The Faceless Billionaire Celebrity Wife-Chapter 113: Walking Life Portrait.
Cyprian didn’t expect the whole group to be excited over going to the best seafood restaurant in town. Even Atlas, whom she had expected the least bit of willingness from, was the one practically pushing their taxi driver to drive faster. 𝒻𝑟𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝑛𝘰𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝘤𝘰𝘮
When they finally arrived at their destination, they filed into the restaurant like kindergarteners while shouting loud greetings to the other customers, as if they were familiar with them. Behind them, Cyprian simply smiled and found her way to the most private table beside the window before waiting for the others to join her. Without bothering to appreciate the late night view of the city which was available from their seats, they picked up the menu and ordered straightaway.
"Didn’t you guys have lunch?" Cyprian asked, watching them tick off meals that would hasten the emptiness of her bank account. As she was the one who had promised to foot their bills without minding what it was, she could not complain.
"We didn’t. Actually, we thought we would be coming here sometimes in the late afternoon so we wanted to keep our bellies empty. Good idea, right?" The only female in the group with Cyprian, Emma, was the one who answered her.
The others backed her up with hums of approval, as their whole attention was still on the menu. Cyprian waved the waiter over and soon, they were waiting for their meals.
"Why don’t we extend our trip to two weeks and buy the tickets for the same day Team military are expected to arrive back at home? Four more days will be bliss here."
Cyprian was shocked with the words which just came out of Atlas lips. At this moment, she was beginning to feel there was something wrong somewhere. Why else were this people being super cooperative today?
"Wait guys, I’m suspecting foul play here. What’s the problem, Atlas? Does anyone need something from me?" She asked, her eyes moving from each of their faces to another until she had examined all of their faces.
"Foul play? Haha, there’s no foul play here. We simply decided to enjoy this country some more. Any problem with that?"
Cyprian didn’t answer. Instead, she placed her phone facedown on the table and walked away from the table.
"I need to get to the restroom," she excused herself.
After getting directions to the restroom from a passing waiter, she quickly found her way there and put her ear pods in her ears. Earlier, she had set her phone on recording before placing it on the table. It wasn’t that she could not trust her teammates but the sudden support they were showing her was way too suspicious to her. Immediately, their voices started streaming into her ears.
"...I’m beginning to feel as if I have done something bad. You think she suspects us too?" That was Atlas’ voice, Cyprian noticed.
"It’s not like we are doing anything bad. It’s a crime for everyone in a group to be single so we are simply shipping our mini team leader with a man who is handsome enough to match her," It was Emma’s tiny voice.
"See you talking like you are doing some righteous deed. Didn’t the man bribe us all with half a year’s salary, each? Do you think we should still extort Cyprian of her money?" Kay, the most silent man in their group, was the one who spoke now.
"Don’t go there! That is simply compensation that the man gave us, in return for letting him see her for a few more days in order to ask her out. And besides, we didn’t force Cyprian to foot our bills too!" It was Emma’s voice, again.
Cyprian removed the ear pods from her ears having heard enough of their conversation for her to reach a conclusion.
It seemed like some rich old man had approached her friends and offered them money in return for getting her to stay there for a few days more. They were scared she was going to ask them to leave if they continued behaving like they had been doing previously, so they tried to encourage her instead.
Though she felt a little bit betrayed as if she had just been sold, Cyprian could not help but thank the wealthy old man in her heart for helping her persuade her teammates. Now, she could spend unlimited time with Raymond without being bothered with planning good outings with her teammates.
She removed the ear pods from her ears and walked out of the toilet. And that was when she was the woman.
Approaching her from the opposite side of the corridor leading to the toilets, was a woman with brown hair, brown eyes and facial features resembling that of her friend, Shikera. The only thing different was that this woman was older, old enough to be...what?!
During her numerous visits to Shikera’s house right from when they were teenagers, Cyprian had always seen the large portrait placed in their living room. The portrait which was a life painting of Shikera’s mother, seemed to be walking towards her right now.
But this was supposed to be impossible! As far as she knew, Shikera’s mother had died in that very year Shikera was born.
She was still in that shocked state when the woman passed right beside her and walked into the restroom. Recovering from her shock, she hurriedly dialled Shikera’s number before ending the call at the same time.
What if she was just hallucinating? Would she give her friend little hope only to dash it again, with hallucination as an excuse?
"It’s just because you have been having lesser and lesser sleep these days, Rian. You saw nothing just now," she whispered to herself.
Inhaling deeply, she walked back towards her seat while trying to shake the image she saw earlier out of her head.
"Cyprian, your meal has been served!"
Her steps quickened towards the table when Emma called out to her, and she forced a smile on her face.
"Why were you shouting my name like that? You think we are in the company’s cafeteria?" She chided playfully, picking up her phone and saving the recorded audio.
