“By the way, is there a nice spot in the garden where I can take some pretty photos?” I asked sweetly.
“Of course...” he replied with a slightly surprised look on his face.
After hearing Zain out about a few spots in the gardens that might serve as a good photo-taking spot, I quickly made my escape through the mansion’s front door before taking the few steps down. Staying any longer in Zain’s presence might lead me to say something that I wasn’t supposed to. I decided to get away from him before any of that could happen.
The gardens were very well tended and indeed very beautifully decorated. The various statues of angels and other mythical creatures looked very magical especially when displayed among a large variety of blooming flowers. The bright and cheerful colors of the flowers made me think of the usually dark and stormy mood and nature of their owner. Turning on the camera of my phone, I used it to inspect my reflection. After practicing my smile and turning my face from side to side for a moment, I decided that I probably needed to use some filters to make myself look presentable as well as fix my hair a little.
Perhaps I should have gone back inside to put on some more presentable clothes and do my make up properly before doing this but a natural ‘I woke up like this’ kind of look might be the right way to catch everyone’s attention. I sat down on the grass right in front of one of the statues while making sure that I had a lot of pretty flowers in the background behind me. After making sure that I had the natural light shining on my face, I turned my face a little to the side and smiled happily at the camera.
“Hmm...we look very pretty, don’t we, Diana?” I murmured to myself before letting out a giggle.
If this doesn’t grant me a ticket out of this mansion, then I don’t know what will...
...
**Bradon’s Point of View**
Anthony’s schedule was as packed as ever with meetings. Overseeing the family’s multiple businesses meant that he had endless meetings. Just one meeting with the upper management of all companies within the conglomerate already took up so much time. I found myself stuck in one of those meetings where I had to listen to what felt like an endless progress update while I had to make sure to nod at the right moments and ask some questions here and there just to make them feel like I was still listening.
When it came to business, I never envied Anthony’s role. If anyone were to ask me, I would reply without a moment of thought that running the country’s shadow economy and all the underground stuff was much more entertaining, challenging, and exhilarating. Almost everything that was made illegal or banned in this country was all to allow me to run those businesses exclusively in secret underground where a lot of money is made and exchanged. Both wealthy local residents and wealthy tourists from abroad came in to enjoy our services.
With my eyes on the presentation that was being projected on the large screen, I continued pretending that I was listening when in reality my mind was already elsewhere. It didn’t seem to matter in which direction my mind wandered because in the end, it always led me back to think of Dahlia. At the back of my mind, I had always known that she wasn’t happy. In fact, the moment when she was dragged back to this country by her family was probably the start of the end of her happiness and whatever freedom that she had found from her family while living abroad.
For a moment, my thoughts shifted to Anthony who hadn’t regained consciousness. Although I didn’t want to believe it at first, time told me that what father had said and what the doctors had feared had become a reality. Anthony did not wake up in a matter of days and those days had already turned into weeks. I had visited Anthony in the hospital a couple of times and each time that I saw him laying almost lifelessly on the bed, my frustration and anger began building up.
None of the doctors could give me a definitive timeline of when Anthony would wake up or when he would recover. No matter how many times I asked them or how I asked them, they all gave me the same simple answer that they did not know when my brother was going to wake up. Without much regret, I had ended up grabbing a few of their collars in my fit of anger when they couldn’t give me the answer that I wanted to hear. Although I knew that it wasn’t completely their fault, it was still their fault that they couldn’t heal Anthony right away. Even if I hated to admit it, I knew that as time slipped by so did the chances of Anthony waking up.
Just like me, I knew that Dahlia was only doing this because it was the only thing that she could do to help her sister. There had been no news about Diana, and I wasn’t even sure if anyone was actively looking for her. I wouldn’t be surprised if everyone had stopped looking now that the marriage had been sealed. In fact, anything that would pose a risk to the current situation would be stamped out immediately, including the return of the real Diana.
“Thank you very much for your time today. I am sorry that I wasn’t in the country to attend your wedding, but I did make sure to send a wedding gift. Congratulations again on your marriage,” a very senior member of one of our subsidiaries that operated abroad said when he came up to me after the meeting.
“Thank you very much. I’m glad to see you here today and to see that both you and the company seem to be doing well,” I replied politely.
“I hope you are enjoying married life. I wish you the best,” he said with a warm smile.
--To be continued...