Chapter 172: FLOWER IN BLOOM

After dinner which Ace requested be brought to his room, he stepped out to go to his office room, and finish off for the day

Spades had a target to reach at the end of the week. A target he had to finish the next day, because of the party which would take place in the weekend.

As he stepped out of the room, his eyes caught sight of Fay’s door.

He couldn’t hold back this time around. He walked past Reign’s room, and stopped in front of Fay’s.

Her scent was even stronger at the front of her door. it was so intoxicating, he found himself sniffing into the air.

His eyes shut, and her image filled his mind.

She was so beautiful it hurt. If he allowed himself just a moment to extensively think about her, he would drop all of his pride and run to seek her.

To what end though? He questioned in his mind.

She would have won, and his entire life would be in her hands.

"What if it’s worth it?" A voice in his head asked, and that was when he knew he was losing his mind.

Regardless, he still pushed her door open, and stepped into the room.

He had ordered that no one, under no circumstance, step foot in the room.

Reign was not excluded from this order. He knew she loved to overdo things. If she stepped into the room, there was a probability all memories of Fay would be lost forever.

"Why are you holding on if she means nothing to you?" His thoughts rang loudly in his ears.

It was a question he didn’t plan on answering, as he scanned around.

She hadn’t changed much in the room, yet her scent filled it.

He walked to her dresser, and began to look through it.

Picking up her brush which still contained strands of her red hair, he found himself fondling the pieces in his hand.

No one had hair like her. She was the most unique woman in all of existence. If she hadn’t betrayed the feelings he was starting to have for her, he wouldn’t have been shy to declare her the queen of hearts.

In a way, she was. She made an impact on everyone she met. Whether good or bad, no one could claim they met Fay, and remained unaffected.

He dropped the brush, because he was beginning to look too much like a lunatic.

He was about to leave the dressing table to the bed, when his eyes fell on a bottle labelled A.

His feet carried him to the right side of the dresser, and he picked up the bottle.

It was a perfume. He found himself spraying it into the air. The scent of the fragrance consumed him, and for a second there, he almost transcended out of the world.

This perfume was him to the last note. He looked at the label again, and shook his head.

It couldn’t be she had made it for him. In no time in their last two days of peace, did she bring it up. Maybe he was just overthinking things.

Hanging on to the last thread, that signalled hope for them.

He closed the bottle, but couldn’t bring himself to drop it back when he picked it from.

His fingers trembled, as he pressed the bottle tightly against his chest.

"I need to leave, before I’m unable to ever let you go," he said aloud.

Turning around, he walked out of the room, but not before pulling the room key.

He closed the door with the key, and dropped it into his pocket.

Only when he got to his home office did he see that he was still holding on to the bottle of perfume.

He contemplated returning it, but his hands had a mind of its own. Before he could stop himself, he had dropped it into one of his drawers.

His phone rang immediately after, signalling it was time to work.

The next morning, Ace was up early. He needed to run a few errands before he got to the office, thanks to his mother who had called him with a request.

As he drove himself to the mansion that was initially built so his mother, and father would live in, but they never got to, memories of his father filled his head.

His vision sought the sticker that was glued to his dashboard, and he smiled.

It was the last thing he was given, right before his demise. A star sticker, to tell him how proud he was.

For years, he had contemplated where to put it. He finally placed it in this car, because it was his father’s favourite car brand, and they used to drive around together, all the time.

"I miss you," he whispered, returning his focus to the road.

He drove into the mansion, and parked the car.

Stepping out, he was accosted by the gardener. He looked around in search of his crazy wife, but she was nowhere to be found.

Landon called her crazy, but he found her amusing, and very entertaining.

"Good morning sir," greeted.

"Hey, good morning. Mum said there’s something in the garden she wants me to pick up. Do you have it?"

"No sir. She said when you get to the garden, you’d know what it is."

He rolled his eyes. His mum was probably talking of Lillie’s. She was obsessed with them for some weird reason.

He constantly told her to plant it in the Atticus mansion, since she loved to see it so much. She always refused, saying it would remind her too much of his father, and the house already did that.

"Good morning sir!" Some of the other staff rushed out to greet when they heard he was around.

He waved in acknowledgement, as he continued to the garden. It still didn’t make sense that there was a whole mansion not being lived in, but had staff..

The only way he could rationalise it was that at least some people got to have jobs.

He entered the garden, and his nose widened reflexively.

In a split second, he sniffed into the air. There was only one person who was capable of making him behave so animalistic.

The thought was barely out, when a girl in a long gown, and hat, holding a basket whilst humming, walked out of the path that led to the flower area of the garden.

She raised her hand to wipe off the sweat that had managed to sneak in her face, when she mistakenly pushed off the hat on her head.

Red hair cascaded down, shimmering as the morning son hit it.

Ace’s heart skipped a beat. Even in a past memory, and inexistence, he would still know her.

"Fay?" Her name slipped out of his mouth like a flower in bloom.

She lifted her head, and there the man of her dreams stood in all his beautiful glory.

Her heart thumped heavily against her chest, as an impulsive desire hit her in the face.

She couldn’t fight it, and so she succumbed to it.

Dropping the basket she was holding to the ground, she held onto the helm of her gown and dashed forward.

Ace blinked, and she was on his body, hugging him tightly.

All his pent up anger vanished the moment she clung on to him.

He found himself hugging her back, before he could stop it.

The fragrance she left behind was haunting enough. But in person, he felt like consuming her.

As he hugged her back fiercely, she willed herself not to cry.

He was there. He was actually standing there.

She had taken the courage to go to the garden, after staying away from it because of that strange encounter she had.

Perhaps, her soul knew he would be there, and that was why her feet led her here.

They separated, and she jubilated in her thoughts. She had held her emotions together. She didn’t cry.

"You’re here," he said, because he didn’t know what else to say.

He would have preferred to just look at her. However, somewhere deep in his mind, alarm bells warned him.

"You came. Did you come for me? Are you ready to hear the truth?" She asked with a hopeful glint in her eyes, and a desperate plea in her voice.

Her words brought him back from fantasy land. He remembered every single detail of her deceit, and a dangerous frown lifted his face.

"No," he replied coldly. "My mum asked me to bring her some Lillie’s. I’m just going to cut out a few."

He walked past her, then stopped. That wasn’t the plan. The plan he had come up with to deal with her was much more different.

Moving back to where she stood, still dazed from his dismissal, he smiled.

"I was just teasing," he said.

She breathed out, and finally smiled.

"I’m glad you’re here. I missed you," she said fearlessly.

Because after several days of swearing him off, it took just a second of seeing him to make her fully agree with the matriarch.

This was the man she was indeed in love with.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by Aunomay Read