Marry My Billionaire Second Husband - Chapter 88

Chapter 88: Questions
“You couldn’t have refused the lunch invitation,” Aiden said as though he could read Amelia’s mind. “Daddy dearest had given his order. I am told to drag you out for a meal by hook or by crook.”

“Aren’t you an obedient son,” Amelia commented.

Aiden merely chortled in good humor. “Hard not to be, when I depend on the old man for some pocket change,” he said. “My brother has been in charge of X’el International for years, refusing to let anyone else step up and learn the ropes even though it’s a family business. I am reduced to the need to find jobs in odd corners of the city.”

He then gestured to the motorcycle outside, parked on the street.

“Why else would I race?” he asked. “If I could sit in a fancy office all day and sign documents just to take a fat paycheck, I would too.”

Amelia wrinkled her nose. “Matteo’s job isn’t as easy as signing a few papers all day.”

“How hard can it be?” Aiden said, shrugging nonchalantly. However, he refused to linger on the topic. “Anyway, question one, how did you and my brother meet?”

“Is this an interrogation?” Amelia asked.

All of a sudden, her appetite had gone down. Even though she loved the food at this diner, she no longer felt like having anything. If anything, Amelia felt more like the food, about to be fed during a zoo’s feeding hours.

“Of sorts,” Aiden confessed. “Everyone knows everything about Emmeline. My mother loves her― she was always the daughter-in-law my mother wanted. You, on the other hand, are a wild card. No one saw you coming, and now that you have, no one knows anything about you.”

“If your mother loves her so much, perhaps you should consider a marriage with Emmeline Hawthorne,” Amelia quipped. “She seems rather eager to marry into the Montgomery family.”

“Oh no, Emmeline is eager to marry Matteo, not into the Montgomery family,” Aiden corrected. “And my mother wanted her to become Matteo’s daughter-in-law, not mine.”

Amelia wondered why. Perhaps there was a reason behind this specific pairing besides Emmeline’s childhood crush. However, that was nothing Amelia could find out right now.

“How about you consider me instead?” Aiden asked, playfully leaning forward before revealing a charming smile. “If we married, you would still marry into the Montgomery family. Matteo and Emmeline can live happily ever after, just as intended.”

That caused Amelia to wrinkle her nose in distaste. “I am marrying Matteo for Matteo,” she said. “Not for his money or his family lineage.”

“Ah, right. Always the humble, honest woman,” Aiden said.

He shook his head and placed the last mouthful of food past his lips, chewing elegantly before he exhaled in satisfaction. The metal fork and knife clinked against the white plate as Aiden set them down, and he finally raised his eyes from the plate to look at her. His eyes were as blue as the ocean, but much stormier, a pool filled with secrets. Amelia couldn’t make heads or tails of him.

“I heard about your marriage with Caleb Walton,” Aiden continued. “Well, anyone who has been on the internet the last few weeks knows of your marriage to Caleb Walton, to be exact. Who knew someone would actually marry him if he was dirt poor and had not even a penny to his name?”

“I didn’t marry him for the money he could’ve provided,” Amelia said through gritted teeth. She married for love― and look where that got her. Love was a sham. Even her second engagement right now was an act.

“Of course not,” Aiden said with a snort. “He was cosplaying poverty. I would never understand why he would leave his life of luxury just to marry you. No offense.”

“He didn’t leave his life of luxury to marry me,” Amelia said. “He married me because he left his life of luxury and needed money―”

“Oh, no no no.” Aiden immediately shook his head rapidly. “You didn’t know? Caleb Walton didn’t disappear from the Walton family before your marriage. It was only after.”

This time, it was Amelia’s turn to sit up straighter. Anger immediately evaporated from her body, replaced by confusion.

“What?”

“I did a little digging — and by ‘I’, I mean the entire social circle did their own little secret digging — Caleb Walton still appeared in events when you two were already married. He made sure to stay out of the tabloids and added that you had no time to browse celebrity news, you never found out,” Aiden said.

Amelia thought her entire world was toppling down. Everything she thought she knew, the puzzle pieces that she thought she had placed together, were all falling apart to reveal a distorted, shapeless mess.

“It was a miracle that you never found out he was from the same Walton family as the one that ruled Sol City, and also a miracle that his parents never realized he married someone like you,” Aiden continued. “Nothing wrong with you, of course, but the people of our circle value a fitting marriage. The rich marry the rich, and if you’re not one of us, you can’t marry one of us.”

This wasn’t the first time Amelia had heard this. Caleb’s voice was starting to layer over Aiden’s in her head.

“I bet he must be kicking himself now,” Aiden said, chuckling, delighting in watching the world crash and burn. “If you two hadn’t divorced, he would’ve married the eldest Hawthorne heiress. Kelsie Friescent is nothing but a mole rat in comparison to you.”

“Why are you telling me this?” Amelia finally asked, shakily raising her head to meet Aiden’s eyes. “Either way, Caleb and I are history.”

“You might think of it that way,” Aiden said, “but the Waltons might not. Now that they know their son had married a Hawthorne once upon a time, they wouldn’t let you out of their grubby little claws anytime soon.”

Aiden laughed, and when he opened his eyes once more, a sinister light glittered in his blue irises.

“If you can marry someone like Caleb, then why not consider me?” Aiden asked. His request was spoken so sincerely that Amelia would’ve no doubt fallen into his honey trap if she hadn’t been hurt by the same tactic once more. “I can give you everything Caleb Walton couldn’t, and everything my brother can. If you marry Matteo, all you will get is a target painted on your back, with Emmeline Hawthorne aiming straight at you.”