Caught.

Caught.

Chapter Eighty-one 
CAUGHT

“How long do I have to wait, Leo? It's been weeks and I haven’t seen or talked to my fiance. You keep telling me to wait, coming up with different excuses for him,” Melinda complained over the phone. 
“You really can’t blame me, miss. I am just a virtual assistant. Monitoring his whereabouts is not part of my job description,” Leo groaned. 
He still didn’t know how she got a hold of his number. Artemis blocked her so it was understandable she couldn’t reach him, but why involve him? He didn’t want to play middleman for a relationship that was clearly not working. 
“Really? That’s all you have to say? You won’t offer any explanations?” She gritted out. “Do you even know who I am? I can find him right now if I want to but I'm trying to respect his privacy. Clearly, you don’t respect that.”
“What does that have to do with me?” Leo grumbled but Melinda heard him.
“So that’s how it is, huh?” She fired. “Is he seeing someone else? Tell me, is there another girl in the picture? Is that why he's avoiding me?”
A screeching sound pierced through from the other end of the line, nearly deafening her. Frustrated, she hung up. 
“If I ask me, Melinda, I'd say Artemis isn’t in the least interested in you. No one treats the person they love like this,” the girl on the bed said without looking away from her phone. “You even dropped out of school to be close to him and he doesn’t even give a fuck.” 
Melinda’s head snapped to the redhead on her bed. “Good thing I didn’t ask you. What does it matter if he loves me or not? I can love him for both of us. We are already engaged to be married, even if he has a harem, he will still be mine in the end.”
The brunette actually looked up from her phone this time. “i knew you were delusional but come on, Melinda. Are you really okay with your husband cheating on you? How long will you keep contacting his assistant because you can't reach him.”
Anger flashed in Melinda's eyes but the brunette remained unfazed. 
“He’s engaged to you, so what? It's not unbreakable. If he finds someone out there, do you think he won’t stand up to his father for her? He’ll fight for their love and in the end, you’ll lose out…”
“Shut it, Berrilyn!” Melinda sprang to her feet. “Artemis doesn’t have any woman in his life. Even if he did, do you think I will just sit back and watch them ride into the sunset?”
Berrilyn flinched, startled by her friend’s sudden aggression. She'd known Melinda right from childhood and this girl never once dated anyone—not even when there were a flock of boys at her beck and call. 
It was Artemis this. Artemis that. Always about this one boy from her childhood who had clearly outgrown her. It hurt seeing her best friend waste her life longing for someone that didn’t value her. 
“You know, now that you've mentioned this, I'm going to get a P.I to look into him. I want to know what’s keeping him so busy that he’s avoiding me,” Melinda said. 
“No need,” Berrilyn sighed, reaching for her backpack. Melinda watched curiously as she pulled out a brown envelope. “There.”
“What’s this?” Melinda asked, taking the envelope from her. 
“Well, you wouldn’t shut you about him even though I came all the way from Italy to see you. I had one of my guys look into him but I didn’t open it yet because I wanted you to see it first.”
“You looked into my fiance without my permission?” Melinda flared out, disbelief clouding her features. “How dare you?!”
Berrilyn stared at her for a long second before letting out a dry laugh.
"Seriously?" she said. "You're angry because I investigated him? Not because he's disappeared for weeks without a single word to his own fiancée?"
Melinda's lips pressed into a thin line. "I didn't ask you to do this."
"No, you didn't." Berrilyn folded her arms. "I did it because someone had to look out for you. You're so blinded by him that you've stopped looking out for yourself."
"I don't need your pity."
"It's not pity."
"Then what is it?"
"It's called concern. I'm your best friend for goodness’ sake!" Berrilyn exclaimed. 
Silence settled between them. Melinda looked down at the envelope in her hands. It suddenly felt much heavier than paper should. A feeling of dread curled in her stomach. Did she really want to go through this?
Berrilyn's voice softened, noticing her hesitation. "Open it."
Melinda still didn’t open it.
She had spent weeks convincing herself Artemis was simply busy. He was always serious about work. Maybe he was dealing with something important. Maybe his father was pressuring him again.
There had to be an explanation.
With trembling fingers, she slid the documents out. The first few pages contained photographs. Photos of Artemis entering a luxury apartment building. The second made her heart skip. 
“Professor Lucian?” She blurted. 
It was a photo of him outside the same apartment building. Melinda looked up, puzzled. As far as she knew, these two men hated each other. At least Artemis did. 
So how come they were in the same building?
Refusing to give in to what her mind was screaming, she checked the next photo and that was when her heart shattered to pieces.
It was a photo of Artemis kissing Lucian. 
“Oh God…” her knees buckled. “How…”