Who's Lying?

"Hey, Alvis! Everything going okay? How's life?"

"Uncle Zach?" Alvis looks pleasantly surprised. "What brought you here? It's been a while."

"Yeah! You know, it's mainly Mr. Beckett's fundraising event...so, here we are!" A middle-aged man grins at Alvis and Fabian.

"It's so nice to see you, uncle. Really." Alvis sounds like a kid who just won a tons of candies. He hugs his uncle before quickly saying, "Ah! Sorry, Fabian, it's my uncle Zach. Uncle, he's Fabian, my friend slash coworker." he winks at Fabian.

Fabian shakes the outstretched hand trying to grin a bit. The guy in front of him looks so friendly and bubbly that even Fabian didn't have much

issue not to feel an amiable vibe about him.

"I'll leave you two at it, then? Give me a call when you're free, Alvi!" "I definitely will."

"So who's this Mr. Beckett? Alexina's dad, I suppose?" Fabian's mind is cramped with questions.

"Yeah, foster dad." Alvis taps on his phone screen. "Foster?"

"Yeah, that's what I heard." "You seem to know a lot!"

"Duh! My uncle literally works for that guy. How hard would that be to know the basics!"

"Yeah, right! So, you and your uncle are pretty close, I guess?" Fabian

shoves his specs up his nose. Oriana would've found this the sole reason for her to smile.

"Yeah, you could say that. Since when you are so curious about others?" Alvis scoffs.

"I've always been..."

"Dude! You barely talked before... Oriana is doing wonders, I guess." he smirks with a playful wink.

Fabian shrugs off the sarcasm.

"Yeah, well...we've always been very close until he had to stop coming to our house because of his fight with my dad. You know, brotherly stuff..."

"Ah! Yeah, unfortunate things." Fabian keeps a discreet eye on Oriana. "Totally... Wanna grab a drink?"

"Nonalcoholic you mean?"

Alvis smiles, "Yeah, sure man. Nonalcoholic for you."

Fabian looks over his shoulder to see Oriana smiling engagingly at the Casanova. He grimaces a bit at the scene but assures himself of the fact that Oriana can get words out of the asshole without his help as she gives him a slight nod when their eyes meet.

He puffs out a breath before walking toward the bar with Alvis, whom he's planning to interrogate in a friendly conversational tone...hopefully.

"Alexina seems like such a burst of energy." Oriana plasters a fake smile to her face, "So friendly and full of life."

"Yes, she is. Anyway, tell me more about yourself." Axel looks less

curious about Alexina but Oriana doesn't let that topic slide. This could be

her only chance to lead their conversation to Raya. "Yeah...do you come here often?"

"Sorry?"

"Ah! I mean, do you come to Alexina's often? Like, I know she's big on parties..." she grins.

"Not really! Today I just had to be here as you know, it's mainly her dad's fundraising event. So, I had to come here on behalf of Mr. Elton's company." he uneasily clears his throat.

"Mr. Elton? Is he Raya's dad?"

He nods without giving off any apparent expression.

Oriana does a victorious dance in her head as she didn't think the cue would be this easy to reach.

"Um... Speaking of which, it completely breaks my heart just to think about that girl, Raya. I mean, she's so young and pretty and no doubt, full of possibilities for the future..." she flinches inwardly at her own made-up

words and oh so fake sympathy in her tone.

Suddenly, Axel's face shifts. His eyes wander about the huge hall in an extremely uncomfortable motion. He sharply exhales before opening his mouth, "I heard you guys are trying to pull off some Sherlock Holmes stunt at the tuition center!" his tone is void of emotions.

Oriana feels a bit intimidated by his shift of tone, "Uh-huh. Mr. Landon thinks it'd be better if we can figure that out before informing the Police, which, he's considering to do...by the way." she gulps, nervous and anxious.

"Doesn't sound like a proper plan to me but well, who am I to judge!

Landon and Elton have always been good friends. I'm sure Landon knows

what he's doing." his voice starts to come back to the territory of not so scary and cold.

Oriana lets out the breath that she's been holding, "Yeah, right."

"So, you're mainly here to investigate? And do you think egging me on would be a good way to do that?" he smirks making his extremely

handsome face somewhat dark and clearly, sarcastic.

"Not necessarily. I was just trying to know if there's someone who could give me anything important about Raya to begin with. Nothing personal."

she grins heartily.

The smirk still hangs about his lips, "Huh? Pretty confident and determined. Just how I like women..."

Oriana fights off the urge to smash in his beautiful face with one smooth movement of her fist.

Instead she smiles again, "Good to know. So, you must know something about her as you work for her dad."

"I don't see how... I work for her DAD... not for her."

"Isn't her dad worried about her? Given the wealth and status he possesses, he wouldn't leave any stone unturned to find his daughter...it's been around two weeks!"

"Hm... Understandable where you're coming from but have you actually met someone with that much money?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean to say, wealthy fathers don't really give two fucks about their spoiled princess of daughters...well, not when they're jam-packed with meetings, business deals, fashion shows an whatnot. I think, the fatherly

sentiment kinda dies down with money. The no stone unturned stuff that you said? That's true for middle class fathers only."

His words cut through Oriana like sharp daggers. Her throat tightens at the mention of fatherly sentiment and money. She's never had any of those in her life... What she had was a lower middle class status AND an unforgivingly jerk of a father.

She nods slowly, without giving off any hint of the effects that his words have had on her.

"Have you considered "interrogating" others? You know, actually related to Raya?" he air quotes.

"What do you mean?" she quits sounding polite. She's got enough of this mysogynist asshole.

He smiles in reply sending a surge of anger across her skin, "I meant,

people who might be closer to Raya than someone who works for her dad." the sarcasm in his voice is apparent. She inhales deeply calming herself down. She needs a calm mind to deal with the jerk standing in front of her, anger wouldn't do.

"Can you maybe suggest some names that'd be "relevant" for my investigation?" she air quotes with a stern expression on her face.

He licks his lips as he stuffs his stupid hands in the pockets of his crazy expensive pants. "Do you know Ilona? Of course, you do. She works at that tuition center after all."

"Uh-huh? What about her?"

"Ilona and her elder sister might be very good friends with Raya.

Especially her sister."

"You mean your wife?" she looks him directly in the eyes and gives a satisfied smirk when his expression takes on a nervous hue.

"Wow! You did your homework, didn't you?"

"Uh-huh! I've always been a prepare first kinda student." she says flatly. "Ya sure. My wife, you might wanna talk to her." He smirks before

turning to a girl with his ever so flirtatious smile, much younger than

Oriana. Maybe one of Alexina's friends.

"Good luck with your endeavor! Remember, sometimes the people you least suspect can turn out to be the bad guys." he winks over his shoulder

before placing his hand on the small of the girl's back...back to being a mysogynistic, self-absorbed Casanova.

Oriana opens her mouth to say something before getting cut off by someone familiar that she catches on her peripheral vision. The blood from her face starts to drain as the guy slyly grins at her from the corner of the hall. Her breathing starts to take on the anxious rhythm as the vision leaves her paralyzed...fixed on her position.

What the fuck is her rapist doing at this godforsaken party!