Serah and Ella were dumbstruck. "Surprise that I can see you" he smirked. The securities in the office looked at each other than at him. "Good day, Mr. Vanderwood" Ella greeted. "Good day to you too" Mr.Bassett. He flashed her his usual smile, "Did you check the footage?" Ella asked. "Yes I did," Trent answered. The securities and Serah watched the weird interaction between the two.
"The footage of the night, the murder occurred has been deleted" Trent informed her. "Why could that be?" Ella squeezed herself between Trent and the table that has the desktop on it. She sat on the seat next to him, went through the footage, and watched as people passed by. Finally, it was nighttime, she saw Serah and her dad going toward their house, and they were stopped by the magistrate, they spoke to him for a while before they headed home. She kept watching until it went blank for hours.
"Who came into the surveillance room apart from you two?" she asked the security guards who were standing inside the four-cornered room with them. "No one did," the oldest among them answered. Ella sighed. "Does that mean you two tempered with the video?" Trent raised his brow at them. The guards were shocked. "We will never do that," the older man answered. "We are diligent with our work and we will never betray our oath" the younger answered. Ella massages her forehead. "Let's go home and rest, Bassett" Trent stood up stretching his body and yawning.
Trent and Ella walked down the street, it was getting quieter as the people were packing up to go back to their houses. "So Serah, why can't you remember the face of the man that had dinner at your house?" Trent asked. "I don't know, when I woke up, I recalled everything except the face of the person who came to have dinner at our house. I don't know if it was a man or a woman." She was the only one floating in the air, not only did her legs, even her lap and night dress around the area have disappeared.
"It is a man," Trent said with confidence. "How do you know?" Serah asked curiously while Ella quietly listened. "I have my reasons, one being, that you don't have a female friend in Mary Lucas's town." Serah's eyes went wide. "How did you know?" Serah looked at him, "I investigated your family." Serah nodded her head when they reached his car, Serah told them she wanted to stop at the House of Justice.
They followed a shortcut that led straight to the road. "Wait!, there is a shortcut, why did you make us walk that far?" Ella had a puzzled look. "So that I can question the ghost lady behind us," he replied before he chuckled. "This is the first time I am seeing a ghost who needs a lift." "Is because I can not teleport but only pass-through walls!" she retorted. Ella just sighed. When they reached the organization, Serah didn't need to open the door but went through it, she said her goodbyes before leaving.
The car became silent, and nobody said anything, Trent was on the radio, and BTS music, BUTTER was playing. He kept moving his head to the rhythm and tapping his hand on the steering wheel. "Who do you think is after Adam's life and what is their motive? I mean he's an important sacrifice so why haven't they done anything to get him out?" Ella threw the questions that have been bothering her at him. "Do not worry, everything will unfold on its own." hearing Trent's reply Ella laid her head back thinking before she knew it, she drifted to sleep.
Trent reached her house, he stared at her, his gaze landed on her lips, and was tempted to kiss her, he quickly looked at her brows then at her eyelashes that rested on her cheeks before he knew it, his eyes involuntarily drifted to her lips again. "Ella, are you trying to seduce me?" he whispered to himself with a smile. He caressed her cheeks and her eyes twitched. She pouted her lips 💋 And Trent yielded he almost kissed her when she opened her eyes. 👁️
Ella was confused 😖, she narrowed her eyes as she looked at Trent, and she felt his cold but surprisingly, soft hand on her cheeks. She also realizes that he was too close and her cheeks had a shade of pink. She could not believe that she was blushing 😳. He moved away and she quickly sat up. "What were you trying to do?" she found herself stammering. (Ella you are truly an idiot) she thought in her mind.
"I was trying to wake you up like how Disney princes 🤴 wake their princesses 👸 up." He smiled at her and Ella's mouth went wide. At that moment she was sure that her brain was fried because she didn't know what to say. She quickly got out of the car and ran into her house. Trent couldn't help but laugh. "I should tease her more," he said to himself.
Ella woke up the next day with black circles under her eyes. She couldn't sleep well because Trent kept invading her dreams and she didn't know why. With the help of Rose, it was covered with light makeup. She wore a milk-colored loose suit with black embroidery on it. She said her goodbyes and left the house since she doesn't have a car. Ella had to use public transport to work. As soon as she reached entered her workplace, the news of Cyrus solving the case was all over. She ran to her office and only met Mr.Ford there.
"You should go to the meeting hall" she greeted him before heading for the meeting hall, when she got in she saw the elders praising Cyrus, especially the beautiful woman with grey eyes. "Cyrus I am really proud of your success, not only did you solve the case you caught a level eight demon, I am impressed." the woman smiled at Cyrus. Cyrus kept laughing as he held the glass 🥃 with red wine in it.
"Thank you so much, you had faith in me. Some people didn't even get anywhere in this case" he directed his words at Trent. Trent elegantly walked over to Cyrus. The meeting hall was big the decking has three steps the judge's cabin, the witness's cabin, and the accused. Which was behind the podium where the man in the grey suit told them about Adam's case. There was a huge space in the center, and seats were arranged to face the decking.
*I should give him a name by now*
"Cyrus my dear friend, I have started to worry about your memory, or is it because of old age" Hearing Trent's insult. Cyrus hissed showing his fang and red eyes. "What did you say to me!" he growled at Trent who was unfazed by him. "I am not wrong then, since you can't hear what I just said." Trent smiled at him angering Cyrus more.
"Watch your mouth, Trent!" Aurelia's cold gaze was on him, but he kept his usual smile. "I didn't say anything, Aurelia. Just the truth, Cyrus here has forgotten that the competition was between him and Bassett over there" he pointed at Ella, and now all the attention was on her.
She cursed Trent in her heart, she saw Cyrus smirking at her. "This is to prove to you that, just because you came second in your CBT, doesn't mean you can beat me." Cyrus sneered at her. "You are absolutely right I was way over my head. Congratulations." 🎉 Cyrus was satisfied with her words.
"Can you please tell me how you solve the case?" "Of cause, I will, when Markle gave his statement, everything pointed out that Markle was saying the truth at the same time, I knew that there was no way a seven years old boy can kill his family. That's when I started investigating this I questioned not only the adults but the children Adam plays with. They told me that Adam likes playing with a strange dolls. So I investigated it, I found the doll under his bed, and that's when I found a level eight demon residing in it."
"That doesn't answer the question" Trent spoke Cyrus was angered by Trent but calmed himself down today was his victory day. "I wasn't done, the demon in the doll was none other than Lilith an orphan child who kills other families out of jealousy." Cyrus completed his tale.
She excused herself and decided to find Adam when she saw Serah.
"They are about to leave, he's been searching for you" Ella ran towards the exit after Serah spoke to her, and Serah followed behind. As soon as she got out, she saw the man who brief them about Adam's case talking to Adam. As if sensing that someone was looking at him. He looked 👀 in that direction and their eyes met. Ella quickly lowered her eyes. "Samuel!" Adam went and hugged her. Serah slowly stood beside them and watch her younger brother conversing with Ella.
Thomas came closer and told them that they had to leave. Ella stretched her hand and he shook it. At that moment Serah saw the tattoo of Aries on his wrist and all the memory of the night returned. The person that drugged her and her family was none other than Thomas Wilder.