Scarlett gathered enough strength to push Adrian away, forcing him to let go of her, and then she glared at him.
“What are you doing? Did you forget that you're my stepfather?” She asked, fighting back her tears.
Adrian did not even know what had come over him. He scratched his head, regretting what he had just done. He had acted on impulse. Seeing Scarlett made him lose his senses, especially because he hasn't been able to get her off his mind all day.
“I'm sorry, I–”
“I don't want to hear anything. You should get back to the party, your fiancee is probably waiting for you.” She said spitefully, placing a lot of emphasis on the ‘fiancee’ part.
Adrian sighed, letting his head hang. He opened his mouth to speak again after seconds of silence, but Scarlett quickly walked away, not wanting to talk to him anymore. She headed straight to her room, deciding to forget about the party entirely. She locked herself up in her room and collapsed into the bed, sobbing.
Minutes later, her phone started to ring, and she raised her head to take a look at who the caller was. It turned out to be Lily, but the call ended before she could reach her phone. Sniffing back her tears, she unlocked her phone only to find out that Lily had called her several times.
Scarlett was in no mood to talk to anyone at that moment, not even Lily. She turned the phone off and dropped it on the drawer before shutting her eyes, seeking peace.
The sound of loud laughter coming from outside didn't let her have the peace she craved. She wondered who could be outside making such a noise when there's a party going on inside. She got up from the bed and walked to the window, looking down at the people there.
It turned out to be her colleagues from work, including her uncle and Maxwell. Vivian had prepared a separate booth for them outside the house, at the patio. They were drinking and also nodding along to the music coming from inside.
They were all engrossed in a conversation, which seemed to have left them breathless as they were all laughing loudly.
Scarlett let out a sigh as she watched them. They all seemed to be having the time of their lives. Everyone was, everyone except for her. While everyone else was celebrating her mother's engagement to Adrian, she was suffering in silence.
All could she thought about were the memories she made with Adrian within the short time that they were together. Thinking about how he made love to her caused her heart to squeeze in pain as more tears ran down her cheeks.
She moved away from the window and went back to her bed, throwing herself in and sobbing uncontrollably. She regretted honoring her mother's invitation. She should have just stayed at home and avoided all the pain she was feeling.
Meanwhile, downstairs, Adrian and Vivian were subjected to play a couple of games by the insistent guests. Adrian wasn't interested in any of it but had to play along and pretend to be excited.
“Who said I love you first?” The young lady who was moderating the game asked, grinning at both of them. Adrian smiled and pointed at Vivian.
“She did.” He answered.
“Yes, I did.” Vivian blushed, and a round of applause was given to them.
“And who is the better cook?”
“Oh, Adrian is definitely the better cook.” Vivian said without wasting a second. Everyone laughed and clapped again.
“One last question, who leads when it comes to the other side.” The lady winked at them, and Vivian blushed, knowing exactly what was meant by the question. She looked at Adrian, who looked back at her, hoping that she didn't open her mouth and start blabbing.
“Well, I think that should only be for Adrian and I to know.” Her response shocked Adrian, but he loved it.
They ended up playing two other different games before Adrian told them that he was no longer in the right frame of mind for any more games. He went to take a seat, his eyes desperately searching the hall for any sign of Scarlett, but she was nowhere to be found.
“Adrian, are you okay?” Vivian approached him and sat next to him. She had seen him looking very disturbed and distant, so she decided to ask why.
“I'm fine, just tired.” He simply answered, making sure that his face was void of every emotion. He stared straight at the people dancing on the dancefloor.
“Do you want to go upstairs and rest? You can go ahead and I'll finish things up here.” She told him, gently caressing his back, and he sighed deeply.
“I'm fine, I'll just get some water from the fridge.” He got up quickly and headed towards the kitchen.
By the time he turned back, Vivian had already left to talk to some guests. He snuck upstairs, hoping to find Scarlett and talk to her. He couldn't bring himself to forget about her and the hurt he saw in her eyes. Knowing that he was the reason for it, he felt bad.
He got to Scarlett's room and was about to place a knock on her door when he stopped himself, turning around and dipping his hands into his pocket. He let out a sigh, deciding not to go ahead with what he wanted to do.
He wouldn't want to compromise his mission by letting Vivian see him and Scarlett together. It would ruin everything for him, and he might lose in both ways.
He went back to the party, joining Vivian, who introduced him to some of the guests.
Soon, the party starts to get dull as the guests start to leave one after the other. Vivian made sure that everyone had a good time and they managed to gather lots of gifts from the guests.
Scarlett finally decided to come out of her room after the music, and the commotion stopped. Her mother was already in her room, while Ethan had slept off in his room. She didn't know where Adrian was, and she didn't bother to know. She only wanted to get something to eat because she hadn't tasted anything the whole day and it was almost 8 pm.
She only met the maids downstairs, cleaning the place up and chatting amongst themselves. She walked past them, took some food from the kitchen, and started going back to her room.
She happened to run into Adrian on her way back to her room. They stared at each other for a while, but she quickly walked away, making sure that she didn't give him enough time to talk to her.
Adrian sighed, feeling bad that Scarlett was pissed off. He tried not to let it get to him, but that proved abortive as he couldn't stop thinking about her. He continued on his way to Vivian's room, but the noise coming from one of the rooms caught his attention.
“Oh.. yes.. oooh..”
They sounded like muffled moans, and he got curious. The door was slightly open, any when he peeked in, he saw Ethan recklessly pounding a maid in uniform, bent over on a desk.
“Wow…” he chuckled.