Sun Upon Dark Clouds

22: Aria Pylee’s Husband

“Wyatt?”

The raven-haired woman raised her eyebrows in surprise as she saw the person that she thought she would never be seeing again standing in front of her with his infamous smirk on his face while his left dimple showing. Ghrae literally drugged the ignorant man yet he was still standing in front of her with a smile on his face as if nothing had happened though the younger woman had no regrets on what she did. Everyone, including Noah, could not help but stare at the tall man and the woman who was just drinking her latte in peace earlier. It felt like they were watching a television drama.

“Aria, I knew it was you,” Wyatt lightly shook his head as he made his way to take a seat next to her. “How have you been?”

“What are you doing here?” Ghrae blankly asked. Her eyes then turned to the man’s curly hair; it was no longer black but blonde.

“Did you just ignore my question?” Wyatt refused to take the smile off his face as he stared at the latter.

“I did.”

A scoff escaped the blond’s lips. The first thing that entered Wyatt’s mind after seeing Ghrae was the night of their wedding when she drugged his drink and left them together with the chauffeur in the parking lot of the condominium building that he stayed at. Since the professional searchers that Ghrae’s adoptive parents hired were being slow in doing their job to look for Ghrae, Wyatt decided to go and find the missing woman alone as he wanted to seek for revenge as well. Though after seeing the woman living peacefully in a small town, his desire for revenge suddenly disappeared for some reason.

No matter how frank the expressionless woman always was, Wyatt could not help but be more intrigued to her. Seeing her for the first time again in a small town suddenly made him think that it could be a sign for him to continue getting to know her. There were only two possible things on why Wyatt was interested in Ghrae after all: he hated the fact that he faced rejection from a woman for the first time, so he wanted to do whatever it takes to have her fall for him; or he was just genuinely curious about who the woman that he got married to really was.

“Fine,” Wyatt pushed his messy hair back with his fingers, which was unnecessary since his curly fringe just fell back to his forehead. “I’ve been looking for you. Who knew you’d be having a cup of latte in a small town like this?”

“Did the Pylees send you?” Ghrae calmly asked as she took a sip on her latte that had already been cold.

“‘The Pylees’? Did you completely cut them off from your life?” Wyatt laughed. “That’s sexily tough, Aria.”

“My birth name is Ghrae Kanori. Aria Pylee is the name that the Pylees gave me.”

The gray-eyed man furrowed his eyebrows in confusion as he looked at her in search for more context. Everyone knew that Ghrae was a beautiful and smart woman that was brought to the world by Ryan Pylee and Addie Pylee; that was what Wyatt’s family even knew. No one, as in no one except the three of them, knew about Addie’s infertility and her secret visit to an orphanage to take and adopt Ghrae, the quiet and smart kid, as their child after giving the orphanage owner a huge amount of money to never let anyone know about her dropping by the orphanage. Up until now, no one knew about the secret adoption of the daughter of the chairman of PYL Holdings though that was about to change.

Ghrae turned to Wyatt with a blank expression on her face before opening her lips to speak.

“I’m adopted, Wyatt.”

“No s**t!” The blond widened his gray eyes in surprise as he eagerly looked at the latter, impatiently waiting for her to say that it was a joke even though the raven had never cracked a joke in her whole life.

“You don’t have to believe me if you don’t want to,” She shrugged.

“Are you really serious?” the blond asked with utter shock evident in his tone. He had never imagined that she would be adopted.

“I wouldn’t joke about it even if I wasn’t adopted.”

Wyatt dramatically stood up from his seat as he pushed his fingers through his hair and stared at the calm woman drinking her latte, with his mouth left ajar in disbelief. Sure, he did notice that the raven sometimes did not look like she was close with her parents except if it was related to work though most rich families related in business were like that too. That was when Wyatt realized that he certainly did not know anything about Ghrae and that he just only knew one fact about her now.

“Then it doesn’t really matter if you don’t go back, right?” Wyatt asked once he recovered from his shock and sat back down.

“PYL Holdings and HZ Group are now one. That’s all that matters,” Ghrae replied.

“True,” Suddenly, the blond moved his chair closer to the latter as he smoothly draped his arm around her shoulders. “Which means that I can just stay and hang out with you even more.”

The revenge that Wyatt thought of initially was to send Ghrae back to her family once he finds her then he would think of more plans to avenge himself for what happened that night; though as mentioned, the blond decided to go for the plan on getting to know Ghrae even more. Now that he knew one secret of the Pylees, another plan had been created in his mind, which was to know more secrets about the Pylees for him to use them as a blackmail for whatever he wanted. After all, Wyatt was immature who only wanted to play.

“Why would you even?” Ghrae asked as she turned to face him, making both of their faces closer than usual.

The customers and Noah were still watching them as they stopped from whatever they were doing. The owner of the coffee shop was unsure whether to interrupt them or what as he wondered whether they were a couple or not. The tension between the two was intense that they could not even move when the door suddenly opened as the brunette alongside the red-haired woman entered, making Ghrae turn away from Wyatt.

“Girl, chill,” Wyatt chuckled as he raised his hands in the air in surrender when Coley suddenly tugged his collar to pull him away from Ghrae. “I don’t think I remember you.”

“It’s because this is the first time we’ve met, asshole,” Coley growled as she glared at the tall man.

“Coley, what are you doing?” Ghrae raised an eyebrow as she watched the two of them exchange lightning glares like they were rivals in an anime. “Let go of him.”

The brunette looked at the raven who was watching them as if they looked ridiculous in her point of view, as she let go of the blond with a shove though she was still confused on why Ghrae seemed to be defending the cocky stranger. Coley huffed as she glanced around the coffee shop and noticed that everyone in the shop had been staring at them for the whole time. She took a deep breath to calm herself down before speaking as she threw another glare at Wyatt who had a discreet smirk on his face while he dusted his blouson jacket.

“Who is this?” Coley asked with her eyebrows furrowed once she had calmed down.

“He’s Wyatt Hazien. You’ve seen him on TV,” the raven-haired woman simply answered as she took a sip on her latter while crossing her legs.

Coley immediately turned to look at Wyatt’s face again as she examined his face with her eyebrows furrowing deeper. She recalled every person that she had seen on TV until she remembered where she had seen him. Her eyes widened in realization as she recognized the blond man who was smirking at her. It was no wonder that she felt he was familiar for a vague reason earlier.

“Y-You’re—”

“Ghrae Kanori’s husband,” Wyatt answered with a confident smile on his face as he crossed his arms across his chest.

Noah and Nora, who had been watching the love triangle for the entire time, glanced at each other with surprised looks as the red-haired woman silently made her way toward the counter. Nora turned to the three customers who were watching the three as well with so much interest in their faces, making her let out a chuckle.

“No, you’re Aria Pylee’s husband,” Ghrae corrected.

For some reason, a sigh of relief escaped the brunette’s lips after hearing what the raven-haired woman said. She turned to the tall man again as she looked at him from head to toe. Wyatt was attractive; he was tall, he had a charming smile, his body was built, and he was rich. He certainly looked good with Ghrae, who was attractive as him.

Despite the good qualities of Wyatt, Coley felt annoyed at the man’s presence for some reason.

***

There was a tension at the table as the five of them sat across each other. It was a good thing that the air-conditioner was strong enough to keep the space cold. Silence filled the table as no one dared to utter a word to break it. They were like robots that only knew two directions as they would keep their eyes fixated either to the plate and utensils that were in front of them or to the other vacant tables that were nearby. Even they were confused on why they were currently sitting at the same table in the most expensive restaurant found in Peace Town.

Fortunately, the food finally came that loosened the tension at the table as the waiter secretly glanced at them while putting the dishes on the table. He was quick-witted enough to know that he must hurry in putting the food on the table and leave instantly.

“Eat up. Bill is on me,” Wyatt flashed a charming smile on his face and he gestured at the fancy dishes that were on the table.

“Thanks for this,” Noah sincerely said as he took a chicken wing to his plate.

“Thanks, handsome,” Nora grinned as Wyatt winked at her in response.

As much as Coley hated the blond man, she had no choice but to eat up as well since she did not want to ruin the mood; also, the delicious food was free. Ghrae followed as she aimed for the lobster salad. The awkwardness at the table lessened as they focused on eating their meal. For no reason, Wyatt decided to invite the Farley siblings for lunch as well.

“So, are you two actually married?” Noah asked after swallowing.

Coley suddenly choked at the question while she was drinking water, making their attention turn to her as Ghrae immediately took some paper napkins for her.

“Are you fine?” Nora asked while laughing once her friend had recovered.

“I’m fine,” Coley answered as she cleared her throat.

As Wyatt made sure that Coley was okay, he cleared his throat and was about to answer the brunet when Ghrae was the first one to answer.

“We’re not married. He’s just someone I know from the city,” Wyatt shut his mouth as he decided to not speak further about that.