Substitute Wife for the Mafia King R18-Chapter 143: Guiltless Culprit

I hated how sad and lonely he sounded at that moment. His words and the worried look on his face tugged painfully at my heart and that was probably because it wasn’t true that I didn’t want him to kiss me. More than anything, I wanted him to kiss me. I wanted to feel his sweet lips on mine.

“I...” I murmured hesitantly.

In the end, I couldn’t bring myself to say no to him...or to myself...

“Just close your eyes...” he whispered.

I let my eyes drift close as I waited to feel his lips on mine. Having my eyes closed made everything even more frightening because I couldn’t see and didn’t know what to expect. I felt his soft and warm lips press gently against mine.

That was it.

The first kiss that I shared with Anthony was over before I knew it, but it made me realize that the feelings that I’d developed for him was far from over.

...

**The next day**

“How was your date?” Diana asked teasingly.

“What date?” I replied as if I didn’t know what she was talking about.

“You’re going to tell me all about it later...” Diana said before planting a kiss on my cheek.

I watched her walk away with a black top and a very short red skirt on. It was another day when I let my sister take my place. I couldn’t sleep at all the night before after Anthony took me home. Everyone was quite shocked to see me turn up at the house with my clothes quite drenched and with Anthony’s jacket draped over my shoulders. While using the excuse that I wasn’t feeling well, I managed to flee to my room without answering anyone’s questions.

Although I knew that Diana was going to ask endless questions about the date that I had with Anthony and pretty much everything else that happened because it was also part of our procedure, I found myself hesitating to tell her everything.

We kissed.

I let Anthony kiss me and I enjoyed it shamelessly. I thought that I knew my sister well, but I wasn’t sure how she would react to news like that. It felt impossible for me to tell Diana about the kiss. That secret weighed down on me the entire day. It felt like a living shadow that haunted me forever by my side and I didn’t know how to get rid of it along with the heavy sense of guilt that I was feeling.

“I need to tell her...” I mumbled to myself.

It felt suffocating to keep this dirty little secret to myself. It felt like I was betraying Diana and that hurt me more than anything. As the end of the school day approached, I made up my mind to tell Diana about everything. She might get mad at me but I was willing to take it.

“Diana! Come this way! Quickly!” a girl from our class came running.

She looked panicked in a way that I had never seen before. The first thought that ran through my mind was that something had happened to Dahlia, in other words, something had happened to Diana.

“What happened?” I asked as I quickly ran after her.

I could feel everyone staring at me and then everyone was following after us. Something terrible must have happened. The girl didn’t answer me, and she wouldn’t stop running along the hallway that led to the main staircase in the center of the school building.

“What is going on? Tell me!” I yelled but I didn’t get a reply.

When I arrived at the foot of the main stairs on the first floor, I saw a girl lying sprawled out in a twisted position on the floor.

Diana...?

“Di...Dahlia!” I screamed at the top of my lungs as I ran toward the fallen girl.

I kneeled down by her side as I reached out my hand toward her shoulder. Something just felt so strange, but I wasn’t in the right state of mind to realize the obvious. I was too terrified and shocked at what I was seeing after arriving at the scene of the accident. It was clear that she had fallen down the high flight of stairs.

“Help! Dahlia...Oh...Help! Get help now!” I screamed as I felt tears rush to my eyes.

“That’s terrible...”

“How could she do something like that?”

“I thought they were best friends. What the hell happened?”

“She’s a bitch. She’s a monster. I told you before, but you never believed me...”

What are they saying?

My voice broke from all the screaming, and I couldn’t understand why everyone was just standing there watching without doing anything to help. All I could think of was my sister and the fact that she wasn’t moving.

“Why isn’t anyone calling for help? Can’t you see that she’s hurt?” I demanded to know.

“What just happened here?”

I turned around to see one of the teachers standing there with her hands on her hips. At first, she looked confused and then she gasped loudly when everything seemed to sink in.

“It’s Dahlia! Dahlia pushed Daphne down the stairs!” someone yelled out loudly.

“Is that true? Where is Dahlia?” the teacher asked.

Where is Diana? Where is she?

I looked up the stairs just at the same moment that Diana emerged. She stood at the top of the stairs and stared down at where Daphne was lying on the floor. My entire face went numb from shock and disbelief. For a moment, I forgot to breathe, and nothing made any sense to me at all. Diana just stood there silently as she stared down at me. She did not say a word to deny the accusations thrown her way and she did not look guilty at all.

“Move. Out of the way please...” someone said to me.

I felt another person pulling me away from Daphne and up onto my feet. All the while, my eyes were glued on Diana who was still standing at the top of the stairs.

Diana, did you really do this? Why did you do this?

“Dahlia!” I yelled at the top of my lungs when I finally found my voice again.

Perhaps I was scared that Diana would run away or perhaps I was scared of being alone but that feeling gave me the will to get myself together as I ran up the stairs to reunite with my sister. When I took her hand, it was mine that was shaking.

--To be continued...