Substitute Wife for the Mafia King R18-Chapter 414: Unlike Before
I no longer felt that stinging ache in my heart whenever I thought that Anthony would prefer my sister over me. Instead, I found myself hoping that seeing my sister would bring some relief to him and aid his recovery.
"
I guess I do owe it to him..." Diana replied pensively.
"It wouldn’t kill for you to be nicer to him. He’s was your fiance," I quickly reminded her.
"He’s a good friend," Diana replied after a moment of silence in which she seemed to be considering something.
I decided not to push her any further. For better or for worse, the engagement that was set to unite our families was over. Everything went quite well and according to plan, but I found it hard to congratulate myself on my success every time that I set eyes on Anthony in the condition that he was in. I prayed that he would wake up soon and that he wouldn’t take the fact that he is no longer engaged to my sister too hard.
Just like all of us, I believed that Anthony deserves to be happy. Perhaps it was time that he woke up and realized that Diana never loved him and it may be better for things to end between them.
"Please wake up soon. We’re all so worried about you..." I whispered to Anthony as I gently took his much larger hand into my own.
"Isn’t Bradon going to visit as well?" Diana asked, showing some curiosity.
"I don’t know. He seems more than a little busy lately," I replied as I kept my eyes on Anthony’s face.
"How are things between you and him?" Diana probed quite directly.
I could feel her eyes on my face and that only made me hesitate to turn around to meet her inquisitive gaze. Diana probably had no idea just how complex her simple question felt for me. It made me pause to think about what I truly wanted and whether or not it was even possible. I wanted so badly to stay with Bradon and I knew that he wouldn’t let me go that easily; however, I wasn’t sure what he had planned and how exactly our lives together would turn out.
There was still a part of me that logically believed that we may be better staying apart from each other. As if I wanted to keep the most difficult part on hold even if it was just a little longer, I told myself that everything could wait until Anthony woke up from his overly-extended slumber. I was just so convinced that he would get better and at any moment, his eyes would snap open and he would greet us with the kind-hearted smile that we all knew so well.
"Fine..." I replied.
"Fine as in you two broke up kind of fine, or you two are still strong and together kind of fine?" my sister quickly asked.
"I...don’t really want to talk about this right now. Let’s just focus on helping Anthony recover, ok?" I said as I focused my attention back to Antony’s sleeping face.
"What if..." Diana said softly before shrugging her shoulders.
I turned to glare at her before biting hard on my tongue. It wasn’t hard for me to figure out what it was that she was about to say. I would be lying if I said that that precise same question never popped up in my head more than a couple of times.
What if Anthony never wakes up?
"Don’t even say it..." I warned her through clenched teeth.
Anthony not recovering from his coma was simply unthinkable for me. I had no idea what it would be like for all of us if that were to happen. My mind immediately jumped to Bradon and how he would feel and what would happen to his life. Even now he was still maintaining Anthony’s life and image. Given that he doesn’t care about his father and their family name, I was certain that the key reason that Bradon was enduring everything was for the sake of his younger brother. For everyone’s sake Anthony has to recover.
"Please don’t keep us waiting for too long," I whispered endearingly to him.
"We should celebrate," Diana suggested, suddenly her tone was bright.
"You mean when he wakes up? Definitely," I quickly agreed.
"Then too but you do know that his birthday is coming up in around a week, right?" Diana reminded me with a wink.
My mouth dropped open because Anthony’s birthday had truly slipped from my mind. It was so unlike me to forget his birthday when I used to remember and even look forward to it every year, at least when I was in the country and it could serve as an opportunity for me to see him.
"We definitely should..." I replied firmly.
"I’ll get a big cake and we can all celebrate together," Diana said before she reached out and patted me softly on the head as if she was comforting a sad child.
"Thanks..." I said as I tried to ignore the tears welling up in my eyes.
That day when I left Anthony’s hospital room, I prayed that Bradon wouldn’t be too busy acting as Anthony to actually make it to the mini-birthday celebration that we had planned for Anthony himself.
...
**Anthony’s birthday**
The day for big celebrations finally arrived, and as expected, Bradon was as busy as Anthony would have been had he been functioning normally on his birthday. Big celebrations were in place even in the midst of instability in the political scene for the Vulkan family.
"It’s ironic, isn’t it? Everything is broadcasted live and here we are watching the birthday boy just sleeping here without knowing what is going on," Diana said before heaving a sigh.
Although she tried to keep her tone light, I knew that she was probably just as depressed as I was. The only silver lining was the fact that I had secured Bradon’s promise to celebrate Anthony’s birthday together with us, even if it meant that he would be sneaking in late at night into the hospital room.
