Chapter 77: Chapter 77

"MOMMY!" Andrea said before she ran towards her mother.

Gideon slowly turned his head in my direction.

My heart stopped beating when our eyes met. His face was serious… his blue eyes were piercing into my soul.

My knees felt weak with the way he looked at me.

"We'll leave you two here…"

Helen said. She went to me and took the grocery bag in my hand.

"Talk to him, Bianca," Helen whispered before she turned her back on us and pulled Andrea inside the house.

I was left there with Gideon. I looked at him. He looked fine. Except for the small scratches on his arms, he looked fully recovered. His white dress shirt was folded up to his elbows. His hair was already clean-cut.

I swallowed hard and faced him."What are you doing here?"

He raised his thick eyebrows. "Claiming back my wife. How about you, why did you run away, Bianca?"

I looked away. "I already know that you've finally recovered your memories, Gideon. If you're here to talk about divorce—"

"What are you saying, Bianca?"

I took all the courage in me and faced him. "I know you already remembered everything, Gideon. I know you realized you're not really in love with me. That you're still in love with Diana…"

"Where did you get that idea?"

"I was waiting for you there… outside your room in the hospital, Gideon. But the first person you ask after you wake up is Diana! You asked the doctor to see her!"

Gideon held my hand. "Sweetheart, you're wrong."

My tears automatically fell when I heard the word sweetheart. I looked at him and saw the gentleness in his eyes.

My lips slowly parted. He's still the same Gideon. He didn't go back to the old him.

"You asked to see her first! While you didn't even look for me?! That only meant one thing, right? That you realized you're still in love with her and I was no longer important to you?"

"No, sweetheart. Yes, my memories come back but my feelings for you didn't change. With or without my memories, I'm still madly in love with you…"

He took a step towards me… then his hand reached for my face. His fingers gently wiped the tears on them.

"Then why… why did you ask for her?"

"Because I needed to talk to her," he said. "I confronted her about her real identity. That woman, she's not the real Diana, sweetheart."

My lips parted. "What do you mean?"

"When my memory came back, I remembered that two years after Diana's death, I asked the authorities to conduct another investigation to look for her body. Her remains were found three months after the investigation. The investigators did a DNA test on the remains. It was confirmed to be Diana. I couldn't contact her parents so I just asked the people to put her remains in the tomb where her empty casket was buried… Diana, she's really dead, Bianca."

My mouth dropped open. "Then who's the woman who introduced herself as Diana?"

"I confronted her right after I woke up, Bianca. She was forced to admit everything to me. Her name's Dahlia, Diana's twin sister."

"Diana has a twin sister?"

"Yeah. She said their parents lost her when she was a child… so she didn't grow up with Diana. She only met her parents five years ago…"

I blinked. So I was right when I thought that something was suspicious about her.

"But why did she appear and introduce herself as her twin sister?"

Gideon clenched his jaw. "Someone asked him to do that, Bianca."

"Someone? Who would do that?"

Gideon met my eyes. "It's Charlie, sweetheart."

"C-charlie?"

He sighed. "He paid Dahlia to pretend to be her twin sister in front of us. He's the one who brought Dahlia here to the States. He's the one who planned all of this. Dahlia admitted everything to me… They accidentally met in Belgium a month ago, not on the plane to LA."

I gasped. "Why would Charlie do that?"

Gideon clenched his jaw. "Because he wanted to ruin us, Bianca…"

I suddenly remembered Charlie's words.

You two will never be happy together.

I shut my eyes. "I couldn't believe that Charlie could do that… He's nothing like that, Gideon…"

"He must have been hurt a lot…"

I suddenly realized something. That's why Diana's twin sister knew about Gideon's condition. It was Charlie who told her that information. Not Gideon!

"That's why… Diana was obviously trying to meddle in our relationship. She talked to me… she told me that you two talked in his office. That you two talked about your past. That you're worried about our relationship because of your condition. That you're insecure. She told me that you won't be happy with me. That I couldn't give you happiness. That the woman who suited you was her."

"She told you those things?"

I slowly nodded at him.

His brows furrowed. "Why didn't you tell me, Bianca?"

I slightly looked away. "I… I'm afraid to confront you, Gideon…"

He cupped my face and looked me straight in the eyes. "None of those were true, sweetheart. Yes, I talked to her in my office. But only to tell her that the past isn't important to me anymore. That she should move on from her feelings to me because I'm happily married to you… and that no one, not even the past, could break us apart."

I felt something warm touch my heart. The corner of my eyes heated up.

"But why are you talking to her on the phone when you had an accident? Were you going to meet her that day?"

Gideon shook his head. "I wasn't talking to her, Bianca. It was Charlie I was talking to…" he explained.

"That afternoon, I canceled my meeting and decided to go home to surprise you. I even bought flowers to give you. On the road home, an unregistered number called me. It was Charlie. He was asking me about my talk with Diana… That's what happened, Bianca."

I remembered Diana's reaction when I asked her if she was the owner of that number on Gideon's phone. She looked guilty and nervous.

It all made sense now. That's why Diana knew about Gideon's accident. Because she was with Charlie that day. He even drove her to the hospital.

I swallowed and meet his eyes. "I'm sorry, Gideon. I thought you were keeping something from me. When Diana told me that she was the one you were talking to on the phone, I thought you were meeting her. I thought the flowers we found in your car were for her…" I bit my lower lip. "I thought you were lying to me. I thought you two…"

"Oh, sweetheart." He caressed my face. "I won't do that to you. I would never keep secrets from you. I would never lie to you about something. I would never break your trust. I would never do something that will hurt you."

"But why didn't you ask for me, Gideon? I was waiting outside your room. You never look for me." I licked my lips. "I thought you never wanted to see me. I thought you realized that you never really loved me. I thought that after your memory came back, you didn't care about me anymore."

"I'm sorry, sweetheart." He looked at me. His eyes were sad… and regretful.

"I just…" He swallowed. "I just didn't know how to face you. After remembering all the awful things I've done to you in the past, I didn't know how to face you." His eyes glittered with tears. "I was very ashamed of myself. I was mad… I was regretful. I didn't have the guts to face you… I felt like I never really deserve any ounce of your love for me." He shook his head. Tears fell from his beautiful eyes. "I'm so sorry, sweetheart. I'm sorry for everything I did." He slowly dropped to his knees in front of me.

"I'm sorry, sweetheart." He held both of my hands and looked up at me.

"I was never deserving of your love. But I couldn't live without you, sweetheart."

I went down to him. "I love you, Gideon. I already told you, I have forgiven you for everything that happened in the past."

I cupped his face. I gently wiped the tears on his cheeks. Then my fingers caressed every corner of his man's perfect face. The face of the man I loved with my whole being. The face of the man I once called a devil but now… owned everything of me.

"I love you so much, Gideon. I'm sorry for running away. I'm sorry for leaving. I was just really hurt. I don't think I could handle seeing you happy with Diana."

"That would never happen, sweetheart. I would never be happy with any woman other than you. Remember that." He brought my hand to his lips. "Please, don't run away ever from me again, sweetheart. But if you ever run from me, expect me to follow you wherever you go… I'll follow you anywhere in the world, sweetheart. You can't escape from me."

"I won't run away from you again," I said, looking him straight in the eyes.

"Good." He slowly stood up. Then he scooped me up. "I won't let you," he said as put my legs around his waist before his lips captured mine.

WE flew to the Maldives right after our wedding.

It was attended by different personalities who were mostly friends with Amelia. It was featured on society pages of newspapers.

Diana's twin sister, Dahlia, apologized to me and to all the people she fooled before going back to Europe.

She said she just was forced to do it not because Charlie paid her to do it but because she was in love with him. That I didn't expect.

Charlie left. But he left us a letter saying he was sorry for what he did.

"I hope when we see him again, he has already healed from the past…" I said to Gideon.

"Yeah." His arms around my waist tightened. His chin rested on my shoulder. We were on the balcony of our villa. In front of us was the breathtaking view of the sea.

"Do you remember Kylie, sweetheart?" Gideon asked.

My brows furrowed. "The woman you met in Paris?" I pursed my lips. "Really, Gideon? You wanted to talk about another woman on our honeymoon?"

"I wanted to tell you that nothing happened between us," he whispered behind me. "I didn't fuck other women in our marriage, Bianca." He breathed. "I tried to… but I never did it. Do you want to know the reason why?"

I removed his hand from my waist and faced him. I looked at my husband's gorgeous face. "Why, Gideon?"

His hand went to my face. His eyes found mine. Those blue eyes… they're as beautiful as the sea. I wouldn't mind getting drowned in them for the rest of my life.

"Because even before the accident, I was already in love with you…" he confessed, making my lips part in shock. "The moment I first saw you in my office in New York, I was already attracted, sweetheart. I just failed to realize my feelings for you because I was blinded by my anger…"

"Oh, Gideon…" I smiled as I hooked my arms on his nape. "I love you, husband."

"I love you, Mrs. Henry," he whispered before his face descended into mine. "Thank you for falling in love with me."