Open mind

Adriana's and Nathan's new place

After arrival at the new apartment where they would be staying until Adriana's delivery and until the baby is healthy enough to travel.

Looking at his wife who had been extremely quiet since they had the intense conversation in that hospital a couple of hours ago, Nathan was about to say something when she interrupted him.

"I'll take a nap for a few hours, don't disturb me until then." Without waiting for his reply, she made her way towards the closest room she could find.

"That is not our bedroom honey, it's the other one," he informed before pointing towards the master bedroom.

Without even looking in that direction, she kept walking towards the other bedroom. "You can rest there if you want to."

Pinching the bridge of his nose, he sighed. He knew that she would not talk to him properly until he told her everything. Thinking for quite some time, he followed her to the other room.

….

Inside the room.

When he sat on the edge of the bed, she turned to the other side and ignored him.

Taking a deep breath, Nathan said, "I didn't want to tell you anything because I know you will overthink about everything and overexert yourself. Stress isn't good for you and the baby, you have to understand that I care for you Adriana. You are the only family I have and I can't afford to lose you."

With her eyes still closed, she turned towards him and pretended to sleep.

Helplessly shaking his head, he chuckled before snuggling beside her. Wrapping his arms around her, he explained, "You are right, Gavin is responsible for the murders that are happening lately."

"And this is why you wanted to come here?" When he nodded his head, she inquired, "What now? Did you tell the police about it?"

"I wasn't sure about it at first so I did a little investigation, this is when I found out that he is the one who—" Stopping midway, he sighed. Nathan still blamed himself for how Gavin had turned out to be. If he hadn't helped him to deal with the mess that he had created for the first time several years ago, maybe he wouldn't have turned out to be like that.

"Was he always like this? I mean, since the day I met him?" she curiously inquired.

Nathan shrugged his shoulders and answered, "I really don't know, he did mess things up in the past but they were not this extreme. Well, at least it did not involve people getting mercilessly killed." When she clutched onto his shirt and pursed her lips, he inquired. "What's wrong?"

Keeping quiet for quite some time, she answered, "I think I might have known something for a long time back but I shrugged it off thinking it was nothing. I mean, you told me about his mental health problems so I thought maybe he was talking rubbish so—"

"What are you talking about honey?"

"A couple of years ago, right after you met with that accident—"

"I had heard Gavin talk to someone over the phone, he was scolding someone for not completing the task. I thought it was related to you for a second but I shrugged it off because he was your brother and I never thought that Gavin was capable of hurting anyone. But now when I think about it, maybe he was talking about you," she explained.

Tightening her grip in his shirt, she nervously asked, "What if he tries to harm you again?"

"Hey, stop thinking about it, okay? The police are already looking for him and I am sure he will get caught soon," he assured her.

"I think we should go back home, I think it's much safer there and—"

Caressing her arm to calm her down, he exclaimed, "Sshh don't think about it and take some rest. We can't travel because it is not good for you and the baby, everything is going to be fine."

Burying her head on his chest, she pursed her lips before taking a deep breath to calm herself down but no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't stop thinking about Gavin and the scary things he had done.

Nathan kept caressing her back and arms to calm her. He knew that she was still thinking about Gavin and this is why he didn't want to tell her about it in the first place.

….

Island.

"Hey, what are you doing here? Everyone was asking about you during our late lunch." Passing her a coat, Liang added, "Wear this, the wind is too strong here."

Wrapping her arms around her shoulder, Linyang sighed, "I am okay."

Keeping quiet for quite some time, he inquired, "So do you wanna talk about it now?" When she did not say anything, he explained, "Look, mom is already sensing that something is wrong and she was asking me about you when you did not show up for lunch."

"I wasn't hungry so—"

Cutting her off, he snapped, "It's a wedding week, your two best friends and getting married in less than three days and look at you, that look on your face gives me a very creepy vibe and trust me Linyang, it's very very scary."

Placing his hand on her shoulder, he sighed, "I understand that you don't want to talk but I wanna know something. Look, I don't know what happened between you and whoever it is, I just want to know whether you still love him or not."

Slowly jerking his hands off, she wiped her tears and continued walking across the shore.

Catching up with her, Liang added, "Fine, let's not talk about it for now."

"What are you doing here Liang? Go and accompany Kathy instead, you should give her more time," Liang tried to shoo him off, she wanted to be alone for some time to clear her thoughts. Though she understood why he was trying to accompany her, she didn't want to be with anyone but herself.

"Hmm I am actually waiting for a guest."

"Guest? But I thought they were arriving a day before the wedding," she curiously inquired.

"Yes but he is different and special, he went to college with us and we recently met again to catch so Zian and Zixin invited him as well," he answered.

….

"But why now?" Hunag whispered.

"Because he is my brother and I think we shouldn't hide this from him anymore, now go and talk to him," Huiling snapped.

Scrunching his brows, he retorted, 'What do you mean by talk to him? Aren't you coming with me too?"

"No, I am not," she answered.

"But why?" he snapped.

Glaring at him, Huiling gritted her teeth. "Because I am very scared, okay? Huang is my big brother and he has all the right to shout at me but it's different with you. He can't raise his voice at you or do anything outrageous because you are brother Huang."

Looking around, Hunag frowned when he saw Songpa quietly sipping tea along with others. "But your father is right there, what if he—"

"Shout at you? Of course not, dad is very civil."

"Pfft right, you have no idea how civil he is," he murmured.

"Seriously, are you going or not? Do you want me to push you there?" Huiling threatened.

Qiang who had been observing Huang and Huiling for a long time now, was having a really strong feeling that Huiling was asking him to do something stupid.

"What happened? Why aren't you eating?" Guang inquired, he could feel that something was bothering Qiang since yesterday but he couldn't place his finger on it.

Keeping quiet for quite some time, she grabbed his hand and started dragging him outside.

Completely taken aback from her actions, Guang widened his eyes in shock but before he could ask anything, they were already out of the room.

….

Outside

"Did you just drag me out in front of everyone?" Guang curiously inquired.

"I did to talk to you about something really important Guang, I—"

Looking at her serious facial expression, he widened his eyes in shock. Placing his hand on her shoulder, he stuttered, "A-Are you pregnant?"4

"What? From where the hell did pregnancy pop up from?" she frowned.

"Oh you are not?" Breathing a sigh of relief, he sighed, "I freak out for a second. Wouldn't uncle Singtan just kill me if I knocked up his daughter even before telling him that I am dating her?"

Slapping his hand from her shoulder, she snapped, "Now if you are done being a wuss, can we talk?"

"Yes of course honey, what do you want to talk about?"

Hesitating for a while, she answered, "I-It's actually about Huiling."

"Huiling? What about her?"

Cupping his face, she added, "Don't be mad okay? You need to have an open mind to understand what I am about to explain."

….