Mistakenly Eaten

45. Discovering Althea

Nicholas gently laid Althea down on the bed and she also gasped softly, as her back touch the soft mattress.

Her back was in excruciating pain, that even the softest touch of the mattress was bringing her immense pressure.

She simply closed her eyes, holding back her urge to cry in pain.

Serena immediately placed a feather pillow behind her back.

“I’ll order the workers around the place to prepare a heating pad for you.”

She informed, leaving the room, with Salva entering at the very same time.

“Why don’t you take the day off or rest until you get better.” He told her.

“But the competition…” she asked Salva, in a muddled tone.

“It will be postponed indefinitely.” Nicholas added, making Althea look up at him with confusion.

“But the rest of the contestants…”

“Stop arguing. They wouldn’t mind the time off, I am pretty sure.” Nicholas stated, dashing out of the room, leaving Althea even more confused with his actions.

Even Salva was rendered stunned with Nicholas. He was acting out of his way but he couldn’t place the reason for it.

Ignoring Nicholas, Salva walked towards Althea and gently sat by the edge of the bed, making sure to keep a safe space between them.

“I will have some medicines delivered for you and even call a doctor from a town nearby.” Salva informed but Althea shook her head.

“Oh, please! If my Mom would find out that I went to a doctor for such minor injuries, she would definitely make fun of me. We don’t go to doctors. We use simple herbs and a pain killer is enough for me to get better within a day or two.”

Salva looked down at Althea’s ankle in an extremely judgmental manner, assessing the depth of injury that she had incurred.

Her foot looked quite swollen, with her ankle bruised green, soon turning blue around the bulge.

“A day or two? Are you sure?” he asked her and Althea shrugged, slightly embarrassed, recognizing Salva’s judgmental gaze.

“Well, still if you need a doctor, just let me know, okay? You know where my room is, right?” he asked and Althea nodded with a soft smile.

“Wait! How do you know? Were you stalking me?” he said in a ever so friendly tone and Althea laughed out loud.

“Only at nights.” She winked back at him and waved as Salva laughed and finally exited the room, closing the doors of the bedroom behind him.

He continued walking towards his room, with a large smile spread across his face. the moment he stumbled down on his bed and looked up at the ceiling, something hit him deep within.

His eyes widened and he immediately shot up from his bed, getting up on his feet and standing straight and erect.

His eyes were bulged out of his sockets, as something eagerly devoured him on the inside.

He gulped hard, as his heart beat rapidly inside his chest.

He took a moment to catch his breath, as the realization dawned upon him that he was smiling after talking to some girl.

He was feeling… feeling things that he had never felt before.

He immediately shook his head, slapping both of his cheeks simultaneously, breaking himself out of the trance that he was in.

There was no way, he could ever do that. Laugh like that, with another girl and talk to another girl in such a friendly manner.

Girls were never supposed to be friends.

He had embedded that within his mind and locked it up for his own self.

He only flirted with girls, slept around with them and then eventually moved on.

At times, he had girlfriends, the longest relationship he ever had was only a year long but eventually he moved on from that as well and in fact, after a year, he started to get bored and tired.

He knew that friendships create a stronger bond and friendships make you stay.

That’s why he always avoided friendships. But he didn’t know why but unconsciously, he was developing a bond with Althea.

A bond of friendship, a bond of care, where he wanted to take care of her and look after her.

He immediately shook his head, snapping himself out and away from that thought.

But he wasn’t the only one, losing his mind.

There was someone else, just a floor right underneath him.

Inside his office, Nicholas paced back and forth, scratching the back of his neck, tugging on to the hair of his beard, as he felt losing his mental state.

He acted quite irrationally within the past half an hour.

First, he saved Althea from falling down.

Then he almost kissed her and then he pushed her away.

Everything was just confusing to him. his behavior was unpredictable, not just to the world but to his own self.

And he wasn’t like that. He was always in charge and in control of what he did.

But lately, everything had become a haze for her.

He walked ahead and sat down on his chair, opening up his laptop. He saw the email notification that he had received on his laptop and opened it up.

It was an email sent to him by one of his most entrusted investigators. He scrolled down to find all the necessary attached files encoded and zipped, sent to Nicholas.

He downloaded them and opened them up one by one.

All of those files contained information on Althea. Everything that the investigator could find, from the day she was born till the day she had left her town to come to the island.

He had asked him to get as much information as he could on Althea, since Nicholas wanted to know the girl’s backstory, that he thought he could use to manipulate her in to being his private chef but that was before he realized his own urge to hold her and kiss her.

The moments replayed in his head, where he held her and pulled her closer, touched her lips with his.

He shook his head, snapping his thoughts away and opened up the files that were sent to him.

Salva on the other hand, also opened up his phone, clicking on the profile on f******k that he found in the Secret Chef Hunter’s Society Aspirants group, that belonged to Althea.

She had a display picture of hers, standing in an open field, filled with green leaves, wearing a floral sundress, that ended right above knees, sleeveless, flashing her tanned and toned arms. She laughed brightly in that display picture, as sunrays reflected through the camera lens with which she was clicked and fell right over her eye, that was angularly placed, since she twirled and laughed in the picture, gently fixing a strand of her hair that flew and fell right over her face.

Salva opened up her profile and went through it, one by one, screening all of posts.

At the same, Nicholas also opened up the file that was sent to him by his investigator and began going through Althea’s life, analyzing who she was before she ended up on his island.

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