319 [Bonus chapter]
Zaria’s phone chimed, rescuing both of them from the awkwardness that was starting to build.
“I need to take this.” She excused herself. “Hey, Xim.”
Ximena’s screech of excitement was so loud that Zaria had to pull the phone away from her ear. “Liam woke up!”
“He did? Thank goodness.”
“It’s a good thing he paid heed to my warning.”
Zaria chuckled. “I’m coming over.”
When the call ended, Natalie was curious. “I couldn’t help overhearing that. Liam is awake now?”
Zaria nodded. “I’m going to see him. Do you want to come along?”
“I have a meeting with Aunt Lucy in a bit. I’ll drop by to see him later. She quickly said. Well, the meeting was not made up but even if she didn’t have anything important to do, she would rather poke needles into her eyes than be in the same breathing space as Ximena right now. Until the culprit was found, the last thing she wanted was to be in a place that could start more fights.
.....
Luckily, Zaria understood this and didn’t push it.
_____
Meanwhile, Ximena was still in disbelief. She clung onto Liam’s hand like her life depended on it—it probably did. When they planned their attack on Nathaniel and Gabriel, they had thought about every possible outcome but Liam getting shot was not one of them.
For a moment, she thought she had lost him. She couldn’t express the relief that washed over her when the doctor said he would be okay. But even then, she had almost lost her mind waiting for him to wake up.
It had only been a day but it was the longest and most torturous day of her life.
“That…kinda hurts.” Liam hissed, reminding her that she was squeezing his arm way too hard.
She loosened her grasp but hugged it to her chest. “Sorry. It’s just…I thought I was losing you.”
He raised his hand, ignoring the pain, and cupped her cheek. “I thought I would never see you again. It was my biggest regret.”
She leaned over and kissed his lips, careful not to hurt him. “I thought about it. We should leave.”
She was talking about eloping, and he only understood it after a while. He was confused. “We agreed on that, didn’t we?”
“Yes, we did. But it wasn’t set in stone.” She let go of his hand to cup his face. “If I learned anything from this, it’s the fact that nothing is predictable. We could have each other now but who knows what would happen tomorrow?”
“Nothing is going to make me leave you, Ximena. Even death had to wait.” He joked. He knew Natalie had saved him. He had seen her raise her gun but didn’t realize what she was doing until the bullet hit him in the chest and he heard Ximena’s scream. Heaven knew he was not prepared for such an outcome either. If it was his turn to die, he wouldn’t have had anything to say about it.
Of course, Ximena didn’t appreciate him joking about his near death. She smacked him in the stomach.
“If I didn’t know any better, I’d think you were trying to kill me.”
She rolled her eyes. “Later, I’ll drop by my house to get every important document I could possibly ever need. I’ll not pack many clothes. The one here will be enough and we can buy some wherever we end up. I’ll help you pack one too.”
He tried to sit up in vain and frowned at her. “So fast? We agreed to attend our friends’ wedding.”
“And they better have it soon. As soon as the groom kisses the bride, I’m out.” She was exaggerating it. Zaria would track her down across the
globe to kill her if she missed any important part of the wedding.
Liam nodded in agreement. Cowardly way out or not, he couldn’t ignore the fact that they were wasting too much time trying to reason with their parents. They wanted to be together and so they should, no matter who disapproved of it.
Zaria arrived just as she leaned in for another kiss.
“Get a room, you two.” She teased.
“What do you mean ‘get a room’? We are in one already.” Liam retorted.
“You must be fine, then, if you have the strength to poke fun at me.” She was relieved. “You scared the heck out of us.”
“Did you miss me while I was out?” He joked, making the women frown at him. He had become quite playful. He sat up with Ximena’s help and asked, “What the hell happened?”
“That’s what we are all trying to figure out. Did you notice anything helpful?”
She didn’t expect him to know anything when he woke up since he had taken the first hit but to her surprise, realization seemed to dawn on him.
“I was watching Ciara walk down the aisle and…” he shot his gaze at Ximena briefly. He knew who the woman was but in his mind, all he could see was Ximena in a white gown, with a sweet smile on her face as she walked toward him. Of course, he knew that was not happening any time soon if it even happened to begin with. He skipped it. “And I had a wild thought.”
“What wild thought?” She unknowingly straightened up. This sounded grave and important.
“When I first met you, the first thing I realized was that you looked a lot like my friend. Natalie. You have different smiles but it was there the unmistakably striking resemblance. Especially your eyes.”
“Uhm…okay…?” it was getting confusing.
“You two turned out to be cousins after months of everyone thinking it was a coincidence that you had these few but striking similarities. Do you know when I began to suspect you were related to Lucy? When the two of you had your backs turned from me and I realized just how similar your hair was. Down to the texture. Then the similarities made sense.”
Zaria was speechless while Ximena huffed at him. “That’s creepy on so many levels. If I didn’t know you have a keen eye for detail, I would be spooked like Zaria is.”
Zaria nodded her agreement. “What are you getting at?”
He held Ximena’s hand. “You had to know where I’m coming from. I know we found Ciara because she could pass off for you with the right makeup skill but I realized something when she was walking down and I saw her eyes. They are the same as yours and Natalie’s, only more horrifyingly similar to Nathaniel’s. Then they exchanged subtle glances and he smiled. I was focused on Nathaniel, which is why I missed her actions.”
The realization was more shocking than Ciara turning on them. “Let’s be real. How many grandchildren does Nathaniel have stashed away as hidden treasures?”
“Forget about the hidden treasures. This woman must have been close to Nathaniel if they pulled this off.” Ximena sunk into thought. “And it doesn’t change the fact that someone from our side helped them. Someone who knew we were looking for a decoy bride and also knew Ciara was Nathaniel’s granddaughter.” Zaria speculated.
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