Chapter 113 Going Crazy
Nicholas’ voice was hoarse from all the explaining he had done, but the only thing that Alina said in response was, “You and Angie are not actually cousins, and there is no blood relation whatsoever between the both of you. Is that right?” She snorted and drawled sarcastically, “Well then, congratulations! The both of you are a match made in heaven!”
Nicholas panicked. Alina was his first love, and the Harmons stayed in the same villa community as they did. He and Alina had been classmates throughout middle and high school, and she was the most beautiful girl on campus.
She was the first girl he ever liked, and he had secretly been in love with her for two years before he made his feelings known. He ended up pursuing her for three years before she agreed to go out with him.
She was about to graduate from university when he proposed to her, which was an occasion that had been a long time in the making. After their parents gave them their blessings with the engagement, and as soon as Alina graduated, Nicholas could take her as his lawfully wedded wife.
Never in a million years could he have expected something like this to happen.
His eyes were turning red with panic as he grabbed Alina’s slender wrists and begged, “Please, Lina, you have to believe me. Angie and I are nothing more than cousins. You’re the only one I love, and you know that, right? You’re the only person who has my heart—all of it!”
“Cousins, you say?” Alina shrugged his hand off and smirked bitterly at him as she asked, “Cousins who sleep together?”
Nicholas blushed. “T-That was an accident—”
“An accident?” She gave him a disgusted look. “You might think it was an accident, but your precious cousin over there certainly doesn’t think so!”
He blinked at her, not understanding at all what she was referring to. Upon seeing his confusion, she added sarcastically as she glowered at him, “Having a hard time comprehending? In that case, why don’t you ask your precious cousin what she intends to do next!”
When he heard this, he immediately understood what she meant and quickly promised, “Don’t worry, Lina, we can just pretend none of this ever happened. No one here would breathe a word on this…”
“Nicholas.” Angie had been crying in Cedric’s embrace until she heard this and turned to look at Nicholas in disbelief. “What are you saying? How could you say something like that?!”
He looked at her in astonishment. “What’s wrong? I’m saying that we should pretend none of this ever happened. Everyone here today is family, and they wouldn’t breathe a word about this!”
“Don’t be ridiculous, Nicholas!” she snapped. “What do you mean we’ll just pretend as if nothing happened? You’re just going to turn your back on me after you robbed me of my innocence? I am ruined because of you. How will I ever get married now?”
His mind drew a blank. “That was an accident—”
Angie sobbed. “Accident or not, it doesn’t change the fact that you took my innocence, so you’ll have to take responsibility for this. How else will I face society?”
“R-Responsibility?” He gaped at her.
He couldn’t possibly do that; they were cousins! More importantly, the person he loved was Alina, and that had been the case for years. All he ever dreamed about was marrying her, and asking him to give that up so he could marry Angie instead was impossible.
“Nicholas, I didn’t want any of this to happen, either…” Angie went on to say as tears spilled down her cheeks, “What other choice do I have, though? I’m ruined because of you, and if you won’t take responsibility for it now, how will I live this down?”
“She’s right, Nicholas,” Cedric interjected stonily. “Since you and Angie have already spent the night together, you will have to take her for a wife. You don’t want to subject her to a life of shame, do you?”
“What are you blathering on about?” Nicholas snapped angrily. “I was drunk, and I didn’t mean to do any of it! I remember now—it was her. She was the one who made the first move!”
Blurry images started to flash through his mind. It was as though he was holding onto his last thread of hope as he lifted a finger and pointed at Angie belligerently, “She was the one who climbed on top of me! I was drunk, and everything was all blurry, but I remember her pouncing on me and taking off my clothes. She touched me, kissed me, and pinned me down on the bed! I was so drunk that I took her for Alina… It wasn’t my fault! It was hers! She did this to me deliberately!”
The fog that shrouded his memory was starting to clear with every word he said. When he finally recalled enough to put the pieces together, he stared at Angie with wide eyes. “Yes, you did all this on purpose! You deliberately wore your nightgown and came into my room, and you deliberately got me drunk so you could sleep with me. That way, I’d be forced to marry you! You just want to stay with the Wendels now that you’re no longer the young lady of the family, so you plotted against me and took advantage of me. You’re despicable, Angie!”
Nicholas was no fool, and now that this matter concerned his future and the love of his life, he was experiencing an unprecedented clarity. Angie has made a fool out of me! She set this whole thing up from the very beginning. It was no accident; it was all part of her elaborate scheme. She wanted me to knock her up by ‘accident’ and marry her so that she can continue to stay and enjoy a life of comfort with the Wendels.
Smoke was coming out of his ears as he eyed Angie menacingly, and there was no disguising his hatred or fury as he roared, “You are absolutely despicable, Angie! I took care of you and loved you as if you were my own sister all these years, but you decided to go and turn me into your personal tool instead. You and your biological mother are two peas in a pod! The both of you are evil and rotten to the core!”
“I didn’t… I didn’t… I didn’t…” Pretending as if she had been accused of some horrible crime she did not commit, Angie shook her head vehemently while she sobbed, “Nicholas, how could you say that about me? This whole thing was an accident. You got drunk, and that was why we—”
“An accident?” Nicholas bit out venomously. “If that’s the case, let’s just pretend as if nothing happened and forget about all this. Right now, I want you to leave this house and never step foot in here ever again!”
“No, Nicholas! You can’t do this to me!” She lowered her head and cried as she clutched the front of her shirt. Her tears dripped down her cheeks as she added, “This might be an accident, but there’s no denying that we slept together, so how am I ever going to marry anyone else in my state? You have to do something about this, Nicholas. You must!”
Next to her, Cedric assessed the woman with a dazed look in his eyes. For some reason, the girl sitting here on the couch with him was different from the girl he had grown up knowing all these years, and it felt like she was a stranger he had never met before until today.
Her plan had been immaculate, and she was so close to convincing everyone that this was an accident.
Alas, a wicked plan like hers would stand to be broken apart by the righteous at some point; she might as well have worn her motives on her sleeve. She called this an accident, but she insisted on Nicholas marrying her, which made it hard for anyone to believe that everything today was a coincidence.
Her story started to crack when Nicholas said that she had shown up in his bedroom in nothing but a nightgown just to get him to drink with her.
Cedric had never thought that the Angie in his mind, who was always just a little prideful but also kind and naive, would turn out to be someone so vicious.
Since he was unable to cope with such a change, he stood up and walked away from the couch, leaving her on her own as he joined his father and brothers on the other side of the living room.
This made Angie’s stomach churn. She looked up at Michael, Jonathan, and the rest of their entourage. She was still crying as she asked, “Dad, Jonathan, Joseph, Conner, Cedric—what should I do? Tell me what I should do!”
