The Traps of Black Swan

Shawn noticed the shadow finally leave from the door. He kind of felt disappointed. Anyway, he turned off the lights and went to bed. Hoping for some good long sleep. 

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By the time Aaron reached the second living hall, Shea helped Elder Harmon with his warm overcoat and placed his cane close to him. Elder Harmon thanked her.

Shea noticed they needed privacy so she thought to leave them alone and go back to the guest house.

Aaron knew why she was hanging around in the mansion instead of going to bed so, "Weren\'t you here for Shawn?" He solemnly asked. 

Mute, Shea nodded promptly and scurried away towards Shawn\'s room without understanding why the two men were so serious.

Elder Harmon turned to Aaron and gave him the mobile, "Aaron, Dylan just called me from that number." Aaron saw the recent unsaved number, Elder Harmon continued in the same breath, "He said someone is tracking Aarvi, and that person contacted Leon. It was an international number and they are planning against Aarvi. Dylan asked me to tell you this."

Aaron\'s face deadpanned. The only reason why he didn\'t want the Evans family members to appear with Aarvi publicly was this. Aarvi\'s life would be in danger if anybody holds a grudge against The Evans. 

His intention was never to bring a huge backing name for Aarvi. However, only Evans could have helped him get new and legal identification for Aarvi as country S\'s citizen. And they wouldn\'t think of taking advantage of their situation. Also, he knew the possible dangers.

They couldn\'t shush the men as it would prove them as Aarvi was indeed a daughter of the Evans. If the matter spreads to more people then Aarvi wouldn\'t have her freedom. He knew how important it was for her to be free from these cages.

Elder Harmon was tense and Aaron\'s reaction made it worse. "Aaron, I don\'t know how much of it is true. He could be…"

Aaron turned to the old man and passed the mobile back to him. They couldn\'t trust Dylan. If he was telling the truth, it couldn\'t possibly be as simple as alerting him about her safety. Dylan will have his own benefit by this. It could be because Dylan wasn\'t to dethrone Leon or Leon might be suspicious of Dylan. Aarvi had plans to meet Leon tomorrow, so it could be for scaring her.

The reason could be anything, Aaron wanted Aarvi\'s plans to flow smoothly. A hitch in her plan could affect the other one so he decided to handle it secretly from Aarvi.

He cut off Elder Harmon seeing him disturbed, "Chairman Harmon, rest assured, I will make sure Cupcake… Aarvi is safe. Take rest without agitation." His emotional tone synced to his aloof face.

Hearing Aaron confident and relaxed, Elder Harmon didn\'t know what to say. "Alright, don\'t let her be alone. Better be safe than sorry."

Aaron didn\'t respond. He gave a hand for the old man to stand up and helped him to the room. He went to the study room and made calls to arrange for things.

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Meanwhile, Shea uneasily stood in front of Shawn. After hearing Aaron, she went straight to Shawn\'s room and knocked on the door before she could even realize what she did. She wanted to say sorry and run but recalled Aarvi stressing a proper apology.

So with his permission, she stood inside Shawn\'s room. Her eyes darted everywhere in the room. It wasn\'t the first time she went to his room, it was still the first time she was checking out the room as the last time she was embarrassed to look anywhere.

Unlike his room in Skyarc, this room was in white to brighten the room and grey and black interior decor, giving the masculine appeal. A wall had many open storage blocks with numerous artifacts. She wanted to check them out but scolded herself to focus on her goal.

Shawn wasn\'t sleepy before. But waiting for her to speak, he yawned silently. He randomly got the thought of frightening her. She couldn\'t just behave with him as she wished. Treat him badly, say sorry, and try to get close. He wasn\'t her toy.

On second thought, he chose not to scold her. Aaron and Aarvi would leave for country S soon. Shea doesn\'t know anybody in the city yet. At the end of the day, only he was there for her help. He felt smug about it.

When she didn\'t speak for more than two minutes, he finally questioned after seeing the lightning, "Are you scared of thunder?" He had seen Aarvi startle to the thunder after waking up from a vegetative state. So he thought it could be a reason for Shea\'s arrival.

\'Does that mean I have to lose my sleep for her?\' He had no daybed or couch if she slept on his bed.

Shea had finally gathered her courage when she heard him ask about the thunder. She didn\'t like how interestless and annoying his voice sounded. She was in no place to complain and she was aware of it.

\'Treat him how you want to be treated.\' She recalled Aarvi\'s words. She was rude, she felt he was generous to let her enter his room to speak.

She shook her head darting her eyes away from his gaze, "No, I don\'t have Astraphobia."

Shawn: "..."

He discerned that Astraphobia is an extreme fear of thunder and lightning. Shrugging off in his mind, "Then why are you here?" His voice was sharp, again.

Shea recalled his flirtatious tone and almost pouted. She suddenly shook her head and suddenly paused. \'What am I doing? Crazy woman.\' She chided herself.

Shawn should have gotten angry but he wanted her in amusement. She looked like a dumb little golden retriever. He bit his tongue at his thought. 

Shea breathed out and looked at Shawn, "I know I am too rude with you..."

Shawn crossed his arms over his chest and remarked sarcastically, "Yet you always do." Her face fell and Shawn cursed himself for not tying his tongue. 

Shea slowly breathed, accepting his remark, and requested pitifully, "Let me complete."

Compared to her boldness or clumsiness, this side was unexpected. The regret on her face cooled him to a large extent. However, he didn\'t want to give in so easily. Since he was always considerate of her and she took it for granted, he chose to be ignorant and heartless.

"I need to sleep, I will give you a minute. If you want to waste more time, get out." 

Shea\'s eyes widened in disbelief hearing him. Not because he was impolite, one minute felt too little. "That\'s too less. I came to apologize and I couldn\'t complete it in a minute. Shawn, I…"

Shawn cut in as he looked at the wall clock, "Fifty seconds." Contrary to his grim face, he was controlling his curling-up lips.

Shea paused and her thoughts became even messy, "Hey wait… I- I- Damn… I am sorry, I really am sorry. I didn\'t mean to be rude to you but I always do. I know. I always behave like a stupid, clumsy, idiot around you. I swear I am not usually like that. I will try to behave normally but I make a fool of myself. Then I will think about your opinion about me. The more I am with you, I become more careless, like that day when I almost fell off the stairs, ran into a stranger, and today…"

Shawn couldn\'t keep up with her nonstop chatter without a pause anywhere. He watched her pace around him trying to say everything in a breath.. He was getting dizzy instead of focusing on her words.