Aiden stared at him for a few seconds before finally speaking.
"Are you really that blind?"
Alexander frowned.
"What?"
Aiden shook his head in disbelief.
"Honestly, I don’t know whether to pity you or be angry at you."
Alexander’s fingers tightened around the glass in his hand.
"Aiden."
"No, listen to ."
Aiden cut him off before he could continue.
"Do you really think I would’ve stood by and watching her stay with soone who doesn’t even care about her if I thought I actually had a chance?"
Alexander’s brows furrowed and his face darkened.
"What are you talking about?"
Aiden let out a quiet sigh.
"Haven’t you ever noticed the way she looks at you?"
Alexander froze.
Aiden leaned back against the chair, his gaze drifting toward the ocean visible through the open side of the bar.
"I’ve known Alicia since we were children."
"I know what she looks like when she’s happy."
"When she’s upset."
"When she’s worried."
"When she cares about soone."
He paused for a mont.
"Maybe I was wrong, but I always thought the way she looked at you was different."
Alexander remained silent.
Aiden laughed softly, though there was no humor in it.
"It’s honestly a sha."
"What is?"
"That the person she spent all that ti looking at never seed to notice."
For a mont, neither of them spoke.
Alexander stared down at his glass, his thoughts suddenly becoming a ss.
The mory box flashed through his mind.
The report card.
The bakery bag.
The bracelet.
The pregnancy test.
The little notes she had carefully preserved over the years.
His chest tightened.
Was Aiden right?
Or was he simply reading too much into things?
Then another mory surfaced.
The divorce agreent.
The way Alicia had spoken about wanting to move on.
The way she had ntioned Aiden.
If that was true, then why would Aiden be saying all this now?
The more Alexander thought about it, the more confused he beca.
Aiden’s voice pulled him back.
"And the frustrating part is that even after everything..."
He stopped for a mont before continuing.
"That night when I visited her, I still saw her looking at you."
Alexander slowly raised his eyes.
Aiden t his gaze.
"You brought her downstairs and left."
"I rember thinking she should’ve been angry."
His voice lowered.
"But she wasn’t."
Aiden shook his head.
"She looked worried, even if she want it to show."
Alexander’s breathing beca uneven.
The image of Alicia sitting quietly in that living room imdiately surfaced in his mind.
If Aiden was right...
If Alicia truly cared that much...
Then why had she left?
Why disappear without saying a word?
Why take their child and walk away?
The questions only multiplied until he no longer knew what to believe.
A sharp ringtone suddenly broke the silence.
Aiden glanced down at his phone and sighed.
"My agent."
He stood up from his chair.
"I have to go."
Alexander looked up.
Aiden hesitated briefly before speaking again.
"I’m leaving tomorrow."
He slipped the phone into his pocket.
"But if you need anything, give a call."
Alexander nodded quietly.
Aiden gave him one last look before turning and walking away.
As he disappeared into the crowd, Alexander remained seated where he was.
His untouched drink sat on the table.
The ocean breeze drifted through the open bar.
Yet his mind was elsewhere.
For the first ti, he found himself questioning everything he thought he knew about Alicia.
And sohow, that uncertainty frightened him even more than not knowing where she was.
As for Aiden, he had no intention of involving himself any further.
At least, that was what he told himself.
But the image of Alicia leaving while pregnant refused to leave his mind.
Whatever had happened between her and Alexander was none of his business.
Still...
He couldn’t help hoping that wherever she was, she was safe.
And if she wasn’t...
Then perhaps finding her would be for the best.
Alexander remained at the bar long after Aiden left.
One drink turned into another, and then another.
For the first ti in days, he wasn’t thinking about where to search next or what lead to follow. Instead, his mind kept replaying every word Aiden had said.
"Haven’t you ever noticed the way she looked at you?"
"Maybe I was wrong, but I always thought the way she looked at you was different."
The more he thought about it, the more confused he beca.
By the ti he finally returned to his suite, night had already fallen over the resort. The exhaustion from days of searching, combined with the alcohol in his system, weighed heavily on him.
He barely managed to remove his coat before collapsing onto the bed.
For the first ti in several nights, sleep claid him almost instantly.
The next morning, Alexander woke up with a dull ache behind his eyes.
His head throbbed from the drinks, but he paid little attention to it.
After a quick shower, he changed into fresh clothes and prepared to begin the search once again.
Yet even as he buttoned his shirt and adjusted his cuffs, his thoughts remained stuck on the conversation from the previous night.
No matter how hard he tried to focus on finding Alicia, Aiden’s words refused to leave his mind.
By seven o’clock, he was already seated in the resort’s private lounge with Jane and Henry.
The resort manager arrived shortly afterward.
"Good morning, Mr. Blackwood."
Alexander nodded.
"Please sit."
The manager looked slightly nervous as he took a seat across from them.
Alexander didn’t waste ti.
"I need your cooperation."
"Of course, sir."
Alexander placed his phone on the table and pulled up the only photo of Alicia he had found in her Twitter account.
The manager’s eyes imdiately moved to the screen.
"I need to know whether this woman has stayed at your resort recently."
The manager glanced at the photo carefully before shaking his head.
"I’m sorry, sir. But we receive a lot of guests here that I won’t be able to recognise most people."
A flicker of disappointnt crossed Alexander’s face.
Jane quickly spoke.
"What about your guest records?"
The manager hesitated.
"Due to privacy policies, we normally cannot disclose guest information."
Henry imdiately slid a business card across the table.
The manager looked at it and visibly stiffened.
Aurelius Technologies.
Then he looked at Alexander again.
Only now did he seem to realize exactly who he was dealing with.
"Of course," he said quickly.
"I’ll have my staff check imdiately."
The manager excused himself and left.
The room fell silent.
Alexander stared at the ocean outside the glass windows.
His fingers tapped lightly against the armrest.
Ten minutes later, the manager returned carrying a tablet.
"We checked our records."
Alexander imdiately looked up.
"And?"
The manager shook his head.
"There is no guest registered under Alicia Sinclair."
The hope that had begun rising inside Alexander instantly dropped.
Beside him, Jane sighed quietly.
But Henry frowned.
"Only under that na?"
The manager blinked.
"Excuse ?"
Henry leaned forward.
"What if she used a different na?"...
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