The next morning, I just did my usual routine and went to school since our midterm exams are coming up and I need to keep up. The past few days, I've been distracted, so I need to catch up on some things I need to study and focus on. It's been a week since the day that I forced him to tell me the truth, and up until now, I still couldn't get to know all of it. Meanwhile, the scratch that I made is already healing, and it seems like he doesn't even notice it, or maybe he just doesn't care about it at all.
"You should focus on this lesson," Maureen said as she pointed to the second lesson that our professor discussed. "This is where he mostly focuses on, so we need to make a detailed reviewer for that."
We are in the library, trying to study. Actually, it's just me who needs to keep up since Maureen's always at the top of our class alongside Cooper. Just then, I heard from the faculty one time when I was told to pass some requirements there that Cooper took fewer subjects this semester, which is why I don't usually get to see him on campus and his schedule is much more free than mine.
"Hey, focus," Rylie snapped her fingers in front of my face as I started to zone out again.
I rolled my eyes at her, and she scoffed.
"If you fail, you'll be going back from the start," she tried to threaten me.
I'm not that dumb to fail, though. I might not be one of the top students, but I still have a passing grade in all of my subjects.
On the other hand, my relationship, or, let's just say, my situation in the penthouse, is not that frustrating anymore. After what happened a week ago, Cooper did try to adjust. He's knocking on my door every now and then just to check up on me to see if I'm alright or if I've eaten already. It's not much of an improvement since he's been busy every now and then, but at least he's trying to reach out now.
I don't know if that's okay, but maybe I should just settle for it now since I still don't know what to do to confront him again. He's still busy in his room doing something like before, and even though there are times that I get curious and almost open the door myself, I still try to move away from the thought of it and just shrug it off for now.
Back to reality, Maureen stood up as she told me that she'd be meeting someone in the cafe near our university, so she bid her goodbye, and now I'm stuck with the forever talkative Rylie.
She's been asking me every day if we're okay. In return, I told her what's been happening inside our penthouse, and now she keeps on telling me to look inside Cooper's room just to feed my "sanity." Well, that's what she said.
"I'm pretty much okay not knowing about it for now, Ry," I assured her while I was trying to write down some details.
"But you have to," she insisted. "What if he's hiding it from you because you're a vampire and he's a werewolf?"
I glared at her upon hearing that. Someone might hear her, and it will just make a big commotion. But thinking about what she said, it suddenly rings a bell.
That can be his reason for not saying anything to me. Why didn't I even think about that?
It all makes sense now. Rylie suddenly gasped, making everyone look at her inside the library while I'm still trying to connect things.
"Gosh, did I just hit the spot right there?" She suddenly sounded so tense. I looked at her and signaled to her that we should get out of this library now. I took all of my things and just shoved them inside my bag.
I'm out of control now.
I contacted my driver and told them to pick me up in front of the library. As soon as Rylie and I got out of the building, the car was already there waiting for us. We both got in and told the driver to drive quickly back to the penthouse.
I have the chance right now since I heard Cooper talking on his phone just this morning about meeting someone on the west side of the city. It's pretty far away from here, so I've got plenty of time.
The moment the car stopped in front of Cooper's building, I walked as quickly as I could, and Rylie was still following from behind, trying to "calm" me down.
"Sissy, I might be wrong about this, so you should back off for now," she said, but then I became too occupied.
How can I be clueless about the fact that this might be because of our differences?
I'm such a stupid creature right now.
I got in the elevator, and both Rylie and I headed straight to the penthouse. My mind is now focused on one thing: knowing whether Cooper might be hiding something that is very much related to our kind.
The elevator door opened, and I rushed to open the double doors of our home. I went straight to the hallway, where his room is. I was about to open the door when Rylie held one of my arms. I looked at her and raised an eyebrow.
"I might be wrong about this," she said, trying to stop me for the last time.
"Or you might just be right," I said as I twisted the doorknob and opened the door so wide that we could both see what was inside.
What welcomed us were boxes of thick files and piles of envelopes on his bed. On the right side of his room, there seems to be a board covered with a black blanket. Rylie walked straight to the files to look into it, while my mind pulled me to walk towards the board.
Rylie gasped, and so I looked at her.
"It's your mom, Adi," she said, covering her mouth. By that, I pulled down the black blanket that's covering the board, and what I'm seeing right now is much worse.
It's pictures of my family. It seems like they've been following them this whole time. On top of that, I saw a picture of my mom with a note saying "killer". I got confused, but when Rylie tapped my shoulders, she showed me an open notebook. There's something written in it, and I gasped softly as I read it.
Adriana Quincie Mildred Lazarius
Age: 21.
Daughter of my mother's murderer.
Bound to get married to me.
It's Cooper's handwriting.
Just what did I discover?