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"I can do it myself," I whined as I tried to walk into the kitchen, but Lucas blocked my path.

"I will take care of it myself. Go sit down and I'll cook for you," he said.

"You don't even know how to cook."

A day after our conversation, Lucas has not let me do anything around the house. He went on about me getting rest and not overworking because I was pregnant. It was annoying because I didn't like being idle. I pleaded so many times for him to let me find a place for me to work instead of being idle but he declined. He was beginning to get on my nerves.

"I will watch videos of simple dishes to cook. There's no harm in trying, right?" He asked and went to the kitchen while I stood, glaring at his bare back.

I hissed and turned away then went straight to the living room. I sat down and crossed my arms, fuming inside me a little. I groaned and rolled my neck, trying to lessen the knot around. When it cracked, I sighed in satisfaction and leaned forward to grab the remote on the glass coffee table. My eyes spotted a file under the top part of the table and on it was my name written in bold.

Out of curiosity, I grabbed it and eyed the yellow file. I was confused as to why I had my name on a file I didn't recognize as every of my school documents was locked in my luggage. I shrugged and flipped it open then read the content of the file.

Surprise took over my body and I stood up, reading the other papers. I could not believe the content of the file and turned toward the kitchen.

"Lucas?" I called to him and he hummed, raising his head from his phone. "What is this?" I lifted the file and his jaw slackened.

"About that," he said and approached me. "I was going to tell you about it but it slipped my mind."

"Or you didn't plan to tell me because the truth about who paid those bastards to assault me was your sister?" I demanded and flung the file away, anger taking over my being.

"No, it's not that!" He grabbed my arms and shook his head. "After Andrea brought the file, it slipped my mind because I didn't want to believe that my sixteen-year-old sister would do such a thing to you. It makes no sense, at least until I read further."

I sighed. "Why would Ruth do this to me?"

I had only met the girl once, so what was her problem with me if we never interacted. I moved away from Lucas to pick up the file. I opened it again and read through it.

"The money the boys were paid was made by her. Every detail, the date and time are written here, even calls made from her are in that file. I can't believe Ruth would do such a thing. Worst of all, flight tickets to Nigeria were paid from her account," Lucas said and sat down, holding his head between his hands.

I saw the information about the bank transfers and flight tickets. The tickets coincided with the period the assault happened. I was weak to my bones at the fact that a girl I knew nothing about could do such a thing to me.

"What if she was targeting me?" Lucas asked and I glanced down at him.

"What?"

"Ruth doesn't know you like that. Ruth used to have problems with my way of life just like Axel did. She always told me she would do something that'll make me change my ways if I don't change for good. What if this is all true?"

Lucas raised his head and met my eyes. I saw the reason behind his words and decided on that as her purpose behind the act. I was only angry that she involved me in something that I had nothing to do with.

"What are we going to do?" I asked and sat down beside him.

"I'm waiting for Axel to come back from wherever he went since yesterday. When he does, I'll have him try to contact Ruth since he's more in contact with her than I am," he replied and took my hand. "I am sorry for what my sister has done. It's because of me that you went through all of these, it's because of my party that everything happened."

At his words, I remembered my conversation with Ruth that one night at Lucas' place. Everything started to make sense and that was when I started to fully believe that she had indeed planned everything.

"What is it?" Lucas asked and I relaxed on the couch.

"Remember when you had my phone after we kissed under that staircase? I met Ruth afterward and she had thought I was one of your flings but when she found out I wasn't, she kinda took me seriously. I told her about you having my phone and she said she would help me get it back and even gave me a time. At exactly that period or so, I met those boys in the hallway and they told me they had my phone. They didn't know about it, only; me, you, and Ruth. No one else knew, which means... Your sister did this to me."

Lucas abruptly rose to his feet and kicked the coffee table, causing it to shift away from its position. He was seething and pacing around, anger on his body.

"I will not forgive her for this!" He barked and pulled out his phone from his pocket. He tapped on it for some seconds before placing it against his ear.

I rose to my feet and approached him, waiting to see who he was calling and what he was going to do. I was also shaking from the discovery as I had been the one to tell Ruth why I was at the party and she had taken advantage of such information.

This was one of the reasons why I didn't want to know people when I was in Redside. You would never know who was taking advantage of you.

"Hello?"

I snapped out of my thoughts to listen to what Lucas had to say to whoever he was calling.

"Mom... I don't have the time to speak to you. I need you to tell me if Ruth is at home," he said, face set in a frown. "What?!"

My heart stopped for some seconds at the change of tone of his voice. He went from angry to shocked. I gulped when he took the phone away from his ear and slowly met my eyes.

"What is it?" I whispered, fear making my heart pound fast.

"Ruth left the United States yesterday. My mom doesn't know where but she left," Lucas replied.