Ditched Cheating Alpha, I Led My Daughter to Life's Peak novel Chapter 311

"What do you want, Mia?" he asks.

I roll my eyes. "I was just saying hi, Aiden."

"Hm." He brushes past me, staring at the papers again.

I follow him down the hall. "What did the people at Town Hall say?"

He shrugs. "The usual. We're doomed."

"Oh." I frown. "So should we talk about it?"

"Later." He balances the papers in one arm so that he can open the door to the office with the other. Memories of face masks and confessions fill my mind when my eyes roam over the room. I step in after him, shutting the door behind me. I half expect him to tell me to get lost, he's busy, I've done enough, but he doesn't say anything. He's either too absorbed in his paperwork, or he doesn't care, or he missed me too. I'm happy no matter what.

He puts the papers down on his desk. I sit at the one beside his like last time. There's a picture frame on it that wasn't there before. I reach out, touching the glass. It's a selfie of Carson with me off guard in the background. I can't keep the smile off my face. Of course.

I look around the room for Axel's desk while Aiden starts signing things.

It's on the other side of Aiden. I get up to look at it, and sure enough, there's a picture of me and Axel. I'm actually looking in this one, and I remember taking it in the middle of lunch with the group. We were doing a huge group picture, but afterwards, Axel asked me if I thought we could do one with just us. As if I'd say no.

I pan around the rest of the room, noticing that Bri and Krys' desks each have a picture of the other. I even find a desk with a picture of Michael (but I suspect Krys had a hand in this on account of the fact that both Michael and Onai are off guard in it), and I'm sure Ethel's desk will have a picture of Shen soon. I look at Aiden's desk, and it's bare.

"Hey." I stand beside him.

He doesn't stop writing. "What?"

"Where's our picture?" I ask.

"What are you talking about?"

I frown. "Everyone has a picture of their mate on their desk. Where's yours?"

"Of all the things to ask at a time like this," he scoffs.

I roll my eyes. "That's not an answer."

"How can I print a picture that I don't have?" he asks.

I grab Axel's rolling chair. "That's an easy fix." I scoot as close to Aiden as possible, angling the chairs so I can see him. When I lift my phone to take a picture, he blocks his face. "What are you doing?" I ask.

He signs more papers with one hand, shooing my phone away with the other. "I never said I wanted a picture."

"Are you serious?"

No response.

I sigh. "Fine." I put my phone away until he's not looking. Then I try again.

He turns his chair at the last second.

"Aiden." I go back to Axel's desk and pretend like I'm putting my head down.

He blocks himself with a binder.

I roll my eyes, counting to three. "One, two, three." I tap the button. When I go to check the picture, he's doing his paperwork in it! I pinch the bridge of my nose. "Aiden..."

"What?" he asks.

"You actually have to look at the camera."

"I did," he says. "You took too long."

I want to bang my head against the desk. "Okay. One more time."

No response.

I grab his arm, pulling him closer. He sighs, glaring at the camera. "Do it already."

"Okay, okay. Smile, though." I hit the button. He's not smiling at all, but it's a decent picture at least. The only issue is, we're still pretty far away.

"One more," I say.

He groans, holding onto his pen tighter. "No more."

"One more."

"Why?" he asks.

"Because we're not close enough. We look like we're about to get a divorce and fight over custody of our cat or something." I wrap my arm around his neck, pulling him as close as possible. I look at the screen. "Great. Now we look like-"