Chapter 4

I stare dumbfounded around me. Unable to process what was happening. There were about 10 people out to welcome me, their faces etched with a permanent genuine smile.It was almost like I’d been expected.

My heart lurched in my chest. I wasn’t used to this kind of greeting. I didn’t even know what to respond with.

I wasn't their young Miss. I was just me, Brianna. In my heads, I considered the possibility that they might think I was Emily. I wasn't the one their boss picked. I was just the replacement.

“Just call me Brianna, I'm not the young Miss.” I managed to say.

They stare at me in disbelief, yet said nothing.

O..Kay. That went well.

Were they perhaps bullied or forced to greet me like this. If Adrian was anything like the rumors and gossips, the possibility was there.

The man from earlier—the one who helped with my boxes and drove me here, whom I now know as Barrett—stepped in to rescue me.

“You may head inside now, miss,” he said, gesturing for me to go in.

I don't think they'll stop calling me Miss anytime soon.

The sight of the inside of the house knocked out air out me, the inside was even more beautiful than the outside. It strangely felt warm. Cosy and warm.

So warm that it took me off guard. The lighting was soft, the décor tasteful—nothing overwhelming, nothing trying too hard.

It looked like something I would have chosen myself, if I ever had a place of my own. From the decor to the furniture to the placement of every art piece and fixture. It was so deliberate and beautiful.

I was beyond amazed. It all felt so surreal.

I couldn’t help but think, this was what Emily ran away from, what I now have and where my reality was now fixed.

And still, as I looked around, there was no sign of Adrian—the man I was supposed to be marrying.

I walked quietly into the living area, my eyes wide as I took in every detail of the strangely contradictory house.

“Mr. Maserati will be here soon,” Barrett informed me.

Barrett has been an absolute gentleman. He looked older than I was. Handsome too, I had noticed earlier. He wasn’t the glaring type of handsome though, not the one that knocked your heart to a stop or swept you off your feet.

He was the quiet type, the type that slowly caught up to you in a moment of sudden realization. And you wondered how you never saw it, how you never noticed sooner.

I must have been staring at him for long, because he suddenly cleared his throat.

“Ahem.”

Oh my God.

I must have looked like an absolute creep.

“Oh. Yes… yes,” I finally replied, my lips tinting pink in mortification. I lowered my head, “I’ll be waiting here for his return.”

“Good, I shall now take my leave.”

I nod as he turned to leave. And now I was left alone in the house, none of the people who came to greet me outside seemed to follow me in.

I was finally in Adrian’s house and I’m left to wonder who my soon to be husband is.

All I could hope for was that he won’t be a terror. If he was half as handsome as Barrett was, I’d make do.

At least, if he was a handsome monster I can manage and settle for my life this way.

I sighed as I adjust to sit more comfortably on the sofa. I was beyond exhausted and if I wasn’t careful, I’d probably doze off before he even arrived.

But I can’t. That would be bad manners, and I’d die before I did anything to embarrass father or the Stewart family.

A yawn escapes me, as a lone tear drop from the corner of my right eye.

My eyes closed for a bit before the sound of heavy footsteps pierced through the air.

I jerked upright instantly, sitting stiff and alert.

I better hope there are no cameras here as there were back at home.

The man that appeared before me was gorgeous, in undeniable, unsubtle way. That was my first thought as I peered up at his frame sauntering towards me.

He was loudly handsome, *he* was the kind that swept you off your feet. The one that made your heart stutter.

The faint scar at the side of his eye did nothing to lessen the intensity of his appeal. If anything, it made him more striking.

His posture was straight and upright with a muscular but lean build.

There was something about his face—rugged yet soft—that seemed to shift with every emotion that touched it.

His ghostly grey eyes locked onto mine, piercing straight through me, a hint of warmth flickering within them as they creased slightly.

The tilt in his lips spreads wider as he drew closer, flashing his perfectly straight teeth at me, “Oh Mi Amor, you’re finally here.”