Escaped My Ex, Got Snatched by His Rival - Chapter 479

Chapter 479: Raising an alarm
“What should we do now?” Kaylyn watched the woman leave with Nicolai. She turned to look at her husband and worriedly asked, “We couldn’t even talk with her.”

“There is no need to worry, Lyn,” Theo was just as worried and annoyed over the throng of the crowd that stopped him from reaching the cherry pink-haired woman.

He could have stopped her, he could have talked with her and asked her who she was while taking a closer look at her face which resembled him and Kaylyn.

However, the ruckus that was going on in the banquet hall made it impossible.

He turned to look at the gigantic glass doors that led to the garden of the Baker’s family and remarked in a not so casual tone, “Since Mateo is friendly with that woman, we can always ask him what is going on and what kind of secret he is hiding from us.”

Kaylyn bit her lower lip as she nervously asked,” Theo what if that woman is..” she trailed off not wanting to say the thoughts that she had in her mind out loud. However, her expression was enough to let Theo know what she wanted to say.

“Let us wait for a while, darling,” Theo placed his hand at the small of the back of his wife and turned her around before guiding her out of the mansion. “We will think of this matter more carefully once we have talked with Mateo.”

However, the seed of doubts was already planted in his mind for he couldn’t think of any other reason than the fact that he had been raising the child of a crow in his nest of cuckoos.

On the other hand, Mateo who had run outside came to a halt in the back garden, he was panting slightly while looking for Leila. All sorts of emotions such as guilt, shame and anger kept flooding his heart. He was truly a bastard.

One of a kind.

He believed Ryan’s one-sided words and thought that Leila was indeed the kind of woman Ryan presented her to be.

Only now he knew that all along his friend was nothing but a coward who was trying to clear the taint on his reputation which he had caused because of his own actions.

He walked deeper in the maze-like garden and found Leila sitting on the platform of the fountain. She had her foot placed on the raised platform and was nursing her swollen ankle with her fingers.

“Miss Leila,” Mateo called as he walked over to where she was sitting. Upon hearing his words, Leila raised her head and looked at Mateo with a frown on her face. She said to him, “Why are you here? Are you here to say something to bash me again? If you are then you might as well be done with it.”

“I am not here to criticise you,” Mateo told her as he came to a stop next to her. “If anything I am here to apologise to you for being an idiotic asshole.” he tried to smile but he couldn’t summon the strength to do it.

All this while, he cursed Penelope for being a hypocrite but turned out that he was not any better. Ryan fed him a bunch of poor details and excuses and he just lapped it all up before shoving the tag of shameless and cheating woman on the head of Leila.

Not once did he reach out to understand her.

But he was still better than Penelope, Mateo thought. After all, he was willing to apologise and make up for his mistake.

He asked Leila, “How are you feeling?”

“Like really shitty? Is that even a question that needs to be asked?” Leila murmured while biting the inside of her cheek. It was not in her personality to be harsh with anyone but for some reason, she couldn’t just feel annoyed at the sight of everyone today.

She said to him, “I am sorry, I am not feeling well today. Please don’t take my words to your heart.”

“Of course you are,” Mateo sat down next to her and Leila raised her head to stare at him in confusion. He grinned at her before saying, “You don’t have to give him so much importance, you know? Men like Ryan are far ineligible for you. I believe that a man like him doesn’t even deserve to be by your side.”

Mateo’s words were like the soft trickle of water. Leila raised the side of her lips and said to him, “Just a few months ago, you said that I am the one who is unworthy of him.”

“When did I say that I was a man capable enough for you to take my words to your heart?” Mateo remarked with a raise of his brows. With his legs crossed at his ankles, he leaned forward and looked up at Leila whose face was lowered slightly. “I am not a good man either, Miss Leila. And you don’t have to give me the importance of one either.”

“Listen to what your heart says. Welcome those who truly care for you and fuck those who have no right to occupy your mind.”

“LEILA!”

Before Leila could say anything, she heard the anxious voice of her mother. She rose to her feet and turned to look at Mateo before saying to him, “Thank you for your kind words, Mister Ashford.”

She slipped her foot in the heels that she had discarded before turning on her feet and walking away.

However, her scent – rose and coffee, continued to linger in the air, causing Mateo to close his eyes and inhale deeply.

“Well fuck it,” he muttered.

**

As the night deepened in the Lonest City, with heavy clouds gathering in the sky, a car was driving past the same path that Nicolai had taken on the night of Mrs Harlow’s murder.

Penelope, who was driving the low-key sports car, sat in the driver’s seat with a grim expression.

“Where did he go after coming here?”

From that very night, Penelope felt that there was something that Nicolai and Ari were hiding and she was bent upon finding it because —only then would she be able to get what she wanted and desired.

Her eyes squinted slightly before and then…