Marry My Billionaire Second Husband - Chapter 109

Chapter 109: Desperate Shot
The bullet shot out of the gun barrel with a loud crack, and grazed the side of Amelia’s face. Blunt as it was, it still stung. Amelia winced and she held a hand to her face, only for her eyes to widen as she caught sight of the sticky red substance on her hands.

It was blood!

“Holy shit! Emmeline!” Aiden exclaimed, his voice high enough to be considered a screech. He pointed a shaking finger at Emmeline. “You shot Amelia? What the flying fuck? I know you want to get rid of her, but this is a little too much!”

Matteo immediately took out a handkerchief to stem the bleeding, while snarling at Emmeline. “What’s the meaning of this, Emmeline?!”

“Amelia, are you alright?” Emmeline cried out in surprise, quickly dropping the gun as though it was a piece of scalding hot iron.

She clambered over to them and held Amelia’s hand, much to the latter’s surprise. Tears welled up in Emmeline’s eyes as she sobbed, reaching forward to caress the small cut on Amelia’s face.

“Let me see―”

Before she could touch Amelia’s face, however, her hand was swatted away by Matteo.

“Your hands aren’t sanitized,” he coldly said. “Don’t touch the wound.”

“I…” Emmeline’s bottom lip trembled as she stared into Matteo’s eyes, tears welling up in her eyes. The commotion had quickly drawn a bigger crowd, and soon enough, the stall they were at was surrounded by people.

Emmeline’s eyes quickly swept through the crowd before returning to Matteo and Amelia. For the brief second where her eyes were wandering, a hint of calculative malice darted through her gaze, but it quickly disappeared when she turned back to the couple.

As if the stage lights were switched on and the clapperboard had sounded, Emmeline’s expression instantly switched to one of an innocent, wronged lady. Her cheeks were slightly flushed and her eyes were puffy as she sniffed.

“I didn’t mean to do it,” she pleaded in between sniffles. “It was an accident. I am so sorry, Amelia, please don’t yell at me!”

Before Amelia could say anything, she continued, “I swear I didn’t do it because of jealousy.” She raised a hand and wiped at her tears. “When Grandpa first announced your return, I was so excited to finally have a sister! I would never purposely harm you like that.”

Aiden, who was originally stunned by the fired shot, suddenly reeled back. He stared at Emmeline before letting out a low whistle that was barely heard by the crowd. All panic and worry fled from his features as he folded his arms across his chest and leaned against the wooden frames of the stall, watching silently.

At first, Aiden thought that the shock had been so much for Emmeline that she had a complete personality switch. Then, he realized something― while they were arguing with the vendor about the rigged games, more and more people had gathered to watch. Some of them were locals, but a good portion of them were tourists.

The people who could or would travel here to Lesterat were usually of the richer half of the population. Emmeline surely wouldn’t care about the thoughts of the ordinary folk, but the wealthier half… that was a different case altogether.

“How is that even related?” Amelia asked, confused. She shared a glance with Matteo, but instead of receiving a proper reply, Emmeline only cried a little harder.

“I am just worried that you would think that I am doing this purposely!” Emmeline said, sobbing harder. “You already have Matteo― please don’t tell Grandpa about this! I already lost my fiancé, I don’t want to lose my family too!”

Slowly but surely, it was as Aiden had guessed. Whispers began to flood through the crowd and they weren’t talking about the vendor’s rigged games any longer.

“That’s Amelia Kentwood, isn’t it? With Matteo Montgomery? I heard they had a very messy engagement.”

“Engagement?” Another barked out in laughter. “You mean theft! Matteo Montgomery was engaged to Emmeline Hawthorne. Everyone in the upper echelon of Solara knew about it. It was supposed to be the most celebrated wedding event of the year.”

“I suppose old Mr. Hawthorne wouldn’t care which granddaughter of his married into the Montgomerys as long as both families could still be connected via marriage.”

“Look at the poor girl― she’s shaking! She must be terrified after so much has changed in her family in just a day. If I were her, I would be devastated too if a random country bumpkin showed up and took everything from under my nose.”

Hidden where the crowd couldn’t see, a wicked smile curved Emmeline’s lips. However, she quickly wiped it away and replaced it with a delicate pout. She bent down and picked up the gun before placing it on the counter.

“I should go,” she said. “I… I know I am not wanted here. I was just trying to push my luck because I wanted to spend some time with you―” Surprisingly, she looked at Amelia with her huge, watery eyes instead of Matteo, “―Cousin. I see now. I am just a hindrance. You can never forget the relationship I once had with Matteo. I understand.”

Without saying anything else, Emmeline turned on her heel and ran. She shoved through the crowd before disappearing into the snowy town, disappearing quickly through the sea of bodies.

“How embarrassing,” someone said from the crowd.

“Poor girl.”

Just like that, everyone had forgotten that Amelia had just been injured by a stray bullet. If it weren’t for the mild sting or the red on her hands, Amelia would’ve even wondered if she just hallucinated it all.

“Are you alright?” Matteo asked, not even giving Emmeline so much as a glance. “We should go back and have that cut treated.”

“It’s just a scratch,” Amelia said, shaking her head. Instead, she gave the onlookers a subtle glare, causing a portion of them to quickly slip away.

“Sir, Ma’am,” the vendor suddenly said. He peeled a different stuffed toy from the shelves and all but shoved it into Amelia’s hands.

With front row seats to the full show, he had heard their names perfectly clearly. The Hawthornes and Montgomerys were people who were powerful even outside of Solara― it didn’t matter which part of the world they were in. Not to mention, the Hawthornes had dealings with the Friesents, who managed a large portion of Lesterat’s tourism industry.

He could not afford to offend any of them!

“Please take this instead and we’ll call it even!” the vendor hurriedly said, which earned a glare from Matteo.

He took a step forward, ready to argue when Amelia held him back. She took the stuffed toy and quickly thanked the vendor.

“We should go after Emmeline,” Aiden finally said, kicking off from the frame of the small stall. “It’s not safe for her to be out here in the snow alone.”

Amelia pursed her lips. She didn’t like Emmeline, even more so after the stunt she just pulled, but Aiden was right. If anything happened to her, their grandfather would be devastated. No matter what, Emmeline was the granddaughter he had watched grow up.

“Let’s go, then.”