Chapter 54 Chapter 54
Violet
Seeing him, both me and Cassie straighten immediately and adjust our clothes. Elijah glanced briefly at me and that stare made me twitch for a second.
But that feeling was gone the second he looked away and pinned Cassie with a hard glare.
“Where the hell is your phone?” He asked her.
“R-Right here, in my bag somewhere” She mumbled and fished out for her phone.
“Check the phone and tell me what do you see,” He said with an eerie calm.
I felt nervous even when I hadn’t been the one he was speaking to.
“Ten missed calls and a few messages, all from you” Cassie gulped nervously.
Elijah exhaled slowly.
“Exactly. You were supposed to be home an hour ago. Do you have any idea what I must have felt in those sixty minutes when you weren’t answering your phone?”
His voice rose suddenly and the customers seated around the cafe took it as a sign to leave the premises before he accidentally took his anger on them.
I wanted to do the same but I was in his direct line of sight. I doubted he would let me go as easily as the others.
Plus, I recalled how his warriors had already blamed me for being incompetent and callous that made Cassie venture to the graveyard without informing anyone.
So I braced myself for his harsh words that he would throw at me any second, of how irresponsible I was.
But he never even looked my way.
Cassie, meanwhile fumbled for words.
“We were just discussing about the dinner and lost track of time. Sorry”
“I fucking drove like a madman yet again and almost killed an innocent bystander in my hurry to reach you.”
Cassie’s gaze flicked to me and then to the guard standing behind him.
“You could have called him, he has been right here the entire time.”
“He wouldn’t be able to answer my questions about the flight or why did you not tell me that the dinner was preponed.”
Preponed?
Cassie blinked slowly and furrowed her brows. “That can’t be right”
She looked at her phone and scrolled through it for a bit while I glanced at Elijah awkwardly. He stood in front of his sister stoically, pretending not to know me at all.
Cassie shrieked a second later, dragging her hands down her face comically.
“Look at this. “ she pointed at the envelope, “The date is next week on this. I didn’t know it was changed.”
Elijah folded his hands and raised an eyebrow.
“Explains why alpha Deveraux had to contact me and get the confirmation you didn’t give to him.”
I noticed the way he called him alpha Deveraux and not dad or father like Cassie did.
“Shit, what did you say?” Cassie asked nervously.
“That I dont have time for theatrics” elijah replied flatly and Cassie chuckled.
“I meant to him, not in your head”
Elijah huffed like a raging bull trying to stay calm.
“That you would be there as requested.”
Cassie’s mouth formed a big O.
“What do you mean by I would be there as requested. We both are supposed to be there.”
Elijah shrugged. “He didn’ seem too keen on seeing me and I reciprocate that feeling.”
“Come on. You promised me.”
“Yeah, after you lied being injured and tricked me. I almost forgot that.” Elijah added, making Cassie stop abruptly for just a second.
Elijah turned around without another word while Cassie started begging him to join her. Meanwhile, I stood stupidly by the table, wondering what to do.
“I am not coming, Cassie and that is final. You and your friend should leave if you wish to catch the flight in around 5 hours.” Elijah stated in a firm voice.
Wait what?
The way Elijah casually dismissed me as just Cassie’s friend shouldn’t have bothered me so much.
It was what I had asked him to do. Yet it did.
“In five hours? What do you mean?” Cassie’s high pitched wail dragged me out of my thoughts.
Elijah kept walking away unhurriedly while she buzzed around him like a persistent fly.
“Just talk to the alpha, Cass. I have things to do.” Elijah said, weariness creeping into his tone.
Cassie grabbed his wrist and made him stop, turned him to face her and stood on the balls of her heels to make herself look bigger.
She was still not at his eye level.
“You are coming. I am not going there without you.”
“You have run out of reasons to blackmail me, Cass” he said, not in a rude tone. His hand reached the top of her head, and he ruffled her hair.
Cassie bunched her fingers into fists, and her expression changed.
“I have not been at the Ironcrest Manor in ages, not after…” She took a long pause, which made Elijah narrow his eyes.
She sighed. “I really don't want to face it all by myself.”
And that tough shell of his rough exterior cracked just a little. If I could see it from a few feet away, she could definitely see it.
They were now talking in some coded language, or maybe they mind linked for all I knew because, for a few seconds, neither of them uttered a word.
Elijah was the first to mutter. “I am not sitting beside anyone”
Ouch!
Cassie grabbed his arms and thanked him profusely as he began walking towards the exit.
She finally looked at me and waved her hand.
“Come on, we have a flight to catch.”
“Will somebody tell me what is going on?” I asked, and she simply thrust her phone into my hand.
Her mailbox was open, and there was a calendar invite for tomorrow morning from Alpha Deveraux.
The fact that he sent a calendar invite for a simply family dinner instead of a phone call told me this family wasn’t as normal as I’d hoped.
“Your dad sent you a calendar invite for lunch, which is tomorrow. Great!”
She nodded, “Just so he can keep track of his time. He is very busy, as I said.”
I also noticed my name and Elijah’s in the text body labeled as other attendees.
“This says tomorrow. I have not even told my family yet. In fact, my new boss and the CEO expect me to start working on the designs right away. Did I tell you she hates me?”
Cassie tugged at my sleeve. “But this is even better. You will be free tomorrow night itself if we finish the lunch early. So you are free to start working the day after tomorrow instead of next week. Better than requesting a leave in the first week of being employed, right?”
I gave it some thought and realized she wasn’t wrong. Though the fact that I would have to fly in a few hours made little sense to me. And it made me uneasy as well. Especially after the last time...
“Go home. And pack your stuff. Just a few clothes, a dress, some sweaters, good shoes, and the essentials.”
“It's just one night, why do I need so much stuff?”