Chapter 21: Web of Deception

Meanwhile, Isabella was restless. The only thing that kept echoing in her head throughout the night was that Alex was coming to do the community service with her. She did not know how to escape it. She didn’t have any excuse. She didn’t even know how she would run away from this. But she knew she could do it. She knew she could leave very soon. But she had no idea. Just then, just when she was about to give up, an idea struck her. 

What if she claims to have already done the community service when he comes, or she leaves the house very early? That was her option. Finally, after having a solution, she happily slept only for her to oversleep. The next morning, she was woken up by a heavy slap from Rachel as she opened her eyes in fright. She sat up immediately, being a bit confused. 

"Why are you sleeping like that? What kept you up all night that you couldn't even wake up early? Do not forget you have community service to attend to. Alex is downstairs, and he has been running his car continuously. Check on him on the veranda now and assure him that you're okay. We don't want to go there because you know the kind of lie you have told him already," Rachel said before going back to her seat. 

Isabella stood up fast and quickly ran towards the veranda as she saw Alex still pacing around his car. He looked up to see her and smiled at her. She smiled back awkwardly and waved at him. She walked back inside, and the first thing she did was walk past a mirror. Just then, she saw a reflection and stepped back. 

"Oh my God." 

Her plans could not work because she overslept, and she didn't even get herself prepared physically before stepping out to assure Alex that she was fine. Now she couldn't even lie that she had already done the community service, and he might even ask her where the community service was being done. She felt so frustrated at the moment because even all her plans last night would not work for her today because she overslept while thinking of the same plan she needed. 

After getting ready, she came down quickly to see that Alex was already inside the car. As he saw her, he started the engine immediately. She joined him inside and apologized. 

"I'm really sorry I stayed long. I kind of slept off. I don't know what's wrong with me," she said. 

"Take me to the community service center. I want to know what you are doing. I've gotten different equipment to help you clean. I just don't know what exactly you are going there to do." 

Alex sounded unprofessional. 

"Oh my God." 

She did not know how else to escape this. She did not know how she would escape his grasp, escape from everything. She felt so frustrated at the moment. Nothing she could do would work out perfectly for her. It felt like she was just going from one problem to another. 

"I'm sorry to say this, Alex. I think the community service has been canceled," she said. 

She knew that this would make Alex doubt her so badly, but she had no choice. She wouldn't want to go there and just be parading around, letting the teachers end up telling her things. That was even worse. If Alex should find out that there was never any community service from the start, it would be worse than her claiming it had been canceled. 

He looked at her with a shocked expression. 

"What is your problem? Are you trying to tell me that even the community service was a lie? I wanted to believe you. I saw this as an opportunity to trust you. Yet you still lie to me. What else do you want me to believe, Isabella? I just hope there's nothing between you and Professor James because I don't understand why he would give you a commitment above everybody and then go behind everybody and tell you that you should cancel it. And I hope nobody in your class actually finds out about this." 

Alex said as he reversed back to the hostel and sat there silently, clearly signaling for her to leave. She sat there for a while, unable to speak. No word could even come out of her mouth as she felt like a fool for even deceiving Alex from the start. 

"I am sorry, Alex. The truth is it got canceled. I did not know how to tell you, but he had already canceled it. I had already pleaded with him to please give me one last chance, and it would happen again even today. I still have his lectures to attend to. I'm sorry. After the lectures, I would like to see you. Let's have a little dinner date," Isabella said to Alex. 

In her mind, all she wanted was just to get everything out, even to tell Alex everything and let it all be solved. Let her be free, and most importantly, let her be free from John. 

Alex looked at her in surprise because she was not the kind of person who would offer to buy him dinner or have a conversation with him. All she did was be the domineering woman, nothing else. 

"Why do I feel like something is wrong somewhere? I just hope you don't have any bad news to give to the date," Alex said to her as she nodded happily, giving him a peck on the cheek before she scurried out and slammed the door, rushing back into the hostel. 

I guess she just dressed for nothing. She ended up telling him the truth that it was canceled, even though that was not really the truth. Alex felt frustrated and even more conflicted. 

Just then, he brought out his phone and opened the text message he had gotten from John. 

"Be careful about her and be careful about who she mingles around. Who knows she can be cheating on you, and you don't even know." 

He stared at the text again. 

"What does John know? What does John mean?" 

He had called John immediately when he got home after seeing the text, hoping that John would tell him what happened, but John clearly refused. He did not know how to get John to say anything. John only told him to just wait a week, and he would realize everything. 

He ended up telling him the truth that it was canceled.

He hoped that Isabella was not about to shatter his heart. He couldn't even imagine Isabella shattering his heart because he wouldn't be able to cope no matter what. No matter what anybody says, he wouldn't ever be able to cope with whatever she would do to him. 

"I just hope that nothing is wrong somewhere," he uttered to himself before driving off. 

Meanwhile, Professor James was getting all ready for class, but the thought of Isabella and him banging in the laboratory just as he wanted could not leave his mind as he smiled cheesily, hoping that it would actually happen. Even though Isabella was trying to push herself away from him, he still wanted to ride her. He still wanted to drill that hole of hers no matter what. And he was going to do it. Nothing was going to stop him. Not even Isabella herself. Not even any student who tried to talk to him after lectures. 

He was going to make sure Isabella wouldn't be able to walk with her two feet back home, and that was for making him get so obsessed over her and leaving him for two days without attending to his sexual needs. 

He soon got to the class, and Isabella had yet to arrive. He had no idea how to punish her this time around. He looked at the time, and it was just 10 minutes left before she would be late. As he starred at the door, he hoped she would just walk in, and as expected, she staggered in, sweating as she tried her best to regain her energy. She smiled at him as a sign of greeting and then went to her seat beside Rachel again. 

He looked at everyone, and it was all complete. Just then, his gaze fell on Lily. She had a deep frown on her face as she shook her head sideways. 

Is there something that he doesn't know about? He thought.