Chapter 004

~LANA~

Xavier?

I could not believe my eyes. I hadn't seen him since forever.

It had been exactly 2 years since he graduated from college and left.

I never thought that I would ever see him again ever since.

"Oh, you've bought yourself a wife already?" He smirked.

"Bought? Really?" Dax scoffed.

Xavier rolled his eyes, cleared his throat, came forward, took my hand, and brought it to his lips.

The brief kiss left tingles on my skin, and I awkwardly smiled at him because we were pretending not to know each other.

"I am pleased to meet you, sister-in-law," he smiled.

"Nice to meet you," I smiled back.

He was so good at pretending. I wasn't even sure that it was him or just someone who happened to look exactly like him.

I imagined how hard it was going to be to have dinner with him in the same room.

He and I had a history. We did things to each other that still lingered in my mind whenever I thought of him.

"I am Xavier. Dax's younger brother," he kept eye contact.

It felt so awkward.

I didn't know whether to stand there and pretend that we did not know each other or ask for a bathroom and sneak out before things got even more awkward.

My heart was thumping hard against my chest, and I wished that I never agreed to dinner.

"I am Lana. His wife," I answered.

Xavier snickered, and Dax looked at him.

He made me more nervous. I wondered why he suddenly wanted to break out of character.

If he wanted us to pretend like we were strangers, he had to keep up his act before getting Dax suspicious.

If it wasn't for the money that I was going to get at the end of the contract, I would have walked out the moment I saw him.

"What? It's just so weird to think that you're someone's husband, you know," Xavier chuckled.

It was very clear that he was caught off guard to see me, just as I was when I saw him.

Or maybe it was because we knew each other, and he was trying to mask how he was truly feeling to see me again.

But it probably meant nothing to him. He had any girl he wanted in college. Every girl dreamed of him.

He was the hot senior in college. I never really thought that he would look my way.

I was happy to crush on him from a distance, knowing very well that I might never get a chance to let him know how I truly felt for him.

I did not consider myself in his class to be suitable enough to be his girlfriend.

He was mostly dating high-town girls and those who were coming from rich families like him.

While I, on the other hand, was working unpaid at a bar to keep my place.

"Where's Father?" Dax asked.

"On his way. He should be here any minute after he heard that you tied the knot without inviting us to your wedding," he said as he glanced at me.

"We wanted something very small and intimate," Dax answered.

As I was standing there, I looked between them and felt myself getting hotter by the second.

It was hard to believe that I was married to my long-time flame's brother.

The thought alone that I might see Xavier more often because of his brother made me feel as if I was having a fever, and my heart was racing.

"You should have spared two seats for us, brother. Don't you think?"

Luckily, Dax was rescued from Xavier's interrogation by an elderly man whose presence commanded attention when we heard footsteps.

"Oh, my dear sons, you are all here!" He declared as he walked into the dining room.

Dax walked to him and gave him a quick handshake before Xavier went in, too, and grabbed himself a side hug.

It was good to see that they all had a healthy relationship with their father.

"Hi there -" he paused. He was probably trying to remember my name, or he didn't know it at all.

"Her name's Lana, Father," Dax came to the rescue.

"Yes. Lana. How are you, my dear?" He smiled and shook my hand.

"I am great, Mr. Salvatore, how are you?" I smiled at him.

"I am very pleased to see you. Please, have a seat," he pointed to the dining table.

Dax, who was a perfect gentleman, helped me sit down and then sat next to me.

He took my hand in his, and Xavier just stared at us as he sat on the opposite side while their father sat at the head of the table.

I kept squirming because of how Xavier made me uncomfortable with his gaze.

"Is it true that she's your wife, Daxton?" Their father asked with a kind smile.

"Yes. Well, we've been married for a while now," Dax answered.

"And why weren't we told?" He asked again.

"We just wanted to enjoy our honeymoon without our families intervening in our affairs," he responded.

"Or maybe you didn't want this gorgeous lady to know that you have a hot brother like me and change her mind about marrying you," he looked at me and smirked.

My intestines just knotted together, and I wanted to get up and disappear from their sights.

It felt like I had been in the room with them forever, and I could not even breathe. The air felt thick and too warm.

The walls were closing in on me by the second I was sitting there.

My eyes could not even avoid the sight of Xavier because I could still see him at the corner of my eye even when I wasn't looking at him.

Dax chuckled. "That's very funny. But can you keep your silly jokes to yourself? You're not as hot as you think you are. "

"Ouch. That hurts," Xavier chuckled.

"Well, you have a very beautiful wife, son. I am very impressed," Mr. Salvatore approved.

I smiled at him. "Thank you, Mr. Salvatore."

"Oh please, enough with the formalities. You can call me Father," he declared.

I looked at Dax, and he was blushing too.

"Thank you so much. Father," I answered.

There were giggles in the room.

"How long have you been dating this lunatic, Lana?" Their father asked.

"Six-"

"A year -"

Dax and I looked at each other. One of us might have forgotten the script.

We had to fix that up before fumbling everything up.

I cleared my throat and put a big smile on my face. "We've been together for sixteen months. Which is a year and 4 months."

"Wow, I didn't know that my son had it in him to keep a beautiful girl like you in his life!" He beamed.

"Well, son, I am impressed. Though I wish that you could have told me about her before I even insisted on you marrying."

"Don't worry, Father. I wanted you to meet her at the right time."

"He might have bribed her to forgive him for the countless times she caught him cheating, Father," Xavier sought to ruin the moment.

I looked at him, and he just smirked. Ugh, that look of his always made me weak to my knees.

I wondered if he knew that I was not yet over him.

I wondered if he knew that for the last year and a few months, he had made it so hard for me to concentrate, wishing that he could come back for me.

I longed for him to miss me to the point where he could not take it any longer and come searching for me.

Dax's father laughed. "And maybe you should take some tips from your brother about how to keep a woman."

"Oh, Father, I know how to keep a woman and how to make her come back to me for more," he looked at me.

I swallowed. He wasn't wrong. He had been the only man roaming all over my mind for the past year and months.

He had been the only man that I saw worthy of me. Because of him, I could not see myself with anyone else and refused to be with anyone else until he came for me.

After all, he was the first man I ever knew.

I took my glass of champagne and drank all of it in one gulp. I just wanted to be a little tipsy.

Maybe that was going to help in getting me to forget that Xavier was in the same room as me and sitting right in front of me.

He looked as hot as he did and was as handsome as ever.

"Enough already, Xavier. You're making our bride uncomfortable," his father frowned at him.

And then he looked at me, "How did you two meet each other?"

"We met at the uh- restaurant. We were both on business lunch when we bumped into each other on our way out," Dax improvised.

He remembered the script.

"Oh. So, what do you do, Lana?" His father asked me with curious eyes.

"I am a uh- business... Uh-" I choked.

I, unfortunately, forgot the script.

Dax wanted his father to think that I had a great industrial job and would help his son in his business as his wife and not bankrupt him as his housewife.

So, Dax quickly came to my rescue. "She owns her own IT company."

Xavier choked on his drink. He knew that I was no IT girl. Instead, I was an artist.

So, I tried very hard to avoid eye contact with him before he ruined everything for me.

"Yes, that's right. I was looking for the right word instead of business owner," I chuckled.

His father was impressed. "That's very amazing, Lana. My son is indeed lucky. There aren't so many women who are so goal-driven to start up their businesses."

"I guess that's why your son fell in love with me," I looked at Dax and squeezed his hand.

He leaned down to my face and kissed me softly on the lips.

Finally, at that moment, the room felt as big as it was. The walls were no longer closing in on me, and I blushed.

His father giggled. "How is your father, Lana? I'd like to meet him someday because we are a family now."

"She doesn't have parents," Xavier answered.

We all looked at him. My heart raced inside my chest. It was beating fast as if it would stop completely when overwhelmed.

I could not believe that Xavier was ruining everything for me right now. If only he knew why I was here.

He chuckled. "Ugh, guys, don't look at me like that! I am going through her F******k profile right now, and she posted about her parents a few weeks ago!"

He waved his phone in the air. "Did you think that I would not search her up to see if she was right for you, bro?" He chuckled.

I was relieved.

Dax chuckled. "Of course, I expected that."

It felt like forever when all the questions were over, and dinner was done.

Dax took my hand and led me outside to the car for Nicholas to drive me home.

I finally breathed a sigh of relief.

Xavier, Dax, and their father waved at me as the car drove off.

I could not believe that Xavier remembered that my parents were dead.

He answered so fast when his father was speaking about meeting my dad.

I wondered if they all didn't see that he was not on F******k when he waved his cell phone in the air.

And so, I was driven home that night, wondering if I was not making the worst mistake of my life.

I knew that I was not going to be able to pretend that I didn't know Xavier, unless...

Unless I made him believe that I was in love with his brother.