In the middle of scanning some documents inside Felix's office, a continuous knocking on the door reverberated around, which caught his attention. He glanced at the door and saw his butler, Mr. Harlan, coming in. He immediately put down the documents on the table and gave him the signal to come closer.
"What is it? Did you distribute all my gifts to them?" Felix asked, leaning his back on the swivel chair.
"Ms. Amber and Ms. Sabrina seems to like the gifts you gave them, but Ms. Alex... She refused to accept anything and sent it back here. What should I do about it, sir?"
No words came out from Felix. He just crossed his legs and turned the swivel chair around, facing the window side behind him.
From his position, he can clearly see the east wing of his residence where Alexandria lives. He knew she wasn't asleep since the lights in her room were still on. At this rate, there's only one thing she might do, and that's probably sketching some new designs.
"How's everything here during my absence?" He asked without turning back.
"There's nothing much to say. The three women were on their own, minding their personal businesses. Ms. Amber has been busy in her photoshoot and guesting at some events whilst Ms. Sabrina continues going out with her friends during weekend and on weekdays she's inviting some of her friends over. And about Ms. Alex, she's busy in the company. I barely saw her home."
"How about the children?"
"They're doing fine and have been being taking care of their own nanny."
"If they need something, make sure you help them when I'm not around. Do you understand?"
"Yes, sir." Mr. Harlan answered as he glanced at him, whose both eyes focused outside the window. "Sir, what about Ms. Alex? I heard from the people working in the east wing that she's having a hard time sleeping. She's not eating much and always drinking at night on her own."
"Well, if she's not seeking for my help, then she'll be fine. She's not a child anymore that I need to look after."
"Sir, I don't want to interfere on the way you work things out on your harem, but I think you should be a little more affectionate to Ms. Alex."
Felix chortled. "Why do you say so?"
"I've been with you since you were a child. I saw you grew up and fell in love." Mr. Harlan halted from talking as he looked down. "What I'm trying to say, you never gave Ms. Alex an equal attention compared to your other wives. She might end up seeking for someone else attention to fulfill the void that you left."
Felix couldn't utter a single word upon hearing the butler's opinion. He just looked at the balcony of Alexandria's room as he saw her came out from inside, wearing a red velvet colored silk nightgown with a cup of coffee on left hand whilst the other holding her phone.
"Harlan, you can leave now. I'll think about what you said, so don't worry."
"You should get some rest. It's already late. I'm going back to my quarter, sir."
He just nodded his head as he heard the butler's footsteps coming out of his office.
As he got left alone inside and the silence lingered once again, the faint sound of those cicadas nearby and the ticking of the clock filled the entire area. Felix, who's lost in his thoughts while both eyes still focused on the same spots, got startled when his phone rang.
Out of reflex, he took and answered it without seeing the caller's name. "This is Felix Sinclair talking, who..."
"Are you stripping me down or trying to curse me with that odious gaze of yours, Mr. Sinclair?"
Upon hearing a familiar voice on the phone, he looked at the balcony where Alexandria was and saw her waving the phone with those playful grins on lips that caught him off guard.
His eyes widened, looking away in embarrassment. "W-who told you I'm looking at you? I'm just resting and you were there so,"
"You're really in deep thoughts if you answered my call immediately, isn't it funny?"
"Huh?"
"I mean, it's been a while since you answered my personal call. You often ignored me and only answered if it's about work."
A chuckled escaped on Felix's mouth before looking straight at her again. Neither he nor she ended the call, despite not saying a word. He just listened to her calm breathing over the phone. So she is.
"Can you see the moon over there? It's beautiful, isn't it?" Alexandria uttered while looking up at the starry sky. "But it's cold here."
"You should go inside, then. Why are you even there?"
A moment of quietude came in between them for a seconds before Alexandria broke it and said, "Hey, you won't choose me over them, am I right? You'll let me face those people in the company alone again, am I right?"
Felix let out a faint smile. "Adria, I want to be part of my children's journey as long as I could, may it be from birth or adulthood. You understand it, right?"
"So, I'm always the last option and always be your last choice in everything. I can't even compete with them if you think like that. I'm disheartened."
"It's not like..."
"When are you going to choose me over them?"
"Adria..."
"Nevermind." She said, letting out a brief laugh. "I'll send you the details of the meeting once we compiled everything. If you want to change anything, just contact my assistant or your secretary can deliver it to me. You should take a rest. I'm hanging up."
"Let's go somewhere when our schedule aligned."
"Stop making promises you won't even do. You're just pushing me to seek for divorce. I'm gonna hang up for real, sleep with whoever you want, and don't force me to watch your little house playing. You seem enjoying it, but I'm not."
"Hey,"
Before he could say another word, the call already ended. He turned his gaze back in Alexandria's direction, but he saw her went inside the room without looking to him.
Felix massaged his temple as he heaves a deep sigh and turned the swivel chair around, putting his phone on the table. Yet, it didn't even take a minute when he heard someone knocking on the door again.
"Sir, sorry for disturbing you at this hour, but it's me, Harris."
"Come in." He said.
The door abruptly opened, and he saw his secretary, Harris Yang, holding a brown envelope. He went straight to him and put down the envelope that made Felix confused.
"What is it?"
"It's the details you're asking for earlier." Harris stated. "I already confirmed that Ms. Sabrina's indeed pregnant and visited a hospital last week. However, during your absence, she got seen hanging out late at night in the club she used to work. The man you hired took some photos from that time. You can check it out by yourself. In case of Ms. Amber, she's been coming to an event and doing photoshoot. She's also seen having dinner with your parents, along with Jeanne, at least five times during your absence. Whilst Ms. Alex, she's the busiest one among the three, mostly she travelled out of town for meetups and events both as your substitute and as a creative director of the company. She also seen meeting up with this freelance model named Elijah at least thrice during your absence and consistently been in contact every now and then."
"When did those two get acquainted with each other? They only worked once last year."
"As far as I know, they met once again at the same event and exchanged contact. Besides, he was one of the candidate to be the cover model on November Magazine and a representative to the year end release of new designs. The planning team was too eager to make him the model."
"What's good about him?" He mumbled to himself. "Go get whatever information you can take about that man, then send it to me as soon as possible."
"I'll do it as per your order, but there's one thing I want to say, sir. I just got this information from Ms. Alex's assistant."
"What is it this time?"
"During the recent event, it's a private event that Ms. Alex attended as your substitute. I heard she got humiliated a lot."
Felix halted from taking out the papers and pictures inside the envelope and glanced at his secretary with those ferocious gazes. "Pardon? Who got humiliated? Which event? And who did it? Tell me everything in details."
"It's the event that was scheduled last weekend, precisely it's Mr. Cowell company's 45th anniversary. He only invited his family members, close friends, and business partners to attend the event. Your parents were also present at the event which Ms. Alex didn't get informed with, and Ms. Amber accompanied them." Harris said. "Her assistant told me. She got outcast by everyone and introduced as a pushover old mistress by your parents and Mr. Cowell. It's a tremendous commotion that spread in the circles of those elites. But Ms. Alex seems to fulfill her duty until the end and went home drinking all day."
"How about Amber?"
"Ms. Amber got raised with a golden spoon by her parents, so no one wanted to get on their nerves. She's the center of attention that night."
"So, it's the reason she said those words to me? They sure dared to humiliate my wife when I'm not around." Felix said, massaging the bridge of his nose to calm himself. "What's his name again?"
"Mr. Allen Cowell, he owned the WelCo Mall. He's been our business partner for a decade now."
"A decade of partnership and he still won't know his place?" Felix chuckled. "Pull out all the shops that sell our products in his mall and announce that the Sinclair Clothing Company has severed its ties with the WelCo Mall owner."
"Pardon, sir? But WelCo Mall..."
"Just do what I told you to do, Harris. I want it done by tomorrow."
"Okay, sir."
"By the way, I want you to accompany Adria on Friday. Make sure you watch over her and don't let this kind of incident happened again."
"Yes, sir."
"And one thing, I want you to clear my schedule on the 4th of October and do it as well to Adria's schedule."
Harris eyes widened with confusion upon hearing those words from his boss. "Sir, may I ask why is it necessary that day?"
"Do people surrounding me already forgot it? It's our wedding anniversary. Besides, she's been throwing tantrums since I came back. I'm planning to pamper her a bit."
"I'm sorry for asking this sir, but... Did Ms. Alex open up about the divorce again?" Harris asked, but Felix just flinched and didn't say another word.