Silence.
Alex fell silent. He gave the blonde —who was unable to face him— a deep look, then suddenly exploded with laughter, and it was not even the mocking kind, just the kind when something was too funny to hold it in:
"Haha… Hahaha… Hahahahaha…"
Like an engine heating up then truly starting, Alex's laughter went from soft and low to loud and clear. He laughed so much that the emotion that had arisen because of how Sharon's eyes had reminded him of someone from his past was washed clean, swept away by the joyous wind. Even the trouble waiting for him due to the paper he had signed earlier was thrown far away, unable to dampen his mood.
In his laughter, his grip on Sharon's hands even weakened, and he let go to take a step back as if to get a better look at the blonde. But that look only made her turn even redder as she pursed her lips, unable to look back, or to even bring herself to move, looking not unlike an ostrich.
With her eyes closed, Sharon regretted not having let her hair down after cleaning herself up earlier, leaving herself so exposed that she had nowhere to hide and nothing to hide behind.
Seeing her like that, Alex finally took a deep breath and stopped laughing. Still, when he looked at Sharon, he shook his head with a chuckle:
"While you are at it, why not aim straight for being my wife on paper instead?"
Sharon felt her pride crumble further under the mortifying feeling, making her desperate to become smaller and disappear.
Alex laughed again, then turned away, ready to go back to his breakfast, which he was certain was cold by now. Still, his lighter steps alone showed that his mood was the brightest it had been since Leyna's visit in the morning or, maybe even, since his visit to the hospital the previous afternoon.
Hearing no more sound, Sharon cracked open her eyelids, then opened her eyes with a bit of relief seeping into her features.
Finally, the world was not crashing down on her anymore. She had never thought there would come a day when she would feel so ashamed, so mortified. And now it had arrived, but despite that, she could not go away.
If she could have, she would have walked straight out without ever looking back, but she could not, no matter how much she would have liked to.
Pursing her lips tightly, Sharon stood there watching Alex, wanting to speak but finding herself unable to.
When Alex raised his head after pulling the coffee table back into place, sitting down and taking his plate to resume his breakfast, that was what he saw. Pausing his hand holding the fork, he raised his eyebrows, and spoke with a flat smile:
"You'd better go. I am not the one you are looking for. Treat everything that happened a month ago and yesterday as a dream, and go. If I wanted a girlfriend, I could have posted an announcement online for all the women in the world. I have no need for you to sacrifice yourself."
Alex's smile gained a hint of almost playful sarcasm at the end of his words before he took his attention back to focus on the cold fried egg at the tip of his fork.
Despair started to set in within Sharon's heart. What had just started as an idea had now taken root as it had become the only path of salvation she could find, or even think of. And now, that was met with an obstacle as thick as the wall of a fortress. And who could blame Alex? She was the one barging into his life.
Sharon's heart slowly slid into the bottomless pit that had taken the place of her stomach. But right then, she caught sight of the door she had left open less than an hour ago after waking up. From the corner of her eyes, she saw the room where she had spent the night, and that made her face brighten up with another idea.
Hope made Sharon's heart rebound out of the abyss, and she took a vigorous step forward to cling tightly onto it:
"I can rent a room in your place, Alex… I can rent that room, the one where I slept last night. And I will pay the normal rate, whatever it might be. That will be enough for my purpose. Just, let me stay, please."
A sharp glint flashed through Alex's eyes. His patience… was wearing thin. Looking up from his food, his expression indifferent, he replied, his voice light, with hardly any fluctuation:
"Take a moment to remember where you are, Sharon Kenner. This is my home, the home of Alex Alexander Kenneth Lenner. How much rent do you think you would need to pay to make me accept to inconvenience myself?"
Sharon bit her lip. As despair set in, her phone broke the silence that took over for a moment. It rang with the sound of a notification as it vibrated in her pocket.
Sharon did not know what got into her. Maybe it was just the need to pause for a short rest amidst the stressful situation. It might also be the desire for a distraction to stall for time, to let Alex calm down… Maybe it was all those previous reasons put together, or maybe it was none of them at all. Whatever the case, Sharon took out her phone, looked down at the screen, and reflexively read the headline that had appeared. And one look was all it took for the casualness on her face to be wiped away. Her heart skipped a beat, and her eyes instantly focused.
'A surprising change in leadership. From famous playboy to chairman of the family Group, Alex Lenner's reconversion no one had expected!'
Sharon's pupils contracted as she took in the information. Recalling all she had learned about the playboy's temperament and his lack of desire for the heirship, the latter which he had been showing since she had gotten to know him up close, she felt unable to immediately accept the surprising headline. And due to that, she bit her lip, hoping that it was just a prank from the tabloids.
Being entangled with a playboy potential heir and being entangled with the chairman of one of the most powerful Groups on the planet were two different things. She harbored no illusion about having broken the law to make their first meeting happen. And while the law might be impartial, humans were not; they liked to only consider for themselves and their own interests, even if that interest was only about venting their anger. So, if the situation was to suddenly solidify into something unchangeable, some people might lose hope, thus deciding that she was not useful anymore, and that she should pay the price for the failure of her 'mission'.
Hurriedly unlocking her phone to open her browser, Sharon rapidly typed her query, and got the results soon enough:
'Change of leadership at the top of one of the biggest economic Groups in the world!'
'Arland Group is getting a new chairman. Is that a storm coming on the horizon?'
'Alex Lenner, unexpected chairman appointed in interim at the head of Arland Group! What should the shareholders and the public expect?'
Sharon bit her lip more tightly, but at the height of her descent into the abyss, her eyes started to brighten up, as she seemed to have found a path amidst the darkness instead. She raised her head to look at Alex on the sofa not far away, unable to suppress a small smile of relief.