Chapter 27：Continued Estrangement

With Winter finally getting Marcellus to approve of her, she can start with the real deal at last.

Even though he does not completely trust her yet, she will make use of certain opportunities to prove herself even more. She is aware that he is going to test her, and she is more than fine with that. After all, she is in a mission to gather more people on her side before she gets found by her biological family.

In order to build connections and form relationships, she will have to meddle not only in his business, but in others' too.

"Winter, where are you going?"

Right before Winter left that morning, August managed to find her going out.

It's unusual to see him up so early in a weekend. He would've still been on bed around this time. That's why she decided to sneak out right then to avoid another long-winded interrogation from him.

"Going out. Somewhere," Winter said without looking.

"Where exactly? You've been going out a lot more often now. Even during weekdays, you'd stay out so late," August continued to question her concerning behavior.

"Just let me be. I won't bring you any trouble, okay? I'm not messing around or hanging out with friends. I know what I should and should not do-"

"If you're not meeting with your friends, then who?"

She stilled at that, taken aback at how he asked it with emphasis and the realization that she slipped.

He was really starting to get suspicious of her actions. She didn't expect that he'd carry on with this since he's rarely around in the first place. He wouldn't have anything to be worried about if he didn't even know what she'd been doing these days.

If anything, he's only paying attention to her now since she's acting out of character - perhaps, even out of his control as well.

"I never thought you'd ask..." she trailed off with sarcasm in her tone before turning to look and smile at him.

"But even if you didn't, it's still none of your business."

Winter did not get to see how her words hurt August at that moment since she already went ahead and took her leave.

The feeling that he did something wrong had gotten stronger than ever. The feeling that she would never go back to the way she was before had become more apparent to him. And most importantly, the feeling that he needed to do something about this before it got worse had finally taken over him.

"Just what is it that you're hiding from me, Winter?" August thought out loud as he only continued to look at the direction where Winter left off to.

---

Of course, Winter would show up again. This time, she appeared at the place where he had an important appointment that day. He thought that she would only do something like this when he was on a date.

'That girl... She's just all over the place.'

Marcellus can't help but think that as soon as he spots Winter sitting around the lounge of the hotel where he's meeting up with a business partner.