Substitute Wife for the Mafia King R18-Chapter 151: You Found Me

“Listen, I can explain...” I murmured before biting hard on my lower lip.

“All you had to do was stay by my side. It was a simple rule that you agreed to, and you couldn’t follow it,” he stated coldly.

“I have my own reasons for doing this...” I replied as I tried desperately to keep my voice from shaking.

“We made an agreement, Dahlia...” Bradon said through clenched teeth as he glared right into my eyes.

I knew well that it was my fault for encouraging and allowing the two of us to get separated; however, I didn’t think that Bradon would get so furious about me breaking the rule that we had agreed on. In the end, everything turned out fine and we weren’t away from each other for that long. Even after all that had happened, I still didn’t want to tell Bradon about what happened between Daphne and me. It was all in the past and I didn’t want to bring it up. If he didn’t know about it, then all the better that we could keep it that way.

“Listen, I know that you’re angry and I guess you have every right to be, but everything turned out fine in the end...” I said defensively.

“Everything turned out...fine?” Bradon muttered darkly after a moment of silence.

The conflicted look on his face told me that those words of mine didn’t seem to sit well with him. I had no idea why he suddenly looked so hurt. It was just for the shortest and briefest of moments but that was how he appeared to me. That look disappeared just as suddenly as it had appeared and Bradon just looked extremely furious instead. His fingers dug into my upper arms as he continued to hold me in place.

“Bradon...” I called his name in a soft breathless whisper.

“Fine? You could have died!” he yelled at me so loudly that the sound of his voice echoed through out the room.

It never truly occurred to me that my life could have been at risk until he pointed it out to me. Death just felt far away and unreal to me, so I never stopped to consider the worst of all possibilities. That possibility wasn’t at all lost to Bradon and I could tell that he wasn’t just saying this to me to exaggerate things.

“I...” I began protesting in a soft whimper just to realize that I didn’t have anything to say.

“What would have happened if I wasn’t there?” he asked although I knew that he was just reprimanding me.

“I’m sorry...” I apologized weakly.

Bradon shook his head immediately at me and I knew that those words weren’t the ones that he wanted to hear from me. Despite thinking of what to say to him, I had gotten everything all wrong the moment that I opened my mouth. Even I could feel that my simple words of apology weren’t enough to heal the damage that had occurred between us.

“I told you to stay by my side. Why didn’t you as you were told?” he demanded to know as he shook my body slightly so that I had to focus my attention on him.

“I didn’t want to run away...” I murmured my honest reply.

I could have avoided the bait, but I didn’t. Instead, I walked right in there to face the ghost from my past with the hope that I could put an end to everything and move on for good. If I had to be honest, more than myself, I had hoped that Daphne would get some closure. Since returning and accomplishing that in my own skin as Dahlie wasn’t possible, I had hoped that it would be possible even if I met her as Diana. It never occurred to me that Daphne had regained her ability to walk and that she had somehow figured out that it was Diana that had pushed her down the stairs. Never did I think that Daphne would be out for such vengeful revenge to the extent that she was looking for blood. Despite everything, I couldn’t let Bradon find out the truth about what Diana did.

“I wanted to see how she was doing after all this time. You shouldn’t believe all that bullshit she was saying to frame Diana. It wasn’t Diana. I was the one who pushed her down the stairs. I was sick of her and how she was hanging out with us and leeching off my sister in such a disgusting way. She even had her eyes on Antony and thought that she could catch his attention. I hated her...” I said through clenched teeth.

All I hoped for was that I could convince Bradon that the stories publicized were true and that the truth about the matter hadn’t changed. I’d already taken the blame for the incident and that was how it should remain. Bradon stared deeply into my eyes as I held my breath and forced myself to meet his gaze. I wondered what he could see in the depth of my eyes while at the same time I thought that anything would be fine for him to see as long as he couldn’t detect my blatant lies. My heart raced fast and hard in my chest as time seemed to crawl at such an excruciatingly slow pace. Finally, Bradon took a deep breath before letting out a long sigh.

“Dahlia, do you know what could have happened if I hadn’t found you?” he asked sternly.

“But you did find me. You found me,” I replied loudly and clearly.

I just knew that he would find me and if the situation was against me, then he would help me. I had no idea how I knew that, but I just knew. That must have been the reason why I could have acted so boldly without a second thought. He was my insurance, and I didn’t hesitate to use him to my own benefit. I let out a scoff before my lips curved into a smirk as that ugly thought entered my mind.

--To be continued...