Page 23 of The Next Door Billionaire's Deception

“Well, if you consider me doxing myself by accident … then yes.”

“No way! How’d you even do that?”

Unlike when he first came in, his shoulders are relaxed. The buttons on his shirt are undone so I can get a view of his chest. He has a lean but toned body. Paired with his shirt are black shorts that do not hide the outline of his thighs.

“…then I discovered that I exposed my IP address to everyone. I had to move out that day and stay temporarily with one of my teammates before the whole thing got handled by my management. The manager was mad at me, but it served as publicity for the team … I think.”

“They do nothing about initiation rituals, but they’re mad if a player accidentally doxes themselves. That just seems hypocritical.”

“It was a long time ago. I got a cool retirement bonus even though I quit too early.”

“Why did you quit? You were at the peak of stardom when you did.”

He hesitates before he answers, swirling the wine flute before downing the content. His words slur a little when he replies.

“Better to die a hero than live long enough to be the villain, right?”

“Where’d you even hear that?”

“A friend. He said he got it from Twitter, though,” he says, chuckling.

Is he the type to get drunk quickly? It’s only our second bottle, after all. He did look exhausted when I saw him earlier.

“You’ve been the only one asking questions since I arrived. It should be my turn to ask a question.”

“Go ahead. I’m curious.”

“That picture. How do you know that person?”

I turn around to see the picture he’s pointing at. It’s a picture of my brother, Alex. It’s an old picture I found in the moving boxes. I thought I had lost it, but it was still there after all that time. I don’t know what moved me to hang it back up instead of the picture of myself that I wanted to put up.

“Why? Does he look familiar?”

“He does. He looks a lot like a business associate of mine, Alex. But it couldn’t possibly be the same person. Right?”

Alex and Richard are associates?

How much of my brother’s life did I miss?

“No, it’s not. You want more wine?”

“How do you know it’s not him? You’ve never met Alex. So, you must know the person in the picture. Is he that important that you’re hanging his picture on your wall?”

“My, is that jealousy I hear, Richard?”

“You’re changing the subject, Melissa.”

“If you move on, you get the chance to ask me another question.”

He clamps his mouth shut, studying me. I look away, leaning forward to fill his empty flute and mine. He picks up his flute while staring at me with suspicion. Maybe hanging that picture wasn’t a good idea. I was so overwhelmed with nostalgia that I acted without thinking.

I’m not ready to tell him – or anyone – about Alex.

“Why do you have such a big apartment when you live alone?”

“I have many people around, like Celine.” I hand him the flute. “Isn’t your apartment the same size as mine?”

“I got it as part of my retirement bonus.”

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