The way she acted made it impossible for the burning rage inside me to survive. In a way, I had no choice but to follow her suit and enjoyed the exquisite coffee.
Just then, a couple of rich men’s wives entered the cafe. One of the more observant wives saw Emery and me sitting at our table, which was out in the open. The observant wife came over to say, “Hi, Ms. Moore and Mrs… Ah, sorry, I mean, Ms. Stanhope. What a coincidence. Do you both like this cafe as well?”
Emery was practically a professional when it came to small talks. She grinned and replied, “Yeah, this place is quite nice, and the environment is great.”
One of the cafe’s main attractions was its serene environment and silent ambiance.
Most could tell that Emery had no intention of sharing the table with anyone.
Unfortunately, the woman who greeted us was socially blind. She walked to the seat beside Emery and sat right down. To make matters worse, the former showed no hesitance when she said, “Please move further in, Ms. Moore. We have too many people here.”
Emery’s expression took a sharp change, and she looked infuriated. Still, she was forced into the innermost part and couldn’t even stretch her legs.
I suffered the same fate as she did.
With ladies squeezing in from both sides, it was impossible for me to even catch a breath. Emery and I turned to one another, and I imagined I looked just as hopeless as she did at that moment.
We were signaling to each other and were about to sneak away when someone gently nudged my right foot.
I instinctively shifted my gaze over and realized that the woman sitting on my right had put her hand over. She had a note with her at the time. The second she realized that she had gotten my attention, she dropped the note onto my skirt.
While all that was playing out under the table, the mysterious woman leaned in as though everything was fine. She acted like she had been paying close attention to the gossip shared.
I didn’t bother analyzing anything and was quick to hold that note in my palm. After that, I stood up and shouted, “Enough! Goodness, you people are noisy. Move aside, I’m leaving.”
Emery turned to me and stared as though she was looking at an angel from heaven. Her eyes shone with appreciation and respect as she stood up soon after and helped me. “You heard her. Get the hell out of here, you socially blind idiots!”
Our outbursts frightened the others and forced them to make way for us.
We left the cafe right then. Following the restroom signage above my head, I then dragged Emery with me.
The first thing I did was to check every stall and make sure that no one else was inside. Only then did I reveal the note to Emery.
“Where did you get that from?” asked Emery nervously as she stopped fixing her makeup.
I answered honestly. “It’s from one of the ladies who barged in.”
“Ah, everything makes sense now. I was wondering how a rich woman from K City could be that socially blind. It turns out that it’s all just part of their plan,” murmured Emery. “Go on. Read the note.”
I unfolded the note to read the content. “Map received. The analysis is in progress. Call the following number if an emergency occurs.”
The map was a huge clue, and I could more or less guess who the note was from. “Benson sent them.”
“Benson? As in Alexander’s brother?” asked Emery.
I nodded and replied, “Yeah. Nathaniel brought me to an island once, and that island is where he manufactures all of his products. I memorized the general location and had Alexander share the location with Benson.”
Emery nodded without saying anything else.
The situation had me thinking for a while and prompted me to say, “Emery, borrow me your phone. Nathaniel’s bank account might contain some information that could help Benson with his investigation. I’ll send him a photo of the card Nathaniel gave me.”
I did all that and memorized the emergency number before flushing the note down the toilet. After that, Emery and I left the restroom as though everything was fine.
We didn’t want to raise any suspicion, so we browsed another mall and made some small talks with some friends before we headed home.
Emery didn’t stay after dropping me off. She claimed that Summer was asking for her, so I didn’t make Emery stay, either.
When I reached home, I saw a few luxurious cars parked at the gate. I assumed they belonged to Nathaniel’s guests, so I didn’t pay much attention to them.
However, I soon learned that it was a mistake. The moment I entered the place, I saw Cameron and Zachary sitting there.
“Mom? Dad? What are you doing here?”
I had just placed the bags aside when I heard John saying, “Emma and I are here, too.”
I couldn’t make heads or tails of what was going on and had to ask for help by signaling John.
John wasn’t free to say anything, but he discreetly gestured for me to look in the direction of the staircase.
I followed his line of sight and saw Nathaniel walking down the stairs in a casual outfit. As he did so, he said, “I asked everyone to come over because I know that you miss hanging out with your family. Did I guess right?”
He had made his way to me by then. His eyes looked straight into mine as he added, “I know you lost a lot in the past, and I will get everything back for you.”
I was exasperated when I saw how strangely confident he seemed, but I didn’t complain or anything.
Nathaniel was there when things between John and me fell apart, so I had no idea why Nathaniel thought that he could fix that broken siblinghood.
The truth was that things between John and I were fine, but we still had to keep the pretenses up.
That made everything super awkward. Nathaniel tried his best to behave like an easy-going guy, but his obnoxiousness still made him talk as though he was a king ordering his subordinates around.
“The two of you are Sienna’s parents, so you should move here. That way, the whole family can be together. And come on, John, man up, and stop throwing a tantrum. Let’s forget about all that unhappy past after having a meal together. When the sun rises again, you and Sienna will return to being siblings who love and respect each other.”
No one responded to Nathaniel’s words, and the aura of the place became so overwhelming that it was hard to breathe.
It reached the point where I simply couldn’t handle it anymore. I didn’t want Nathaniel to keep making things so awkward for everyone, so I smashed a plate and yelled, “That’s enough! I will solve the matter between me and my family. You don’t need to be our middleman.”
I ran to my room and slammed the door. Fury burned in my veins as I stood in front of the window.
Nathaniel entered the room soon after.
He carefully closed the door and walked toward me. There was a pause when he stood behind me, but his hesitation didn’t last long. Soon enough, his long arms stretched over as he tried to hold me in his arms.
Yet, I moved to the side to avoid his hug.
As a result, his arms hung awkwardly in the air. All his stunned gaze saw was my furious glare when our eyes met.
Nathaniel retracted his arm right away and shoved his hands in his pocket before sighing deeply. “I honestly don’t know what you’re so angry about.”
It was only natural that someone like him would not understand what was going on. Anyone with even a smidge of conscience and morality would be able to empathize with the situation. No one could pretend that nothing had happened after learning that someone close to them had chosen to aid an inhumane criminal like Nathaniel. It was only natural that it’d take some time to fix a broken trust, and they couldn’t accept someone like Nathaniel as one of their own.
Hence, Nathaniel wasn’t doing anything for my sake. He was humiliating my family and me.
There was a difference between being an upstanding man and a horrendous demon, and he could not switch from one to the other with just a simple gesture.
The silence dragged on for a while. Nathaniel eventually showed his displeasure toward the glare he was given. He furrowed his thick brows and asked, “Isn’t a family reunion what you wanted all along?”
What I want is for you to never exist! I want you to disappear!
Nathaniel could never understand the pain he caused. I could tell that he still stubbornly thought that he could change everything. It was just like how he assumed that he even had the slightest shot at replacing the love Anthony and I shared for over a decade.
New Book: Back Home to Marry Off Myself
Loredana’s father left the family for his mistress, leaving them to fend for themselves abroad. When life was at its toughest, her father showed up with “good news” after 8 years of absence: To marry off Loredana to a paralyzed son of the wealthy Mendelsohn family.
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