The Ex-wife of the Billionaire

Chapter 17:

I was weaving a sweater for Ethan on the next day afternoon, sitting by the corner of my bed. And that's when the clock stroke 12. I laid the sweater on the bed before sauntering my way towards the room door. I now have to ask Alejandro to pick Ethan from school.

After Alejandro had made a note of clues, Phillipe started to move out. But, he halted his steps suddenly, and turned with a stone face.

"Forgot anything brother?"

"Yes."

"What?"

"Informing you that you are grounded," he said stringently leaving no space for reasoning. He banged the door shut leaving the room in deafening silence. How could he ground me? I was no kid any more. 

"Alejandro!" I called out for my guard in the empty hallway. I did not have any choice rather than to seek help from him. He declared me grounded, but till when? Till the coronation perhaps? But..but...what about my freedom?

"Yes mam." He produced himself in front of me in mere seconds, followed by a strained Ivanna. Omg! Did my trainer arrive? Princessa lessons...here we go.

"Ethan will be done with his school n half hour. Will you pick him up please?"

"Sure, I will." With that, he disappeared into the pool of hallways.

"Trainer arrived huh?" I asked Ivanna with a look of 'can-my-life-get-any-better?'

"No, she didn't," she breathed out, instantly calming my pulse. But why did she appear so strained. Locking the door behind us, I possessed my loving bed. Resuming with the sweater, I urged her to speak out, "Why are you with that face?"

"Like my cat just died?" I nodded.

"Because your brother's giving everyone a hard time. There." Her finger pointed the neatly matted wooden floor underneath my feet. Oh, downstairs? But why so? Perhaps, he got up on the wrong side of bed today.

"Why so?"

"Trace your kidnappers." She shrugged in a way to portray nonchalance, but her tone did not go undetected by me. There was a tiny detail bothering her balance. Shaking her stability of focusing. What was that?

"Why are you so tensed? Did that idiot bombard you with questions?"

"No-no." Her denial was so fast that I couldn't help but suspect her actions. Was she hiding something?

"Then?"  I raised my eyebrow daring her to defy me.

She fumbled for a second, and said, "I don't like your brother stressing out like that."

My breath hitched when she said those words. That was pretty straight forward. I could easily unravel the message she tried to convey me with her statement. But, was that just as a friend or something more was cooking behind my back? The only way to dig deeper was by asking the person gulping in front of me.

"Would you like to say something Ivanna?"

"Uh-uh.." She was trying to collect right words for the sentence. Blood rushed to her cheeks forming her pale skin into a light shade of crimson. So, something was actually cooking I see. Why didn't I identify that by now? Oh, leave it to my non-existent skills of observing. I gave her some time to provide inputs for her sentence resuming to turn purple wool into a beautiful clothing for little Ethan.

"I-I somewhat.....might have..a ..liking towards your brother." I smiled. I wouldn't bother something like that. I glanced up to see her eyes squeezed tight with her fists balled by her sides. She doesn't have anything to panic about. "Just open your eyes duh. Why are you so tensed anyway?"