Chapter 14: Deceit and Encounters

Without wasting any time, Isabella quickly brought out her phone and began to call Alex as he stopped in his tracks and picked up the phone. 

“Why are you calling me? Just get out already. I am tired of waiting. We are getting late,” Alex said while checking the time. The phone call clearly did not stop Alex from getting closer and closer to James. 

Isabella could not hold it anymore as she yelled, “Go back to the car, James! Go back to the car! Alex, why are you going towards our lecturer? Do you want him to suspect anything?” 

Alex looked confused, stopping in his tracks as James had already filled his tank and entered his car before driving off. 

“What exactly do you mean by I should not go and meet our lecturer? Of course, I have to meet Professor James. I have something important to talk about—about my grades. He keeps giving me low grades, and I don't understand. Every question was correct; I had to confirm that. That’s why I wanted to see him personally. Luckily for me, I saw him here, and I was still going to take that opportunity,” Alex said to Isabella as she slammed her head in her hands, feeling angry with herself. 

She was so foolish. How could she have thought that Alex found out anything about her and James? She couldn't help but roll her eyes as she bent down to pick up everything that had fallen to the ground. She couldn't even believe that she acted so impatiently and quickly took matters into her own hands, thinking that something was about to happen. 

*“It’s fine. I understand you. I'm sorry for the misunderstanding. I just thought you two had something to talk about. Maybe something personal I had no knowledge of. That's why I called. You don't just go and face a professor so easily. Do you know how it can affect you academically if you say anything wrong to him?” Isabella said as Alex rolled his eyes, hissing as he ended the call and went back to wait in the car. 

Isabella quickly bought whatever she wanted to buy and ran towards the car, opened the door, and sat down as Alex looked at her. She clearly knew that Alex had questions he wanted to ask her so badly. 

“So tell me, what is going on between you and Professor James? I heard the news today. It was talked about on the platform. You were favored by Professor James only for you to twist the question yourself. Hope that is wrong?” Alex questioned as Isabella laughed.

“You really are so good at listening to gossip, right? Have you ever heard of a situation where gossip is actually right? They are never right, always wrong, and you just have to believe who you have to believe, which is me. You have to believe me. Nothing happened, okay? He scolded me so badly I felt that my world was about to crumble. So seeing the class representative acting like that was not what happened. It quickly shattered my heart into pieces that I couldn't bear it anymore. I had to speak up. I had to stand up for myself so they could also know that I am not being favored by him,” Isabella tried to explain as Alex laughed. 

“I did not ask you for such a long explanation. I just needed a simple explanation, that's all. Just stop this already. Stop this act of yours,” he said to her as he started the engine. But before he drove off, he turned to her, giving her one last warning. 

“I have put all my hope in you, and you know how much I love you. Please don't let me regret ever making those decisions,” he added before driving off. 

As Isabella played with her fingers, feeling nervous, scared, and guilty, she realized she was clearly doing lots of bad things behind Alex's back while also using him to experiment and get better in her sexual intimacy with James. So she decided to assure him, “Do not worry. I promise you, Alex, you are all I have got. You are all I need. I don't need any other person. I assure you that you will never ever regret loving me.” 

She said, but Alex did not respond to her. She decided it was time for her to be more discreet about the things she was doing because it seemed as though Alex was becoming suspicious. The same thing with Rachel. Even though Tricia would not say anything about it, she still did not want to be labeled as the one who slept with the professor just to get a good grade. 

Even though it was Tricia's idea and she also told her everything about it, she still did not want it to be as though she was the only one overdoing whatever they had talked about. She sat quietly as the drive was a really long ride to Alex's home. They got there by nightfall as Alex opened the door, but before he slammed it, he muttered to her, “If only you had been faster, we would have gotten here earlier. Hopefully, I guess we would still get to eat dinner with the family,” before walking inside, not even opening the door for her. 

She opened the door slowly, and something within her made her feel so sad, like she had already shattered Alex's trust and there was no way of building it back. She closed the door, and from the front door of the house, Alex locked the car. She hurriedly caught up with him as he knocked on the door, only for the door to be widely opened by his sister, who squealed in joy as she jumped on Alex's body, hugging him tightly. 

He also caressed her as he hugged her, but his sister did not even act like Isabella was standing beside them. 

“Hi,” Isabella uttered as his sister went to her and shook her hand without even having a good expression on her face before giving them a way to enter, only for them to see that dinner was already served and everyone was about to pray. 

Alex turned to Isabella with an angry expression before rushing towards his family. “I am so sorry we are late. It was traffic. We had a very hectic traffic. You won't understand what we had to go through. I am so sorry. Please forgive us,” he pleaded as his mom stood up and hugged him. 

“Stop begging, okay? Just stop it. I understand what happened. I knew you won't intentionally be late to a gathering which I hardly ever call you for. I am so happy you were able to make it here with… Who is she?” his mom said as Isabella rushed towards them.

“Hi,” she muttered. Just then, she saw a familiar face. 

“What is going on right now?”

She had met this face before, and now she realized she was in even more trouble than ever.

She could remember his face from the other night.