Substitute Wife for the Mafia King R18-Chapter 291: Leya

Anthony was silent for a moment, and I wondered if I had said too much or if I had made him suddenly uncomfortable. Just when I had started to regret my words, Anthony smiled at me and nodded his head slightly a couple of times as if in agreement.

“Dahlia is indeed a beautiful name,” he commented casually.

“Really? Sometimes I think that it sounds quite outdated,” I replied as I tried to sound natural.

“If that’s the case, have you asked your parents for a nickname?” Anthony asked with a hint of suggestion in his tone.

“I’m not so sure...” I replied hesitantly because I wasn’t sure if that was a good idea at all.

The idea of asking my parents for a nickname never occurred to me before, and I didn’t think that they would give me one simply because I demanded it. On top of that, I had always thought that the concept of a nickname was to show adoration to the owner of the name.

“Dahlia, what about Leya? It’s like saying the second syllable of your name very slowly. Leya,” Anthony suggested with a thoughtful look on his face as if he was pondering a couple of options.

“Leya? I like the sound of that,” I said with widened eyes as if I had just discovered a new side of myself.

...

“Where did you disappear for so long?” Diana asked in a snappy tone as she squinted her eyes at me.

“I was just taking a walk in the garden,” I replied while leaving out the fact that I had met up with Anthony.

“What is so interesting in the garden? Don’t you get bored just walking around the garden?” Diana asked as she waved her hands dismissively as if she didn’t actually want to hear my reply.

“I’m sorry. I thought that you were enjoying yourself and the party,” I replied while hinting at the fact that I thought that she didn’t need me around.

“This is also your birthday party so you at least need to be present,” Diana reminded me.

I was about to offer her another round of apology when her attention seemed to have shifted to something else.

“What are you holding in your hands?” Diana asked as she pointed to the flower pot that I was holding.

“It’s a flower plant,” I replied while not quite sure what kind of answer she was expecting.

“Oh yes, I can see that. But why are you holding a flower pot in your hands?” She asked as she bent down slightly to take a closer look at the flower.

“Well...” I murmured as I wondered what I should tell her.

“Are these Dahlia flowers?” She asked with a smile.

“Yes,” I replied while my mind rapidly worked to think of an explanation.

I wondered if it would be all right to tell Diana the truth that Anthony had given me these flowers.

“Where is Anthony?” I asked as I looked around.

I was certain that Anthony had returned to the party before me, but I couldn’t see him anywhere inside the venue.

“He went home already after telling me a very quick goodbye. He said that he had something urgent to do, so I let him go,” Diana replied.

“Oh, is that so...” I mumbled as I returned my full attention to my sister.

“Actually, I met Anthony in the garden and he gave me this,” I decided to confess to my sister.

“He gave you a pot of flowers?” My sister asked with an incredulous look on her face.

“Is that strange?” I asked the first question that came to mind. I had also wondered what Anthony was thinking when he came to give me these flowers.

“Let’s not talk here,” my sister whispered to me as her eyes darted from side to side.

That was when I realized that many people were staring at us, and I wondered if they were listening in on our conversation. Diana dragged me after her into a private room before we resumed our conversation.

“I think he just gave it to me randomly on a whim,” I said before my sister would start getting any weird ideas.

“I have to say that I did not expect him to give anyone a gift like this, to be honest,” she said as she continued eyeing the flower pot as if she had never seen something like it before.

“I guess it’s a little unusual?” I murmured questioningly.

“Well, it definitely is different from all the gifts that we used to receive from him. I mean, he would always make sure to give us something on the luxurious and expensive side, because even if we didn’t like it, we would still appreciate it to a certain degree,” Diana explained.

All I could do was nod my head a couple of times as I wondered what point she was trying to make. 𝒇𝒓𝒆𝒆𝙬𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝒎

“This gift is truly different, and if you ask me, I think that it is much better than the gifts that he had given us before. At least, this gift seems to have come with a personal touch and good intentions,” Diana said before she smiled brightly.

I didn’t know why Anthony would give me a gift with a personal touch like this just as Diana had claimed.

“I think he just got me this on a whim because it just happens to match my name,” I replied with a shrug of my shoulders as I reminded myself not to read too much into it.

“Do you honestly think that he would randomly carry a flowerpot with him to a birthday party on a whim?” my sister asked sarcastically before rolling her eyes upwards.

“Diana, what do you think about me having a nickname? I like to call you Diana sometimes but I don’t have a nickname of my own,” I said a little hesitantly as I wondered how I could bring this topic up without my suspicion.

“What’s this about so suddenly?” Diana asked with a slightly suspicious look on her face.

“Well, I was just thinking that it might be cute if I had a pet name too,” I replied.

–To be continued...

Please support my other books: Love Slave to My Devil CEO Boss, Love Slave to the Mafia Boss’s Passion, Forbidden Heat, The Alpha Prince’s Purchased Maid, Conquering the Emperor, Lust Contracts.

Thank you!