Chapter 11
Elizabeth's POV
Alexander was finally gone.
The breath I'd been holding escaped me in a long, quiet sigh. I pulled Lisa and Anna close, my voice dropping to a conspiratorial whisper. "So, who exactly is Mr. Windsor to the Windsor family? And why is he doing this to me?"
Faced with this gilded cage, the information I possessed was practically zero. Finding a way to escape meant knowing more information.
Lisa and Anna exchanged a look, their faces clouded with an expression I couldn't quite decipher.
Then, as if they had reached a silent agreement, they nodded in unison. "Yes, Ms. Spencer," Lisa said. "Mr. Windsor is a distant relative of the Windsor family, but we don't know the specific details beyond that."
"Then tell me this," I pressed, "what is his relationship with Alexander?"
As if I had uttered something truly terrifying, both their expressions froze. They stared at me, their eyes wide with disbelief.
Anna was the first to recover, offering a hesitant nod. "Their relationship should be decent, I suppose."
"You suppose?" The ambiguity of her answer was frustrating, but it was a thread, however thin.
If he and Alexander were on decent terms, then his holding me here wasn't likely intended to cause me harm. Could it be that he was trying to protect the baby?
The thought flickered and died almost as soon as it appeared. The Windsors were too difficult to read, their motives buried under layers of wealth and power.
Trusting one of them was a fool's game; it was better to rely on myself. Still, one thing seemed certain: if Alex was just a distant relative of the formidable Windsor clan, then perhaps I didn't need to be quite so afraid of him.
"I want to speak with Mr. Windsor alone. Is that possible?"
Lisa's eyes lit up with a spark of curiosity. "Ms. Spencer, weren't you terrified of Mr. Windsor just a short while ago? Why are you asking to see him now?"
Looking at her earnest face, I decided against a lie. "I need to discuss something very important with him. Please, ask him to come here, or take me to him."
My personal freedom was the most pressing issue. I wondered if a show of compliance, a hint of submission, might persuade Alex to let me out of this room.
"I'll report it to Mr. Windsor, then," Anna interjected, giving Lisa a pointed look before she stepped out.
As she left, she made a point of locking the door from the outside. The quiet click of the lock was a stark reminder that they were, and always would be, Alex's people. Their allegiance was never with me.
After five minutes, Anna returned alone. My hopeful gaze searched the space behind her, but the man I wanted to see was nowhere in sight.
"Mr. Windsor is busy," Anna stated, her tone flat and final. "You'll have to wait."
"Didn't you tell him it was important?" My patience was wearing thin.
Anna's eyes swept over me, a dismissive glint in them. "Honestly, you don't look like you're facing a life-or-death crisis. But yes, I did stress the urgency. His assessment was the same as mine."
Defeated, I slumped onto the sofa and aimlessly unlocked my phone. Suddenly, a name flashed across the screen, a name that made my stomach clench.
Aiden. A long, cascading series of messages from him.
My eyes scanned the first few lines, and my expression immediately hardened.
Aiden's texts were a torrent of feigned concern and longing, asking where I was, begging me to come find him. These words, which once would have made my heart ache with love, now felt like poison.
A lethal, deceptive concoction designed to lure me into a trap.
If I hadn't already seen his true colors, I might have fallen for this performance all over again, a mistake that would have undoubtedly cost me my life. The man was a master of hypocrisy, capable of faking such profound devotion just to get what he wanted. My past love for him felt like a bitter joke.
Swallowing the nausea that rose in my throat, I left him on read. I didn't block him, but I didn't reply.
My hand drifted to my still-flat stomach, the reality of it all still feeling so surreal. This child was conceived in the hope of a future with Aiden; now, it had become the unwitting instrument of my revenge against him.
"What's so important?"
A deep, magnetic voice cut through the silence from the doorway, making me jump. My head snapped up to see him.
"When did you get here?"
Lisa and Anna had vanished without a sound. Alex stood there, leaning against the doorframe in a perfectly tailored suit. The effortless way he wore it, the lean lines of his body—he had the proportions of a runway model, and I found my eyes lingering for a second too long.
Alex let out a soft, dismissive sound as he stepped into the room, closing the door behind him. "You said you had something important to tell me. What could it possibly be?"
He walked toward me, an invisible pressure radiating from him that coiled in my stomach and made my nerves stand on end.
As he closed the distance, I scrambled to my feet, trying to project an air of righteous indignation. "I need more room to move. I promise I won't try to escape, but at least let me walk freely within the villa."
Alex didn't speak. He just narrowed those deep-set eyes, the emotion in them impossible to read.
Being watched by him was like being held under a microscope; the tension was a constant thrum beneath my skin, yet I had to feign composure, terrified he would see my fear and dismiss my plea.
"You want to leave this room?"
My hand instinctively went to my lower abdomen. "Yes. I'm pregnant. Being cooped up in here isn't good for the baby or me. You hired a doctor, you're providing me with nutritional meals… You want me to be healthy, right? I need more space. You wouldn't deny me that, would you?"
By the end, my voice had become thin and reedy. I bit my lip and forced myself to meet his gaze, fighting to hold my ground against the sheer force of his presence.
Alex's gaze swept over my stomach, and there was no discernible emotion in those pitch-black eyes. Finally, I heard him respond softly.
My eyes brightened, and the corners of my mouth twitched upward against my will. "You agree?"
I couldn't believe it. I hadn't expected him to be so reasonable.
Alex's brow furrowed as he shot me a sideways glance. "It's not as if you have the guts to run," he scoffed.
I lowered my head, a flicker of cunning sparking in my eyes.
No guts to run? Excellent.
People always made mistakes when they were at their most confident. It seemed he was agreeing only because he had completely underestimated me.
A heavy silence fell over the room. He remained standing there, not moving, not speaking. It was I who grew impatient. "Don't you have work? A job to get to?"
The moment the words left my mouth, his face darkened. A chill went down my spine, and I quickly looked down at the floor. Had I hit a nerve?
Was it possible this distant Windsor relative had no real place in a corporate empire like the Windsor Group?
Alex watched the parade of expressions on my face, and the faintest, almost imperceptible smirk touched his lips.
Just as I was debating whether to apologize, he spoke again. "And what position do you imagine you're in?"
"Me?" My hand rested on my stomach. Though my confidence was a sham, I spoke as if it were my birthright. "I don't know the specifics of your relationship with Alexander, but you're family, aren't you? So, if Alexander is your older brother, that makes me your sister-in-law. If he's your younger brother, I'm still your sister-in-law."