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Juliet woke up early the next morning and found the side of the bed empty. She got up from the bed and was about to go look for Alex when the door of the room was opened by him, and he walked in, with his phone close to his ear. "Yes, she is awake now," He said and walked to where she was standing; Alex handed the phone to Juliet. "It's joy," he said, and Juliet took the phone from him. Her eyes were etched with a bit of confusion that was mixed with curiosity and a hint of worry... "Good morning dear" She heard Joy's voice and in comparison to the way she had called her name last night on the call, she sounded more lively, like nothing was wrong, to simply put it, she sounded cheerful. "Good morning, joy; how was your night?" Juliet said; Alex's hand snaked around Juliet's waist, his eyes locked with hers as she spoke to joy at the other end of the line. "I'm sorry for making you worry... took some sleeping pills and didn't know what I was doing, Daniel just told me this morning that I called you and I can't even remember" Joy explained and found it odd because she didn't only call once but multiple times, on different occasions, did she take sleeping pills then too. Juliet had an unsettling feeling. "Oh, I'm glad you are doing alright," Juliet said, hoping Joy would tell her if something was wrong. "Oh dear. it must be because I took my sleeping pills with some red wine. one should never do that, it might cause trouble and make other worry and you know the last thing I want is to cause trouble" Joy said and the unsettling feeling in Juliet's mind increased... "I should have called you sooner," Joy added, and juliet heard it, even though it was just a hint, and it didn't even last for a second. she was sure she was not imagining things. Before juliet could speak to her, she heard Daniel's voice. juliet immediately handed the phone back to Alex and took a step away from him. she was trying to think clearly about everything. Alex eyes were on juliet as she stood in front of him. He could see the worry in her eyes. He spoke a bit to his uncle and soon ended the call. and juliet didn't know how to tell him she was still worried even after hearing that joy was fine. her gut feeling kept telling her that something wasn't right. "Are you alright?" Alex asked, and juliet sighed deeply. "Do you think they had a fight?" She had Alex, who didn't seem to be worried like she was. he seemed rather calmer than she was maybe it was because he knew them much longer and better than she did. "Fight?, they rarely fight, and I've never heard them fight before. they love each other, " Alex assured. "Do you think they fought?" He asked, and juliet shook her head and smiled slightly. "I must just be overthinking things," Juliet said... "Do you want to pay then a visit soon?" Alex asked, and juliet shook her head. Alex sighed deeply. The first thing he did when he woke up was call his uncle up to make sure everything was fine. Everything sounded fine to him, but he could see the look of worry in Juliet's eyes... "I have to go to work soon, will you be fine on your own?" Alex asked, and juliet nodded. "I have some work to do too," Juliet said, and Alex nodded. he left her to get ready for work while juliet stood there in the middle of the room... she walked to the side of the bed and picked up her phone... she changed the number she saved as "Unknown" to "joy," so if Joy called her again, maybe they could finally talk well... she sighed deeply and sat down on the bed. juliet ran her hand through her hair. her mind trailing off as she thought about so many things. it was a soft knock on the room door that got her attention, Alex opened the door and propped his head through the open door. "I'm ready for work" he said and juliet nodded. she came out of the room and took Alex hand and walked him to the front door of the apartment... "Have a great day at work," she said to Alex, and he planted a swift kiss on her lips... Juliet gave Alex a warm hug before she watched him leave for work... when he was gone, she decided to get some work done, but she couldn't concentrate on her work... what joy said to her kept ringing in her mind because when they stayed there for a few days, joy had told her she had insomnia. Juliet had asked her what she took for it, but she simply said tea helps her sometimes, but never sleeping pills. her doctors had told her it was bad for her, so she never took them. Why did she lie about taking the pills ? Even though juliet didn't say anything to Alex, she knew joy wasn't telling the entire truth. she wanted to know what made her lie... what was going on with her. Juliet had noticed it too when they stayed at their house. like her name, she had been nothing but joyful and looked like she was full of life, but when one was alone with her, someone could easily feel the loneliness because juliet herself knew how it felt. sometimes, even though it was hidden well, if someone looked closely, they could recognise it too... Juliet had only thought it was because her son was away and not close by, she was probably missing him, but after the strange phone calls and their even odder conversation juliet knew something was wrong and it had something to do with Daniel or he probably knew that something was wrong too. maybe paying joy a visit wouldn't be that bad to keep her company. But what if she did want her to meddle in whatever was going on. if Alex was the one who wanted to meddle, then it was more okay than her, who wasn't exactly their family. But would joy had called her if she didn't want her to meddle. Juliet felt her stomach growl as she sat down on the chair... she yawned as she stood up and walked to the kitchen to look for what she could eat... she opened the refrigerator and immediately her eyes got a glimpse of the cake a smile appeared on her face. there was a sticky note on it from Alex .... "I got another one for you since you like the last one" was written on the note, and the smile on her face became brighter... "I miss you already," She muttered as she took the cake out of the freezer. it made her think of joy and Daniel and how much they loved each other... she hoped she and Alex could be together forever like joy and Dan, but juliet had no idea of the entire truth and didn't know that was more than met the eyes... ________________________ ________________________