Shattered Bonds: Secrets and Lies

Chapter 13: Stupid kitten

When they got back, Daven went straight to his study, while Brittney went to the kitchen to make dinner.

At dinner, Brittney was bothered by what had happened earlier and kept asking Daven questions. She felt like she needed to find out about it quickly.

"What if it's d**g related?"

Although Daven was getting sick of it, he calmly drank his water and wiped his mouth before answering.

"For the hundredth time, Brittney, I don't know... Why don't you investigate, since you're used to these kinds of things?"

"Right! I will let my team know after dinner. We need to get to the bottom of this fast."

Daven frowned.

"Hold up. Let your team know? What if it's not that serious? They will just be wasting their time."

"So what are you saying?"

"Fine."

Daven explained further.

"Next week, we'll be there, but a little early before them."

"Okay then, sounds fine with me."

Brittney didn't think too much about going to investigate with Daven, as her mind was occupied with other thoughts.

"Don't forget work tomorrow."

"Yeah. Sure."

He got up and went upstairs to his room. Only then did he realise that this was the first time he and Brittney had had such a long conversation without him becoming indifferent towards her.

After he went into his room, he changed into his sleepwear and went to bed. He struggled to fall asleep and kept tossing from left to right. He then sat up straight and checked the time on the alarm.

"9:35. Still early, though."

He got out of bed, put on his slippers, and went downstairs to his study.

Inside the study, he went over to a bookshelf but found nothing interesting. Lazily walking towards his computer, he sat down and switched it on.

When Daven saw the background, which was a photo of him and Brittney, he furrowed his brows.

"Why haven't I changed it yet?"

He went to the gallery to look for a better picture but was a little startled when he saw almost one thousand photos of them together. Almost half of them were stolen pictures.

He lazily moved the mouse and accidentally opened one of the photos of Brittney.

In the photo, Brittney had her eyes closed and was sleeping soundly like a kitten, which Daven found adorably cute.

'So this stupid woman looks this cute when she sleeps?'

He chuckled softly to himself.

"Stupid kitten."

Unaware of himself, Daven had a small smile on his face, which Brittney caught sight of when she entered.

For the first time in a while, she was finally able to see that smile again.

What a beautiful way to end the day.

She wanted to take a picture, but her phone was in her room.

'Great! Way to miss the moment, Brittney.'

"What are you smiling at? Let me see."

As Brittney spoke, Daven was frightened by her sudden appearance. He quickly clicked the X button on the screen and opened a random file before Brittney could even reach his side.

"Nothing."

His sudden coldness was like a bucket of cold water poured over Brittney. All her curiosity came to a halt before disappearing.

'Oh no! What did I do now?'

"What do you want?"

The cold, deep voice rang out again in her ears.

"N nothing. I'm l looking f for my files."

She didn't even bother to look at him, afraid of those two sharp, cold eyes. She went straight to a shelf full of boxes and carried one out.

Daven could already tell that she was scared from all the stuttering. He sighed helplessly and said silently,

'Didn't mean to scare you... but that works too for avoiding unnecessary misunderstandings, hehe.'

He laughed at himself childishly and looked back at his computer.

When he saw the word 'Diary', he quickly became interested, wanting to find out what was in there.

When he was asked to put in a password, he didn't think much and typed in his old usual one.

As expected, it was incorrect.

He tried it a few more times but failed each time. He got frustrated and began guessing randomly what he might have used as a password.

After some of his worst guesses, he gave up and went online to his news feeds, finding everything boring as he scrolled.

Getting an idea, he went to the search box and typed out:

"What happened to Daven Quinn?"

A second later, a bunch of news articles showed up from different websites.

Reading the headlines, he almost smashed the computer.

"Damn! That ahe is smart!"

It turned out that Jordan had covered up everything so well that he had made it look like it was a robbery.

He continued reading and scrolling for an hour before starting to feel drowsy. He stayed there for another hour before leaving the study.

Just as he was about to walk upstairs, he saw that the kitchen lights were still on.

"Is that stupid kitten still awake at this time?"

He went to the kitchen and saw Brittney munching on the dinner leftovers.

When Brittney noticed Daven, she slowly put down her fork, feeling a little embarrassed.

"Are you hungry?"

"No. I just came in here because I heard some loud chewing, and I thought it was a pig."

He lowered his voice, scratching the back of his head.

"...and... err... I didn't know it was you."

Brittney didn't want to give him any attention, as she had other things to stress about. She only rolled her eyes and snorted.

"Food is the only thing that relaxes me when I'm stressed."

Daven wasn't satisfied with her response, as he had expected her to get angry.

"Well, you need to mind yourself. I'm sure you made Granny Tae frightened."

"Goodnight. I hope you dream about your fear."

She got up, put the bowl in the sink, and walked out of the kitchen.

Daven wasn't happy either, as he had failed to make her angry. He huffed and left, mumbling,

"Stupid kitten, pretending to be tough."