Soon-to-be bride.

DANIEL’S POV.

“Your wedding is tomorrow and you are in the office?!”

I exhaled and rested my head on the headrest. “Dad, preparing for my marriage does not stop me from working, come on.”

I can already imagine the distasteful look that must have gathered on his face after I said that. 

It is way too early to start talking about my upcoming marriage, does he not know that?  One would think my parents were the ones getting married, not me.

“It does! Do you not care about what people would think at all? You should be going around, trying to know your fiance better, but what? That is all you can do?”

“When I was your age…”

He started. I scratched in between my brows and breathed out. Here we go again…

“I made sure your mother and I met every day during our wedding preparation. And that is one of the reasons we are still going strong even after thirty years of marriage. I made sure she had no other choice but to fall over and over for me. There was a time that…”

“Dad, please,” I cut him off.

Knowing fully well the kind of person my father was, he would not hesitate to brag about his love life with my mum. Again. 

I look after my father so much and I would forever be grateful that I didn’t take this talkative trait from him.

“Everything is fine between my fiance and I. Tomorrow is our wedding, therefore, we have a lot of time to get to know each other and bond more. Thank you for caring, but I've got to go.”

“Logan, I…”

I didn’t let him complete his sentence before I ended the call hurriedly.

I rubbed my hand against my eyes and then sat upright after I dropped the phone on the table in front of me. I raised my head to look at Liam who wouldn’t turn to look away from me.

“For fuck sake, speak. Just say whatever that is in your mind and stop giving me that look,” I hissed, and he burst into laughter.

“It… it is funny… and weird!” He stuttered and laughed.

“What is?”

“Okay, like seriously, YOU ARE FUCKING GETTING MARRIED TOMORROW!”

I closed my eyes for a moment and shook my head. Was this scream necessary?

“So?”

“You are the first person who feels indifferent about their own wedding!” He laughed again.

“What do you expect me to do? Gather the press and give a fucking long speech?”

“That! You need to! I mean, you really need to gather the press and do that.”

“Half of New York knows that I am getting married already,” I raised a brow.

“Half? All of New York knows! They just want to hear it from you.”

“I am not doing any conference till after the wedding.”

“Why? Are you worried people will know who the bride is and start to disturb her?”

I looked away from Liam and pressed the switched button on the laptop in front of me. 

I don’t know who is better between him and my dad. Both seem worse, actually.

“Hold up, don’t tell me… you are jealous that the world will find your bride beautiful and start pestering her?!” He burst into laughter and I snapped my brows together 

“What?”

“Now, I got your attention. Why haven’t you spoken to your ‘fiancé’ since the last time you met? Are you sure your marriage will last at all?

The last time I saw her was at the club and the last time I heard from her was the following morning I called her.

“Don’t tell me you’re still feeling ‘unsure’ about her?” Liam beaded his brows sarcastically and I sighed,

“It’s not that I am not sure about her… I am just…” I twitched my mouth upward and shook my head.

“She just seemed different from when I first saw her.”

Emerald acted like a totally different person when we met at the club. Was it because we met there when she had lied to me that she doesn’t do clubbing?

“You still think she is hiding something from you?”

“Can you just shut up and let me think?”

“You’ve only met this woman which I absolutely think is ridiculous. How could you start suspecting her already? Were you lied to all your life?

Liam said to me and I hit my index finger on the table in front of me continuously till it started to hurt.

The moment I start to suspect that something is wrong, it usually takes everything in me to let go of it. Liam knows that much. That bastard wouldn’t just admit it.

I understand that she might have lied to me about not being a club person. I took no offense to that. She might have been trying to make me see her in a good light, which even made absolutely no sense to me. However, her reaction there that night was so off.

 She looked scared and uneasy and it was as if she was trying to gather words or cover something up.

I mean, I was not even vexed that she was at the club, so why would she almost pretend like she didn't know who I was?

She was not drinking, so I knew it wasn’t the alcohol working. 

Her reaction that day was so different from how she was when I first met her.

“You don’t know how to smile?” Emerald had asked me when we were given space by our parents that day.

“What?” I had squeezed my face unconsciously.

“I literally cracked a joke right now and you did not even raise your lip. Do you not know how to smile?” She asked me again.

“I…”

“Don’t worry, I will teach you how to,” she said and smiled widely.

Unlike the first day, Emerald acted as if she was still trying to figure me out in the car. I know I am not easy to get figured out easily, but she acted like she knew nothing about me.

It’s not like I didn’t mind the silence in the car that night, but she didn’t seem like the kind of person who could go so long without talking. 

Was anything bothering her?

Does she not want to get married?

Was I bothering her?

It seemed like it too. She flinched each time I was close to her.

“You know what? Can you just stop thinking of what is wrong and pick up your phone to call her?”

“Call her? Why should I do that?” I frowned at the thought.

“Your wedding is tomorrow and you are having some goddamn thinking. Would calling her not just solve everything?” Liam asked, and that’s where he got it wrong.

I have no intention of solving anything. It’s just an agreement between the two families and it’s staying at that. 

Solving things with that woman who seemed like she could bring down a person with her petty talks was definitely not what I wanted for myself.

 But then again, let me call my soon-to-be bride.