poor girl that needs you to be my knight in shining armour to rescue me from your family?"
"No. I just think my family is conniving enough to lay traps for you. I was just—"
"I don't need you, or your no-show brother to take me anywhere. I have been working here years before The Cross Clan even knew a firm like this existed. And I do not need a man to take me anywhere."
With that I turned my back to shocked Leo and marched into the house past a grinning Shy, and picked up my phone, tapping quickly to book myself a ride to the banquet.
It took some time for a ride to be available and even then the rates were triple the usual tariff, but if that was the cost of my pride then I was willing to go bankrupt today.
Once I got a confirmation message, I marched back out to find Leo and Shy standing exactly where I had left them.
"My ride will be here in 10 minutes."
I crossed my arms, looking him straight in the eye and asked, "still think I need your help?"
But instead of replying, Leo just raised his brows and shook his head in exasperation. He massaged the back of his neck and then straightened and looked back up.
"No. No, I don't think you need my help. I never thought you damsel of anything, dahlin. And I really don't believe that needing or taking help is a sign of weakness. And neither is offering one a sin."
His words made my anger melt a little, but he didn't pause as he continued.
"I'm sorry if I gave you that impression. And it seems its a good thing that I feel secure enough in my masculinity to admit that even though neither of you need my help to survive anything, I might need yours."
Surprisingly though, his dark gaze moved from me to Shy as he said that last part and I turned to look at her. Her cheeks were pink from the cold but the colour deepened even more when both of our attention focused on her.
"Me? What help can I be to someone like you?"
"Someone like me?"
"Yeah. I mean..." She stuttered and vaguely gestured at Leo's gigantic body that looked even more bigger covered in his suit and long coat.
"I thought the Goliath can handle everything?"
"I'm not a Goliath." His scowl made him look dangerous enough that person with decent common sense would flee if it was directed at them.
"Besides, my size has no bearing on the thing I need your help with."
Shy opened her mouth but before she could utter anything, a sharp voice sliced through.
"So I'm 'the thing' huh? My, you do have a way with words, don't you son? Is it any wonder why you frequently get told off by people half your size?"
Tart. That was the first word that popped into my mind when I saw the white haired, petite woman huffing up the last flight of stairs.
And the impression truly had nothing to do with her appearance.
Ideally, the woman who was making her way towards us would look like a frail woman of advanced years with a beige cardigan, gray sweater and ankle boots.
In fact, she looked so delicate that you would worry how she was holding herself upright without help.
But that impression would only last until you really looked at her. With a ramrod straight back and snapping green eyes, the woman looked like a vulture who would claw someone's eyes out just for looking at her wrong.
"I didn't get told off—"
"Leo, my dear. If you get told off any more people might think you're into marketing." She cut him off with a careless wave of her boney hand, but her eyes sharpened as she threw another volley at him.
"Say, did I just see Callahan's bastard run out of this building?"
Leo's eyes widened at her choice of words and he replied with a cautious reprimand in his tone.
"Tristan is family too, mother. However begrudging that may be. Please don't abuse—"
"Don't be an idiot, Leo. I was talking about Callahan's bastard, not his lap dog."
"Jeez, mother." Leo face-palmed himself while I watched the show open-mouthed. How ever I might have imagined Leo's mother to be like, it certainly wasn't this.
So absorbed was I in watching the interaction, that it took me by surprise when Shy spoke up.
"Huh. You... have a mother?"
Leo turned his glare back on her again.
"Why does everyone just assume that I fell from the sky?"
"Do they? So no one knows that we really snatched you up from under a bridge?"
She commented drolly before turning her piercing green eyes on Shy.
"You must be 'that-Shy-girl-who'd-love-to-keep-you-company' while my son babysits the rest of his father's side of the family. I am Lydia Jones. The Lydia Jones."
Shy frowned, whether in confusion or annoyance, I wasn't sure.
"Shy is my name, actually. Not my quality. And I have no idea what you mean by that 'love-to-keep-you-company' part."
A beat of silence passed and then she turned back to Leo again.
"So, you're not only dumping me on some girl's doorstep who has Callahan's bastards and lapdogs running in-and-out her place, but also the one you don't even know the name of. And without her knowledge, at that. I suddenly realise vividly how poor, abandoned orphans must feel."
"Mother, I'm not abandoning you. And I was just explaining the whole thing to Shae—"
"—Shy."
Lydia and Shy corrected him almost at the same time but Leo went on as if he hadn't heard either of them.
"— and what's this nonsense about old-age homes? You know I love you too much to abandon you like that. I'll be back before Christmas eve, I promise."
"I never mentioned old-age homes dear. But it's such a relief to hear that you haven't been putting any thought into them."
"What? No! I just corrected you because that's where an old person would—"
"—So I'm an 'old person' now."
"This is probably where you stop talking, Leo," I finally spoke as Leo opened his mouth again. Not because I felt sorry for him right then, but because I'd had enough of this for tonight.
"Listen to the girl, son. Even with her bad taste in men, she apparently knows when to shut up."
"Excuse me?" I scoffed and her laser sharp eyes turned to me.
"What? What else am I supposed to call the girl who is dating Callahan Cross' son?"
"Uh, what? I—" I choked out, outraged but right then my phone pinged in my hand, announcing the arrival of my ride.
"You are excused, my dear. Now if you two could be on your way, I'd like to be someplace that doesn't have a draft trying to fly me back to New York flight-less."
Lydia Jones announced and brushed past me, entwining her bony arm around Shy's as if they were best friends and turning her away from us.
She practically dragged Shy into the house, and I got to see her throw one wide-eyed look over her shoulder before Lydia was talking again.
"I do hope you have chocolate in this place, or it's gonna be one miserable even—" were the last words I heard before she slammed the door shut on our faces.
**
30 minutes later my cab stopped in front of the same hotel that Caleb had brought me to just two days ago, but my feelings and circumstances couldn't have been any more different.
On one hand, I was worried about where Caleb was and why he hadn't called me? And on the other hand, I was annoyed and furious.
Even if he had to arrive here with his father, why hadn't he at least dropped me a message? Or call? Anything at all?
How can one man have such a polarising personality? It made my head spin just thinking how Caleb changed every step of the way
A few months ago, Caleb Cross was nothing but a tease who ignited my body in all the right ways.
Then he slowly transformed into this vulnerable, mysterious man who drew me in deeper into his life by enticing my mind with intrigue.
Just a few days ago, he managed to slither into my heart after admitting that he was in love with me and then spending the next 2 days showing me how much.
And now, he was suddenly the man who abandoned me without a word. As always, I was vexed with this man. I was so used to knowing exactly what to expect from people that I didn't know what to make of the man who was as unpredictable as rain in December.
With all these thoughts swirling in my mind as I paid for my ride and stepped into the warmth of the dimly lit hotel lobby that would lead me straight to the banquet, I didn't realise that someone was at my elbow until I heard the footsteps beside me.
So Leo managed to catch up to me, I thought as I almost felt my way ahead towards the bright light beckoning us like a literal end-of-the-tunnel.
When we reached the open area just before the doors to the banquet, sudden on-slaughter of brightness blinded me for a moment.
I blinked rapidly to clear my vision and the first thing that registered after my vision cleared was a makeshift coat-check counter that now stood just to the left of the entrance.
As I walked up to it and shrugged out of my coat, handing it over to a blond teenaged boy who looked too fresh-faced to belong behind the counter, I spoke to the man I still felt beside me without looking up at him.
"Even though I appreciate you looking out for me, I'm not making some grand entrance with you, Leo. I'm attending this party with Caleb or completely on my own."
As I turned towards the doors beyond which faint music could be heard, an all too familiar voice spoke up and stopped me in my heels.
"I'm so glad you feel that way, Ms. Brooke."