Blank Canvas

●Chapter 08●

We often make decisions that could lead us to the most problematic situations. Sometimes, we choose them and sometimes, we involuntarily have to suffer from them.

The reason I'd asked Atlas about Jenna was because she'd described Jeff in her book whereas I just used that description and brought my imagination alive. I asked him thinking that they might know each other. My inner self was telling me something else. I've heard the name Atlas and Jenna together but I couldn't quite remember where exactly.

Sitting cross-legged on my bed, I racked my brain to come with a logical answer to connect the dots between these two. I mulled over my thoughts but I was back to square one. I was as clueless as they come.

I looked around my room as if the answer might pop out of somewhere magically. I continually traversed my gaze from one place to another in hopes of finding a solution to my miserable confusion. That's when my eyes fell on my study table where my favorite book was placed.

I didn't have a shelf because of the lack of novels in my room. The only novel I have is 'His Second Love' and a few books here and there. Anything but novels.

I stared at the book for one whole minute when something clicked in my mind. I furrowed my brows, trying to concentrate hard but every time I was coming up with an empty handed search. Slowly, I walked to my study table thinking the only way I could feed my curiosity was by reading the book again.

'But was I ready?'

It was like something was stopping me from opening the book. As if I knew that whatever was in there would spoil my mood and make me lethargic.

However, I reluctantly opened the book and started turning the pages like I was on a mission, which I basically was. I even looked at the acknowledgment page with concentration. Not finding anything useful, I turned the page and that's when my eyes landed on the 'special acknowledgment page'.

"For the special person - Atlas Carter, with love," I read aloud. My voice quivered a bit in the end. I pursed my lips and reminisced Atlas's expression when I had asked him about Jenna. He looked torn.

I quickly scrambled to my bed and opened my laptop. I typed Jenna Hawkins in the search engine with such ferocity that I thought I might smash the delicate keys of my laptop. The last thing I wanted was to have an unusable laptop.

'No results found' was all I got. "Are you kidding me?" This was the first time I was researching about her on the internet. That would be because I vaguely remembered Kris telling me that there's not a single picture and information about Jenna Hawkins online.

'Does she not love her fans who admire her work?' I wondered. 'What is wrong with her? What's the reason behind her being so anonymous? Is it so necessary?'

I put my laptop aside and reiterated back to the study table and scanned the entire novel again. I didn't leave a single page out that revealed the extra information but there was nothing important - null, void, nada, and nothing.

Sighing wearily, I closed my eyes for a brief second to calm myself down. This was getting really mysterious because for one - there was nothing about her on the internet and two - I checked the entire book but I didn't get her or her personal assistant's or her company's e-mail address or any other contact details. From what I knew, there's always an email address of the authors to get back to them.

"Urghhhh." I groaned and pulled my hair in frustration. "There's not a single information about her that can give me even an ounce of hint. What's the need to be so secretive?"

'Who is Jenna to Atlas? What relation do they have? Do they romantically love each other?' My mind was on a roll with too many curious questions but none with an accurate answer.