"Aster, I'm going out for a run!"
"Okay!" Astrid answered automatically.
When he heard the front door opening and closing, he clicked the 'accept' button on his Terminal screen. Wulfric's handsome face appeared. Before he could greet him, Wulfric beat him to it.
"Aster, are you okay?" he asked in a tight voice. His brows furrowed, his mouth drawn into a tense line, and his eyes wide with fear, he wore the expression of someone deeply worried.
Astrid was startled by the strong reaction Wulfric was showing right now. If others would see Wulfric in this state, they would think Astrid was in a mortal danger or something.
When he didn't answer immediately, Wulfric seemed to have made his own conclusion. His troubled expression slowly changed. His eyes narrowed, his jaw tightened, and his face turned red. The worry faded into growing frustration and anger.
"Did the Grimaldis do something? Did they force you into anything?"
Ah, so it was that - Astrid thought as he looked at Wulfric's expression. A helpless smile appeared on his lips.
"No such thing happened," he said. Then a realization struck him. There was a question that he should have asked the moment Wulfric asked him that question. "But how did you know they were here?"
The anger on Wulfric's face transformed into a sheepish smile, like a little boy caught doing something mischievous. "Ah, as the owner, I receive daily surveillance video recordings of the front of the apartment building. It's sort of an additional security measure, you know? This way, I can ensure that no dangerous individuals entered the place."
"I'm sorry! Even though I told you that I will help keep your identity a secret, I wasn't able to prevent this from happening."
The other's sudden apology slightly surprised Astrid. Then he chuckled. "Hey, why are you apologizing? This is not your fault at all. I've been told that they did the gene matching test in a private lab owned by the Grimaldi family. Aside from the fact that you couldn't have tampered with the results, there's no way you would have known about the test in the first place."
Wulfric knew that. But still. A promise was a promise. And he wasn't able to keep it.
Looking at Wulfric's expression that was still lined with guilt, Astrid added, "To tell you the truth, it was actually my fault."
Then he began to recount what happened during the photoshoot he did at one of the Grimaldi's manors. From the unexpected meeting with the duke, to the 'cupcake incident', and the part where he talked to Casey and found out that the Grimaldis already knew about him and Reas.
"So, you see, if there's someone to blame in this situation, it's me."
Wulfric listened attentively to everything Aster had said. After the other finished, he finally understood how things had developed into his situation. Should he say that it was one hell of a coincidence?
Out of all the manors that Aster had to do a photoshoot, it really just had to be the manor where Duke Grimaldi was. Of course, this coincidence led to the discovery of Aster's (and Reas) identity.
Wulfric wanted to say that Aster was not at fault and that it's better to just blame him. But if he did that, it felt like he was making this whole situation about him when it's hardly the case. This was about Aster and his family. If he kept insisting that he was at fault, then he would be no different from a narcissist who always wanted to make everything about them.
Especially since there was something better he could say at this moment.
"Aster, is there any way I could help?"