Page 41 of Viral Affair

Rupert walked inside like he fucking owned the place, and when I glanced at the mirror, I nearly had a heart attack. I had dark circles under my eyes, my mascara was smudged around them, and my hair stuck out everywhere. I looked like a complete mess.

“What is it? How did you even get inside the building?” I wanted to dig out a huge hole in the floor and just bury myself in it. I felt so embarrassed that I’d acted out, but Rupert had pissed me off. His lack of understanding of how serious that situation was triggered my anxiety.

“Here’s a new phone with SIM card. You just have to register it and then you should be good to go.” He stared at me with worry in his eyes.

I bit my bottom lip, scrambling for words.

“Thank you, but you didn’t have to do that,” I said. “Give me a minute. I just woke up.”

He didn’t argue as I quickly rushed to the bathroom and washed my face. Around ten minutes later, I emerged from my room half decent, my favourite pink silk dressing gown that I put on earlier making me feel slightly less anxious. Rupert was still in the living room, and it looked like he was setting up my new phone.

“Hold on, mister. How do you know what network I’m with, and why are you here so early?” I asked.

He winked at me.

“You must have forgotten, or maybe I never told you that my brother has a security firm. One of his guys gave me everything I needed,” he said, then switched on a brand-new model of iPhone. It was rose gold, my favourite colour. “I lost control last night, drank way too much, but you were the one who ran away. You shouldn’t have done it. You put yourself at unnecessary risk,” He admonished me.

“You mocked me when I wanted to go to the police, and that really triggered me, so I left. I managed to block my cards when I got home last night—luckily, no one had used them yet,” I said. My relationship with money was rather complicated, and sometimes I sabotaged my own self, thinking I could lose it all. Between my mother and Vincent, oh God, Vincent… Rupert had no idea about Vincent’s blackmail, and for now I had to keep it that way.

My head felt like it was going to explode. I was supposed to only go out with Rupert last night because, as Vincent said, I had to get close to him in order to get my hands of these recordings. And I was so afraid of Rupert's life. It was too dangerous to go to talk to anyone and even if I could, I wasn't sure if there was anything that anyone could do to stop Vincent. I hated this, hated myself because I wanted Rupert, but all these lies were draining all the energy out of me.I don’t know what to do and I need to figure this all out, and quick.

“Hey, I normally stay away from alcohol. Last night I was drunk, and people have told me before that I act like an idiot when I am, so I do owe you an apology. I didn’t mean to upset you. When I woke up this morning with a hangover, I realised I’d indeed acted like an arsehole,” he explained, reaching out to take me in his arms.

I let him hug me. He smelled so nice, and I felt so terrible. I wished I could tell Vincent to go to hell, but I couldn’t risk putting Rupert's life in danger. Not just Rupert, but his entire family was in trouble. I felt sick to my stomach when I showed me the pictures of Rupert playing with Maja. I forced my tears away. There was no way I could break in front of him. He’d know something was wrong.

“It’s fine, don’t worry about it. I freaked out a bit, too. I’ve always struggled with money so I was scared that I might lose everything,” I said, because this was the truth. Just not the truth I should be telling him.

“So, your place is nice and cosy. I can see why you like living here,” he said when he let go of me.

When Rupert picked me up last night, I hadn’t even let him inside as we’d left pretty quickly.

“I found this place first, getting a great deal on it as I’d mentioned, then I met Laura and we moved in together,” I said.

God, getting to taste him so intimately last night had been heaven. I wanted to kiss him, but I inexplicably lacked confidence. I hadn’t had a chance to cover my freckles with makeup yet. Also, I didn’t think I could sleep with him while this thing with Vincent was hanging over my head.It was beginning to consume all my thoughts.

“No wonder why Spencer hired Laura. She looks a lot like Samantha in this picture. If I didn’t know any better, I would say that the two of them must be related. The resemblance is so striking,” Rupert said, staring at the picture of me and Laura on the London Bridge.

I frowned and walked up to him.

“Who the hell is Samantha?” I asked, staring down at my roommate who was beaming with happiness that day. At the time, she was still dating that wanker, Jake, the international pop star. I knew he was bad news the moment she got with him, but it was none of my business.

Rupert scratched his head, still studying the picture with a certain intensity.

“Samantha is Maja’s mother, Spencer’s ex. When Maja was about six weeks old, Sam went out to get coffee and never came back. I swear to God, Laura looks exactly like her in this photo,” he explained, bewildered.

“Maybe that’s why your brother wants her so much, because she is the spitting image of his ex. Have you got a picture of her by any chance, so we could compare?” I asked, because what were the chances?

Laura had a missing sister somewhere out there. She had tried to look for her, but so far without any luck. They were both born in Poland, and Laura mentioned she could hardly even remember her. This was nuts, though, to even consider she and this Samantha could be related.The odds had to be astronomical. The probability had to be near zero.

“No, Spencer hasn’t seen her in almost ten years, but I do have some old photos at home. This is freaking me out a little. I know it’s been ten years, but the resemblance is so striking,” Rupert kept saying.

My spine started to tingle. But what if it were true? Even if the chance was negligible…

“Was Sam born in Poland?” I asked and then quickly added, "Laura had a sister but they got separated when she got adopted. She has been searching for her for years. Can you imagine what would happen if Sam turned out to be Laura’s biological sister? I think everyone would totally freak out over this.”

“No, I don’t think so. As far as I know, Samantha is British, but yeah, that would be so fucking unbelievable,” Rupert admitted, scratching his head.

And this made me feel slightly better. Samantha likely wasn’t Polish, so there was no way she could have been Laura’s real sister, but I had to mention this to my friend. Maybe she could find some old pictures of Spencer’s ex-girlfriend. I didn’t know they were married when they’d had Maja, but this woman was his ex, after all.

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