𝐒𝐀𝐂𝐑𝐈𝐅𝐈𝐂𝐄

chapter forty-seven

Alexandra skillfully coated her eyelashes with the mascara wand she held . Her face was angled upward as her mouth formed an O-shape. She heard a light chuckle and looked into the mirror to see Clayton watching her. He was slouched in the chair on the opposite side of the room, eyes lowly focused on her. Something about his gaze made Alex shift in her place and reluctantly smile.

"I-uh think we should get going,"Alex laughed turning around to face him. She made her way over, kissed his nose sweetly and walked away.

-

Clayton roughly ran his hands along his face, effectively intensifying the redness that had appeared from that repeated motion for the last 2 hours. His foot anxiously tapped against the porcelain hospital tiles. He snapped out of his reverie from earlier that year when he had reunited with Alex.

"Alexandra Cohen?" a demure nurse asked now standing in front of him. Clayton abruptly stood up from his seat in the private waiting area nodded quickly.

"Is she okay?"he asked interrupting the woman before she could get a word in.

"She will be okay,"she smiled kindly,"Unfortunately the impact of the accident did cause her arm and a rib to fracture. Thankfully your blood donation helped subside some of her internal blood loss but it will take some time for her to heal."

Clayton breathed out a sigh of relief, trying not to let the tears that were welling up fall out of his eyes,"Can I see her?"

"Right now visitors are restricted to family members only-"

"Please,"he begged. His desperation and tone of voice won her over and a few moments later Clayton was finally able to see what he believed to be the consequences of his actions.

A short while later Clayton hesitantly opened the door to Alex's room. He sighed seeing her asleep peacefully but frowned once he noticed the bruises on her face and the cast on her right left arm. He sat down quietly and watched as the light from the dawn caressed her swollen face. In that moment he undoubtedly hated himself. He hated himself for drinking the previous night, for angering her and for cornering her in the car. Although he didnt directly cause the accident, he might as well have since none of this would have happened if it wasnt for him.

He reached out and gently placed his hand around hers. He wanted to apologize but his tears and consciousness held him back. He felt like it would be a cowardice move to apologize while she was sleeping, he needed to say it face to face.

-

"Well can I get you anything from your place then?"a male voice asked ultimately waking Clayton up. He slowly raised his head from his and Alex's interlocked palms and looked around drowsily

"No it's fine. You probably have a lot of work to get to. I'll uh-"Alex's hoarse voice paused as she noticed Clayton waking up,"I'll have my assistant do it."

"Yo-you're awake!"Clayton exclaimed hugging Alex immediately. Alex stiffened automatically and Clayton took this as a sign to move away. She winced quietly, feeling the impact of his embrace on her ribs.

"Um how are you feeling?"he asked regaining his composure. He finally noticed Johnathan standing on the other side of Alex, a scowl dressed on his face.

"I'm fine,"she replied softly, unable to look him in the eye. Alex began to feel the effects of the IV running into her arm. She slowly moved to her original sleeping position, John helping her along the way. She closed her eyes and tried to clear her mind, hoping that the faint headache that was coming on would go away.

"You need to leave,"John exclaimed firmly. If Alex hadn't woken up when she did, he would have threw Clayton out of the hospital room.

That morning when he saw the gruesome car crash on the television, he felt as if time stood still. He immediately rushed over and breathed a sigh of relief when he was informed that she had not been fatally injured..

What fuelled his anger even more was that Clayton was okay. After stealing the car and driving away with Alex, against her will, the audacity of him to stay with her all night. He didn't even have the decency to inform anyone.

"I'm not leaving...I need to make sure she's okay,"Clayton replied calmly fixing his eyes upon Alex. He didn't care to be defensive at that moment. Even though John had no claim or right over Alex, Clayton knew he deserved whatever anger the older man had toward him.

Johnathan wanted to grab him by his collar and connect his fist with Clayton's jaw, but he knew doing that would hurt Alex. After all, Alex was the one who stated that she would not be pressing charges. Johnathan could'nt undertstand how someone as smart and calculative and Alex could be dumbed down by love. If that was what love was, he did'nt think he felt that way for Alex anymore.

Johnathan's stern face gazed upon his sleeping partner and roughly grabbed Clayton's arm, effectively taking him into the hallway.

"You never really loved her,"Johnathan spat once they were a safe distance away from any Alex,"And you never will."

"You will never know a fraction of what I feel-"Clayton began looking away from the window into the room and toward the man who he always thought had a weird possessiveness over Alex.

"Then why are you perfectly fine and she,"he interrupted,"Why is she the one hurt?"

Clayton remained silent.

"Does it make you feel good? Finally got your revenge for your scumbag of a father?"Johnathan scoffed.

Clayton advanced toward him, intending to wipe that smug look off his face.

"What the fuck are you talking about? Because of her actions, my father had a heart attack. Am I supposed to just pretend like that didn't happen and move on?! She used me in some twisted plan of hers to go on a power trip?!"

"It wasn't a power trip, it was revenge,"John stalked toward him now, coming face to face with a puzzled Clayton,"Revenge that she gave up all because...because she loved you."

"She loved you so much that she gave up the one thing that mattered most to her, making her father proud,"Johnathan scowled,"That's why I had to do it for her"

"I have loved her for the good and ugly, not just the fragments I got to see on weekend getaways. I loved her so much that keeping her a secret would be an insult."

"That's how I know you've never truly loved her."

Clayton's anger slowly grew by the second and it didn't help that a flame of jealousy ignited when John confessed his true feelings for Alex. Something about hearing another man talk about Alex that way made Clayton uncomfortable. He had thought he was over her but clearly that isn't the case. He wanted to burst the bubble John was living in. Clayton didn't consider himself a complete saint but he knew no one was better for Alex than himself, let alone her glorified assistant.

"She will never love you the way-,"Clayton confidently began but then hesitated. He wondered if the love he was about to shove in Johnathan's face still existed. He quickly glanced at Alex, who tossed uncomfortably, incoherently mumbling something in her slumber.

"You're right, there's a possibility that she won't,"John began,"But what's for sure is that she won't want to ever be around the person who put her in that hospital bed."

Clayton pressed his lips into a thin line, restraining every fiber within him to not wipe that smug look off of John's face.

With the revelation that everything that had transpired was a part of Alex's revenge, Clayton was left with even more questions. And there was only one person who could answer them right now.