Alpha's Revelation

Chapter 14

The next few days went by in a blur. I spent the weekend in bed watching TV and reading books. Taylor and Rocky were keeping an eye on me and brought me food and snacks. Taylor mentioned in a conversation that Vince had tried to call her, but she ignored his calls. There were a few missed calls on my phone from him as well. Blake was popping in and out too, trying to keep me entertained by playing board games and watching TV with me.

Monday came around, and Blake had told Patrick I was taking a few days off as I was unwell. I received a nice email from Patrick wishing me a speedy recovery, and Lilly also called to check in on me.

Taylor had taken Monday off to stay home with me. We watched movies and ate a lot of junk food. After work, both Rocky and Blake were over, and we played more board games. It wasn’t until Wednesday that I realized that someone was always around me.

Taylor on Monday, Rocky on Tuesday, and Blake today. He asked me to go over to his place so I could have a change of scenery. He had a little office set up on his dining table, and I was sitting on his couch, drinking coffee.

“How long do you guys plan on supervising me?” I asked him.

He laughed and looked up from his laptop screen. “You catching on to that, huh?”

“Well, Taylor and Rocky are staying home with me, I understood. But this, I mean, I’m thankful for what you’re doing, but you didn’t have to take a day off work just to babysit.”

“Well, I’m not taking a day off work, and I’m not babysitting. As you can see, I’m working, and you're keeping me company. So I don’t understand what you're saying,” he replied and smirked.

“Okay, since when do my 2 best friends trust you so much that they have left you responsible for my well-being?” I asked.

Blake got up from his spot and came and sat next to me.

“Can I ask you something?” he said, and I nodded, sipping on my coffee.

“Why do you not trust me?” he asked. He was facing me and had his arms crossed in front of him.

“If you haven’t noticed, I don’t trust many people; it’s not just you. I have a lot of trust issues, and in life, I’ve learnt to keep my circle small. Trusting Vince was a big step for me, even though I’ve known him half my life. But, Blake, you warned me. How did you know something wasn’t right?”

“Well, I’ve known Vince a long time, Rose. We went to college together. He was always a d**k! If you remember, I mentioned Kyra was seeing some big-shot lawyer. It turned out he had spent some nights with Kyra back in college as well. But the flame died out only to reignite recently. The reason I warned you was because he's done this before,” he said, and sighed.

“What?!” I asked, choking a little. Shock was evident in my voice.

“Unfortunately, I know 2 other girls that he tried to force himself on. One I know a little more closely than the other, but you were a lot luckier than they were. They never pressed charges against him or anything, and I think that gives him more encouragement. He dated both the girls and then wanted things that the girls didn’t wanna offer, and he just made his way. Someone mentioned that his got a thing for virgin girls.” Blake looked away, ashamed of what he had just said.

I couldn’t believe what Blake was saying. Was Vince such an animal?? How did we not know about this? Was Taylor not aware of her brother's behavior?!

“Rose....” Blake said, pulling me out of my thoughts. “What did Vince mean when he said that he thought you were like your mother and that you’d take your clothes off just like him?”

Fuck! I was hoping that Blake had forgotten about that.

I looked down at the cup in my hands and debated whether I was going to tell him.

“What’s the big secret, Rosy? You can trust me. I want to help,” he said, and put his hand on my arm and squeezed a little.

On cue, his phone started to ring, and I let out the breath I was holding. He got up, picked up his phone, and laughed.

“Hello, Mother,” he answered. Well, that’s something that I’ve never heard him say before.

“Yes, I’m fine, thank you for asking. How are you and Dad?” He asked and walked out onto his balcony. I couldn’t hear his conversation anymore.

My mind went back to thinking about Vince. How could I be so stupid? Just because he was nice to me doesn’t mean he was a nice guy, right ?! Like, how did I let my guard down so quickly? I sat there cursing myself and thought about how Taylor and her family didn’t know this side of Vince.

Just then, there was a knock on our apartment door across the hall. I looked at the time and it was 10 am. I wasn’t expecting anyone. Blake walked back in and heard the knocking too.

“You expecting someone ?” he asked. I shook my head, and he walked towards his door and opened it.

“Can I help you?” he asked.

“Ahh, you must be Blake Cooper. I’m Brendan Callum, Taylor’s father, and this is my wife,” I heard the familiar voice reply. What was Mr Callum doing here? He never came to visit like this.

“Pleasure to meet you, Mr and Mrs Callum. I don’t think Taylor is home, but Rosy is here; she can open the door for you.” Blake shook Mr Callum’s hand and stepped back to motion that I was at his place.

I got up and walked over to the door. I looked out the door, and there they stood.

“Hi, Mr and Mrs Callum. What a pleasant surprise. Taylor didn’t say you were coming,” I said and walked out into the hallway.

“Hello Rosy. Yeah, well, we needed to see you both, so we thought we’d stop by. I did call Taylor, and she said she would be home soon.”

This wasn’t like them.

“What has Vince told you?” I asked. I didn’t intend to say it out loud, but it came out.

“I would rather wait for Taylor to be here so we to have this conversation, Rosalie. Could you let us in, please?” Mrs Callum said.

She used my full name. Whatever Vince had said, I was in trouble.

“I’ll come with you,” Blake, who was standing right behind me, said quietly. I turned my head a little and nodded.

I walked to the door and opened it, motioning for them to go in. Blake and I walked in, and he closed the door behind us.

“Can I get you anything to drink, guys?” I asked, and they both declined my offer.

My palms were sweaty, and I felt like throwing up. These two were like my own parents. They were my family, and here they were acting like total strangers. I had just seen them a week ago, and it wasn’t this awkward.

Blake sat on a barstool in the kitchen and fiddled with his phone, and I paced around in the kitchen tidying up and keeping myself busy. It felt like a very long 10 minutes, but the main door finally opened, and Rocky and Taylor walked in.

“Mum, Dad is everything okay? You never come to visit like this,” Taylor said as soon as she walked in. Rocky walked over and sat next to Blake. Those two had become very close since Friday. They had some sort of bromance going on, and it was cute. Rocky finally had a guy to bond with.

“Taylor, maybe we should have this conversation privately,” Mr Callum said.

“No. They all stay, say what you want to in front of them.”

“Okay then. Chris has gotten a job here in Mariners Bay. We would like him to live here with you,” Mr Callum said and looked at Mrs Callum, who nodded.

“Well, Dad, I have 2 bedrooms and they are both occupied. Where is Chris going to sleep?” Taylor asked, and a dreadful thought hit me. Oh lord, I knew what they wanted.

“Chris is your brother, hunny, and I think his having a place to stay is important,” Mrs Callum said and looked at Mr Callum.

“We think that maybe it’s time for Rosy to move on and find a place of her own. As Rocky and you get serious, you will need your own space, and you know, Chris, he will probably only last out here for like 3–6 months. So once he moves out, Rocky and you can take up this place, and Rosy moving out now will just lessen her stress for later.”