Chapter 30 The Paintings, The Library, And The Lab

In the end, Alexander made me shower before he would show me around the lab. But when I came out of my first shower, he clicked his tongue on me and ordered me to take another shower. “Wash your hair too,” he said.

That morning, I showered twice for him before he was finally satisfied. My face was already sour as my fingers became wrinkly due to the excessive exposure to water.

He gave me a set of clothes that just fit my style. A black tank top and jeans with a pair of leather boots. Simple but chic.

But then he sprayed my whole body with a bottle of perfume. A whole lot of it.

“Xander… stop,” I called him with the nickname that I usually use. “You’re going to make me smell hideous.”

“Better than smelling like that ice of an angel,” he murmured.

“Huh?”

He sprayed a couple more puffs of the perfume bottle before turning the whole bottle into cinders with his own hand. I gawked at his ability. To think that he was always able to do that and I had not known. To think that he could easily turn me into cinders at every moment… I wondered how I was still able to be alive in his presence.

“Come,” he beckoned me to the door.

The man, instead of going straight to the lab, took me on a tour of the mansion. We started with the first floor. “You’ve seen everything. The front door, the living room, and the dining room,” he said briefly and coldly. Then he proceeded up the stairs again at a fast pace. I followed suit, trying to keep up with his long legs.

“The second floor is where we have all the rooms,” he continued to say while standing in the middle of the hallway between the west and east wings, “The building is divided into two wings. The west wing is where the boys and I have our rooms. The east wing is where you have your room.”

He led me to walk in the hallway of the west wing. “Since you have seen the east wing, I’ll take you on a tour on the west wing.”

The hallway was long and was filled with lots of paintings on either side. I did not realize it at first because I was walking quite fast –keeping up with Alexander who was walking faster –but when I looked up to one of the paintings, I saw… her.

The girl I saw in my dream. Or rather, the one that I became in my dream.

The painting was huge. She was a brown-haired beauty with caramel skin and dark eyes. Her red gown was exquisite and her eyes were so deep that you felt like drowning inside them. I stopped and gawked at the beautiful lady.

“Who is she?” I heard my voice but never truly expected Alexander to answer.

The man walked back to me and stood beside me, watching the same painting. “Amelia,” he said.

“Amelia?” Things did not add up. “I saw her… in my dream.”

Her clothes… looked centuries old, or she could very well be dressing up in a historical theme.

“Well,” Alexander said, “She was the Lady centuries ago.”

“She what?”

“Let’s just continue,” Alexander said, “I haven’t got all day.”

With that, he continued to lead me down the hall. I gawked at several other paintings. I could recognize Alexander’s, Michael’s, Renald’s, and Tony’s among the paintings. With Renald having the most paintings and Alexander having the least. They all were in different attire. And as we walked deeper into the hallway, their clothes seemed to get… older.

“You guys like to dress up with the medieval theme, huh?” I asked while walking.

Alexander stopped in front of a door on the right side. “This is Michael’s room,” he said pointing to the door, then he added, “What do you mean dress up?”

I pointed to the paintings. “You all commissioned paintings of yourselves in medieval clothes…” Right then, I just realized how slow my mind was. They were supernatural creatures and they had explained that they have experienced the ninth cycle of the Lady appearance. Needless to say… they were creatures who can live long.

Seriously, it was the only reason I agreed to stay. Because I wanted to learn about their molecular immortal genes. And yet somehow, I asked about them dressing up in the paintings…

“Right. Immortal creatures,” I mumbled while Alexander clicked his tongue at my interrupting his tour.

He then pointed to the door on the left side, across the first room. “That’s Tony’s room.”

We proceeded further down the hall. My eyes found several other ladies amongst the paintings. “Was she a Lady too?” I pointed to a blonde girl with what looked like a cinderella kind of dress and a parasol. Her hair was styled really high above her head like a bird's nest.

“Yes. That’s Crishella.”

“How about her?” I pointed to the dark-haired lady who was wearing a white shirt and black pants. Very contrasting than the other two ladies I found.

Alexander looked at the painting I pointed to. I swore something just changed in his demeanor when he looked at her.

“She’s Kinara.”

I was shocked by how Alexander said her name. In the months I have known Alexander, I have never seen him talked like that about anyone. I could tell that there was longingness in his tone. Perhaps, it was a girl that got away?

“Kinara?”

“She’s… the prettiest girl I have ever seen.”

I looked up at him. The man kept his eyes to Kinara in such tenderness that I had to blink, making sure he was truly Alexander.

However, when Alexander turned to look at me, his gaze turned extremely cold with a rage building inside him. I did not quite know why, but I could feel his anger towards me. As if he was disappointed in me or as if I had wronged him.

What did I do? I had no idea… Was he angry because I quit as his sugar baby?? But why?

His mean glare made me feel uncomfortable. I tried to gulp my anxiety away but it only made me sweat more.

“Every girl you see in the paintings is the previous Lady,” he said, “Now, don’t ask any more questions.”

He turned to walk again. And I followed.

We reached the end of the hall where he pointed to the last door. “That’s Renald’s room. He likes this room because he could just sprint in the hallway right after he opens the door.” Alexander chuckled slightly, “He’s such a dog.”

The wordings were harsh. Who would ever call their “son” a dog? But Renald was technically… a dog. Well, a wolf. And Alexander said it in such a warm tone.

“You liked Renald, huh?”

“Well, he’s my youngest. He’s very easy to control than the other two.” As if he just realized what he had said, he looked at me and furrowed his brows.

“Wow. Never thought of you as the fatherly type,” I commented.

“What do you mean?” he asked, continuing to walk back to the main building. “I was your sugar daddy for like months.”

“Sugar daddies are not fatherly figure, Xander.”

When we reached the main building again, he beckoned me to climb the stairs to the third floor. Unlike the second floor where there were west and east wings, the third floor was one whole building entirely.

My jaw dropped as I took in what I saw in front of me. Rows of rows of rows of rows… of rows of bookshelves. The stairs opened up to a big opening of marbled floors with bookshelves circling the floor. Then there were smaller stairs to get to the second floor of the library.

“Oh. My. God.”

The books were lined neatly and perfectly. My eyes glazed with amazement as I did not think there was a big library like this in the mansion.

When other girls got sparkles in their eyes when they shop for clothes… my eyes sparkled when I see books.

“Did you just have an orgasm?” Alexander chuckled while covering his mouth. He was laughing at my expression. “I knew you’d like this.”

My feet were already walking on their own to one of the shelves on the first floor. I scanned the titles written on the book spines. The books on that row were all medicine books and were put according to the alphabetical order of the authors’ names.

“I’ve arranged for medical books to be put on the first row of shelves. General science, physics, maths on the next. And so on. The categorization system can be seen on the drawer of that table.” He pointed to a small desk just beside the stairs.

But my mind was caught with one sentence. “You… categorized medical books on the front row… for me?”

I regretted asking that. Because somehow, that turned Alexander’s expression into sour again. As if I just reminded him that he should be angry at me. Again, I asked myself, what had I done wrong to this man?

“You can ogle on the books later. Use it as much as you want for your study,” he said, “Now let’s go the fourth floor. I have to show you the lab and then I have to go. I’m busy, you know.”

With a heavy but silent sigh, I followed him to the fourth floor. I thought nothing could beat the amazement I had for the library. But the lab was… absolutely ridiculous.

“No way…,” was my first reaction when I saw the whole fourth floor.

It was almost the exact same lab as I saw in my research institute. There was a PCR machine on one table, a large computer along with the chair and CPU, glasses, there was a desk full of all kinds of microscopes, there was one desk that was filled with books and folders, and many more. Next to the stairs, there was also a hanger for coats and other laboratory equipment.

“Is it enough?” he asked.

“Are you kidding?” I asked him, flabbergasted. “This is… this… this…” Needless to say, I was speechless.

“This is connected to the library. And you can come here whenever you want,” he said.

He clicked his tongue again seeing me amazed with everything. He already knew that he gave me much more than I expected.

“Breakfast at eight. Lunch at thirteen. And dinner at twenty. I’ll have Xavier arrange snacks at sixteen for you too,” he started saying. “Other than that, you are free to do anything.”

I blinked. Come to think of it. Wasn’t this the kind of luxury easy life every girl ever dream of? I could do whatever I want and still have great food to eat and a comfortable bed to sleep with.

Why did I ever want to quit as Alexander’s sugar baby?

“Are you… making me your sugar baby again?” I asked.

He arched his brow then he scoffed. “Why? Now that you see what I can give you,” he extended his arms to emphasize all the things he had shown me, “You want to crawl back into my arms?”

“What? No–“

“Or do you miss my cock now?”

“No!” I cried out quickly, to which he responded in a sneer.

“Look, I don’t know what is your problem with me–“

“Oh, you don’t know?” he asked, annoyed. His brows furrowed and his nostrils flared. His jaw tightened too. “Well, figure it out!”

He suddenly walked past me and started descending the stairs without even giving me a chance to ask further or to clear the air between us. But then he stopped after a few steps. “Oh, I forgot,” he said, pinning me with his intense gaze, “Do not enter the fifth floor.”

My curiosity, however, got the best of me, “What’s on the fifth floor?”

“My room.” His tone was heavy. “I do not want to entertain a cheap girl who gladly jumps into bed with a man she hardly knows.”

I blinked at his awful remark. I knew he was talking about Michael and I doing it just a few hours ago. But what was his deal? I jumped into bed with him too despite only knowing him for a few hours. And that happened months ago!

My fists were clenched as my fury rose inside of me. He just called me cheap. But my mouth did not want to let out the words I piled inside my mind.

Alexander smirked a little seeing that I could not rebuttal his slander. He continued to descend the stairs as he said, “And your next date is with Renald.”

I could hear him scoffing loudly on the floor below me. “At least wait a few hours before you jump on this one, will you? It’s not even a day yet!”

My jaw dropped at his insult.

I gripped the railing of the stairs and finally shouted, “Asshole!” I did not care if I would anger him at that point. And truthfully, I wanted to shout more condescending words to that spiteful man. But he was already gone from my sight.

“Miss?” I heard someone called from behind me.

I turned to see Renald standing behind me. I was a little shocked. “Oh my god. How did you get behind me?”

“I winnowed because Father said it’s my turn.”

I blinked several times.

“He said you would want to try testing on me first.”

“Oh…”