Chapter 139

Part 8B

Mia could see her brothers' faces growing angrier and her mother’s shocked expression as they peered at Oliver. For a moment, she thought everything was going to explode. Her family might be modern enough to allow love matches, but that didn’t mean they would approve of every man who claimed to be her boyfriend.

But five minutes in, the bastard had charmed every single person in the room, including the children who were now sitting on his lap, playing with the buttons of his shirt. Her father was laughing at something Oliver had said, while her mother fawned over him like he was her favorite child, whom she was meeting for the first time. This special part of her mother’s affection, previously reserved only for Mia, was now being lavished on him for no apparent reason. And it made Mia intensely jealous.

“What would you like for dinner, Oliver?” her mother asked. This question, previously reserved for Mia as the youngest child of the family, was now directed at him. Mia gritted her teeth in annoyance, hoping he would refuse to stay for dinner, but the arsehole just smiled and said, “Anything would do, Mrs. White, and thank you for inviting me to dinner.”

Mia subjected him to a scathing look, hoping he would take the hint and leave, but instead, she found herself staring at his smug, victorious grin.

Of course, it wasn’t just “anything” that her mother made. Within an hour, she had whipped up a delicious three-course meal, including a fried starter and plum pudding for dessert, as if it was a celebration. With every passing moment, Mia’s slight annoyance turned into a giant ball of fury, making her restless. What the hell was he really playing at? A few hours ago, he had been threatening to destroy her family, and now he was joking with them, asking about her father’s health and her brothers’ jobs as if he was sincerely interested?

As dinner was served, the conversation revolved around his bank. Her brothers were quite interested to know how a bank was run, and Oliver, of course, answered all their questions, complimented her mother on the delicious dessert, and then stood up to leave. Finally, Mia could breathe a sigh of relief. But before letting himself out the door, he stopped and turned around to ask, “If you don’t mind me asking, where are you all planning to stay tonight?”

As if on cue, everyone suddenly remembered their lodging problem. Her brothers and parents exchanged a look before Toby replied, “Well, we’d asked Mia to book a hotel nearby, but she forgot, so I suppose we’ll try to find a room or two now.”

Oliver glanced at his watch. “Well, it’s quite late, and you might not find a room tonight, considering the extra tourists due to Republic Day. So, you all can stay with me tonight at my house. I have three extra bedrooms.”

They ought to have refused! Mia wanted to bang her head on the glass table. They barely knew the man and were going to spend the night in his townhouse? For a moment, she was so angry when she saw her brothers leaving with the kids and her father smiling as he entered Oliver's BMW that she considered shouting the truth at the top of her lungs. That this man had promised to dig up the case of the stolen cars again, to drag her brothers to court and destroy their lives.

But what then? She asked herself. Once she had turned her family against Oliver Ryan, what then? Would it stop him from doing exactly what he had threatened? No, it would merely be another incentive for him to act against her, and she didn’t want that. Because if there was anything that could stop Oliver Ryan from acting on his threats, it would have to be a calm, rational discussion.

Today, she had lost her head with him, and that had only made him angrier. Perhaps, if she explained everything rationally, telling him the complete truth of what had happened, he might rethink his decision to marry her.

She bit her lip, trying to get up to help her mother clean the dishes. Her mother was staying with her tonight because of Mia’s health. When she finally went to bed, her headache had returned, and she could feel the fever coming back too. Taking a paracetamol pill, she gulped it down with water and lay awake in bed, waiting for the right time.

It was almost midnight when her mother finally went to sleep, but Mia waited another hour just to be sure. At half past one, she slithered out of bed, picked up her laptop, and sat at the kitchen table to compose an email. ‘Dear Oliver,’

It was almost two when she finished, after reading and re-reading it a hundred times. She had explained everything clearly in the email, stating that she had no idea what his family secret was and couldn’t sell it to the press. She also explained about Adam, concluding that there was no reason for them to get married. Her hand hovered over the keyboard in uncertainty for a moment before she pressed ‘send.’ It was done.

She didn’t want to go back to bed, so she sat at the kitchen table, legs folded back, feeling sick to her stomach with an anxiety that had nothing to do with her viral fever. Fifteen minutes later, her phone started ringing off the hook. It was Oliver.

“What the hell do you mean you won’t marry me?” His voice sounded husky, and Mia could imagine him lying in bed.

“Exactly what it sounds like, Oliver. I’ve told you a hundred times before, and I’m telling you now, I don’t know anything about your family. I explained it all in the email you must have read. So please, stop this game.” Her voice shook, but she forced the words out. She needed to.

“Do you really think this is a fucking game for me?” he snapped. “It’s not! More than one life depends on my decision, which still stands—either you become my wife, or I have that case reopened and dragged to court! The choice is yours.”

A chilling silence stretched between them for many long moments before he spoke again. “So, which will it be?”

The smiles and teasing were gone, like the man who had seduced her in bed, kissed her senseless, befriended her brothers, and played with her niece and nephew never existed. He had only been fooling them all.

Mia felt like an utter fool. A hundred times, his charming mask had fallen away, revealing his true cold, calculative self, yet she had fallen for his temporary charm.

“I will marry you!” The tears silently ran down her cheeks, as she made the same declaration she had a few hours ago, wrapped in his arms while he kissed her senseless, and now again when her heart was breaking.

“Alright then, we’ll get married the day after tomorrow at the central registration office. I’ll make the arrangements.”

Mia said nothing in reply. She didn’t have the strength to.

She couldn’t sleep that night as the wind howled outside. By three in the morning, her fever had returned, and she lay in a daze until morning, watching the Republic Day parade on her TV.

Halfway through it , she finally went to sleep, only to wake up three hours later to her phone ringing. It was Oliver.

“Listen, I have urgent business in Mauritius, so I’m leaving tonight and won’t be back until the wedding day.” His voice sounded cramped and unsure, a complete opposite to the confident, overbearing banker he usually was. For a moment, Mia thought of asking what the matter was and what this urgent business entailed, but then she remembered it was none of her business. She bit her lip and didn’t reply.

“So, I guess I’ll see you on our wedding day,” he spoke again.

“I wish I didn’t need to,” she murmured more to herself, but he heard her anyway and burst out laughing.

“Oh, you’ll need to see me for the rest of your life, darling. Get used to it.” And there, the charming facade was back on.

“Goodbye. Dream about me, okay?” he asked in his husky, seductive tone that sent a tingle down her spine.

“Oh, I’ll dream about you getting murdered in cold blood, for sure.” She snapped back, angry at herself for being affected by his voice.

He laughed again, in that soft, husky tone that always took her breath away. “Bye, see you then.” And the call ended.

Mia lay back on the mattress, her mind traveling a thousand miles away as she checked her messages. Her brother had sent her two photos. The first one was of her family standing together in front of the Sydney Harbour with a crowd of thousands behind them, but what nagged her most was that Oliver was in it too, standing with the kids in his arms as they smiled at the camera.

The second was at the Opera House. In this picture too, Oliver was there with everyone else, smiling as if he was part of the family. So, the bloody arsehole had gone sightseeing with her family!

“And now he’s off to stupid Mauritius, leaving her here two days before their wedding,” she muttered aloud in her dark room. Suddenly, she remembered something else—something about Chloe Wilson, the actress she had met at the charity gala who had been clinging to Oliver that night.

The next moment, her hands went to the search bar on her phone, and she typed “Actress Chloe Wilson” into it. Within seconds, the

news came flooding in: Chloe Wilson was in Mauritius on holiday for a week before the shooting of the third season of her detective show.

She pressed her hands to her cheeks, only to find them wet with tears. She was crying.