Alison’s Identity of Romance.
Chapter 16 That’s Not How You Scam Someone
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Before Brayden could say a word, Alison said, “Mr. Cornell, please keep your eyes away from places they shouldn’t look at.”
“I would like to talk to you about something.” Brayden said, changing the topic out of guilt. He did not want to linger a moment longer on something where he was in the wrong.
She pulled her door open as she continued to dry her hair. “If it’s about Charles and Julia, then save it. There is nothing to talk about.”
“That’s not it,” he patiently responded, even though he still did not like her attitude about the topic.
He needed to know what kind of person she was.
After a shower, she was much calmer. Hence, she merely put her towel down and said, “Go on.”
“I would like to visit your family,” he confidently declared, making a ridiculous demand that only seemed rational on the surface. “Grandpa was right. In the two years we’ve been married, I have never once visited your parents. It’s not right.”
“There’s no need,” she answered.
“I will only be apologizing to them for my lack of manners. I won’t be lingering for long,” he explained in a deep and slow voice as his eyes darkened slightly.
She remained firm in her stance. “There is really no need.”
“Is your family hiding some sort of big secret? Why don’t you want to go back?” Brayden was reminded of what Conner said previously.
“That’s right. My family is super rich,” she bluntly replied. Her clear eyes did not waver at all as she stared into his eyes. “I’m afraid you would refuse the divorce because of my family fortunes. You might even try to scam me out of my money just to give it all to Julia Shaw.”
He speechlessly stared back.
He did not believe a single word she said, but he still played along and asked, “I know of all the rich families and companies. Which is owned by your family?”
“Lambert International,” Alison stated.
She was not afraid that it might expose her actual identity.
Everyone knew there was a daughter in the family behind Lambert International, but the girl known to the public was actually her younger sister.
Alison had never liked interacting with other people, so there were very few people who knew she
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Chapter 16 That’s Not How …
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was Carl’s daughter. She could even claim that no one apart from her family and friends knew about that.
“That’s not how you scam someone,” Brayden refuted without hesitation. Her words did not make him suspect anything. Instead, they merely made her seem even stranger to him. “I have met the daughter of Lambert International. She does not look like you”
“Oh,” she blandly responded.
It was true; she was not like her younger sister.
She preferred simple and minimalistic looks while her sister preferred to dress up like a cute and lively little fairy that had escaped from the fairy city,
“It will only be for half a day. I won’t be wasting your time,” he said.
“You didn’t visit them when we got married, so why would you go when we’re getting a divorce?” she asked dismissively. “Someone might think you’re doing that to anger them.”
“It is because I did not…”
“If you really want to visit them, where was the initiative before?” she interrupted. It was her first impolite act during this conversation. “I’ll say this one more time; there is no need.”
Her aversion to the idea was visible to him.
However, the more reluctant she was, the more curious he was about the place she grew up in.
He had looked up the area listed on her identification documents. It was a rather average district of Imperia with nothing special about it.
“Why don’t you want me to go?” he bluntly asked.
“I don’t want to be turned into a laughingstock,” she nonchalantly answered without any particularly strong emotions. “If you go and tell them we’ll be getting divorced after being married for two years, what would my father and his new wife think of me?”
It was one simple question.
However, it reminded him of what happened the night before.
She had said she was not close to her family and her father had a new wife,
“I could visit your mother,” he suggested.
She paused. Her hands froze in the middle of the air as she had been reaching out to grab her toner. There was a blank look in her
cycs.
Her abnormal behavior was immediately noticed.
21%
As he was about to continue his attempt to convince her, she snapped out of her thoughts and grabbed the toner bottle before saying in an emotionless tone, “My mother is dead.”
Those four simple words struck a chord in him.
He had entertained multiple possibilities.
However, that was the only possibility of which he had never thought.
“You…” He was at a loss for words.
“If that is all, you can leave.” She put the bottle down. “We still have to file our divorce paperwork tomorrow morning.”
His eyes darkened once more, and he swallowed down the words on the tip of his tongue. “Rest well.”
“Got it,” she blandly replied.
He turned to leave the room and stopped disturbing her. The image of his tall form in her room made the room seem rather tiny to her eyes. When he turned back around to look at her, she was acting normal though, so he did not say anything and just left the room. The door clicked to a close behind him.
That night…
Neither of them slept well.
Brayden tossed and turned. For some reason, the thought of the divorce only depressed him and frustrated him even more. He did not even know that her mother had passed away.
Meanwhile, Alison was stuck in one nightmare after another.
At the end of every nightmare, her gentle mother would be there to comfort her with a hug. Her mother would softly pat her on the back and say, “Don’t be scared, Aria. Mommy’s here.”
After that…
The dream would shatter, causing her mother to vanish from her dreams.
She tried her best to hold tight, but she had no choice but to watch as her mother’s hand slipped from hers.
“Mommy!”
“Mom…”
A child version and an adult version of herself would chase after her mother, but no matter how hard they ran, they could never catch up to her.
Alison was jolted awake by her nightmares. Her forehead was still dripping with sweat.
After staying in bed for a while longer, she sat up with conflicted emotions swirling in her before leaning against the headboard to calm herself down.
It had been a very long time since the last time she had that nightmare.
She glanced at the clock. It was only 3.00AM. Feeling a dry sensation in her throat, she reached out for the glass of water placed by her headboard but found that it was empty. Thus, she decided to head downstairs to get some water.
She did not turn on the lights.
The night made her feel safer than the day.
In the darkness, the deceit and lies were all hidden from view. The only thing she could see was endless darkness.
As she filled her glass with water, memories of her nightmare continued to echo in her mind.
For the last two years or so, she had done her best to forget about her mother. She was afraid thinking about her mother would make her mother worried for her. However, thoughts of her mother kept popping up like never-ending blossoms in spring.
There was nothing she could do to control them.
Bam!
She had been so lost in her thoughts that she bumped into Brayden who was also in the kitchen for a drink of water. Her glass full of water spilled on both of them.
Before she could say a word, Brayden’s voice echoed out from above her. His voice was rather raspy as he had just woken up. “Why didn’t you turn on the lights?”
“There was no need,” she casually explained without intent on saying anymore.
He walked over to the light switch and flipped it, causing the room to light brightly in a split second.
The sudden burst of light discomforted her, causing her to frown and snap her eyes shut. It took her a while before she slowly opened her eyes. Once her eyes had adjusted to the brightness, she turned to look at him.
