Daniel watched as Abigail sat there for a few seconds in shock before slapping him in the left cheek with her right hand before putting it to her lips and standing up and running inside.
He placed his hand to his lips and pondered the feeling of calm and contentment that ran through him as he had gently kissed Abigail. It was as if he had found a place to call home. At the same time, it confused him in why, despite his previous interactions, as limited as they had been with Abigail, that things had so dramatically changed.
As he placed his hand back by his side, Daniel knew had to drive away the thoughts that started into his mind that they piece of paper called a marriage certificate changed how he perceived things and opened his mind to the possibilities of things. Shaking his head, he quietly said to himself, "No, I am just doing him a favour. I promised him that she would be safe."
A voice from behind Daniel said, "Promised who, she would be safe?"
Daniel jumped up and turned around quickly seeing Secretary Lin standing there. All Daniel could do is stutter our, "Secretary Lin…"
"CEO Wu, it is a pleasure. The President spotted you earlier on, and as wondering if you could spare him a couple of minutes of your time. He told me to inform you he wants an answer to his question he posed the last time he saw you."
Daniel closed his eyes. This was the other reason that he had easily agreed to Uncle Cole's question the today. The President was pushing him to become engaged to his granddaughter, who he had never met and for Sebastian to become engaged to the Vice President's niece. It was obvious that the President had plans for when his second term ended in four years, to secure his position politically.
He remembered his father saying, when President Fu-Gan commenced his run for the presidency, that he was a man that had long term plans, to ensure that he had ongoing control within the political arena even once he could no longer run for the presidency, constitutionally. This was a man, who manipulated his only son into a marriage with a member of Country D's Royal Family, simply to secure a business deal he was working on at the time. From what he remembered his father telling him, that it was an unhappy marriage from the outset. As his father explained to him because he knew the younger Fu-Gan well, the President was using the marriage to control his son, who he believed would risk his plans. To gain revenge on his father, he had taken mistress after mistress, humiliating his wife who bore him a son and daughter, knowing fully well that without the consent of the King of Country D, he could not divorce her.
There was no way, he was going to allow himself to be trapped like that, nor was he willing to be someone's pawn. Nor did he want that for Sebastian. While his brother could be an idiot, and was demonstrating that with his determination about Sara, it was his choice, and he could in the end only honour that, because that is what his parents would have wanted.
As the thought about being someone else's pawn, Daniel stopped himself, and through. Was he being Uncle Cole's pawn? The more he considered it, the more he was certain he was not. Yes, he knew the heartstrings were being pulled at, because Uncle Cole wanted him to protect Abigail from what he had been through when he and Sebastian's parents had died. While there may have been a little guilting him into agreeing, there was always the understanding that this would be a marriage he and Abigail controlled, not anyone else, and if they decided that they did not want to continue they could divorce and walk away.
But, that sweet short kiss, made him start to question whether a divorce was what he wanted to even contemplate? There was something there, but what? Why did he believe in the few seconds of that kiss, had promises of something that was close and far away at the same time, and that he would regret if for his life if he did not take the opportunity to attempt to grab it…
"CEO Wu, will you meet the president, and give him your answer?"
Daniel shook his head, shaking away the thoughts he needed to ponder privately, and said "Secretary Lin, tell the President that I will meet him, but…" Daniel paused and gently rubbed the wedding ring he had convinced Abigail to place there earlier on, before continuing "He may not like the answer that I will give him."