Ronan was equally horrified, giving Matteo an appalled look.
"Matteo, be serious about this. Do you want poor Alia to end up in prison? I know she looks like a Hawthorne―"
"I do?" Alia interrupted, confused.
"You do," Matteo confird with a nod. "I believe that everything will work out."
"And I believe you’re off your rocker. Yes, Alia does have their hair and eyes, but that’s not enough!" Ronan threw up his hands. "Do you know how many blonde-haired blue-eyed won there are in this city? Matteo, whatever makes you think that Alia could positively sneak her way into the event, it’s not enough!"
"There’s always an illegitimate child or two," Matteo said with a shrug. God knew he had too many half-siblings due to his father’s philandering ways.
"I must refuse this idea," Alia said, quickly shaking her head as she held out her palm. "If this puts my parent’s marriage into question, then I’m not willing to play this part. My father is still lying in a hospital bed― how can I make him believe my mother cheated on him, all for the sake of this little sche?"
Matteo’s face clouded over. "My apologies. I did not think of that implication."
"So we can put this idea in the gutter where it belongs, yes?" Ronan asked hopefully. "I’d rather we plan to have an earlier announcent, just like what Alia suggested earlier. We can even have it on the day itself, as long as it’s before your engagent!"
"Ronan, we’ll discuss things further," Matteo said with a nod. "Alia, please leave us for the ti being."
Alia dragged her feet out the door, but before she left, she turned back to Matteo and Ronan. "You guys won’t spring so nasty surprise without letting know... right?"
"That would be counterproductive to my goals," Matteo said evenly, and Alia could only take his word for it.
What could she do, if he did intend to use her to shock the Hawthornes?
She could only hope he would save her from the consequences. Her poor heart would not be able to endure such shock, and neither would her father.
***
"What are you planning with Alia?" Ronan asked. "I don’t like that glint in your eyes."
"I wasn’t joking when I said Alia looked like a Hawthorne," Matteo said, rubbing the furrow between his eyes. "Could I trouble you to dig up information on Alia’s mother?"
"You think... Wait, isn’t her mother already deceased? You want to investigate a dead woman?"
"Yes. I do not believe that her mother was honest about her heritage. According to Alia, her mother had a priceless jade flute that she loved. Said jade flute was recently put on auction and I bought it for five million―"
"You did what." Ronan’s voice was flat with disbelief. Of course he had not heard about this, since he was on vacation. "Matteo, there has to be a limit to reckless spending!"
Matteo ignored his chidings.
"Which middle-class family would have a jade flute lying around, let alone one that could enter an auction hall to begin with?" Matteo pointed out instead. "And it wasn’t as though Alia’s mother was a famous musician who was gifted that due to her accomplishnts. There are no records of her artistry anywhere. Who could afford a jade flute for a hobby?"
Ronan reluctantly sighed. "I admit you have a point. Things do seem fishy, but that doesn’t an Alia is secretly a Hawthorne. That’s reaching all the way to outer space! What happens if the investigation doesn’t yield any results?"
"We’ll cross that bridge when we co to it," Matteo said simply, and Ronan despaired.
"Are you not going to tell Alia your suspicions?" Ronan asked.
"But there’s no point in letting Alia know about this before it’s confird," Matteo shrugged. "It’ll cause her undue stress."
Ronan had to snort. "No kidding. I think being around you causes her undue stress. I hope she has a stronger heart than her father!"
***
The next few days passed by in a haze. Alia busied herself with watching over her father, who seed to be recovering well in the hospital. However, Matteo’s plans were a ticking ti bomb, just waiting to go off. She could not rest well, and dark eye circles began to form due to worry and fatigue.
Surely she wasn’t going to pretend to be a Hawthorne! She did a quick internet search on them, and the sheer scale of their wealth made her toes curl up. There was no way she would be able to infiltrate them successfully! They could probably hire people to sell all her organs if they wished! However, Alia severely doubted they needed the money from that― it would be like dropping a penny into a gold pile.
A call ca through her phone, snapping her out of her morbid thoughts as she walked through the corridors of the hospital. It was Cherry. They were now bosom friends after bonding over the asshole that was Caleb.
Alia never really had friends before this― Caleb had slowly isolated her from her group of friends, and with the way she clocked all hours of her day either working or tending to Caleb’s needs, there wasn’t much ti left for a social life.
"Hi Cherry, what’s the matter?" Alia asked, trying not to worry. However, Cherry’s voice seed strangely cheerful.
"Hi Alia, I’ve got so... pretty good news so to speak. Rember how Caleb Walton harassed you the other day at the lingerie store? Apparently, soone took a video of it and posted it online!"
Alia’s heart nearly stopped. "What?!"
"It has around five million views already, and it’s still rising every ti I hit the ’refresh’ button," Cherry said delightedly. "All the comnts are roasting him alive, for daring to harass his ex when he is supposedly involved with Kelsie Friesent. I’m just telling you to check it out now before his family threatens soone to take it down."
"Thank you, I’ll check it out now," Alia said, a small smile tugging at the corners of her lips. Soone else might have called her petty, but surely she couldn’t be faulted for feeling so joy after all Caleb had put her through.
She watched the video and took her ti reading all the comnts. It did make her feel braver that most people were on her side, however, there were so comnts that had her blood pressure soaring.
"If you knew how Caleb treated , you would never think I’m lucky to catch his eye. And if I was a gold-digger, I wouldn’t be so broke!" She grumbled to herself. "I’m just an idiot."
Then, there was a new alert on her phone. A new article had just been posted.
’Caleb Montgory Reveals Shocking Truth of Previous Marriage in Video!’
Reviews
All reviews (0)