Chapter 12: His First Mistake

Dalton Guevarra travelled all the way to The Isles just to get away from his new wife. It was not only Anna he wanted to escape from, but his entire marriage.

He wanted no part on the entire facade. They forced him to the altar, but they couldn't force him to be by her side.

He had absolutely no idea why Anna would do something like this. He had always treated her well. The best friend he ever had growing up. He had nothing but respect and admiration for her, so being betrayed like this by her was quite a painful fact for him to accept.

He admits, he would have married her if she asked a few years ago, but things have changed now. There was already Lara, the woman he loves with all his heart. The most beautiful and pure girl there is. He simply adores her.

But now, Lara is gone. Driven away by Anna, and her cold schemes.

He gulped down an entire glass of champagne at that thought. He had hoped that the two girls would get along. But that was down the drain now.

He forced himself to forget about Lara. He is married now. Marriage is not something he takes lightly. He has a duty to fulfill, but he'd sooner be caught dead, than do that duty right now.

He will have to accept Anna as his wife, he acknowledges that, but not anytime soon. The pain of losing Lara is just too much to bear at the moment. Right now, all he wanted to do is to forget.

He moved to the next table to grab another drink. He is attending a business event at the moment. The business emergency hadn't been a lie. But it wasn't as serious as he made it out to be. He just needed an escape.

When he got a drink from the table, a beautiful girl approached him, swaying her drink. Dalton took in her appearance. She has amber eyes and fiery red hair just like Lara. She wore a body-fitting cocktail dress that does wonders to her curves.

"Mr. Guevarra, why are you alone tonight?" She asked him, leaning closely to his face. "And trying to drown yourself in alcohol, it seems."

Anna and Rachel left the café when it became clear that most of the customers were trying to summon a giraffe neck with elephant ears on their bodies.

They left with Rachel commenting about busybodies, to which they hurriedly went back on paying attention to their own tables.

The two left to stay in a private beach garden instead. This has been one of their most favorite place growing up. But since they started getting busy, with Anna pursuing law, and Rachel focusing on her modelling career, they rarely go to this place anymore.

"Okay," Rachel said dropping to the nearest chair. "Spill."

Anna took a deep breath. "Where do I even start?"

"Anna, when I attended your wedding, and there was a significant delay, I had suspicions about the whole thing. But you refused to talk to me, and instead holed up to some dark corner. So, I never had the chance to ask you to explain things. So, I am asking you now to get on with your explanation." Rachel was almost shouting.

Anna relented at that. "Dalton is in love with Lara, not me." She quietly admitted.

Rachel sucked in a breath, but recovered quickly.

"I had a hunch."

"Really?"

"Yes. But marriage is sacred to him, we both know that. So I guess, don't worry too much."

"He blamed me for Lara's disappearance."

Rachel let out a scoff. "She's gone?"

"That's why he was late to our wedding. He was looking for her."

"And you still married him?!" Rachel was understandably upset.

"What was I supposed to do? No one knows about the truth. And everyone was already there."

"Really? Everyone?"

"Yes! He was just a bit late."

"Trying to elope with some girl!"

"It's already done, Rachel. What good is there to argue about it?"

"And you're supposed to be the smart one."

Anna got up and made her way to the shore. Rachel followed her. They passed by some girls who were busy taking photos on their bikinis.

"I'm sorry," Rachel started. "But does this mean that Dalton is off to find Lara?"

Anna sighed. "He told me that he won't do anything to harm me or the family. I don't think he'd do something like that."

"He better not." Rachel said through grated teeth.

"He's not too bad. You know that, right?"

"I know. I guess I have to give him some sort of credit."

They smiled at each other, and treaded through the shore, careful not to get wet.

Then they heard one of the girls let out a small scream, the rest of them went over to look at her screen. Covering their mouths, they turned to stare at Anna.

Rachel marched towards them and yanked the phone out of their hands. It was her turn to let out a scream. Anna head over to her, and peeked at the phone.

She froze at what she saw. Right on the screen, was Dalton, his hand holding a champagne glass, the other laced around the back of a woman, who's only defining feature was her fiery red hair.