The day has come. Saturday. The day of Clare's engagement to Ian. She didn't know if deciding to marry her old friend was a good idea, yet she gave in when she tried to talk to Felix on the beach again a few days ago, and he dismissed her. The girl was fed up with the constant humiliation. How much could she impose on him?
It was time for her to regain her dignity. Felix Brown had to become a thing of the past for her to start thinking rationally. She had to take the plunge and put her life back together somehow.
The first point was to talk to Ian. She hadn't seen him since he opened up to her that day and confessed the whole truth to her. She felt uncomfortable with the thought that he had kissed her. The girl felt silly that all this time she had considered him a monster, and it turned out that she was one.
She needed to clear up all misunderstandings so that her life would stop being a nightmare.
- Can we talk? - She asked, earlier knocking on the door of his room. Dressed in a heather-colored, tight-fitting dress that reached her knees, scrubbing her slippers on the floorboards, she stepped inside before he could answer her. - I want to talk to you before the engagement party.
The boy turned to face her and measured her figure with a gleam in his eye, in thought admiring her beauty.
She looked stunning. And she was soon to become his bride.
- What do you want to talk about? An engagement is not a wedding, you can break it off at any time.
The blonde sat next to him on the bed and closed her eyelids, feeling terrible.
- I acted like a bitch then, he apologized.
This was not what he expected. With wide-open eyes, he looked at her face, not believing that she really said that.
- Many times you were right when you said I was an idiot. I didn't believe you but some dumb rumors, besides I chased Felix even though he didn't give a shit about me. From your perspective, it actually must have looked pathetic. - He remained silent, intending to listen to her to the end. - You recently took care of me when I was drunk, and I treated you so horribly.... I think it was your words that made me lose my mind. I had to think it all over to realize what a bitch I was.
She managed to bring a smile to his face.
- You are a bitch, that's why you are attracted to me.
Clare slapped him on the shoulder, twisting her lips in a slight smile; however, she became serious just as quickly.
- Ian... confess something to me honestly. Do you still feel sorry for me? After the wedding, you want to turn my life into hell for what I did to you in the past?
His face turned sad.
- Do you think I would be able to do that after everything I confessed to you? - When he said this he was looking into her eyes, so she had no doubt that he was lying. - Talking about turning your life into hell was just childish behavior on my part. I was angry with you for believing lies. For not seeing my true side, and for blindly following that bastard.
She nodded, feeling relieved.
- So I can entrust the rest of my life to you?
He was confused by her behavior. He wondered what had hit her that made her change a hundred and eighty degrees from him. He didn't recognize her...
- Are you doing this to make Felix understand what he has lost?
He thought she would jump on him and start breathing fire again, but surprisingly! She was still calm.
- No. I'm done with him. Definitely. I want to get rid of him completely from my head. - He parted his lips, looking at her with disbelief in his eyes. - Therefore, help me, Ian said. - He put a finger to his chest, still not believing that she was talking to him. - Do everything to make me fall in love with you. Let's create a happy marriage.
He blinked his eyelids, feeling like an idiot.
- Did you perhaps have a prophetic dream at night?
- I just opened my eyes wider and started looking around me. It's time to stop being a naive teenager. I'm turning twenty next month.
- I?
She did not answer him. She simply got out of bed and headed for the exit. Before she left the room, she looked back and confessed:
- As I think about my life this way, it seems to me that in the past the years I spent with you were my happiest period. When there was an argument between us, that's when everything started to fall apart, so I get the impression that it's a sign that if I'm with you again, I'll start to be happy.
She surprised him. Again.
*
After talking to Ian, she somehow found it easier to be in his company and laugh without forcing it. She needed to open up to him and confess everything that was on her heart. She hoped that she would definitely be able to forget about Felix, and that her former friend would make her manage to fall in love with him.
Would she be able to handle this task after all the harm he had done to her recently?
Clare was staying among the elite. Guests were chatting among themselves, holding glasses of champagne or wine in their hands. Everyone looked happy, but this joy was most evident on the faces of the parents of the bride and groom.
They had already believed as children that the two would stand on the wedding cake.
The blonde realized that if she hadn't given up on Felix, and he had reciprocated her feelings, she would have had to abandon her family, since no one would have approved of her relationship with a poor, simple-minded boy. She came from the higher zones, for her, the only suitable candidate could be Ian, so would she be able to turn her back on her family to be with a boy she would never be certain of? What if she gave up everything for him, and he left her again?
She didn't want to think about that. She tried to chase these thoughts away from herself at all costs, focusing on the engagement party. She had already managed to receive a mass of congratulations. Everyone around her claimed that they were a perfect match, that they had seen it coming when they were young.
What if they were right and she never saw it?
- Your fiancé is a cookie. If he could, he would crush you with his muscular thighs. - Clare looked at Rosalie with amused eyes, completely forgetting the conversation with Paul, who claimed that his future wife is a terrorist and beats him with Gucci handbags. - Belluci could use some leg exercises. He's so skinny that it won't be long before a spider drags him behind the wallpaper. - She snorted under her breath and took a bigger sip of red wine. - So it's definitely over with Felix?
His name made her feel the sting in her heart again.
- Every fight has an end. I want to finally start living peacefully," she replied, looking for Paul with her eyes. He was probably hiding among people, just to avoid his future wife.
- What if you never see him again? - These words worried her.
- What do you mean?
The girl leaned over her friend's ear and whispered:
- He is in great danger. These people will not give him peace. Either he will succumb to them, or he will die. - Chills ran through the blonde's body. - Don't think to yourself that he spurned you because you were bored with him. He just cares about your safety.
Rose made Clare want to cry at her engagement party.
- Felix is stubborn, so they will eventually kill him? - She asked in a trembling voice.
- While you're picking out your wedding dress, they may be trying to kill him at the time....
The blonde closed her eyelids, and tears ran down her cheeks, which she immediately wiped from her face with the top of her hand.
- Are you okay? - Ian was immediately interested in the state of his fiancée. With a distrustful glance, he swept the silhouette of the gray-haired woman, wondering what Clare had said.
- Rose simply reminded me of something important. Everything is fine.
The gray-haired woman walked away from them, intending to find her future husband.
- Until now you were in a good mood, smiling, and she made you start crying....
- I'm fine, Ian, really. - She tried to convince him that everything was fine, but he had known her since she was a child. - Don't look at me like that.
Clare's parents approached them, so the girl forced a smile.
- What's going on? Why do you have such faces? This is your party.
- We were just reminiscing about childhood. These are sentimental faces," she explained hastily. Ian raised an eyebrow, wondering how she came up with such nonsense on the fly.
- If that's the case, this is no time to be sad.
The nineteen-year-old nodded her head. Her attention was caught by Paul, who was slipping through the door into the hallway.
- Excuse me for a moment, I need to talk to Paul.
She ran after her friend and spotted him sitting on the stairs. She joined him and poked him on the shoulder.
- What's wrong?
- I'm angry with you. I wouldn't have come to this engagement if that possessive madwoman hadn't forcibly dragged me out," he muttered under his breath.
- I really thought carefully about the words you said to me the other day. I was sure of that decision, but Rosalie made me have doubts again.
- What did that hyena tell you?
He really hated her.
- That if Felix continues to be stubborn, they will kill him. He moved away from me so that I would be safe.
Paul sighed loudly and looked at his friend obliquely.
- What are you going to do?
- I don't know. I have no idea what I should do to help him. My heart hurts just thinking about it. What if I'm celebrating an engagement with Ian right now, and he's captured by them somewhere?
- Honestly... there's nothing you can do to help him.
- Then why did you make me fight for him?
- So that you wouldn't regret any minute lost with him when one day he disappears without a trace.
The blonde hit him on the back with her hands, hating him for those cruel words.
- Say something so tragic to me again and I'll kill you!
- What are you doing? Why are you sitting on the stairs? - Ian, who unexpectedly appeared in front of them grabbed Clare's hand and helped her get up. - It's our engagement, and you're not in the hall. What will people think?
- At this point I'm really warmed up about what people will think.
Ian looked confused by her behavior. Before the event she was entirely different, now she's gone mad again.
- Are you showing chimeras because now you regret it? It's just an engagement, you can break it off at any time, even now," he announced, and his words surprised Paul.
Waller did not act like a beast. He was gentle.
- It's not about our engagement.
- Then what is it about?
- About the fact that Felix could lose his life at any moment! - she exclaimed, before biting her tongue.
The brunet snorted under his breath.
- And yet, you're still worried about him? At home, you said something entirely different. You intended to forget about him at all costs.
The nineteen-year-old closed her eyelids.
- My head is cloudy.
- So, finally put it together so you know what you really want. This is starting to get tiresome already, Clare said. - He turned his back on her and walked away. The blonde put her hand to her forehead, being depressed.
- What should I do, Paul? - she turned to her friend.
He only shrugged his shoulders in response. He himself had a serious problem with the graveyard hyena that poisoned his life every day.