Forbidden Link

07. Friends' Concern

Now Alex was like a suspect being questioned by judges and prosecutors repeatedly. If he felt like a defendant, then Alex should answer as objectively as possible. But this time he answered only by using his intuition. Alex just thought a logical statement from his point of view couldn't be accepted by his friend, Leona, who mentioned that Lakelynn might have lied to him. Even Lakelynn was more open-minded about Alex's thoughts than Leona.

"She shouldn't be lying."

"Do you still communicate with her often?" asked Leona in high intonation, as if Alex had just said something irrational.

"No. I only spoke to her again after seven years.”

“Then why are you defending her?”

The last question Leona asked made Alex pause for a moment. Then Alex shrugged his shoulders casually. Alex also had a long exhalation because their friends couldn't stop doubting the relationship between him and Lakelynn.

"I'm not defending her. I don't think she's lying because she's never lied to me in the past.”

“But she has lied to people who were not close to her before. And she might lie to you because she doesn't feel close anymore."

"Maybe she didn't lie to you. It's just that her words were a bit ambiguous," replied Alex with a frowning face. Tried to explain what was in his mind.

"And why are you defending her again now?"

“Hey, Leona… I'm not defending her. Okay? I only said what I should have said.”

Leona exhaled in annoyance. The girl leaned back in the chair while still crossing her arms in front of her chest. Leona didn't seem to want to discuss it with Alex anymore, while Alex just looked at the two Gypsyworth family members with a palmed face.

“I don't want to discuss your relationship with Lakelynn. But you better not follow the girl's words," said Farrell, taking over the conversation beside his sister, who stopped asking because of lack of impatience.

"Do you not believe in Lakelynn or do you not believe in me?"

"We don't trust the girl. And please stop this debate because we used to argue about the same person long ago.”

"I'm not arguing..."

"Al!"

"Okay."

The food that Farrell and Leona ordered came when Farrell shouted Alex's name. They should be grateful to the waiter who came at the right time because the awkward atmosphere between Alex, Farrell and Leona could be melted away by the lunch activity.

"Hey, why is their food served first? I even had an order half an hour before them."

"I'm so sorry, Sir. I will check your order then."

"If karma does exist, I should receive food first. I am never late every time I make an appointment."

"Hmpf..."

Leona just chuckled at Alex's words when the man questioned his food, which had not yet come to the waiter and was associated with karma. Alex responded to Leona laughing with a frown. He still didn't know why Leona just changed her expression immediately although the woman was annoying because of him in the first place.

"If I have a long talk with the waiter or Mio, Leona can laugh like that. Why did you seem so annoyed with my sentences before? Tsk tsk tsk," said Alex after sending the waiter away to bring his order.

"I don't know… if I said what you said to the maid earlier was different from what you said to me, you would have argued with me again."

"Geez… the Gypsyworth siblings. I'm not arguing with you guys. I'm just speaking what is inside my mind."

With the excuse that Farrell and Leona still had to work, Alex told the two siblings to eat before him. Alex turned on his cellphone, which was deliberately placed with the screen down. Placing cellphone's screens down was a habit that Alex did because he knew that he would have a long chat with the two people in front of him. As well as being good etiquette to do, Alex continued to do so after he realized that chatting without distraction would make the conversation more efficient.

And now Alex could only do activities alone because Farrell and Leona were eating. So he was tempted to use his cellphone while waiting for his food to arrive.

Lakelynn had already given the message and Alex immediately smiled because his presumption matched what was said in the message. Although the two friends in front of him doubted the source of Kaira's information, Alex was quite sure that Lakelynn would help him. Like what Lakelynn was doing now, which was to give Alex access to his current destination. A wallet that Lakelynn left behind becomes an excuse that Alex can use to get past Kaira's housekeeper. Even Lakelynn had just given information that Kaira's father would not arrive until sunset, which made Alex even more sure that Lakelynn's plan would go well.

Alex's smile invited glances from Farrell. And Alex's glance at the object on the table made Farrell realize that there was a foreign object he was about to ask. After finishing chewing and swallowing the processed food in his mouth, Farrell immediately questioned the light cream colored wallet which had an unusual length when worn by men because it could not fit into a trouser pocket.

“Whose wallet is that, Al?”

“Who else besides Lakelynn? That girl left it for me on purpose so that I could enter Kaira's house."

Farrell took a deep breath. Just as Alex wanted to comment on Farrell's response, there was a loud banging sound from beside the table where Alex and his two friends were. Everyone immediately looked towards the source of the sound, including Leona, who originally only looked at the food in front of her while eating.

A middle-aged man in casual clothes was sitting in a bent position. His forehead rested on the table in an upright position. In his right hand, he holds a cellphone that is next to his head. It seems that the source of the voice was from the man because there was no other sight that invited a question mark other than the position of the man.

After the man with the head supposedly hit with the table was in the same position for about half a minute, everyone started to wonder. All the gazes of the cafe customers began to show confused faces. The cafe customers whispered to each other with the person beside him and made noisy sounds without action. Until finally Alex got up from his seat as the one who took the initiative to check the condition of the man beside his table.

“Sir… Sir…”

Alex's voice did not cause any reaction from the man he called. Instead, the people's voices around Alex grew louder because the whispers had become chatter. Everyone questioned the condition of the man beside Alex while making different assumptions. The situation got quite tense when Alex tapped the boy on the shoulder and someone shouted “Has he had a heart attack?” In accordance to getting the answer about the heart attack issue, Alex checked the man's pulse also.

“Farrell, call an ambulance. No response from him at all. But he's still alive," said Alex, after checking the middle-aged man's pulse.