Chapter 78 – The Excuses of a Deceiver

"You are back. I thought you'd stay at your friend's home again," Sarah, who was sitting at the dining table, buttering the bread, said.

"Yeah. I missed you, so I had to come back." Alex smiled, coming to Sarah and giving her a hug.

Sarah smiled and hugged Alex back.

Alex retreated from Sarah and sat on the chair next to her.

"I thought I had lost my good son. You had stopped caring for me. But I'm happy that you've come back to your old self." Sarah smiled and put a sandwich on a plate for Alex to eat.

"I want to take a bath first, then I will eat. You should eat first," Alex said, pushing the plate back towards Sarah.

"Alright," Sarah said, taking a bite of the sandwich.

As Sarah ate the sandwich, Alex noticed that she was eating with her injured hand. What was surprising was that she was eating like nothing had happened to her hand.

"Mom, your hand seems in good condition now," Alex said, looking at Sarah's hand.

Sarah immediately stopped eating.

"Ah, no. It still hurts. A lot," Sarah grabbed her injured hand with another and slowly brought it down onto the table, as if it couldn't even move itself.

Alex smiled and nodded at Sarah before getting up from the table and heading towards his room.

Sarah sighed in relief that she didn't get caught. But she didn't know that Alex already knew everything.

As Alex came to his room, he opened his room's door and found Natasha lying in his bed.

As Natasha noticed Alex standing by the door, she smiled at him and got up from the bed.

"You're late. You know how long I've been waiting for you?" Natasha spoke with a cute smile as she walked towards Alex. But it didn't affect Alex. His serious face didn't change.

"Don't talk to me. I'm not in a good mood." Alex said and walked past Natasha towards the wardrobe.

He took a t-shirt and sweatpants out of the wardrobe and headed towards the bathroom to take a bath.

"Get out of my room before I come out." Alex glared at Natasha and shut the bathroom door behind him.

Natasha shrugged and again came to the bed. She sat down on it and started waiting for Alex to come out of the bathroom.

After twenty minutes, when Alex came out of the bathroom, he had expected that Natasha would have left, but he was wrong. She was still there, sitting on his bed.

"Why are you still here?" Alex asked, drying his hair with a towel. "And don't come into my room without my permission."

"But soon this room will be mine too," Natasha said, lying back on the bed. "So how can you stop me?" She smiled.

Alex felt annoyed to hear that. He walked to her and asked, "Why are you doing this to me? What do you hope to gain from all of this? I will never love you, so why bother with marrying me and the theatrics? Put an end to this nonsense!"

Natasha sat up on the bed, and with an evil smile, she said, "You don't love me now, but one day you will fall for me. I will wait until that day." She grinned.

Alex sighed and flopped on the edge of the bed. "You're shameless," Alex said, continuing to dry his hair.

"Ha-ha. You know me so well," Natasha laughed and came near Alex. She grabbed the towel from him and started drying his hair.

Alex looked up at Natasha and smiled. "If you tell me the real reason why you want to be with me, then maybe I can think of marrying you." He said it as politely as he could. He knew this was the only way to get her to tell the truth.

Natasha smiled and said, "You don't need to consider it. You have no choice but to marry me." She threw the towel onto the bed and got up.

"Why do you have so much confidence in you?" Alex grabbed Natasha's hand, stopping her from walking away.

Natasha leaned close to Alex's face and said, "Because others don't have it. And you want to know why I want to marry you, right?" She grinned and stood straight once again. She shook her hand away from Alex and crossed her arms over her chest. "Well, that's because I like you. There is no one else I like more than you. You are becoming my obsession. I want to have you in any condition."

Alex started laughing upon hearing that. It was so funny. He heard those lines only in movies and on TV.

Natasha smiled, seeing him laugh. "Maybe you liked my confession?" she asked.

"No, I don't like it, but I found it funny. You are good at joking," Alex said, still laughing.

Natasha felt annoyed. She had enough of people like him. Why was everyone just making fun of her? She was trying her best.

'Laugh as much as you want to. But soon you won't be able to laugh anymore,' Natasha said to herself and turned around before walking away. But as she reached the door, Alex once again stopped her.

"What do you like about me? There are many handsome men out there. So, why me? What is so amazing about me?" Alex asked, finally stopping laughing and getting serious.

Natasha turned around and smiled. "Why do you think that, just because you're handsome, I want to marry you? There are a lot of other things you have that other men don't. And if they have, it's hard to reach them."

Alex smiled to hear that. He was confused and curious about what it could be.

"Is it my body?" Alex grinned. He didn't want to let her go until he got his answer.

Natasha walked back to Alex and said, "Not your body either. You have the same thing as other men. What's so special about your body?"

"Ouch. That hurts." Alex smiled as he put his hand on his heart. "You're being so rude to me. My body is special."

"Why? Do you have two of it?" Natasha asked with a serious face.

Alex was silent for a second and then suddenly burst into laughter. He was embarrassed, but he couldn't stop laughing.

Finally, after a minute, when he stopped laughing, he cleaned a tear from the corner of his eyes and said with a serious face, "But if you don't like my face, you aren't interested in my body either, so why do you want to marry me? Why are you obsessed with me, then? Is it my money?" Alex raised an eyebrow.

Natasha stared at Alex but didn't say anything. She was looking at Alex as if he had caught her secret. But she couldn't let him have the idea that his doubt was real—that she was really after his money.

Natasha smiled and said, "You want to hear from me that I'm chasing you because of your money?"

"What other reason could be there, then?" Alex questioned.

"Well, because… because you are a nice person. I like your nice personality." Natasha tried to make some good excuses.

"Just when I treated you nicely? I keep pushing you away from me. How am I nice to you, then? And just when did you see my nice personality? I don't remember doing anything good for you," Alex asked.

Natasha didn't know what to say. If she said something, he would ask her another question, and the cycle would continue until he heard what he really wanted to hear. Leaving the situation was the best option for now.

"I'm hungry. I'm going downstairs. If you're hungry too, let's go," Natasha said and quickly walked out of the room.

Natasha was gone, but Alex was still sitting on his bed, smiling to himself. He was feeling like he had caught Natasha's weakness. And now he was going to expose her in front of everyone.