Chapter 196: The visit (1)
Knock! Knock!
"Who on earth could be knocking on this door at this time of day without informing me of their visit first? Vincent?" Cecilia gasped when she opened the door of her home and found Vincent standing outside.
"My apologies for not sending a notice first. Good afternoon," Vincent smiled, pretending to be innocent when he was nothing of the sort. He handed Cecilia a bouquet of flowers he picked up along the road. Literally picked up from the road. "May I come in?"
"Ugh," Cecilia said, trying to process that Vincent had brought her flowers and the fact that he was actually standing in front of her home.
For as long as she had been married Vincent never visited the home. He didn’t even show up to her wedding or the dinner at home. The gift he sent was a single flower and a piece of paper with ’congrats’ written on it.
"Well," Vincent snapped his fingers close to Cecilia’s face to wake up from her daydream. "People are starting to stare."
"What?" She looked behind Vincent to where her gates were. Others had started to gather, surprised by Vincent’s visit to the home. "Y-Yes. Come in," she stepped aside for him to enter. ’What I am doing is messing up this prime opportunity,’ she smacked her face.
"Why do these flowers have dirt? Should he take them to the seller," she dusted off small pieces of dirt from the flowers. Cecilia closed the door much to the dismay of the crowd that gathered.
"You have an interesting home," Vincent commented looking around he rarely visited. He had not been here since his uncle divorced his first wife. He only came because of her request and after she left, there was nothing for him to see here.
"Oh, yes. Wait! Interesting?" Cecilia paused looking around to see why he would call it interesting and the tone he said it in felt like it wasn’t very interesting. More like you have weird taste.
"A lot of expensive things in here," Vincent picked up a vase and then placed it back down.
"I decorated the home after I got married-"
"I can see that," Vincent interjected.
Cecilia’s lip twitched as she felt insulted two times by Vincent and he was not in the home for such a long time. Was he here to pay them a visit or to insult her?
"Why did you come here, Vincent? You don’t really like coming here and your uncle is not home. Were you supposed to get something from him or did you lose your memory or something? You hate each other," she muttered feeling awkward.
As much as she tried to get Vincent to visit their home now that he was here she felt extremely uncomfortable. She was mentally cursing Graham for not being home at a time like this.
"You always said I could pay you a visit whenever I want. Was that a lie?" Vincent glanced over his shoulder at Cecilia.
"O-Of course not. I must’ve misread the go to hell part you told me afterward wrong. My mistake. Do you still wish to stay even though Graham is not here? I don’t think he will be back until tomorrow morning."
"Very well but before I go, how about a tour? I wouldn’t mind seeing the rest of the home and the changes you made. I’m looking for some inspiration for when I change up my home. I might look to you for help depending on what I see," Vincent lied right through his teeth. He found the house to be tacky with too many expensive things. He expected nothing less from Cecilia.
"Of course!" Cecilia excitedly replied but then cleared her throat realizing how she might’ve come off with her reaction. "I’d be happy to help. Where do you want to start first? I have so many places I love in this home. I hear that your home is filled with a lot of black in the decor?"
Cecilia tried to hook her arm around Vincent’s but he stepped away from her. ’Well at least I tried,’ she thought.
"It is. I enjoy seeing furniture in the color black and I am not a fan of bright colors. Is this your uncle’s bar?" He stated, looking at the small place filled with drinks. "The two of you must have a good time here."
"Oh no, this bar completely belongs to your uncle. He doesn’t like me taking up anything from it and only a few of his guests can drink from there. The bottles are expensive. He’s lucky we don’t share the same love in drinks or I would use it. I keep my alcohol stored away. That reminds me, would you like something to drink?" She only now realized she hadn’t offered Vincent anything.
"Just a shot of something strong. I had a rough start to the day."
"Graham is the one with all the strong things. It might give him a stroke when he knows I did this but you are his nephew which makes you special. Anything strong will do, right? Is this really worth dying over?" She whispered, going behind the bar.
Cecilia was only going out of her way to serve Vincent only to get close to him. She adored attention more than money and the best person to get both from was the alpha. It was a shame Vincent hated her and she was never sure if it was because she married his uncle or if he just hated her all along. fгeewёbnoѵel.cσm
"If you won’t tell him, I won’t. He won’t notice a tiny amount missing."
"Do not underestimate my husband," Cecilia mumbled remembering the time he realized she had poured out a tiny bit of alcohol for a friend who came to visit. She was sure his vision was perfect when it came to measuring his drinks. "I’ll tell him you poured the shot yourself if he ever finds out," she pushed a shot glass towards Vincent.
"Thank you. Where are all of the workers? Did you give them the day off?" Vincent questioned even though he knew the real reason no one was there.
"Yes. It’s just me here so there wouldn’t be anything for them to do here. Plus, I enjoy being by myself when Graham is away. The woman you have been staying with must rejoice when you are gone. As much as we might love our men, we enjoy having some time alone. You should have brought her over for me to meet her."
"Next time," Vincent emptied the content in the glass in one go. He had to admit that his uncle had good taste in alcohol. He placed the empty glass down on the counter but before Cecilia could put it back to be washed, he said, "I heard there’s a statue upstairs which has made all your friends jealous."
"Yes," Cecilia immediately became distracted, wanting to show Vincent the statue. If he were to comment on it more of her friends would die of jealousy. "This way," she walked ahead of him to lead the way.
With her distracted Vincent swiped the glass off the counter and placed it in his pocket. Aurora told him the spell would work using items the person claimed ownership of. If he really wanted the spell to be efficient where it wouldn’t fade away, he should get a strand of his uncle’s hair. That way, he could always watch where Graham was.
Vincent followed Cecilia up the stairs to view the statue he mentioned but the reason why he brought it up was only for her to him to the floor her bedroom was on.
"Here it is. Isn’t it magnificent?"
Vincent wasn’t sure why the statue gained a lot of attention from what he was seeing. The statue turned out to be a replica of his other form with jewels for his eyes and a weird stance like he was showing off his muscles. ’People are impressed by this?’ He questioned their judgment and eyesight.
"It’s something," he replied to not hurt her feelings. Cecilia was staring at the statute like it was her child and not made of clay. "Is that me, my father, or just random." fгee𝑤ebɳoveɭ.cøm
"It’s you-" Cecilia clamped her hand over her mouth. She never directly told anyone that the statue was Vincent. She just described it as the alpha statute. If Graham were to know it was Vincent, he would’ve thrown it out the moment she told him.
"It’s just random," she corrected herself.
"Right. Even though I am the alpha, it would be a little bit weird of my uncle’s wife to have a statue of me and not of him. He can transform into a wolf after all. Glad I didn’t misunderstand," Vincent smiled but it didn’t reach his eyes.
Just then, there was a knock on the front door and since there were no workers present, Cecilia needed to go check who it was.
"Pardon me for a moment, Vincent. Stay right here," she told him before running back downstairs to see who the person was at the door.
Vincent did the opposite of what she told him and started to look around for the bedroom she shared with his uncle.