Chapter 220: A Day To Bond
They ended up taking Catherine’s jet because, naturally, hers was the larger one.
Sophia and Miranda joined them immediately, turning what was supposed to be a bridal shopping trip into a full family outing. Samantha couldn’t come—she was still in Kingston for an interview. From the sound of it, she was genuinely serious about building a career outside the Preston family umbrella.
Only halfway through the flight did Catherine suddenly glance down at her wrist.
The bracelet.
Her breath caught for a moment.
In all the chaos of leaving, she had boarded the jet without even thinking about it. What if the bracelet acted up while she was in the air? What if the pain started now?
Instinctively, she reached for her phone to text Maximilian.
But then there she remembered it... Of course, Maximilian wouldn’t answer.
Her brothers had dragged Maximilian off on some "hunting trip" in the mountains, which meant they were probably somewhere so remote that civilization itself had given up trying to reach them.
Catherine let out a soft sigh and pressed her lips against the bracelet.
A silent bargain.
Please don’t act up...
The gesture made her pause.
She hadn’t even remembered the bracelet existed until now.
And the only reason she had looked at it was because she suddenly missed Maximilian so badly her chest physically hurt.
For the past several weeks, whether she had been furious at him or not, he had always been there beside her. In her space. In her sight. Breathing beside her. Holding her hand. Kissing her neck while she worked. Existing around her so constantly that his presence had become woven into her every moment.
And now...
Without him beside her, it felt as though she had accidentally left her heart back home.
"Missing your fiancé?" Sophia nudged her lightly with an elbow.
For once, Catherine didn’t even attempt to deny it.
"I haven’t been apart from him for this long..." she whispered.
And to Sophia’s absolute horror, Catherine’s voice cracked slightly.
Sophia stared at her with wide eyes, utterly unprepared for this development.
This was Catherine Preston.
The same girl who had walked into her first day of school without looking back once at her family.
The same girl who entered university at thirteen, surrounded by adults twice her age, acted as though she owned the place.
That fearless, terrifying child was now sitting in a private jet trying not to cry because she missed a man after barely an hour apart.
Catherine realized how ridiculous she sounded and immediately straightened herself.
"I’m fine," she said quickly, wiping the corners of her eyes before anyone could comment further. As long as the bracelet doesn’t act up, I’ll be fine...
Thankfully, the rest of the day turned into pure chaos in the best possible way, she had forgotten about the bracelet.
An entire floor of bridal boutiques had already been reserved for them, and Catherine fully embraced the experience. She tried on dresses dramatically, gave opinions no one had asked for, and treated bridal consultants like generals reporting to their queen.
Until one unfortunate employee brought in a gown made with mixed synthetic fabric.
Then disaster struck.
"You brought polyester near me?" Catherine asked in utter disbelief, staring at the dress as though it had personally insulted her ancestors.
The poor consultant immediately began sweating.
"You don’t respect me," Catherine declared with complete seriousness. "And I refuse to patronize an establishment that wishes to see me covered in hives on my wedding day."
Sophia nearly collapsed from embarrassment while Miranda openly laughed into her champagne.
Roxana, surprisingly, looked equally unimpressed with the boutique.
And so the four women abandoned the store entirely and wandered through the city together instead.
One bridal boutique after another.
Trying on dresses.
Sharing desserts.
Stopping for street food.
Exchanging gossip.
Laughing more naturally with each passing hour.
And somewhere along the way, without anyone realizing it, Roxana slowly stopped looking like an outsider walking among the Prestons.
-----
Deep within the snow-covered mountains, the world had gone silent except for the wind.
The Prestons and Maximilian remained crouched behind a rocky ridge overlooking a clearing below, rifles steady, breaths controlled. Snow drifted slowly through the trees, settling over shoulders and boots alike.
Then movement.
A deer stepped carefully into the clearing.
Beautiful. Unaware.
Maximilian slowly adjusted the scope of the rifle in his hands.
Beside him, Bobby snorted quietly.
"This isn’t one of those clay pigeon games you rich boys play in country estates with decorative rifles older than civilization," he whispered. "Leave it to seasoned veterans."
Maximilian turned his head slightly toward Bobby.
Then he smirked.
The rifle in his hands was a sleek modern masterpiece—custom-built carbon fiber stock, suppressed barrel, precision optics worth more than most cars.
A weapon designed for efficiency.
The next second—
Crack.
The shot echoed through the mountains.
The deer dropped instantly.
Clean kill.
No suffering.
Bobby blinked once before letting out a low whistle.
"...Impressive."
Maximilian calmly lowered the rifle. "Thank you."
Alexander merely smiled to himself.
Honestly, that outcome was exactly what he expected.
Even in their previous life, Maximilian had always been fascinated by weaponry. While other nobles obsessed over art or politics, Maximilian studied siege engines, modified crossbows, experimental cannons—anything new.
He was curious by nature.
Of course he’d keep up with modern weapons too.
The group eventually moved closer to the riverbank lower down the mountain while the workers handled the deer.
The conversation drifted naturally after that, quieter now, softened by the cold air and the isolation of the mountains.
And somehow, like many conversations between men eventually did, it shifted into something oddly philosophical.
"Alright," Bobby said, sitting on a fallen log. "Bleed-out spot."
Jonathan groaned immediately. "Not this nonsense again."
"Yes, this nonsense," Bobby replied seriously. "If you had to die somewhere peacefully, where would it be?"
William answered first after a moment of thought.
"Under the laurel trees overlooking the Preston estate," he said simply. "Where you can see the whole land."
The others nodded.
That sounded like William.
Jonathan leaned back against a rock, staring at the gray sky above.
"Top of a snowy mountain," he murmured. "Snow falling on my face. Quiet. Cold enough to numb everything."
"Dramatic," Bobby muttered.
Jonathan shrugged. "I earned the right."
Then Bobby answered his own question.
"Riverbank," he said immediately. "Feet in the water. Listening to it run... hearing the robins chirp..."
Alexander was next.
"The ocean," he said after a pause. "Deep sea. On a raft. Just drifting while watching the night sky."
Silence followed briefly.
Then all eyes slowly turned toward Maximilian.
Comments