The bullet shot out of the gun barrel with a loud crack, and grazed the side of Alia’s face. Blunt as it was, it still stung. Alia winced and she held a hand to her face, only for her eyes to widen as she caught sight of the sticky red substance on her hands.
It was blood!
"Holy shit! Emline!" Aiden exclaid, his voice high enough to be considered a screech. He pointed a shaking finger at Emline. "You shot Alia? What the flying fuck? I know you want to get rid of her, but this is a little too much!"
Matteo imdiately took out a handkerchief to stem the bleeding, while snarling at Emline. "What’s the aning of this, Emline?!"
"Alia, are you alright?" Emline cried out in surprise, quickly dropping the gun as though it was a piece of scalding hot iron.
She clambered over to them and held Alia’s hand, much to the latter’s surprise. Tears welled up in Emline’s eyes as she sobbed, reaching forward to caress the small cut on Alia’s face.
"Let see―"
Before she could touch Alia’s face, however, her hand was swatted away by Matteo.
"Your hands aren’t sanitized," he coldly said. "Don’t touch the wound."
"I..." Emline’s bottom lip trembled as she stared into Matteo’s eyes, tears welling up in her eyes. The commotion had quickly drawn a bigger crowd, and soon enough, the stall they were at was surrounded by people.
Emline’s eyes quickly swept through the crowd before returning to Matteo and Alia. For the brief second where her eyes were wandering, a hint of calculative malice darted through her gaze, but it quickly disappeared when she turned back to the couple.
As if the stage lights were switched on and the clapperboard had sounded, Emline’s expression instantly switched to one of an innocent, wronged lady. Her cheeks were slightly flushed and her eyes were puffy as she sniffed.
"I didn’t an to do it," she pleaded in between sniffles. "It was an accident. I am so sorry, Alia, please don’t yell at !"
Before Alia could say anything, she continued, "I swear I didn’t do it because of jealousy." She raised a hand and wiped at her tears. "When Grandpa first announced your return, I was so excited to finally have a sister! I would never purposely harm you like that."
Aiden, who was originally stunned by the fired shot, suddenly reeled back. He stared at Emline before letting out a low whistle that was barely heard by the crowd. All panic and worry fled from his features as he folded his arms across his chest and leaned against the wooden fras of the stall, watching silently.
At first, Aiden thought that the shock had been so much for Emline that she had a complete personality switch. Then, he realized sothing― while they were arguing with the vendor about the rigged gas, more and more people had gathered to watch. So of them were locals, but a good portion of them were tourists.
The people who could or would travel here to Lesterat were usually of the richer half of the population. Emline surely wouldn’t care about the thoughts of the ordinary folk, but the wealthier half... that was a different case altogether.
"How is that even related?" Alia asked, confused. She shared a glance with Matteo, but instead of receiving a proper reply, Emline only cried a little harder.
"I am just worried that you would think that I am doing this purposely!" Emline said, sobbing harder. "You already have Matteo― please don’t tell Grandpa about this! I already lost my fiancé, I don’t want to lose my family too!"
Slowly but surely, it was as Aiden had guessed. Whispers began to flood through the crowd and they weren’t talking about the vendor’s rigged gas any longer.
"That’s Alia Kentwood, isn’t it? With Matteo Montgory? I heard they had a very ssy engagent."
"Engagent?" Another barked out in laughter. "You an theft! Matteo Montgory was engaged to Emline Hawthorne. Everyone in the upper echelon of Solara knew about it. It was supposed to be the most celebrated wedding event of the year."
"I suppose old Mr. Hawthorne wouldn’t care which granddaughter of his married into the Montgorys as long as both families could still be connected via marriage."
"Look at the poor girl― she’s shaking! She must be terrified after so much has changed in her family in just a day. If I were her, I would be devastated too if a random country bumpkin showed up and took everything from under my nose."
Hidden where the crowd couldn’t see, a wicked smile curved Emline’s lips. However, she quickly wiped it away and replaced it with a delicate pout. She bent down and picked up the gun before placing it on the counter.
"I should go," she said. "I... I know I am not wanted here. I was just trying to push my luck because I wanted to spend so ti with you―" Surprisingly, she looked at Alia with her huge, watery eyes instead of Matteo, "―Cousin. I see now. I am just a hindrance. You can never forget the relationship I once had with Matteo. I understand."
Without saying anything else, Emline turned on her heel and ran. She shoved through the crowd before disappearing into the snowy town, disappearing quickly through the sea of bodies.
"How embarrassing," soone said from the crowd.
"Poor girl."
Just like that, everyone had forgotten that Alia had just been injured by a stray bullet. If it weren’t for the mild sting or the red on her hands, Alia would’ve even wondered if she just hallucinated it all.
"Are you alright?" Matteo asked, not even giving Emline so much as a glance. "We should go back and have that cut treated."
"It’s just a scratch," Alia said, shaking her head. Instead, she gave the onlookers a subtle glare, causing a portion of them to quickly slip away.
"Sir, Ma’am," the vendor suddenly said. He peeled a different stuffed toy from the shelves and all but shoved it into Alia’s hands.
With front row seats to the full show, he had heard their nas perfectly clearly. The Hawthornes and Montgorys were people who were powerful even outside of Solara― it didn’t matter which part of the world they were in. Not to ntion, the Hawthornes had dealings with the Friesents, who managed a large portion of Lesterat’s tourism industry.
He could not afford to offend any of them!
"Please take this instead and we’ll call it even!" the vendor hurriedly said, which earned a glare from Matteo.
He took a step forward, ready to argue when Alia held him back. She took the stuffed toy and quickly thanked the vendor.
"We should go after Emline," Aiden finally said, kicking off from the fra of the small stall. "It’s not safe for her to be out here in the snow alone."
Alia pursed her lips. She didn’t like Emline, even more so after the stunt she just pulled, but Aiden was right. If anything happened to her, their grandfather would be devastated. No matter what, Emline was the granddaughter he had watched grow up.
"Let’s go, then."
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