Chapter 2

Ten hours later

The plane landed and when deplaned, I kept looking back if I could by any chance see the gorgeous young man that I bumped into earlier. No luck.

"Stop looking for him," I looked back at Delilah.

"I'm not," she chuckled.

"You're trying to get away from your previous life so it's best if you don't even bother going after a new person." We got to security and they began checking us in. "Especially since he's someone that definitely knows Archer." I looked at her with my eyes widened.

"What-" she covered my mouth with her hand and leaned into my ear.

"He's the person that your husband loathes,"

Christopher Morris. I've never seen him anywhere. I had no clue that he looked like that. I've seen his father a few times in the past but never imagined what Christopher could look like. Maybe it was because his name barely left Archer's mouth that I didn't find it in me to look him up but as much as it killed me to know, it always slipped my mind.

But man, isn't it a nice surprise to see him looking like that.

Delilah took her hand off my mouth and proceeded to take her bags. I took mine before we left the airport.

"Fucking shit, De. What if-"

"He has never seen you, I'm sure of it. He doesn't attend those stupid charity balls and there's not much record of you online so relax. We have to get to the hotel." I nodded and we approached the taxi. The driver took our luggage as I put my sunglasses on. I looked around and saw him. He walked out of the airport with three guards surrounding him.

He noticed me before he put his sunglasses on. When he got to the black Mercedes-Benz, which stood one car further away from us, the driver opened the back door and before he got in he looked at me. For some reason, I felt butterflies in my stomach. He smiled at me and got in his car. I looked away and began breathing heavily. Delilah noticed my panicking and approached me.

"You okay?" She wrapped one hand around me. I nodded.

"Yeah, I just got caught off guard." She nodded and we got in the car. We drove off as I twisted the gold ring I had on my index finger.

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We arrived at our hotel after a half an hour drive and after getting our luggage from the taxi car, we went inside. I kept my sunglasses to hide my face as much as possible. We approached the reception desk and Delilah did the talking.

We got the room key and were told to go to the third floor to room 548. We made our way there and went in after unlocking it. The room was spacious. It had two king-sized beds, a TV, dressers, a small balcony with a gorgeous view of the busy streets of Rome and a big bathroom with beige tiles covering all of the walls.

I placed my bag in one of the beds and sat down.

"How are you feeling?" Delilah asked; I looked at her.

"Fine. Scared. Happy. Terrified. Overall, a big mess," she sat down beside me and wrapped one arm around me as I placed my head on her shoulder. "Thank you for doing this with me."

"I had to. I had to make sure that you'd be okay. Besides, no matter if I helped you or not, Archer would kill me." I knew that was true. He didn't like any of the people I had some kind of relationship with. My family was turned against me as well as all of my friends that I had prior to meeting Archer.

"He's a monster. He's a fucking monster. He's the Satan himself."

"I think Chris would be closer to being Satan than Archer," Chris had a reputation of being the cruellest and cold-hearted person that was so powerful.

"Maybe."

"Do you like him?" I looked at her. For some reason, her interest in him the past few days was concerning.

"No. I mean he's cute but I think that I'll never have another man that close to me. I just don't trust anyone." She nodded. "I just want this to end."

"It will."

"But how?" I stood up and went towards the balcony door. "I'm married to him. And unless he agrees to it, I'll forever be his dear wife." That sent shivers down my spine.

"We'll figure it out. Maybe, if nothing works out, we'll just "kill you"," she made air quotes.

"Yeah, good idea. But now I just have to hide."

"Will you try to work?" I looked back at the view behind the windows.

"I could try to do some sort of programme at a business corporation or something like that, however, I'd have to change my appearance."

"Cut and dye your hair." I looked at her and nodded.

"Yeah, I was going to do that." I had to find some sort of way to earn money. The cash that I have currently will only be enough to cover at least four weeks of staying at a hotel with other expenses. I walked to my bed and looked for an accessory I bought online a few weeks ago in my backpack. I took out a pair of glasses. They weren't prescription glasses but rather regular ones with glass found in windows with a gold metallic frame.

"Oh, yes. This will help." Delilah stood up and I put them on. "Gorgeous as always," I smiled and took them off. "I'll book an appointment for you at the hairdresser down the road." I nodded and went into the bathroom. I looked around and then my phone buzzed. I walked to my bed and took it in my hands.

No caller ID.

There was no way in hell, I was going to pick this up. There was a really good chance that it was Archer or someone that works for him. I dropped the phone on the bed and sat down on Delilah's bed. She was standing on the balcony, trying to book an appointment and I could hear the Italian words through the glass. I placed my face in my hands and let the thoughts in my head devour me.

He's going to find me. What the hell am I doing here. Aella what the fuck did you get yourself into? Why on Earth did you run away? You weren't supposed to do that. You're so stupid. You're going to get yourself killed! Three years of my life were turned into complete torture. I had to. But he'll get me back. I know it. There was no way in hell that I'd make it out alive.

"Aella! Aella! Hun, are you okay?" I snapped back and looked up at Delilah. "What just happened?"

"I...I just thought too hard." She sat down beside me.

"Well, you have your hair appointment in half an hour and we're going to go explore this place."

"I didn't come here to explore, De."

"I know, but we can have fun. You'll look different and I'm changing my appearance too. We'll get new clothes, new shoes, new everything and tomorrow we'll go to the meeting." I looked at her with a frown.

"I thought you weren't interested in staying here." She smiled and wrapped one arm around me.

"Hun, have you seen the men here?" I chuckled. "I'm staying. Even if it's for a short period of time, I'll be here with you. And I'm sure we can both get a spot since we both could be useful." I nodded.

"Thank you, again for doing this with me." She pulled me in a hug.

"Sweetheart, you're my literal sister, I can't leave you when he's killing you every day."

"Thank you." She placed a kiss on my cheek and I smiled. "You are my sister. Blood or not." She smiled.

"That's what I'm talking about!"

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Three hours later

Delilah and I got out of the hairdresser like brand new people. My old hair reached down to my lower back, was light blond and straight. Now, my hair reached my collarbones and the colour was close to brown. I wore glasses and when I looked at myself in the mirror, I couldn't recognize myself. I haven't undergone something this drastic with my hair in ages.

Delilah's old hair was just like mine but she was a brunette and now her hair was blonde and cut to her shoulders. I hoped that that was enough to at least make us different from our old selves. Even a tiny bit.

We shopped for two hours and bought all new clothes. I bought a few sets of lace lingerie to make myself happy, ten evening dresses, five pairs of pants, many shirts and dress shirts, a few tight skirts and like seven pairs of heels. Delilah insisted that I buy new sneakers so I did.

I bought new make-up, new perfume and a necklace. A golden necklace with a small coliseum charm. It was expensive but it was all to start from scratch. A small symbol of my brand new life.

Delilah bought as much as me if not more and we barely made it back to the hotel with all of the boxes and bags. I even took the shoes out of the boxes and just threw them in the bags to make more space. We got up to our room and placed everything away. I laid down on the bed and let out a sigh.

"Well that was fun, wasn't it?" I smiled.

"Indeed it was. But I think that there is no way we'll have money for food by the end of the week." She chuckled.

"Don't worry. We'll get a job and start our new life. Forget that you're Aella and I'll forget I'm Delilah."

"That will be hard. I love my real name." She laid down beside me.

"I love mine too, but you have to sacrifice something to start from scratch."

"True but I already sacrificed my life and got traumatized."

"Yeah, that's the thing you're running away from." I nodded and she sat up. "We're going to this restaurant down the block," she turned to me. "I read the reviews and I can't lie, it's fancy." I sat up.

"We should manage our money responsibly right now," she rolled her eyes and stood up.

"Don't bail on this. I plan to meet a rich dude." I smiled as De began looking through her new purchases.

"We can go there in about an hour. I'll reserve a table and we'll have a good time." Maybe it wasn't such a bad idea. After all, there was no way to actually recognize us. We were different. And besides, not many people in Europe knew us. That was a good thing.

"Fine." She smiled and went into the bathroom. After a few minutes, there was a knock on the door. Immediate anxiety kicked in. What if it's him? But there was no way he actually found me. Just not this quick.

"You'll get that?" Delilah shouted from the bathroom.

"Yeah!" I said and walked towards the door. I took a deep breath before opening the door and when I did, I didn't see anyone. I looked down and saw a bouquet of light pink roses with a note on top. I looked around to see if anyone was there and picked it up.

As I closed the door, I wondered if there was any chance that this was a bomb but it didn't look like it. I set it down on the dresser and picked the note out. It was a small envelope with this address written on it as well as my name.

Relief flooded my body when I saw that it was Ella Cadell and not Aella Dixon. I opened the envelope and saw the words:

It was nice bumping into you, darling.

Christopher. Christopher fucking Morris. How in the hell of an Earth did he know who I was and where I was? But I had to say, his handwriting was beautiful. Just like him. He wasn't beautiful, he was gorgeous. The dream man.

But to be honest, I thought that Archer looked like a dream man until he showed what he was really like.

I flipped the note around and didn't see anything else so I placed it on the table. I picked up the bouquet and smelled the aroma. Pink and dark roses were my favourite kind of flowers. I guess he was lucky to guess these.

"What is that?" I turned around and Delilah walked to the dresser. She picked up the note and her mouth opened. "That's from-"

"Yeah."

"You fucking biatch! You could hit on him." I chuckled.

"No more. No more of these powerful men for me. Archer did the same thing for me the first year we dated." Flowers and nothing but flowers. I practically bathed in them. But they were mostly white. At that time, I loved them. Now, they are the most hideous kind of flowers I've ever seen.

"Well, if I were you, I'd dress up tonight and hope that the Universe has luck on your side," I looked at her with my brows furrowed. "Maybe he'll be there. He's known for going there."

Fuck my life if I see him again.

But I don't think I'll complain much...