"It looks like you really don’t want to marry him…" Warren sighed.
"But that’s probably a good thing. You won’t be too upset when you hear where he was two days ago."
Stella was speechless for a few seconds before she asked, "… What are you talking about?"
"A few days ago," Warren slowly explained while studying her expressions, "Weston went to see
Guinevere. Nothing surprising about that, of course, considering they’ve known each other since
childhood and were sweethearts for many years. In fact, it was only expected that Weston would visit
her after what she had been through."
Warren examined Stella’s expressions. When he noticed that she seemed unperturbed, he smiled and
added, "But you don’t have any desire to be with him anyway, am I right? In that case, I’m sure the
news didn’t upset you at all."
"There’s nothing to be upset about," said Stella. Her lips curled into a smile, but her eyes were devoid
of joy.
"Everything’s just as I expected."
Sitting across Warren, she picked up her cup of tea, raised it to her lips, and took a small sip.
"He will always prioritize Guinevere Cohen above everything else," she continued.
"I realized that long ago. He will never give her up." Warren could tell she was thinking of how Weston
chose Guinevere when the kidnappers asked him to choose between Guinevere and Stella.
"Actually," he argued, "just because he chose Guinevere didn’t necessarily mean that he prioritized her.
In fact, under that circumstance…"
He stopped himself short the moment he caught himself trying to defend Weston. It was a knee-jerk
reaction. He was Weston’s grandfather, after all. But it would be best to let Stella keep
misunderstanding Weston. That way, everything would go according to plan. Stella and Weston were
from two completely different worlds anyway. They were never meant to be together. If Stella suddenly
understood Weston’s true feelings for her, she might not be willing to leave him voluntarily. With that in
mind, Warren sighed and added, "I know he’s treated you awfully in the past… Is it true that you were
pregnant at the time?" Stella’s eyes flickered.
"Mm-hmm," she replied tersely.
"You’ve mentioned that you can never get pregnant again because of that incident. Is that true?" The
regret and sympathy in the old man’s voice only managed to reopen Stella’s old wounds, and all those
excruciating memories came flooding back into her mind. Stella lowered her eyes to avoid his eye
contact. She was no longer in the mood to talk.
"All I want to know," she said in a flat voice,"is whether I can really run away on the wedding day, and if
I do, will Weston find me again?"
"Don’t worry," he assured her.
"As long as you keep to the plan, everything will go smoothly." He then paused and hesitated before
adding, "There’s only one thing I need to ask you."
"What is it?"
"We both know that Guinevere has done terrible things in the past, but her family has close ties with the
Ford family. Besides, she used to be engaged to Weston too. They even have a child together .. so…
no matter what, she’s still Zachary’s mother…"
"You can get straight to the point," she interrupted him. She loathed hearing that name he mentioned.
"It’s nothing much, really," Warren said, stroking his beard.
"It’s just that Guinevere has been unstable lately. Even her family doesn’t know how to deal with her,
and she’s their only child too. The truth is, Guinevere has asked.. if she could attend your wedding."
Stella was about to pick up the teacup and take a sip, but Warren’s words made her pause. She then
burst into peals of laughter
"She wants to come to the wedding? Wouldn’t that just worsen her condition?" Stella wasn’t
completely clear about Guinevere’s mental state, but she knew that it had always served Guinevere
well by being the perfect excuse to get whatever she wanted. She could easily get Weston to go to her
whenever she wanted and even use it to guilt trip Stella into letting her attend the wedding "I don’t
know what young people like you are thinking," Warren shook his head.
"But in my opinion, I don’t think Guinevere is asking for too much. She even said that all she wanted
was to see Weston’s bride walk down the aisle, even if she couldn’t be that bride herself.". This
revelation left a bad taste in Stella’s mouth. Try as she might, she just couldn’t bring herself to agree to
it.
"Perhaps you should ask Weston about it," she suggested instead. "After all, it isn’t just my wedding
we’re talking about. It’s his wedding too."
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