A Trade Of Hearts |✔

CHAPTER 54: Subterfuge

A/N: Happy New Year Guys. May you have a blessed year ahead and may all your dreams come true.

Love you guys.😍

VANESSA

27th December

"You still don't agree, do you?", I asked Adrian, who was sitting beside me.

"I can't. You say Charlotte loves Bryan. She loved her first husband too but then things didn't work out and she got divorced."

"But she says this is different."

"Trust me, it's not. She always jumps to conclusions too fast. She is infatuated with a guy and he likes her back and there you go, she thinks it's love. She has committed a blunder once, I'm not going to let her do it again."

"You speak with a lot of conviction, especially for a man who has never been in love.", I mocked him, putting my coffee cup down.

"You've been in love once, how are things going for you?", he said and then drew a sharp breath, realising how awfully mean he sounded but I laughed, "That was a good one."

I picked up my coffee cup lying next to the several others that we had finished over the course of the night.

We started off with lighter topics and I told him about his antics from yesterday...though I didn't talk much about what happened  in his room.

Thinking about that still made me feel a little fuzzy.

Later, I decided to talk to him about his sister. There was enough quiet and I had a gut feeling that he'd listen to me, especially after asking me to stay last night.

Now, I looked back at Adrian, who was smiling.

"What?", I asked.

"What what?"

"Why are you smiling?"

"I can smile if I want to, can't I?",he replied, a mischievous grin still lingering on his face.

"No, that's not it. You were smiling at me."

"Well, your past doesn't seem to affect you as much as before."

"Jacob putting a ring on my sister was the best closure I could have ever asked for.", I sighed.

"That was really harsh, proposing in front of your ex, especially to her sister. Geez.", he scrunched up his nose in disgust.

"Let's get back to Bryan and Charlotte' story, shall we?", I smiled, a little discomfort still lingering.

Things like what had happened three years ago weren't so easy to forget...or forgive.

"What if Charlotte gets hurt again?"

"Then let her."

"Excuse me?", he frowned.

"Why do you think she didn't tell you?"

"I...I don't know. Because she knew what she was doing was stupid and she knew that I'd be mad when she told me?"

"No. It was because you wouldn't let her make her own mistakes."

"The last time I let her, she ended up at our doorstep, crying with a two year old by her side. What if that happens again?"

"Then you console her and let her be."

"Seriously? What kind of brother would I be, if I did that? I'm sorry but I get it that your siblings are assholes and you won't understand this but in our family we don't just let people be.", he said, his temper and pitch, rising.