29. Christian
TWENTY-NINE
CHRISTIAN
She looked breathtaking.
The sunset framed her in a cascade of oranges and pinks, a living masterpiece that I longed to hang in the gallery of my heart. I couldn't let her in, but from a distance, I could admire her beauty. There she stood, her white dress flowing around her, hands trembling yet clasped together, embodying a newfound strength against her anxiety.
Adelaide Mikael was a monsoon to my desolate heart.
It took her a moment to find my eyes but when she did…
All had stopped.
Like a plant at the first hit of sunlight, I was brought to life.
I’d forgotten about the morning, about our fucking argument and only saw her.
She occupied every bit of my senses, down to the spaces between my toes.
Just when I thought it couldn’t get any fucking better, she smiled .
Hypnotized, I moved down the altar and met her halfway.
She was too far, and I couldn’t fucking wait.
There were so many feelings channelling through me all at once, I couldn’t fucking breathe. Not sure if I even wanted to.
She glanced around the room with a cautious gaze.
Without a moment wasted, I lifted her chin with my finger. “Eyes on me, Sunshine.”
A hesitant nod.
People gawked as I guided us down the aisle. Inside the church, rainbow mosaics shone down on us, illuminating the light, and brightening the space. Yet the only person who truly shined was Adelaide.
The priest smiled when got to him. “Shall we begin?”
A quick nod.
“We are gathered here today…”
Adelaide’s throat constricted with a sharp breath.
She looked at me when I squeezed her hand. “You okay?” I mouthed.
A barely-there nod.
She wasn’t okay.
Was it the wedding? She could say the word and I’d stop it. I’d stop anything for her at this moment. Hell, whenever. Any second, any minute, any time of any day, I would stop it.
Revenge be damned.
She mattered.
Just when I opened my mouth to say something, she squeezed my hand with a terse shake of her head.
The priest skipped the vows.
We both said I do.
Then came the part I didn’t fucking think about.
“With the power vested in me, I announce you husband and wife.” The priest closed his book. “You may now kiss the bride.”
Both of us swallowed hard at the same time.
Fuck, was it hot in here?
With a step closer, I looked down at her lips.
Red. Pure fucking red.
My own personal hell.
My own personal pleasure.
She looked nervous.
More than nervous— hell , she looked fucking scared that we had to kiss like she hadn’t thought about it. As much as I’d love to press mine against hers, convince her with my lips that she belonged to me, I couldn’t.
Cupping her face, I used my thumb as a barrier between us and kissed her.
Or whatever the fuck this could be called.
There was a small hitch in her breath that settled on my lips.
No one could tell we weren’t kissing but us.
By the way she fisted the sleeve of my suit, it seemed like she fought herself from wanting me to remove the obstacle.
But I didn’t.
Because I was a gentleman.
And she was now my wife .
“It’s time for the wedding games!”
Umaima spoke into the mic.
Hasan and Osama stood near her, both looked fucking done.
Yunus latched himself onto Hasan the whole time, even when I went to give him a kiss, he cried away.
Must have been the people cause that boy loves me.
After the ceremony, we headed out to the back of the church. The wedding planner I hired, Lola or Lindsey or whatever Ms. Bubbles name was decorated it with fucking shiny lights and shit.
I liked it because I knew Adelaide would have liked it.
Speaking of her, where was she?
“The first game,” Umaima walked across the lawn and dragged me to the middle. “Find the bride.”
“Find the what?” The fuck? Didn’t I already get the bride?
“You’ll see,” she whispered away from the mic. “You better find her right away or else I’m chopping your dick off.”
“Speaking of my bride, is she okay?”
Umaima turned to look up. The microphone in her hand fell to her side. “You saw.” There was a hint of surprise in her tone like I wouldn’t notice that my wife looked like she didn’t fucking feel well.
With raised brows, I waited for an answer.
“She’s, uh…”
“She’s what, Umaima?”
Umaima cleared her throat. “She’s on her lady days.”
Oh.
That made sense.
You were ready to call off the whole fucking wedding because she’s on her period.
I still would.
Then like the crazy woman Umaima was, she screamed loud enough to make me go deaf. “Girls, you can come out!”
One by one, a group of girls dressed in white dresses—none of which were my mother’s—walked out of the church with thick veils over their heads.
Found her.
It was the shape of her body, how it moved when she walked down the steps. None of the girls grabbed onto the railings but her, because I knew her. She was cautious, she was careful, she was my Adelaide.
“Nervous, huh?” Umaima sounded pleased like she accomplished a difficult task, but it wasn’t. This was so fucking easy.
In a horizontal line, the girls aligned themselves.
People huddled around in a large circle to watch.
Adelaide paused before taking her spot at one end.
“All you have to do,” Umaima pushed me forward. “Is find your wife.”
Everyone gave their opinions of where they thought she was.
I think it’s the girl in the middle.
No, she’s too tall. It has to be the one next to her.
It took me less than five seconds to walk towards her.
Leaning down at level with her ears, “I found you.”
I’ll always find you.
Her chest heaved with the breaths she took, “You did.”
She moved to take her veil off, but I stopped her. “Let me.”
With careful hands that were really trembling, I unveiled her.
Her hair ran down her back, free of everything as she stared up at me.
Lips still red as sin, but cheeks flushed and eyes sparkling.
There was no such concept of resisting whenever Adelaide was in front of me. I pressed a kiss on the space her neck met her shoulder. A trembling breath poured out of her, “People are looking.”
“Let them look,” I kissed the same area—sucking the skin into my mouth. Her hands found the lapels of my jacket, tightening around the fabric like she didn’t know whether to push me away or pull me closer.
From the way she gasped, I bet the fucking latter.
“How’d you,” she swallowed a gasp. “ Um , find me?”
Small kisses up her neck, I stopped at her ear and bit the lobe. Low enough for no one but her, “Even if none of my senses worked and my entirety was bathed in darkness, I’d still find you.”
Pulling away, she glanced at me with lust-filled eyes. Her eyes darted down to my lips and mine to hers. She wetted the bottom one, completely oblivious to how hard I was in front of all these fucking people. “I’d love to fuck you,” I said because apparently, I had no fucking self-control.
Her mouth parted. “Christian, you don’t mean that.”
Eyes hardened. “You wanna bet on that?”
She took a step back.
I meant it. I did. We got married, everything was going fucking perfectly, but I couldn’t focus on anyone but her. This friendship nonsense fucked with my head. We weren’t friends and now that we’re married, we’d never be friends.
It’d take some convincing, considering how she kept pushing me away.
But I’d find it.
Her weak spot and then she’d be putty in my arms forever.
“Congratulations!” Umaima’s laugh had a nervous hitch to it. People were staring. Some were in awe like they found us in a moment of love. “You beat the world record!”
Hasan turned his head away like watching the wooden rod of lights was more entertaining than us.
Osama held a hand to his stomach and pretended to throw up. “I’m gonna throw up.”
“Stop being dramatic,” Umaima sent a glare in his direction before spinning back around and dragging Adelaide closer to her. “Hasan took a good minute to find his wife.”
Hasan grunted. “I wanted to be a hundred percent certain.”
Adelaide stared at me, and I stared at her. Small smiles played on our lips, mirroring each other’s amusement.
I’d get her to kiss me.
The thought came to me strong and heavy. Yes, I wanted to fuck her. But I realized it was more than that. I ached for a kiss, to feel her close to me, to have her laugh with me.
This was much more than pretending.
This was real .
“Babes,” Umaima leaned down to whisper in Adelaide’s ear. But when Umaima tried to whisper, it never came out as that. “You have a hickey on your neck.”
Adelaide jumped to cover the spot with her hand.
Eyes widened, completely shocked. She narrowed her eyes on me.
Fuck, that was hot.
Full of pride, I smirked at her.
It did nothing but rile her up more.
I liked riling her up.
A metaphorical bucket of cold water splashed over both of us, and we broke eye contact. Not for too long since Umaima forced us back together, made us drink sweet almond milk from a traditional gold decorated glass, took my shoe, and ran off with it—laughing like a fucking hyena—then had the audacity to ask me for money.
Adelaide looked at me like never before, with sweet eyes and gentle glances. So, I pulled out ten hundred-dollar bills and slapped it onto Umaima’s hands.
Hasan lectured me to take it back, but I didn’t listen.
All I could hear was Adelaide’s sweet laughter when she spoke with Osama.
Or the gentle giggle when Yunus pinched her cheeks.
Her laughter was a language of its own and I wanted to master each letter, memorize their meanings, and be the reason for its existence.
My muscles tensed when Harry approached her.
At the same time, Osama pulled me to the side of the church, away from everyone else—looking like a nervous wreck. Hasan followed quickly behind us.
“What?” My brows furrowed. “Why do you look like that?”
Osama averted his eyes and scratched the back of his neck. “Umaima and I agreed to take a break from the search today and…”
“Spit it out, Osama.”
I’d never seen Osama anxious before. He was always chill, keeping it together. Which is why it was fucking easy to rely on him.
If something fucked him over, it was damn serious.
“I had a little extra time on my hands this morning. I ran a new code through the server, and something came up.”
He turned his phone around.
The black screen filled with random numbers and letters. I didn’t know much about hacking programs and shit, but I’d recognize this coding anywhere.
Hasan spoke over my haze of shock. “Is that?—”
“It’s Daniel.”
Why the fuck was my father’s codes on the encryption?
Osama turned the screen back to himself and worked his fingers quickly before showing me it again.
There in a red dot was a location.
Eda’s location.
She was here in New York.
“When did she come back?”
“That’s the thing,” he released a strangled sigh. “She never left.”
Which meant my father never went to Bali. He was with Eda, here in New York. “Why the fuck is my dad helping her?”
“We can’t make any assumptions,” Hasan squeezed my shoulder, but it didn’t help.
“The fuck we can’t.” With my back turned, I walked a few steps away from them with my hands clasped behind my head. “My father’s been helping her.”
“I guess the congratulations can wait.”
Rowlen stood, leaning against the stonewall of the church. “Don’t suppose this would be the right time to tell you what I found out either?”
With crossed arms and barely restrained anger, “What’d you find out?”
The look on his face told me I should forget about it tonight. Then why the fuck would they bring it up?
“Where’s my brother?” Umaima’s voice echoed through the speakers. “And where’s the ugly dude number two?”
Osama muttered under his breath and looked at Hasan then back at me. “Before she bulldozes right into this conversation, we’ll leave.” He turned to Rowlen. “Tell him whatever it is, otherwise, he’ll continue having a tantrum.”
“Fuck off,” I gave him the middle finger, but he didn’t return one.
The mood didn’t call for it.
Life never wanted me to get a fucking break.
It was my wedding day, yet my wife was alone—stuck with a dick and I was here— stuck .
“You sure you’re ready to hear it?”
My silence was an answer.
“We found some old files at another precinct that had to do with my case. Legally, I’m not supposed to tell you this information. But I thought you should know.”
He took a deep breath. “Fourteen years ago, Adelaide’s parents died.”
Yeah, I fucking knew that.
“In a plane crash that was planned by Eda.”
I went still .
“What do you mean it was planned by Eda?”
“Let’s stop this here for now, I’ll show you the files in a couple of days. We can talk about it?—”
“ How is Eda behind a fucking plane crash?”
Rowlen rubbed the space between his brows. “According to their private jet records, a stall strip was loose, but they couldn’t do anything about it since Laura and Ralph were eager to get home because Eda called them with an emergency. It fell off while they were landing in New York, and it ruptured a fuel tank which caused the plane to explode.”
“I can only assume for now, but Harry Samuels called 911 three minutes before the explosion happened.”
Harry Samuels was Eda’s assistant at the time. All of it made fucking sense.
Eomma blackmailed her by telling Adelaide’s parents, Eda got worried so she called them in haste—lying about a mishap in the business which would have forced Ralph and Laura to get on a plane as soon as possible. But if the metal strip was loose, that meant she planned it for whenever they’d return. My mother scared Eda and it changed her plans. She needed to kill them sooner to save her reputation—to remain as Starlight’s CEO.
If she meant to kill Ralph and Laura…
She also meant to kill Adelaide in that crash too.
But she failed.
Adelaide was alive and according to the will, she was meant to be the successor of Starlight.
Which Eda didn’t want. That’s why she did all of this. The emails and the money, she was preparing to send Adelaide to prison—to make her disappear off the face of this earth—putting her back into the position of CEO.
Adelaide would’ve been dead today if she didn’t come back a day earlier than her parents. You never would have met her; you never would have fallen in love. You’d live without knowing her smile, her voice, the way she closed her eyes whenever you spoke, so she’d imagine what you were saying. Adelaide Mikael would have been a stranger to your heart.
The thought made my throat constrict with thick tears and my heart shattered for Adelaide.
Another secret clung to my pericardium and began sucking away the life out of me with its sharp teeth.
“Adelaide!” Umaima’s worried tone forced this new knowledge out of my mind with the one person who spurred weakness.
Blinded, panicked, and so fucking scared.
Following the sound, I sprinted across the lawn. Eyes laser-focused on finding my wife.
I pushed past everyone to get to her.
Desperation perspired down my neck to my heart when I screamed, “ Adelaide! ”
My knees dug into the ground when I cupped her cheek. “Baby, please wake up.”
Umaima started crying, “She was fine. I don’t know what happened.”
Hasan called 911, but my brain frazzled apart.
I couldn’t…
No.
I couldn’t lose her. She couldn’t leave me. Not like this.
Not when I needed her.
I didn’t get to tell her…
“Adelaide,” I whispered. My head snapped towards Hasan, “Where the fuck are they?”
“They should be here soon. The hospital is a couple of blocks away. Let’s get her some water?—”
Tucking one arm behind neck and the other beneath her knees, I picked Adelaide up and started running.
“Christian, where are you going?” Osama’s voice boomed.
She was limp in my arms.
I had to get her to the hospital.
“Wake up, baby.”
I’m here, Sunshine. I’m not going anywhere.
You’ll be okay.
Adelaide.
Sweet Adelaide.
My Adelaide.
I ran and ran, with only one word tainting the air around us.
I love you.