CHAPTER 396: NON-ACCIDENTAL ACCIDENT

Hearing Lane’s mumbling, Clara turned her eyes back to him.

"No one made me come here," she snapped. A moment later, though, she added, in a much calmer tone, "But yes, as a matter of fact, it was Ethan who contacted me. He saw your alarming behavior today and was worried, so he decided to let me know about it."

Well, at least she was being honest about it, not hiding Ethan’s involvement. Lane mentally apologized to Eloise and Samantha for blaming them for Clara’s visit earlier. It seemed that Clara wanted to come regardless, and it was likely only after she mentioned it to her sisters that they let it slip that they had already some the night before.

But he still couldn’t help but scoff, rolling his eyes for good measure to fully display how he felt about the situation. In fact, he was even more annoyed now that he knew the truth than before. "Worried? Do you really think he contacted you because he was worried?"

Clara’s brows twitched, but she still asked, "If not, then what else?"

Lane let out a short, derisive chuckle. "Because he was jealous, of course! He saw that Damien and I were doing great, and that he hadn’t managed to ruin Damien’s birthday, so he wanted to at least ruin our mood tonight!"

It was just an assumption, of course, since Lane didn’t really understand Ethan, but this time, he was quite confident in his guess.

But Clara thought otherwise. "Ruin your mood? What do you mean by that?" she raised her voice, getting agitated.

Which only served to amuse Lane more. He let out another chuckle, before explaining, "He contacted you expressing his so-called worries. That was clearly to urge you to come visit us tonight, even though we didn’t make any plans, right?"

Clara gave him a dark glare, but she didn’t deny it. "And? I still don’t see your point."

"Then you should get your eyes checked. It is obvious that you being here is ruining our mood!"

There was a swishing noise as Clara sharply inhaled, looking as if she were about to blow up.

Which was ridiculous, really, because what had she even expected? It wasn’t as if she had just met Lane. She knew what kind of person he was, and how he felt about her presence... And honestly, she was at least partially at fault, since it was usually she who started the conflicts. Lane could get along with Eloise and Samantha just fine.

She had made some progress, though. Despite what her sharp gasp suggested, she didn’t blow up. She just stayed for two or three seconds like that, agitated and on the edge, but then, she slowly exhaled, releasing some of the turbulent emotions.

"Speak for yourself," she eventually said, her voice cold beyond the freezing point. Then, not wanting to argue when they were supposed to be celebrating Damien’s birthday, she changed the topic to another thing that was concerning in what Lane had said, "What was that about ruining Damien’s birthday, though?"

"Oh, your bestie didn’t let you know what he had done?" Lane smirked, causing Clara’s brows to furrow again.

"We’re not ’besties’," she quickly clarified. She might not have approved of Lane, but despite their initial bonding moment over badmouthing Lane, she was skeptical of Ethan as well! "What happened?"

"Well, you see. It was Damien’s birthday, so naturally, we had plans to celebrate, just the two of us. And in order to make that possible, Damien adjusted our team’s schedule so that we could be done with inspections as early as possible that day. We were supposed to be back by 5 PM," Lane started his tale. "However, in the morning, when we boarded the minibuses, Ethan suggested that we go celebrate with the rest of the team... Naturally, Damien rejected him. Why would he hang out with the rest of the team if he could spend some quality time alone with me? As you could expect, Ethan wasn’t too happy about it."

Clara nodded her head impatiently. Yes, it was to be expected that Ethan wouldn’t be happy. He had a crush on Damien, after all, or so he said, so it was only natural that he would be disappointed getting rejected, and jealous that Lane would have Damien all to himself. But there was nothing wrong with him being unhappy about the situation. Rather, the nonsense that Lane was spouting about spending time alone with him being better than with the team was far more wrong...

But she didn’t point that out, at least for now. She had a feeling that the story wasn’t over yet, so she urged Lane to continue, "And?"

The corners of Lane’s lips lifted up slightly at her impatient and annoyed tone, but he soon fixed his expression, letting out an exasperated sigh. "And he decided that if he can’t spend time with Damien, no one can. Wanting to mess up our birthday plans, when we were inspecting a mountainous dungeon, he jumped off the cliff..."

"What?" Clara’s eyes widened with disbelief.

Meanwhile, Damien let out a quiet sigh. He put the piece of the cake he had just cut onto the plate and handed it to Samantha, before correcting Lane, "Fell off the cliff."

Technically speaking, there was no jumping involved.

Lane only rolled his eyes, though. "PURPOSELY fell off the cliff. You can’t possibly tell me that you think it was an accident?"

"...Accidents could happen to anyone," Damien said in response. He didn’t sound very convincing, though. He was only saying it because they had no actual proof that Ethan had meant to fall...

Lane wasn’t deterred by this lack of definite support for his words at all, and continued as if his version of events had been certain, absolute, confirmed in all court documents. "He then fell into the river, and pretended to drown. I fished him out quickly... But even then, he still continued to slow us down, even though Damien suggested he should go home early and get medical help. Because of his dragging his feet, we returned way past schedule, and would have returned even later, if I didn’t carry him on my back part of the way..."

He finished his story with a heavy sigh, shaking his head with disapproval. Inwardly, however, he was quite cheery. It felt good to badmouth his so-called rival in front of Damien’s sisters... Clara might not have supported either of them at the moment, while Eloise and Samantha were passively on his side, but still.

Clara stayed silent for a while. Did she trust Lane’s narration? Partially. Damien didn’t correct him much, aside from the ’jumping off the cliff’ part, so it couldn’t be too detached from reality... And while a lot of it was Lane’s speculations - just like Damien had said, accidents could happen to anyone. It could very well be that Ethan had accidentally tripped, and then slowed them down simply because he was hurt... - she had to admit that the circumstances were rather... suspicious. Since even Damien had doubts about the accidentality of the incident, the conditions in the dungeon must have been great, and the trail relatively safe. And considering that it had just happened to take place on Damien’s birthday, out of all the days...

Clara’s frown deepened. If Ethan had indeed done it on purpose, then she highly disapproved of his actions. Yes, he might have been jealous... And she understood feeling averse to the thought of Damien spending time alone with Lane... But still. To cause trouble for Damien at work? And on his birthday, on top of that? Damien was the Team Leader, so everything that happened with the team inside the dungeons was his responsibility... And he took it very seriously. Out of all the improper things Ethan could have done to mess up their plans, purposely getting into an accident at work was at the top of the list. He should have never, ever, done that...

And she hadn’t expected that he would. She would have to reevaluate her opinion of the Guide, it seemed.

Still, this and the message Ethan had sent her earlier today were two separate things. If Lane thought that she would get so distracted by the story that she would forget about it, then he was wrong.

"Alright. But that still doesn’t explain your alarming behavior today," she said in a stern voice, bringing the conversation back on track.

Lane couldn’t help but roll his eyes. "What do you even mean by ’alarming’? What did he say?"

"Well..." Clara didn’t know what to say. Ethan didn’t quite explain anything in his message. Just that he was worried about Damien. And she didn’t bother asking for any details, since she decided it was better to look for the answers at the source...

"Perhaps it was indeed alarming to him. Alarming because he finally started realizing that he has no chance to get in between us," Lane scoffed. "Honestly, I’m surprised that it took him this long. I’ve never taken him for a dense type. After all, Damien is clearly very happy with me, and everyone can see it... As a matter of fact, I’ve overheard some gossip on the team today, and people were saying that Damien was ’glowing’," he announced proudly with a smug smile on his face. "So, yeah, I don’t see how that could be a reason for concern for anyone but him."

"Glowing?" Clara’s brows furrowed once more. "Why would he be..."

She didn’t get to finish her sentence. Because all of a sudden, a doorbell rang, causing everyone to pause.