PMS1: President's Forgotten Wife

CHAPTER 24 [III]

CHAPTER 24, part III: READY FOR EXILE

AS EISEN stopped in front of the door near his room, he absentmindedly opened the door and invited himself inside the area. As he scanned the place, different pictures made him question a lot of things.

The room that sheltered their memories. Jade and him, their memories as a married couple.

He and his wife looked happy in the picture while smiling at the camera. They seemed to be inseparable and perfectly balanced with each other. But why? Why does it happen to them— to this marriage?

Why him of all people?

Eisen grabbed a small picture frame on the table and let his thumb caress the marriage photo. They were contented.

But now,

"Will you let me sign the divorce paper once you come back? Or will you choose to be with me forever once again?" The sadness he felt instantly changed into something deceitful, something dangerous,

"Because if you push me again, I'm not sure if I'll be able to keep my sane. I'm not sure if I'll handle another pocket of suffering knowing that it was you who made me feel so complete. I can't deal with another heartache, Jade. Not now, not ever, please. I can't lose you again."

__________

WHEN Eisen was sure that his housemates were asleep, he hurriedly went outside his room and went outside the house without bringing his wheelchair with him. But before he could slip out of the mansion, Eisen saw Jade's notebook with a pen resting on the table near the kitchen. And in a swift movement, he got hold of the ledger and went outside unnoticed.

When Eisen was already inside the cottage-like waiting area where he relaxes, he opened Lewis's cellphone, which he had found yesterday. He was just thankful because his brother didn't seem to notice that his phone was missing. So while he is not looking for the phone, he will get all the information he needed to lead him to know the truth.

Eisen thought everything would be easy given the fact that the situation bestowed an opportunity for him to forget about everything and build up another rig of memories to remember. But it turns out that what he had forgotten was something he wished he had never forgotten at all.

As soon as the phone flashed bright color, what disappointed Eisen so much is that he did not know what to do when he saw that his brother's cellphone had a password.

"s**t!" Cursing became a habit of his mind since the day he started to remember things he was astoundingly disappointed to recall at all. He silently cursed under his ragged breathing as he attempted to type keywords he thought would be the password to unlock Lewis's cell. He tried simple codes like 000000, 111111, 123456, but nothing happened. The screen kept on popping the statement, "unrecognized pin."

The phone only provided him five attempts to try, and now, Eisen needed to wait for half a minute because of multiple tries before attempting another password to unlock the phone.

"Think Eisen. I'm sure you know what its password is," Eisen said to himself while trying his best to think of a suitable password for Lewis's phone to be successfully unlocked by him. A part of him told him that he knew the password, but that thought was just at the tip of his tongue but deeply buried within his conscious being.

"If I am Lewis, what would I input as the password?" Eisen has no time to search and hack a phone; hell, a few minutes won't even be enough to learn such complex endeavors, so he needed to act fast! He flipped through the notebook pages, filled with medical terms and numbers, which Eisen believed that it was the medicines Jade was giving him and the time when will he take them until an empty leaf came into view, making him ready himself to take down.

Eisen wasted no time as his fingers scribble through the notes and listed possible six-digit codes Lewis would use to protect his privacy until something popped out of his head.

Six digits. Could it be Eisen's brother's birthday?

"1007 **." But when he saw that the password he had entered was still invalid and the remaining attempt decreases, Eisen's remaining time closes by, he could almost pull his hair out of frustration.

Every minute counts, and that is what Eisen is doing. He tried his mother's birthday, dad's, and hell, all the numbers he could come up with, but nothing happens! It just kept on directing him to " UNRECOGNIZED PIN! AGAIN! LIKE WHAT THE F—"

Eisen stopped himself from getting mad as he closed his eyes and massaged the root of his nose, tirelessly tried to calm his senses before bursting it all out and get caught with it. Eisen has been trying hard, too hard, to know what happened. The issue is not what about the accident that occurred anymore, but the lies beneath what his family's been hiding from him.

Thinking about it now, If the six-digit code doesn't revolve around the birthdays of his father, mother, and brother, then what is the password?!

And the idea then immediately popped out of his head, like a light bulb lit up on top of his head. Thinking about it, Eisen hasn't tried his birthday yet, so he'll try to use it as the password, hoping for a miracle to shower upon him.

"0918 **." In his life of existence, the 0.1 second was the longest time he waited before the phone finally unlocked, revealing a plain black wallpaper. And Eisen couldn't help but smile after realizing that the most unexpected things happen at the best moment of our lives.

But the smile on his face promptly disappeared when he frowned, allowing a question pop out of his head. "Why would Lewis use my birthday as his password? It is not like my birthday is the strongest password he can come up with? Nevermind."

He ignored the questions he asked himself and immediately went to the phonebook to check for possible suspicious activities that might lead him to something meaningful.

But as soon as numbers flashed on the screen, Lewis has not dialed any suspicious activities. So, Eisen wrote down all the numbers of people he felt were close to him. Just in case he'll be needing them soon. Even Lewis's sss and email did not escape his sight. He opened every single mail, and there's nothing skeptical about them because mostly they were just about business topics. He even included the gallery and messages, but there's nothing to be wary about it.

Everything was perfectly normal—too normal to believe that something was wrong about all of it. Everything was clean, like hiding all the murder weapons away from the scene of the crime.

Lewis's cellphone was full of their family photos, mostly stolen ones, which he can't help but smile at how silly their stolen pictures were. What's more disturbing is that there is no photo about Jade in it, not a single one. Messages are faultlessly great, but not enough to convince Eisen that nothing is going on. He's sure that Lewis already deleted all of their conversations between Jade. There's no even news from Jade. There are no messages that could have helped him.

His brother seems to be hiding more than he thought.

When Eisen got all the information he needed, which is Eisen wasn't sure if he even got any, Eisen immediately slides the phone inside his pocket, clips in the notebook on his armpit before he staggered his way towards the back door of the house, still trying to act ordinary and unnoticed.

As soon as Eisen's hand gripped into the doorknob, sweat trickled down on his forehead as he catches his breath after a tiring walk with his cast.

Without waiting for a second to pass him by, Eisen opened the door and tried to tiptoe his way in until he finally reached the door to his room.

He was about to open the door and went inside his room when Eisen felt a sudden vibration coming out of his pocket, but before he could react, the light surrounding the ground floor started to lit up and cause him speechless. Eisen raised his arm to cover the flash of the lightbulbs that was about to blind his sight.

"I'm curious as to why my dear brother, Eisen Loisz St. Clair, would sneakily go outside the house in the middle of the night. What have you been doing all this time, Eisen? Why are you in a hurry?" Lewis asked as he made a few steps forward, pushing himself reveal in front of Eisen's eyes.

Lewis held a phone in his hand as he rested the material against his ears as if waiting for someone to pick it up. Of course, Eisen knew that his brother was calling his phone, but this is not the right time to get caught!

Eisen gave Lewis a long look before he filches both of his hands inside the pockets of his jogging pants, acting casual as ever. Eisen pressed the shut down button and made his fingers press and press the screen until he wasn't sure if the phone turned off already or not.

"I don't want to disturb anyone from their deep slumber, and that reason alone explains the question of why I was sneaking outside. My behavior earlier was unacceptable, and I can't sleep because I can't stop thinking about what I've said." Eisen explained as he made a few steps to reach his brother and come face-to-face with Lewis. Eisen irritatedly measured his brother's stares before questioning him,

"How about you, my dear brother Lewis Eiven St. Clair? What are you doing here at this late hour? Shouldn't you be sleeping by now instead of guarding and sneaking out on people? That's an uncomfortable thing to do after all."

A playful smirk danced on Lewis's eyes as a smirk formed on his lips. He raised the phone he was using earlier and showed it to Eisen, "I am trying to look for my phone since it has gone missing since yesterday. What's funny is that I knew where I left it, but it seems like someone got a hold of my possession."

The way Lewis carried out those words and upchucked it out on Eisen sounded more like sarcasm instead of merely telling him what's wrong. Lewis sure knows how to mock people, but not him- not Eisen. Lewis did not bother to remove his serious face as he stared straight and deep into Eisen's eyes.

"I'm not quite following you because if you were looking in here, why wouldn't you open the light and search for something that was lost? You're not getting anywhere if you keep on looking somewhere where there's no light," he asked, trying to be calm as if it had nothing to do with getting his brother's cellphone.

"Oh, no. That is when you're mistaken, brother. Do you actually think that my phone was missing? Because if I am born a detective, I would've arrested the thief roaming around this house." Eisen's blood turned white as snow, cold as ice, as Lewis's words slipped like a dagger flying through the air and destined to pierce his heart into pieces.

Lewis's voice seemed annoyed and inexplicable. His whole being seemed to mean something else.

"Are you accusing me of something I didn't do?" he asked his brother directly. Eisen has no intention to raise his voice but cannot stop himself until he recognizes how he reacted to Lewis's statement.

And with that, his brother smirked in front of him, like a lion ready to fulfill his hunger.

"Accused? Are you absurd, brother? Of course, I won't accuse you! Why would I accuse you if you hadn't done anything? What do you think of me? Just go around accuse someone without me knowing who would actually do the crime?" Lewis answered back, deciding to put his brother into a better situation as he licked his lips in amusement as he takes in Eisen's reaction, "Unless you actually know something. But that doesn't matter anymore. As long as I have this thing, well get to know to the bottom of this, am I right?"

Lewis raised the same phone he was using earlier and smiled before showing Eisen whose phone is Lewis calling again.

And for the second time, the phone in his pocket vibrated. And that when Eisen knew that he's in too much trouble than he imagined it would end up.

_________

IF THE Earth had the perfect timing for her lucky days, then Jade wished to be just devoured by the sand right now because this is the sign for his last lucky days in the world. She can't stand being with someone who stenches of misfortune and trouble. Right now, Jade wanted to be staunch on the desire to be with her family instead of being with the woman who might end everything she's been trying to prolong.

Earlier, both women measured each other's blazing glares and deadly wishes against each other. People around the area were sneaking a glance at the intense atmosphere towards them without even asking what was going on.

Jade even heard someone spoke, "Mom, why do they look alike? Are they twins? The other one looks scary, though?" And up until now, Jade can't hide the smile on her face as she recalled the kid who said those words. At least, she's not the one who's looking scary between them.

If Xylon hadn't cleared his throat, which Jade had forgotten for a little while because of being focused on the woman sitting across her, she wouldn't have come to her senses and noticed that she's been staring at the woman's painted fingernails. They were like a cat's nails, ready to scratch her in front of the public.

Jade cleared her throat after that as she took a sip of her coffee. The warmth of the coffee when she bought it has grown cold because they haven't noticed the time that has passed them by the moment they sat together and waited for someone to speak and cut the tension between them.

When Jade felt Xylon elbowing her, that was the time that she decided to end the awkward silence between them.

"YOU ARE the Alicia Collins. The international model, if I concluded it right." Jade started after lowering the glass she is holding.

She lifted her gaze and met Alicia's tantalizing eyes. She was smiling, or more like grinning, before lowering her extravagant hat to welcome the afternoon sunlight to trickle on her face for Jade to get a better look at the woman she's been dealing with the moment she started being Alicia's double, the real wife.

"I'm surprised, miss Guevara that you have done you're researching perfectly. But I'm a bit displeased that you missed the most important detail about me."

As soon as Alicia lightly placed her hat at the table, she delicately brushed her hair and pinned it at the back of her ears before sophisticatedly stare at Jade. And if Jade has noticed Alicia's eyes first, she might think that this woman was sweet, innocent, and dashingly friendly! Fortunately, looks can really be deceiving and dangerous at times. Lucky for Jade, she knew what person to trust.

"I am not just the Alicia Collins you saw on the internet. I am THE Alica Collins-St. Clair, to be exact." Alicia corrected her as she crossed her legs, letting the heels of her strikingly gorgeous sandals clack against the floor while flipping her hair in front of Jade and Xylon with class.

If Jade guessed it right, Alicia might be endorsing the shampoo she's using because she's been overdoing the way Alicia flicks her hair whenever she remarks. It seems like Alicia has been boasting how her appearance shouted 'wealthy, gorgeous, and powerful' that Jade won't be able to reach. The standard is too high for her to catch up with, and she hated feeling miserable.

"Yes, you're right. I'm sorry, Mrs. St. Clair. Please excuse my behavior, but-" Mrs. St. Clair. It stings the moment Jade let those words slid out of her lips like it was an everyday word for her to speak.

"What brings you here? I know that you know that it's a bit rude the way you approached me earlier given the fact that we're not close nor friends. And it's a bit uneasy for my part that you had read my resume when in fact, I didn't apply for any job application to you."

As soon as Jade uttered those words, Alicia leaned forward and lightly bowed her head, and whispered enough for her to hear. "I can't believe that a woman like you still acts like an innocent child, sitting and enjoying the world with a cup of coffee in hand while overlooking the world like a paradise. But I guess the ones who act so innocent are the ones with rotten personalities that they're trying to hide when someone is around—most specially when they have the worst secret to wish to keep forever. Am I right, miss Guevara?"