Chapter Six
Xavier
With each passing day, I found myself falling deeper and deeper in love with my wife.
It struck me as profound one night when I laid awake in bed with Amanda’s head resting against my chest while she slept, my fingers tangled in her hair. I was probably the luckiest son of a bitch on this planet.
Never in my life did I think I’d find someone like her, let alone marry her and fall in love. I was hoping that through our letters, I would find out something that was a deal breaker, some kind of excuse that would show me that she wasn’t as perfect as she seemed.
But no matter what questions I asked or what opinions I expressed, she met me with the same energy. It was even better in person.
My match, my equal.
And here I was actually married to her for the rest of my life.
Joy wasn’t even the proper word to describe how all of this felt. It was like every morning I woke up with a damn rainbow shining outside of my window while the birds chirped in the background.
I felt foolish for having dragged my feet over the past few months, putting off our wedding until it was no longer possible to stall. I’d been afraid that what I was getting myself into was too good to be true and it had cost me precious months with my new wife.
As a silver lining, though, that time before we wed had helped us get to know each other. So I supposed I couldn’t be too upset. I had her now and that’s all that mattered.
“Sir.”
I looked up from my mound of paperwork to see Finn coming in with a package in his hand. “This was dropped off for you.”
“What is it?”
He shrugged. “Not sure. It didn’t have a return address.” He put his hands up as soon as I gave him a look. “It was already scanned. No bomb detected.”
“That’s all I need, for my entire office to be blown up.” I grabbed my letter opener.
“I doubt you’d care if you were dead, sir.”
I waved him off. “Whatever.”
Receiving something like this wasn’t out of the norm. Typically, my clients liked to remain discreet when exchanging products and we weren’t always able to have runners moving back and forth over state lines. I had most of the local post offices in my back pocket, anyway, so it made for an easy second option.
Finn leaned over my desk to see what was inside. After tossing the letter opener down onto my desk, I grabbed the single folder and set it on my desk.
Upon opening it, I discovered that it was an array of pictures..
Finn picked one up, raising his brow. “Is… this Amanda?”
I grabbed another one to look at it.
Sure enough, it was a woman who looked suspiciously similar to my wife, wearing a bikini and walking hand-in-hand with some guy that looked to be about college aged. On the back of it was a date, the same day as our wedding.
“You think they’re doctored?” Finn asked, grabbing another one.
“Probably. You don’t know who sent this?”
He shook his head, showing me another photo of Amanda kissing that same man on a beach with the sunset behind them. This one was dated a few days before our wedding.
I rifled through more of the photos, finding a thick paper near the bottom of the stack. Pulling at it, I flipped it over to reveal a birth certificate with Amanda’s name on it. Deeper into the pile of photos I found another one, this time with someone named ‘Mia’.
“Oh, there’s a note.” Finn said, plucking a small note off the back of the second birth certificate. “Xavier, you should know that the family you are doing business with has been dishonest. You thought I was a snake when I stole the diamonds, but you’ve been living with one this entire time. Look at who you’re sleeping next to. She isn’t who you think she is.”
I had to laugh. That’s what my buyer was trying to get back at me with? Faking that my wife was… what, deceiving me and suggesting she was someone else? I would be inclined to believe it if it weren’t for the fact that Amanda was almost the spitting image of her father. The only thing that puzzled me were the birth certificates, identical except for the name.
“He’s probably pissed we put him on our black list.” Finn said, handing the note back.
After we’d caught him a few days ago with our diamond shipment, he’d begged and pleaded for us to show him mercy. And I had thought about shooting him dead right where he kneeled. Instead, I simply blacklisted him from ever working in the diamond trade ever again.
To me it was a just punishment. He got to live while I got the peace of mind to never have to deal with him ever again.
“I’ll show Amanda.” I said, gathering everything to put back into the folder. “I’m sure she’ll get a kick out of it.”
“Let me know what she says.” Finn swiped the empty box off my desk.
He followed me as I left my office. Heading upstairs, I found my wife in one of the rooms she’d claimed as hers. She had a book in her hand while the TV across from her played.
When she heard me come in, she looked up and smiled. “Hey, you.”
I held up the folder. “You’ll never guess what I just received in the mail.”
She sat up, pushing off the blanket that had been folded on her lap. “What?”
I sat down on the ottoman across from her and handed her the folder. “That client we tracked down in Italy sent this to me.”
When she opened it, I was expecting her to laugh. Instead, her jaw dropped.
“He’s claiming you aren’t the real Amanda.”