Chapter 40 Chapter 40 The Groom Cassian Kent.

Chapter 40 Chapter 40 The Groom Cassian Kent.
Chapter 40
The Groom
Cassian Kent.

The ceremony went in smoothly as I had started by apologising to the crowd for disappearing early yesterday evening.

"Just a runny stomach. And I don't know if it's what I ate or it's just nerves." I chuckled it off at the first relative who came close.

"Nerves? The big bad Cassian Kent was nervous? That means Laila has done a number on you for you to be nervous about anything."

I had the running stomach excuse prepared before I came downstairs and mentioned it to three different relatives within the first twenty minutes. They took it better than I had — there were sympathetic noises, someone produced an antacid, and two older women made jokes about wedding nerves that got a laugh from the surrounding table. Laila stood beside me through all of it with a flute of orange juice and a smile that nobody in that room could have faulted.

We were very good at performing, the two of us. That had always been our most compatible quality.

I tried Aria's phone at eleven as I did not see her anywhere this morning, but it went straight to voicemail. Maybe she was embarrassed and she had to run, again. Just like she had done the last time. I made a call to Rosa and kept my voice cold.

"Kent!" Her voice was sharp and bitingly cold. "To what do I owe this pleasure?"

"Rosa... Is Aria anywhere near you? I need her help with bringing a document from the office to me." I lied smoothly.

"Still working during your wedding? How does your wife feel about that?" She mocked coldly. "I wish I knew it was her who visited Aria earlier. I would have warned her against marrying a loser like you."

Something she said jumped out in my head. "Laila came to see Aria?"

"You didn't know? She came to personally invite her to the wedding ceremony, and they had a tense conversation in Aria's room." Rosa said offhandedly. "By the way, Aria stepped out on an errand two hours ago. She isn't yet back. But when she is, I will tell her you called."

She hung up on me before I could even get another word out of her.

I tried to calm my nerves again as the MC called Laila and me to the dancefloor to have our first dance as married couples. By twelve, I called Aria again and it still went to voicemail. I tried a third time at half past and stood near the garden wall with my back to the guests and listened to her voicemail greeting, which was professional and clipped and sounded nothing like her actual voice.

The fourth time I called, a man picked up.

"Hello?" The voice was calm and easy, like he had no problem at all in this world.

I said nothing as I imagined all the possible scenarios Aria could be in that would have a man answering her calls. She was surely not going on a date with another person after the passion we shared last night, but nothing I thought of was good.

"Hello?" the man said again, and there was almost amusement in it.

"Where is Aria?" My voice came out quieter than I intended.

There was a shuffling in the background before he replied. "She stepped away for a moment. Can I take a message?"

I was already typing on my phone and tracking the call. Aria was in some hospital two hours away from the wedding venue, and I felt something painful lodge in my throat. Had she been hurt? Had she been lured away by her father's enemies and injured?

I was already moving toward the car park when Laila's hand closed around my arm.

"Where are you going?" Her voice was low.

"Something came up."

"Something." She looked at me and scoffed. "Just because you haven't heard from Aria Hartwell all morning, now something has suddenly come up?"

"Laila..."

"Don't." She released my arm and stepped closer, which was more alarming than if she had stepped back. Laila hated proximity, and if she was stepping closer, it meant she was trying so hard to control her rage so she wouldn't end up shouting. "Do you know how many times I have watched you check your phone today? Do you know how many times you've looked at the entrance?"

"I wasn't—"

"You were waiting for her to call." Her voice was extremely furious. "On your wedding day, Cassian. You were waiting for her to call."

The garden was behind us, guests visible through the glass doors. I kept my voice down. "Can we do this somewhere..."

"No." She cut me off immediately. "We are doing this here. Because if I wait until somewhere private I will talk myself back into being reasonable, and I am tired of being reasonable." Her jaw was set. "You told me this was protection. You're trying to protect her by marrying me, and you're not even keeping to it. What would people say if you leave your wife on the aisle just to go look for your step niece who could be fucking some guy right now."

I felt my back go rigid at that statement. "Don't..."

"And I believed you wanted to protect her." She laughed once, short and without warmth. "I believed you because I wanted to, which is my problem, not yours. But I am standing here on the second day of my wedding watching you about to drive to wherever she is because a man answered her phone, yes I heard the conversation and don't look at me like that." She added the last part when she saw my eyes widen for a fraction of a second.

"Laila."

"Does it disgust you at all?" Her voice dropped. "She is your niece, Cassian. She grew up in your family's house. She was a child when you first met her. Does any part of that—"

"Don't."

My voice was almost a plea. I wasn't ready to think about any of that or address any of it.

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