Part 84

Antony was in a panic. The fitting session that he should have been excited about was now souring his mood. After trying to contact Claire's family, Antony hadn't received any good news. None of Claire's relatives, including Gladwin, knew where she had gone.

"Aren't you worried about her?" Antony asked Gladwin over the phone as he drove to the boutique his parents had chosen for him.

Fortunately, he was driving alone, as his parents and Flavia were in the Altezza, while Gian was driving his own family's car.

"She was in good health when she left, so I'm not too worried," Gladwin replied casually. "Besides, she's a grown woman—she knows what she's doing. So, yeah..." Claire's twin continued, his tone ambiguous.

"What if something happens to her on the way?" Antony asked, clearly anxious.

Silence. Antony assumed Gladwin might be considering or imagining the worst that could happen to his twin, but then Gladwin replied calmly, "What's the worst that could happen to her? Even if I reported my twin sister missing to the police, it hasn't even been twenty-four hours, so they wouldn't do anything yet," he continued. "Something might happen to her, but it won't be her fate at stake—it'll be yours," Gladwin added, making Antony furrow his brow in confusion.

"What do you mean?" Antony asked, baffled. He clearly didn't want anything bad to happen to his Claire.

"I mean, maybe she's meeting someone new right now, trying to move on from you, Sir," Gladwin replied nonchalantly, instantly making Antony flare his nostrils. Damn! Gladwin was obviously mocking him.

"No way she'd do that," Antony objected, unwilling to consider the possibility Claire's twin had just suggested.

"Why not?" Gladwin countered. "Isn't the best way to mend a broken heart by finding someone else to fill the void?"

"No. Claire isn't someone who easily falls for a guy," Antony shot back firmly. That was true, wasn't it? Winning her heart was no simple feat.

"People can change, can't they? If she could become sweet around you, why wouldn't she act that way around someone else?" Gladwin challenged.

Antony fell silent again. "Do you even support my relationship with Claire or not?" he asked irritably.

Gladwin chuckled. "I support Claire. Whoever she chooses—whether it's you or someone else—it doesn't matter to me as long as her choice makes her happy," he admitted honestly. "Relax, Sir. It's Saturday; there are still seven days until next Saturday. I'm sure Claire will come back, whether it's tomorrow or the day after. For now, let her be; maybe she just wants some space."

Antony was at a loss for words. He'd already asked Bella, Claire's best friend, but she couldn't tell him where Claire was—either because she truly didn't know or was pretending not to know in the name of friendship. Antony wasn't even sure of his own thoughts.

Meanwhile, Gladwin—Claire's twin and the person Antony knew was closest to her—was also claiming not to know where she was. But unlike with Bella, Antony was convinced that Gladwin knew exactly where Claire was; his loyalty as her twin likely compelled him to keep her whereabouts a secret.

Damn! So what was Antony supposed to do now? Should he hire a detective to track her down, or just wait until she returned from her escape? Claire would come back, right? Yes, she'd come back. His girlfriend would return to her family.

Antony knew that, even though Claire's heart didn't agree with her mother's matchmaking plans, she wouldn't be able to hurt her mother by missing her own engagement. The thought of their engagement made Antony smile. In the end, he'd see her there, even though she probably expected one of the Grint family's sons to be her fiancé.

Meanwhile, where Claire was hiding, she lay on a bed with the TV on in front of her, while outside her room, Gladwin was soaking in a hot bath. She watched her twin as he ended his phone call, then lifted his head to gaze at the sky, now casting a warm glow overhead.

Yes, Gladwin was currently staying at the inn with her. He had come over after finishing his night shift at the hospital, following Claire's decision to share her location with him last night before she turned off all her connections.

Claire did intend to hide, but she wasn't so irresponsible as to disappear without a trace and make her family worry. She needed to contact someone just in case anything happened. Claire and Gladwin had an unspoken agreement: they would always inform each other of their whereabouts but would respect each other's privacy.

As was her habit, Claire had updated her twin on her location, whether through text, social media, or email, under the condition that Gladwin wouldn't reveal it to anyone—not even their family, and especially not their mother.

"Are you sure you don't want to let Antony know you're here?" Gladwin asked as he walked back into the room, fresh from his bath and wearing only a towel around his waist. If a stranger had been in the room, they might have mistaken Claire and Gladwin for a couple rather than opposite-sex twins.

"What for?" Claire replied, her gaze fixed on the TV, where a Korean drama played in front of her.

Gladwin rolled his eyes. "What exactly are you upset with him about?" he asked as he walked past the bed to grab his bag, pulling out some clothes. He threw on a short-sleeved T-shirt, then retrieved something else from his bag before walking back toward the bathroom.

"Are you mad because the plan he and we made might shock Mom, or is it something else?" Gladwin continued from inside the open bathroom. "Or are you upset because he didn't fill you in on all the details of our plan?"

By now, he'd replaced the towel around his waist with an old pair of workout pants that looked like they might tear if pulled too hard from age. Gladwin was still drying his hair with a towel draped over his head. He came over, sitting on the bed next to Claire, pulling his legs up and leaning against the headboard like she was. When Claire didn't respond, he nudged her arm with his elbow.

"What do you want?" Claire replied irritably.

Yes, when Gladwin had explained Antony's "heroic" plan—the one where he approached her mom's chosen suitor to break off the engagement and then orchestrated a dramatic show with both families—she had felt embarrassed for jumping to conclusions.

It was her own fault for not asking Antony to explain everything in detail that night. And her fault for assuming he was treating her like something "to be discarded after the sweetness is gone."

Yes, because of that night and Antony's return to his usual distant mode, Claire had started to assume he no longer wanted her. She thought he'd seen her vulnerable side and her flaws, and that, after having a taste of intimacy with her (even if not entirely), his curiosity had faded, leaving him ready to move on.

But it turned out she was wrong. After hearing the full story from Gladwin, Claire felt embarrassed—especially about impulsively leaving without giving Antony a chance to explain. Still, Claire didn't feel completely guilty. She imagined most women would think the same way. After sharing a sweet moment with a man, only to be ignored the next day without explanation—even in the same building and on the same floor—many would assume he'd lost interest or was ready to discard them. Claire's reaction felt natural under the circumstances.

However, unlike many women who might seek a "why" from the man in question, Claire chose to avoid the potential humiliation of hearing, "I'm bored with you" or "I don't want you anymore." Even though now she knew Antony would never say that.

"Antony's like a wheat field that's gone up in flames," Gladwin continued, breaking the silence when Claire didn't respond. "Bella even called me, panicking, thinking something had happened to you. She said Antony contacted her asking for your whereabouts, and Richard called me several times for the same reason. They're all really worried you've been swallowed up by a Venus flytrap."

Claire gave her twin an annoyed look, raising an eyebrow. "What do you think I am—a bug?" she retorted sarcastically.

Gladwin smirked and shrugged. "Aren't you a bit like an alluring insect? Let's say you're the glasswing butterfly. Or maybe you'd rather be the Iberian Lynx. That creature's rare and nearly extinct, just like you—an unusual, nearly endangered type of woman," Gladwin teased.

Claire frowned at her brother. "Sometimes I wonder about you. Are you a doctor or a teacher? Your analogies are always about animals, plants, or geography. You should've specialized in botany or zoology, not internal medicine," she mocked her twin.

Gladwin shrugged again. "Forgive me if my brain's capacity exceeds that of the average human. Think of me as a walking Wikipedia, full of knowledge—unlike you, who only knows how to daydream," he replied with a mocking expression.

"Are you seriously trying to insult me?" Claire snapped, and then launched an attack on her twin with a pillow, hitting him repeatedly.