Chapter 146 Blake's Too Dangerous
"They... they gave them to me before to pass along to you." Alexander avoided her eyes somewhat guiltily. "Open them up and see if you like them."
Arabella opened the larger box first, then stared at its contents in contemplation.
"This is..."
"That's from my mom—it's called the Palm Princess." Alexander coughed awkwardly. He also thought this thing was pretty tacky as a gift, but before he'd left, Vera had literally grabbed him by the ear with endless instructions to make absolutely sure he delivered her heartfelt gift. "This doll—I mean, this princess—is protected for life by one hundred and eight guardian knights. She has impenetrable armor and an indestructible constitution."
Alexander's toes curled with embarrassment. "My mom says if you spend time with this princess every day, you'll become as strong as her. She hopes you'll never get sick or injured again."
Objectively speaking, the sentiment behind the gift was lovely. If you could just ignore the Mary Sue premise and garish color scheme.
Arabella was stunned for a moment before finally managing, "Thank you..."
She figured it must be her own lack of appreciation. Definitely not that Vera had bizarre taste.
Of course she didn't think the rows of eye-searing diamonds on the little princess's dress were real diamonds. And she certainly didn't believe the huge emeralds on the princess's head and clothes were genuine.
If they were real, how much would that be worth? Nobody would be wealthy enough to embed actual precious stones on a doll, right?
Alexander quietly shut his mouth.
Even he was unwilling to admit that this ridiculous thing had cost Vera a forced swipe of his black card for a full million dollars.
This object was an insult to his intelligence.
Arabella opened the smaller box next and froze. "Chloe's giving me another bracelet?"
She looked at the dazzling diamond bracelet inside the box, didn't even dare pick it up, and pushed the box back to Alexander. "This is too expensive. I can't accept it."
"It's fake," Alexander used his tried-and-true method. "Didn't Grandma say? She really likes buying these knockoff bracelets. It's just the thought that counts. Just keep it."
Arabella stared at the box, her brow furrowed for a long time before she asked hesitantly, "Alex, do I... look like an idiot to you?"
Alexander paused, his eyebrows lifting slightly. "Of course not. You're very smart. I rarely meet women as intelligent as you."
Arabella's mouth twitched as she looked at him. "Then I think this bracelet is real."
Alexander's heart lurched. For a moment he thought she'd figured everything out. When he'd first joined the company and signed that controversial deal under massive board pressure, he hadn't been this nervous.
He opened his mouth to explain but didn't know where to start. Most critically—if she found out everything about him had been a lie from the beginning, what if she never spoke to him again?
Arabella didn't notice his distress. Assuming she'd guessed correctly, she frowned and forcibly pushed the box back into his hands. "There's a price tag and authentication certificate in here. The tag says it cost a hundred thousand dollars. Such an expensive gift—Chloe must have meant it for someone she truly accepts. I absolutely can't take this. Please put it away."
Alexander froze and looked inside. Sure enough, there was a price tag showing a sale price of $100,000.
In his moment of shock, Arabella had already withdrawn her hand.
Alexander was afraid that insisting further would make her suspicious, so he could only accept it for now, his tone apologetic. "I'm sorry, I didn't know Grandma had bought something this expensive. If it makes you uncomfortable, I'll hold onto it for you."
Arabella's chest tightened as she forced a smile. "Okay. You hold it for now."
A bracelet like that was never meant for her. It belonged to his future partner—that person might be Mr. White, might be some other man, but it would never be her.
Alexander couldn't understand why the warm, intimate atmosphere from moments ago had suddenly gone cold. Arabella seemed really unhappy. He wanted to say something to cheer her up but was afraid of making things worse.
He'd never felt this helpless before.
He was like some inexperienced kid who only knew how to be good to her and nothing else. And even being good to her had to be done in secret. The moment her brow furrowed, he was lost.
Arabella also realized she'd let her emotions show. She forced herself to perk up and changed the subject. "Did you manage to take care of everything in Riverland?"
He'd originally planned for three days but ended up staying six, even encountering shootings and kidnappings. She wondered how things had gone.
If he hadn't finished, would he have to go back to Riverland again?
Alexander was silent for a moment before responding, "Pretty well. Everything went as expected."
Before Grandfather disappeared, he had indeed been in Riverland. Security footage showed he was there about three and a half years ago. At that time, his Alzheimer's was still manageable, and he'd appeared quite lucid in the surveillance video. But during that period, he should have been recuperating in Country M. Why had he quietly gone to Riverland?
Nobody in the family knew anything about it. Even the caretaker who'd been looking after Grandfather in Country M wasn't clear on details—she only said Grandfather had wanted to go out for a bit and told her not to mention it to anyone.
As for Riverland, the surveillance showed Grandfather spent most of his time wandering alone, though he had once met with someone at a restaurant. But that person had sat in a camera blind spot, so no one knew who it was.
Grandfather didn't know anyone in Riverland. Based on his movements in the footage, he hadn't made any friends. And that meeting with the mystery person had only happened once.
Who that person was remained the final question mark.
After that, Grandfather had returned home and disappeared in Majestic City, until his sudden death later.
So this trip to Riverland had essentially yielded nothing—except more questions.
Hearing his answer, Arabella couldn't resist asking hopefully, "So are you going back to Riverland again?"
Alexander paused and looked down at her, his blue eyes deep, as if trying to read some hidden meaning on her face.
"No. Do you... not want me to leave?"
Arabella's heart immediately started racing, her cheeks and ears burning. She nervously denied it. "Of course not. I was just... curious about your situation with Mr. White."
Hearing her unhesitating denial, disappointment flashed through Alexander. But then her follow-up caught him off guard. "Mr. White? Blake?"
Hadn't he performed that whole breakup with Blake in front of her last time? Why was Blake back in the conversation?
Arabella didn't dare look up at him, afraid she'd accidentally reveal something. She said casually, "Yeah, didn't you go to Riverland to chase after Mr. White?"
Alexander was at a loss for words.
He hadn't told her the specific reason for going to Riverland, so she thought he'd gone to chase after his... boyfriend?
He looked at her dejected expression and had a flash of inspiration, testing the waters with some hope. "You don't like me being with Mr. White?"
Arabella kept her head down and missed the intensity in his eyes. Hearing his question and afraid he'd misunderstand, she quickly denied it. "Of course not. It's just... he hurt you so badly before, but you're still so good to him. I'm worried you'll follow in my footsteps."
Alexander's rising hope crashed down, his excited tension settling back to calm.
Right. She was just worried from a friend's perspective that he was being stupid about love.
Alexander took a deep breath, pushing down his disappointment, trying to sound casual. "Don't worry. I won't."
At the same time, he resolved once more—before making progress with her, Blake absolutely could not appear in front of her again.
This lie had made Blake too dangerous.
But his words sounded different to Arabella's ears—like an indirect confirmation that he'd gone to Riverland for Blake after all.
Her chest felt stuffed with cotton, unbearably tight. She didn't want to continue this topic.
It was almost time to pick up Becky from school. She said to Alexander, "Why don't you go get Becky?"
After Gloria had taken Becky last time, Arabella had gotten in the habit of picking her up early. Daisy had been showing up half an hour ahead at the school gates too.
Alexander had some things to arrange anyway, so he nodded. "Alright, you rest for a bit. What do you want for dinner? I'll bring it back."
Arabella had no appetite. Just thinking about how he could never like her back made the sadness uncontrollable.
She smiled as if nothing was wrong. "Whatever you think looks good. I'm fine with anything."
"Okay."
As Alexander left the hospital room and the door closed behind him, Arabella lifted her uninjured arm and rubbed her face.
What was she going to do? She seemed to be losing control of herself more and more.
At first, she'd been able to look at him with someone else as an outsider. Even after realizing she liked him, she'd managed to control her emotions well.
She'd thought as long as she kept it hidden, she could be his marriage-of-convenience wife forever. It didn't matter—she didn't like anyone else anyway.
But lately, she seemed to be getting greedier. His tenderness, his protection—they made her want more and more. She was... becoming selfish.
She was worried that if things continued like this, everything would spiral out of control. Maybe in the end, they wouldn't even be able to stay friends.
What should she do? Get divorced and make a clean break? But she was reluctant to let go... And besides, no matter what she chose, they'd probably end up never speaking again anyway.
For the first time in her life, she hated her own indecisiveness.
Meanwhile, Alexander had barely stepped out of the hospital room when he received a call from Chloe.
Chloe's voice was warm and eager. "Alex, did Arabella see the gift I sent her? Did she like it?"
Alexander's expression stalled before he replied calmly, "She declined it."
Chloe gasped in disbelief. "What? How? I was worried she'd overthink things, so I specifically changed the price. Why won't she accept it? Does she not like it?"
"You 'specifically changed the price' by marking a ten-million-dollar item as a hundred thousand? You think that makes a difference to her? Either way, it's a price point she can't afford." Alexander's tone was hard to describe.
"Is a hundred thousand a lot?" Chloe was genuinely confused. "It's just the price of a custom dress. Surely that wouldn't make her suspicious?"
Alexander's mouth twitched, his voice carrying a hint of a sigh.
"To fit into her lifestyle, I bought a car that only cost tens of thousands of dollars. I bought a house in the city that's only seventy square meters. Grandma, if you want to play at being an ordinary person, could you at least make it convincing? What regular person spends a hundred and ninety thousand dollars on a bracelet?"
Chloe asked cluelessly, "How much should I have spent?"
"A hundred," Alexander said without missing a beat. "Or a thousand. Never more than two thousand."
Chloe protested, "That's pocket change! That's an insult! My Arabella..."
"Is mine." Alexander cut her off, emphasizing, "She's just an ordinary person who makes four thousand dollars a month. If you give her too much, it'll scare her."
After a pause, he added, "Even if you really want to give her things, you can fake the price tags. Or just save everything and give it all to her later when she returns to the FitzRoy family."
Chloe sounded aggrieved. "But the big room I prepared for her at home is already almost full. When are you finally going to bring her back?"
Alexander replied, "...I don't know."
"Useless!" Chloe hung up in frustration.
Across the ocean in Riverland, Vera saw her mother-in-law hang up and immediately sidled over eagerly. "Mom, what did Alex say? Did Arabella like your gift or mine better?"
Chloe glared at her. "He said mine was too expensive. She didn't even accept it."
Vera immediately brightened. "See? I told you not to send something so expensive! Ten million would scare her. Look how smart I was—a hundred-thousand-dollar item she can play with casually without too much pressure."
Chloe rolled her eyes. "Is it possible she doesn't even recognize it as a limited edition from a luxury brand's chief designer? She probably thinks it's something from a street vendor."
Given the price range Alex had just described, that seemed very likely.
Vera's eyes went wide. "No way! The logo is huge!"
"You think Arabella is like you, with her nose stuck in money? She probably doesn't even know which luxury brands exist." Chloe sat down calmly and poured herself some tea.
Sure, Arabella hadn't accepted her bracelet, but she'd also treated Vera's gift like a worthless toy. Rounding things off, neither of them had succeeded.
Chloe was quite satisfied with that outcome.
Vera wrinkled her face in confusion. How could anyone miss those huge emeralds and one hundred and eight giant diamonds?
Arabella genuinely hadn't noticed.
When Alexander returned with Becky, she was staring at the sparkly princess surrounded by her one hundred and eight guardian knights, wondering if maybe she should make a couple of little outfits from old clothes?
Looking at it more carefully, the little princess was actually pretty cute. She had no resistance to cute things.
Becky greeted Arabella when she got back and then obediently went to do her homework.
Alexander set the food down nearby and was about to help Arabella eat when his phone suddenly rang. He glanced at it and told Arabella, "Let me take this call."
Arabella nodded. "Go ahead."
Alexander turned and walked out of the hospital room, closing the door behind him before answering. His voice was low. "Do you have a lead?"
On the other end, his new assistant's serious voice came through. "Mr. FitzRoy, we found the hospital under your name. It's the one where Ms. Bourbon is currently staying."