Chapter 214 - Jilted

Elfie opened the door to find a sullen Edward with his bag.

"Why do you look like you've been jilted? What happened? Was it really bad? I thought you said you had it under control?"

Edward came in and made himself home at Elfie's place. It wasn't his first time here and all the other things related to Anastasia's trace were in Elfie's apartment. Edward didn't know how to cope with his feelings so the best option he could think of was to run away from them until they became numb. 

"Nothing," he said but Elfie wasn't buying it. Edward had a self-destructive tendency to throw himself into work whenever he didn't want to deal with something. It was one of the bad habits in his friend that he couldn't help to change even after knowing him for so long. It didn't take a genius to figure out what this was all about.

"It's Scarlet, isn't it? What happened? I thought you were both doing well compared to Alex and Jasper."

Edward threw his bag on the couch and made himself cosy, turning on his laptop and tuned Elfie out. He knew his friend was concerned but he didn't want to talk about it.

"Let's start work. How's the lead that I gave you? Have you started tracing them down and collecting evidence for prosecution?"

Elfie sighed. It was no use trying to talk Edward out of it when he was in this self-destructive mode. The only difference now was that Edward was still here and willing to let someone work with him. If left alone, this spy might just overwork himself to the hospital if someone was lucky enough to find him before he dies.

"I've hunted down a few of the smaller leads enough to damn them. However, I cannot find any discriminating evidence that points towards these companies working with Anastasia to nail him specifically. I think there are higher-ups in play that we don't know about yet."

Edward nodded. "Understood. You continue working on them and pass those evidence to the regular police. I will try to look through all the files you hacked to find something that we might have missed out. I want to settle this by this year. If we don't put Anastasia away for good, I won't be able to enjoy my life with Scarlet properly. This bastard has to go so that I can focus on her without distractions."

Edward wasn't someone who cussed a lot not because he didn't know the vocabulary but because he was above using such uncreative words. When he used them, Elfie knew that Edward just couldn't bother about his image any longer. It meant that the spy was dead serious and no longer in the mood to fool around. His patience had expired and people were going to pay for it. Usually, Elfie would be wary about Edward when he was pushed to this point. However, today he couldn't help but be curious about what Scarlet did to push Edward so close to his breaking point that he had to take it out on Anastasia.

"Bro, chill. How long will you be here? I don't exactly have anything for another person to be living here for a long time."

Edward nodded. "Not more than a week, I promised her I won't be gone long."

The hacker couldn't understand it. He was clearly concerned about her so why did he leave? This doesn't make sense. Then again, what would a single dog like him know about a lover's quarrel? Scarlet wasn't the type to fight to such an extent. Could this all be Edward's doing? Suddenly, he didn't know anymore.

"You can take the couch and make yourself home. The spare keys are in the empty shoebox, you know where they are. Do you want me to help check in on Scarlet? The password to your home security system is still the same right?"

Edward rolled his eyes. "You're the hacker. Even if I changed them, what's going to stop you? Do whatever you want."

Elfie took that as a sign to do whatever he wanted and left Edward alone. The spy couldn't be reasoned with when he was in one of these moods. Instead of asking his wall of a friend for the story, Elfie decided to do a little digging of his own. Perhaps observing Scarlet might give him some clues about why Edward was behaving like this. And if all else failed, he was calling Alex to ask the professional gossipmonger to find out more.

While Elfie busied away, Edward turned his focus onto the millions of files waiting for his attention. Right now, he wanted to shut the hurtful words out. He knew that those weren't Scarlet's true words. He heard her loud and clear through her actions but somehow, the things that she said still affected him. Understanding the reason for her lack of trust did not make him feel better. Normally, he could reason himself out of a slump but when it concerned Scarlet, nothing worked.

It might be a coward's move to escape what he couldn't deal with and Edward tried to tell himself that sometimes a tactical retreat was necessary. Yet he couldn't even fool himself using that excuse. He didn't mean for those words to come out back there but they did and now, he couldn't face Scarlet, much less himself. If his father knew, that man would have laughed till he cried. The tough kid was finally acting like a wuss because of a girl, who wouldn't find that hilarious?

Scarlet had every reason to suspect him. He hadn't exactly been cautious around her because he didn't want to pretend in front of her. He just didn't think that Scarlet would catch on so quickly to his other job. Sure, that laptop he used was a dead giveaway. In addition, Edward never paid any attention to his brain to mouth filter around her although he didn't speak about anything classified. He didn't even bother hiding his things properly. The reasons he gave her weren't lies but they were flimsy half-truths that Scarlet didn't question further. No matter how he saw it, Scarlet was desperately trying to find a reason back there to still believe in him despite his unworthiness. Yet, he could only emotionally blackmail her and made her feel bad about what she did because he wanted to hear from her mouth how she still chose him despite the mess they were in.

Edward had never envied another person's relationship so much but now, he wished that his relationship with Scarlet could be more fighting over trivial matters like an old married couple. That beautiful harmonious relationship he had with Scarlet came shattering so quickly and it could be considered their first real fight. First fights were seldom this serious. A normal first fight would be over something more trivial like lifestyle preferences or life choices, right? Although she apologised quickly and he forgave her, they still ended up drifting a little.

"What am I going to do?" he asked nobody in particular and thought about his mother. He might have promised to send her snail mails but in a time like this, he was glad for technology.

Elfie was busy with something, most likely spying on Scarlet and gossiping with Alex over their fight but Edward couldn't care. He went to the bathroom and shut the door with his phone in his hand. He dialled the number that he remembered by heart and waited for the call to connect.

"Mom?"

Mrs Bayon was surprised to hear from her son but the call wasn't unwelcomed. Ever since he started dating Scarlet, Edward had called her more times than he did the last few years. She didn't have to see his expression to know that her darling was in some sort of slump. According to a mother's intuition, her baby was hurting because of a relationship problem. Still, she let him explain.

"My first fight with your father..." she tried to recall when Edward asked how she fought and how she patched things up with his father.

"It was just before we got married that we had a major fight. I found out that your father intended to buy me a house in my name and pay for everything because he felt guilty about the work trips. I already knew that he was a busy man and a very important one. He couldn't tell me anything about what he did and the only way I can remember how he looked like after spending more years apart than together is through photographs. For me, I wanted the house to be under both our names but your father refused and I heavily reconsidered my marriage to him."

Edward cringed. Compared to his fight with Scarlet, his mom had it worse. "How did you settle it?"

Mrs Bayon chuckled. "Your father came to me with a bouquet of roses and a badly written poem to apologise. He couldn't tell me the reason why he didn't put his name for the house but he told me something that made me understand everything."

"What did he say?"

Mrs Bayon eared up a little at the memory. "He said that Bayon wasn't his real name. However, he said that he would make it his real name because it was a name that he wanted me to have as his wife. He said that even though he couldn't register the house with his real name, he wished for the house to be registered under our name - Bayon. It became a new promise that we made. I never questioned him and he would send letters frequently to let me know that he still cared. When I had you, he was both devastated and overjoyed. Devastated that this little boy would grow up getting bullied by his classmates for having a father who wouldn't come home and a mother who never saw her husband for more than once a year."

Edward found himself curious about his mother's story and his father's romantic side. The more he listened to how they overcome their obstacles, the more he was ashamed of himself.

"Mom, you're a very strong woman. I don't think dad or I could ever compete with your mental toughness. Scarlet chewed me out because she found out somethings that triggered her paranoia but I couldn't even tell her anything about why I hid what I did from her. I made her cry, mom."

Mrs Bayon smiled. Her boy was growing up to become a man. "A true man can make his woman cry and wipe those tears away to make her smile again more beautifully than before. Scarlet is a good girl, if you tell her why you couldn't tell her, she would understand. As for everything else, open your heart to her and don't put up walls. She must be dying to know about your flaws and insecurities too. How can you expect her to trust you when you don't show her the bad, ugly and uncool parts of you? She's been showing you vulnerable sides of her for a while now but you've never once opened up to her properly. I think both of you can take some time to reflect on the fight and grow. When you're ready, talk to her again and listen to her instead of explaining. Stop using your brilliant brain for once and listen to the voice in her heart. What that little lady needs most now isn't reasoning but assurance."

Edward thanked his mother and ended the call. He didn't think that his heart would feel a lot lighter with just a phone call but he no longer doubted it when people said mothers knew best. With a better attitude, Edward exited the bathroom and started planning his next move. He wouldn't give it up, his career or his lover. He would have them both.