11. Carousel Surprise

The next day, Max was sitting in the Alwack Mansion, opposite Rebecca. She was slurping her tea, fuming over the turn of events. 

"I swear to god, when I find her I will thrash the life out of her," Rebecca placed her cub angrily on the drawing-room table. The teacup slightly slipped and scattered its occupants on the floor. 

"Relax Mom, she'll have to come back. We will eventually find her. In the meantime I have some good news," Max smiled. 

"What is it? It better be good, you aren't very appreciable either." She snorted. 

Max flinched for a flash and then coaxed her, "Oh Mom., come on. It is good." 

Rebecca looked up. 

Max spoke, "Remember, how The Fitzgeralds were ahead of us."

"You seriously want to talk about that dead ass, good for nothing. He even lured my Shasha…uh-huh huh huh" She howled through her handkerchief, dramatizing every second.

"Yes, the very same. And now we are light years ahead of them." Max grinned. 

Rebecca stopped crying, "What? The Fitzgerald you say. How?"

Max told her, "Well, we poached its members into working with us. They are mighty rats and money is almighty. The mole gave us hands on one of their new creations. We trashed it and now we will launch one of our own next month."

"What!?" Rebecca laughed. 

"Oh you poor thing, I am sorry I scolded you. You are very lovely and not bad at all. You know." Rebecca cupped his cheeks dotingly as he smiled brightly. 

Daniel, who was standing at the entrance, smirked to himself, stopped the recording on his cell phone, and then rang the bell. 

#

Crystal sat with a grid spread before her as everyone circled her looking at the files kept upon them. 

"You feeling better now?" Norman asked. 

"Much better." Crystal nodded. 

"Who is Alexander anyway?"Crystal asked as the room gradually began to fill. 

Caleb, Albert, Norman, and Crystal planned to discuss a little business in her room as she was sick.

Caleb looked at her bandaged head and was agitated for hurting her the other day, unaware of what she had been through. 

"Alexander was…" Norman began. "He was a close friend of Edward, also they started the Pharmaceuticals together." 

"However, Alexander is a bit notorious, why did you ask though?"

"The timeline doesn't sit right." Crystal said, "He has been out of the Pharma Corp, for the past month, what are the odds?"

"What makes you say that?" Caleb asked, frowning.

"Look at the interviews, articles, and publishing of the new drug research, Quilisier," Crystal said.

Caleb nodded. 

"Hmm, true, I always had reservations about him. Remember Ayesha, she was very fond of him either." He asked Albert. 

The color of his face changed. "Now that you speak of Ayesha, I think Alexander had a serious reason to go after Edward. Hmm." Albert nodded. Sighing as he recalled the event. 

"Edward might have gone his way to create problems with Alexander." He looked around tensely, "Ayesha was Alexander's only daughter. She was a doctor and fell in love with a guy, umm… and"

"And what Albert?" Crystal asked, pissed at his distorted reply. 

"Edward helped her elope with someone Alexander didn't like." He said, 

"And that's William," Caleb and Norman screamed together. 

"That dog," Norman said.

"Why would Edward help her… He is so" Caleb seemed disappointed. 

"It gets worse." Albert closed his eyes and continued. "Umm. He gave her twenty percent of Fitzgerald Pharmaceuticals."

"What?" Crystal gasped.

"Yes... and I kind of helped him do all of that."

#

Chloe walked, wobbly along the stairs as Max helped him in the car. She was happy and Max silently thought how much of a fool she was. 

Chloe sat on the passenger seat, and the memories resurfaced. She touched her face and as Max occupied the driver's seat, she jumped, scared. 

He looked at her and she smiled. He smiled back, leading forward with the events kept in the past. 

"So how many weeks?" Max asked, driving slower than usual. 

"six" Chloe said, excited, happy about the conversation.

"I am so happy honey," he picked up her hand and kissed it gently.

Tears welled up in her eyes, "So am I."

"I am sorry, you should have told me before." Max touched her shoulders, gently massaging it.

"I was about to but I thought, I would make it special for you," Chloe replied. 

"You are special to me babe." Max stopped the car and looked at her. 

He wiped her tears and softly tucked her hair strands beside her hair. 

"I love you" he softly whispered in Chloe's ear and she shivered. 

Chloe hugged him wrapped her arms around his neck and let out the anguish and thoughts from the past two days.

"I have a surprise for you," he told her and started driving. 

"What is the one thing that scares you the most?" Max asked as he was halfway on the highway. 

"To disappoint you." she looked at him. "To lose you, to be anything less than yours."

"You know I was scared that day, You were furious, I have never seen you furious, but I understand this is very important for you." Chloe smiled. "For our child." She gently caressed her belly.

"How about I tell you mine?" Max said as he stopped the car outside a large secluded place. There was light coming from inside and Chloe's face lit as she assumed what his surprise was. 

It was their cave of love. The place where she and Max made out for the first time, five years back. The place where he asked her to be his girlfriend. She would always come here when she was sad and one such night when she felt lost she met Shasha. As she found Max walking out, she got excited. 

"Come on Princess." He said as he opened the door of the car ajar for her. 

"Maxx…" She said as she breathed in relief. 

"You know I love you and I am happy today. You always covered for me. Stayed up with me when I made mistakes. Saved me when Shasha would pick on me." he smiled.

"Oh come on, I love you too," she said, circling his neck. "You mean the world to me."

"You are the only person who loved me, who cared for me. You were in my dark things, in white, in white and blue. And I was worried, what would happen if you ever betrayed me?"

"I would never -" Before she could, a knife sliced through her back. 

"Because I won't let you," Max said. 

"Ughmm Ma..ax" Chloe fell off on the ground.

Max picked out a handkerchief, "I am sorry baby, I didn't want to but you knew too much."

Chloe heard, shoes clacking on the floor as Max retried. 

#

In the dead of night, Caleb and Crystal were wrapping up the events of the day, clearing out all post-its and arrowheads, leading to Alexander. However, Crystal was trapped in what happened between Shasha and Edward.

Ughhhh! This is driving me nuts, Caleb said Shasha and Edward knew each other. Why would Shasha not tell me? 

She googled Edward's married life. Endless articles were telling how he had multiple girlfriends after his wife's death. He was framed as a Playdate to an entire social group of rich heiresses. 

Interesting… No one talked about this. What if he was cheating on Shasha as well? And Shasha found out and she couldn't take it… Hmm, not an entirely unconvincing story.  She marked the possibility of him cheating on her.

She read through the articles over the past year and found one name frequently repeated, Abigail. 

Caleb had silently walked to the edge of her side of the table as everyone else evacuated. He was about to call her out when he heard Crystal mumble something to herself.

So Ms. Abigail Johnson, oh, well Edward, she is definitely pretty, not prettier than my sister though. Trust me, if you have done anything to my sister, I'd never forgive you. She scolded Edward in the air looking outside the chamber. 

Let's see, a hot blond with a symmetrical face, sure thing, what next? Crystal logged into a fake user id called, nightmarish and followed her on Carousel, waiting for her community approval. She followed through her timeline. 

Caleb cleared his throat. Crystal looked up. "How sneaky do you people have to be?"

Caleb replied, "You doing good? Alwack?" 

Crystal nodded. 

"Nobody told me about Edward and his rumored women-centric lifestyle," Crystal asked, demanding a clear answer. 

Caleb arched an eyebrow, "What is that supposed to mean?"

"Take A look at this," Crystal showed Caleb the series of articles that portrayed Edward as a womanizer. 

Caleb pulled out his phone, "I have something better you can take a look at."

It was Edward's Carousel. His last post was with Elfy. She was sitting on his lap with a pouty face smile, smudged with chocolate, and looking at the camera. Edward was looking at her, holding an ice cream, melting on his white branded suit.

She looked at the photo and wondered.

"And they say this man can cheat? The way he said, "Oh Crystal, I am glad I got to see you…" was clearly not flirty. If anything that is closest to the fatherly figure I have felt. " Crystal replied. 

Crystal's phone tinged with a notification. Crystal noticed the light and picked it up. 

Abiforever has accepted your request on Carousel. 

"Hey! Check this out," She showed Abigail's Carousel to Caleb. Crystal scrunched her nose and her eyebrows stood up in attendance. 

They both looked at her last post and it was a picture of her and the owner of Lockhart Enterprises, Maxmillian Lockhart.