Chapter 12: Chapter 12

"Once the date and auditorium has been changed, they won't be able to wreck my marriage. All you need to do is find me a church and make preparations for a fake invitation card. I will handle the rest."Clinton smiled, "I'm so happy to know that you are really making use of those things in your head."

Ethan laughed at Clinton's words.

Clinton nodded. "Did you call Agnes?

Ethan looked at his friend questionably and spoke up. "Why should I call her?"

"To postpone the shopping of course."

"Yh, that's true. I should call her. She might be waiting for me."

Clinton frowned at him, "you are such an asehole."

Ethan's eyes widened. "Point of order, I am not an asehole."

"Prove it to me," Clinton wheezed.

Ethan called Agnes.

She answered the call. "Hello Ethan, where are you? Are you still coming?"

"I'm sorry my love but I am stuck in traffic. You know what? Just go straight home, tomorrow we will go shopping."

"Okay," she said with her soft and tiny voice.

x x x x x x x x x x x x x

"Hello Agnes," Eric said, coming into her office."Eric," she voiced out. "Hi, please have a seat."

"Wow, I am so glad to see that you remember not only me but my name and most of all, you offered me a seat, even though your fiance told you to stay away from him," he said to her, while bending to sit on the chair.

"How did you get to know that this was my work place ? And why did you come," she asked consciously, feeling a bit surprised.

"You are my cousin's fiancee, so how do you expect me to know where you are working. Even though Ethan and I aren't close, I still know how to fulfil my duties as a brother," he replied.

"All you need to know is that I had found you through the internet."

"Will you be free today?" Eric asked tenderly.

"Ethan is taking me out," she answered while leafing through some pages.

"Thank you," Eric said in a flatter.

"For what?" She asked, raising her end and looking up to him, with her green eye which meant showed interest.

"For changing my cousin and for restoring peace between the both of us," Eric voiced out.

"I did ____" her phone rang, interrupting the both of us from whatever we were saying.

"Excuse me," she said to them and went outside to pick the call.

"Hello Ethan," I greeted.

"My love, how are you?

"I am good and you?" Agnes asked back.

"I am doing great," Ethan said silently.

"That is good," Agnes commented.

"I called to tell you that two hours from now, I will to pick you up," Ethan said.

"Okay I will be waiting. Just to inform you, I am still at work," Agnes said to him.

"Okay my love, I can't wait to see you. I'm really missing you," Ethan said affectionately.

Agnes blushed . "I miss you too," she said. "Your cou__"

"Em... Sorry I have to hang up now, bye."

"Bye," Agnes answered back but the call had already ended.

She glared at her phone, "was he that busy, that he could not even let me say goodbye." She looked up at Eric. "I was about to tell him that you were with me but he just suddenly hung up on me.

Eric's eyes widened in shock and gratefulness at the same time. "You are very lucky you didn't."

Agnes's gaze hardened. "Why?"

"Your husband is certainly a jealous type. He banned me from seeing you."

She smiled shyly. "I like it when he is jealous, even though I haven't seen him feeling jealous over me before."

"Do you really like Ethan?" Eric asked with a strange tone.

"No, I don't like him. I love him, Ethan was the man that made my life so meaningful," Agnes said vividly. "I used to think that he was a very arrogant and rich brat but he proved my thinking wrong."

"I guess all this is because of you," Eric snapped. "You changed him into a much better person. As cousins, I had tried my best to change him but all my actions were seen as taunting to him. I'm so surprised that he changed and that too because of you. Sometimes I wonder if you used any portion on him," he said, making both him and Whitney to laugh so hard.

"I did not use any portion on him. I used to be straight forward and overly rude to arrogant people, Ethan inclusive but something about your cousin changed. He became too nice, that I just had to fall in love with him. I changed him and he changed me...."

Eric chimed in. "I used to think that he would never find love because of his behavior. My cousin had broken the hearts of so many ladies in the past but you were an exception."

Agnes smiled at him, "it seems like you and your cousin were really close then because you almost know everything about him."

"There is one more I know but I'm hesitating to tell you."

"What's that, please tell."

"Are you sure you want to hear what I've got to say?"

"Yes."

Ethan cleared his throat. "My cousin Ethan is going to break your heart one day, and permit to say this, Ethan is not one to be trusted," Eric said firmly to her.

"Set the record straight Eric," Whitney warned, with a frown.

She wasn't expecting such words from him.

"I'm only concerned about you. You are not the first woman my cousin has engaged and I am pretty sure you won't be the last. He is playing with you emotions, after you must have gotten married to you, days will be like hell to you. Possibly, you could even wish for death instead of facing him head on. Let's face reality, Ethan is not matured at all. He does things without thinking it through__"

"Can you please stop?" Whitney screamed, standing up from her seat.

"You are discussing him as if he is not related to you. I think Ethan was right about you. How can speak so badly about your cousin?

Eric quickly stood up, when he noticed that she wanted to leave. "It seems you have forgotten that this is first if April."

"And how does that get to do with our discussion!" she asked, staring at him with confusion..

"It's April fool's day," Eric finally wheezed.

Whitney could not help but giggle. "Oh," she said, slumping on the chair. "I can not believe you said all those things, in order to prank me."

"It wasn't just a prank, I wanted to know just how much you love my cousin. Sorry that I said those words about your fiancee..."

"I am sorry that I judged you. I am good at that. Sincerely speaking, you are a nice man."

"This is really funny you know. I can't believe you nearly fell for it. For the sake of Mike, Ethan is my cousin, my brother and my blood why would I bad mouth him?" Eric said flatly. "Speaking of Ethan, what did he say to you about me?"

Agnes bit her lips. "Well, we will let that elapse because he said he said somethings about you and your father and we have already had a conversation on that. So we should not be having it over again."

"Wow, you mean he hasn't mentioned anything about me since then?"

Agnes laughed, "you should know that Ethan is not much of a talker or a gossiper and I credit him for that."

"You really know a lot about Ethan and I like that. I wish to get a lady of my own, a lady who is exactly like you. I guess it's for me to get going."

"Why?"

"Because it feels like I am being more than a nuisance to you."

Agnes pouted. "You are my family and not a nuisance. Believe me I'm so glad we had this discussion. You lightened up the atmosphere. I like your sense of humor, you are just so funny. I want you to always bear this in mind, you can never be a nuisance to me. The only reason why I am not sticking you to this chair is because my desk is pretty full and I have to round them all up. I have to get ready because I am certain that Ethan will be here any moment from now. We are going for shopping.

Eric stood up at once, "I would love to thank you for sparing your time for me and to also apologise, for the prank, earlier today.

"You have already explained to me what your motive was, so you do not have to apologise, I do not take offense at what you did at all."

Eric smiled and turned to leave.

"Hey," Whitney called out his name.

Eric quickly turned around, with too much expectations. "I want to ask you something."

" Go on." Eric said.

Are you married?"

" I would have been if I had met you on time. But I am not married. Do you have a sister?" he asked jokingly.

Agnes laughed." You are kidding right?"

Eric smiled." Of course I am. I will like to take my leave, it was nice chatting with you," he bowed.

Agnes smiled." I enjoyed the conversation, come around some other time, okay? You made my day."

" Okay have a nice day, goodbye," Eric said happily and left at once.

Whitney still had a smile on her face. "Ethan you are so lucky to have such a cousin like Eric. I wish I had one." she laughed. If only she had an idea that what she wished for was trouble.

x x x x x x x x x x x x x x

"Hello Mr. Ethan," a male voice said unruly. "Have you got news for me?" Ethan asked.

"Yeah," the voice said.

"A man just left her office," the voice added.

"Send me his photo," he said, using his other free hand to turn the steering.

"Alright sir. I will do that immediately," the voice said and ended the call. Not long after the call, Ethan received a message. He clicked on the message and saw the photo. Then he let out a laugh, "Eric you have got to be kidding me. First was my best friend and now my fiancee. Who will you go to next? My dad?" He said to himself, in between his laughter.

Ethan called the number of the person that sent the picture, again. "You still do confidential jobs right?"

"Of course sir, have I ever failed you?" the voice answered.

"Good. I have a job for you," Ethan said, still steering the wheel.

"I want you to spy on every movement that man makes. I do not care how many people you hire for the job, all I want you to do is watch him both day and night, understand? I want to know about his activities every single hour. Can you do it George?" Ethan asked in a strong tone.

"Certainly Mr. Ethan," the voice said steadily.

"What is his name, if I may ask?" He further inquired.

"His name is Eric Moore. He is currently living at Moore's Estate in the private road, close to the Hangar's private road but note that he works at the Moore's company, so most times that is where he goes to. You and your men shouldn't miss his movements.

"Moore? Is he your brother?" George diverted his inquisitivity.

Ethan frowned on the other end, "you should learn to mind your business and stop asking unnecessary questions," he warned in an alarming tone.

"I'm sorry for asking such a question," he apologized.

"Do you want me to cover this immediately?" George asked, inquisitively.

"Of course I do. That's the idea and let me make something clear, if you lose him, I will make you pay severely for a job recklessly done. Do your job well and be sure to get a nice payment of ten thousand dollars. Okay?"

"Leave it to me Mr Ethan, we won't lose him, I assure you."

"One more thing, make sure he doesn't find out that he is being watched. He is a very smart man and trust me if you are not careful, he will find out. So be alert."

"Alright thanks for this important notification."

"What is the main job, Mr Ethan? Are we to only spy on him?" George asked rigidly.

"Yes. I just want to know about his whereabouts. No more stupid questions," Ethan said in a bold voice. "Get to work. I believe you would not want to miss such a golden opportunity to get rich George."

George stood on his feet at once, "I would never think of that," he sneered.

"Goodbye sir," he said and immediately Ethan cut the call.

x x x x x x x x x x x x

Ethan parked at a spot.

Agnes was standing outside, patiently waiting for him. She finally caught a glimpse of him and smiled. Ethan walked to her and gave her a peck on her lips. "I'm sorry for keeping you waiting, darling. How was your day?"

Agnes smiled. "I don't mind waiting for you at all, as for my day it was so pleasant. I bumped into someone I didn't expect and from there, we started chatting. He's such a gentleman."

Hearing all those sweet compliments of his cousin, from her mouth made him feel jealous but he wasn't going to accept that he felt jealous at all.

"He is not what you think he is, Agnes."

Agnes stared at him in surprise, "who do you think I am talking about?" She asked expectantly.

Ethan quickly realized that he was about to give himself off. "I do not know but my point is that people don't appear to be what they really portray, so you had better be careful."

"I guess from the discussion we had today, he is a nice person, whose looks and wealth does not affect his personality," Agnes said in a strong tone.

"I see you like and trust that stranger a lot. Why not take off my ring and go marry your so - great stranger," Ethan suggested in anger and jealousy.

Ethan angrily walked into his car, Agnes followed behind me.

"Hey Ethan wait up, why are you getting so angry for nothing?" She asked.

Ethan didn't say anything to her, he climbed into his car, Agnes went to the other side of the car and quickly got in.

She leaned on him immediately and said, "I was only joking my love. I only wanted to see your reaction, you know today is April fool," she lied in order to coax him.

Ethan changed his reaction at once, he realized getting angry at her wouldn't solve anything.

"Alright I forgive you," Ethan said, pinching her cheek in a romantic way.

"So tell me the reason behind your happiness?" He added...