Aurora gingerly shut the door, making sure not to make a sound. She tiptoed into the room, grateful for the lights that was switched on.

At least, she wasn't going to bump into anything this time, Aurora mused ruefully.


She knew where she had to go this time. When she reached the cabinet, she pulled the top drawer and sighed in relief when it opened without stress.

Asides from a few knick knacks, there was nothing there but she caught a small silver box. When she pulled it out, she realized with excitement that it was a laptop. His personal laptop.

Aurora snapped it open and pressed the power button, it made a small chiming sound and her eyes flickered warily to the door. The screen showed that it was still rebooting and when it finally cleared, she was shocked to see that it wasn't password protected.


"Wow, Evan, for an evil mastermind, you sure know how to give easy access," She swallowed and went straight to his files and then clicked on images.

There were a lot and she scrolled through them until she found one that caught her eye. It was a folder named after her, well not really after her, it was just titled redhead but she figured he didn't know a lot of redheads. She clicked on it anyway and the myriad of images that appeared caused her to gasp.


She covered her mouth with a palm as she stared wide-eyed at the screen, "You son of a bitch."

There were all photos of her, including the ones where she was in her room. There was one of her walking with Ryan into the restaurant he'd taken her to the other time, another one of her and Matt and then of Natasha and Mason. Theses were all private shots of her, including some suggestive ones.

Was he really stalking her?

A strange chill ran down her spine and she clenched her fist together. Evan wasn't only a vengeful bastard but a creepy stalker too. Aurora shook her head, her gaze darting to the door once more. She'd managed to steal the key from Rosa when she wasn't looking and if she was caught now, she knew that there was bound to be trouble.

So, she had to move fast. She searched through the other files but found nothing incriminating. Aurora decided what to do then, she returned back to her folder and permanently deleted all 247 images with a satisfying click.

Her fingers were sweaty even as she turned off the laptop and returned it back into the cabinet. She had to be careful around him now, he was a lot crazier than she'd imagined. With one last dreadful sigh, Aurora slipped out of the room and locked the door.


Dinner that night was unusually quiet but maybe it was because her mother was absent which was a first, the woman took her meals like a holy grail. Miriam Rochester would never be caught dead skipping a meal but today, her chair was unoccupied.

"Where's mom?" Aurora quietly asked, her gaze flicking to her father's.

Harry Rochester wiped the corners of his mouth with a neatly folded napkin before responding, "She's down with a cold, I asked Rosa to make some soup for her."

"A cold?"

He grunted and she frowned, looking down at her plate. It wasn't that the pasta was unappealing but she couldn't find it in herself to eat. And now, her usually healthy mother was down with a cold. Aurora snapped her head back up and opened her mouth to speak,

"Let her rest, darling," Her father interrupted, his gaze knowing but kind, "You know how cranky she gets whenever she falls sick."

She folded her lips together and slowly bobbed her head, "Will she be okay?"

He nodded, "It's not too serious. I'm sure a day of rest will do her good."

Aurora smiled and faced her meal, she stabbed her fork into the plate and scooped up a small amount of the pasta. Her father tried to start up a conversation, asking her how school has been and whatnot, she tried her earnest to respond to him but her mind really wasn't there.

After another excruciating round of questions, she told him that she was full and hurried back into her room. Aurora plopped on the bed and released a sigh, try as she could, she wasn't able to get the images out of her mind.

Her head swiveled towards the open window and she rushed forward to slam it shut. Aurora turned, leaning her back against the glass.

She had no idea just how wide his influence was and that scared her. If he was watching over her every move then she couldn't really hide anything from him. Aurora debated telling her parents about this but knew they wouldn't believe her especially after she'd foolishly deleted all of the evidences.

But even if she hadn't, Evan was a crooked snake. He would still find a way to wiggle out of the situation.

Aurora exhaled again, shaking her head side to side. She needed to talk to someone...But who?

His face filtered into her mind and something warm ignited in her chest. Aurora threaded towards the other side of her bed and she unplugged her phone from its charger.

"Just call him," She muttered to herself before nodding and hitting the dial button. The device rang for a few times before he picked up.

"Hey, flower," His husky voice greeted and she held back a smile as she settled on the bed.

Her back hit the bed with a soft thud, "What are you doing now?" There was a nice music playing in the background, one she recognized, "Hold on, are you listening to Miley Cyrus?"

He chuckled softly, "What if I was?"

She scoffed jokingly, "That's unbelievable, you don't look like someone who listens to pop."

"Oh, really?"

"Yeah, you're more like a rock and roll kind of guy."

He burst into a short laughter and Aurora found herself smiling. The anxiety she was feeling had melted into a soothing warmth that curled around her bones.

"Can you increase the volume," She breathed, shutting her eyes, "I want to listen to it too."

He fell silent and she thought he hadn't heard her when the music completely overtook the speakers, Miley's cool voice filtering into her ears. The corners of her lips pulled up into a small smile and she allowed herself to sink into the welcoming oblivion.