by Jerilee Kaye
“What if he…took advantage of me? What if he harassed me?”
Justin shook his head. “His real name is Jordan. He’s my cousin. We grew up together and he almost lived with me. He may be a menace most of the time, but I know he’s not capable of doing that.”
Adrienne stared back at Justin. His eyes were now dancing and she didn’t think she’s seen him so happy before.
“You’re going to pay for that!” she said to him crossly.
He grinned at her. “Now that I know who my parents wanted me to marry, I am willing to pay the price no matter how high.”
Adrienne narrowed her eyes at him. Then without warning, she slapped him. He was taken back a bit. But when he turned to her again, he was still grinning. His eyes were dancing and he looked like nothing she would say or do would dampen his spirit or wipe out his happiness.
“I wanna kill you!” she said to him and a part of her really wanted to do that for putting her through the worst afternoon and evening of her life. Then she stared up at him and said, “But maybe later,” she said and she pulled him to her and kissed his lips.
His arms wrapped around her waist and he pulled her to him as he deepened their kiss. When that kiss ended he took a deep breath and inhaled the scent of her. “God, I missed you.”
Adrienne sighed contentedly. “I missed you, too. Just a while ago…I was praying you would be happy. I was praying that God gives you a miracle.”
He chuckled. “Your prayers are powerful. God must like you the most.”
She couldn’t believe what just happened. A few minutes back, she thought that he lost his battle. She was heartbroken when she found out that her mother had betrothed her to somebody against her will. She wondered…if she hadn’t gotten lost all throughout these years, would her mother still insist she marries her best friend’s son? If she hadn’t met Justin before she found out her real identity, they would be forced to like each other enough to spend the rest of their lives together…even if there was no love between them.
Justin pushed back a lock of stray hair away from her face. “You look beautiful, honey,” he said. “I know now…that you’re really Andrea Blanc. But you will always be Adrienne to me…my Adrienne.”
Adrienne smiled bitterly. “My mother said that my real birth papers say that I’m Andrea Blanc. My passports say Adrienne Miller. But that’s not my real name. It was the fake name my father picked out for me to prevent my mother from finding me. Now, I don’t know what name I should really use.”
Justin stared at her thoughtfully, feeling her confusion, and her pain for the way her life had been. It’s never easy to know you have two different identities and you don’t know which one really fits.
He smiled at her and said, “Let’s do something about that, shall we?”
Adrienne didn’t get what he meant by that. But then he pulled away from her. He stared at her seriously, took a deep breath and then slowly, he went down on one knee.
Adrienne sucked in a deep breath. Her heart pounded loudly inside her ribcage, she could almost hear it. She had to hold on to the rails beside her, as she no longer trusted her knees to support her weight.
Justin took something from his pocket. It was a small black box. He opened it in front of her and she saw a gleaming five carat diamond ring.
Justin took a deep breath again. “There are a million things I wanted to tell you. A hundred lines I thought I would say whenever I imagined the moment that I would finally propose to you…for real. But right now, all I can say is that I love you, Adrienne…I love you…very, very much. I said this to you before, and I’m going to say it again now…you’re the one I want to spend the rest of my life with. I never want to let you go. No matter how many times you set me free. I had planned to propose to you after I convinced my folks that there was no way they could force me to take another bride. But now…by some miracle, I don’t need to do that anymore.
“But I am saying these things to you not because our families arranged for this. But because this is what I want…for the rest of my life. I love you so much, I’m willing to give up everything for you…I live for you…I’m willing to die for you. You are my life…now, forever, always.” There were tears in his eyes when he said those words. Then with a wistful look in his eyes, he added, “You don’t have to choose which of your names you should use. Will you let me change it to the name that rightfully belongs to you…the one that suits you the best? Will you be Adrienne Adams? Will you marry me?”
Tears rolled down Adrienne’s eyes. She wanted to find her voice right away but she couldn’t stop crying. Justin’s eyes were filled with tears, too, as he held his breath for her answer.
“Yes.” she said when she finally found her voice. “You know I will!” And she knelt in front of him, throwing herself in his arms.
He caught her and wound his arms around her. He hugged her tightly, burying his face against her hair, as she buried hers against his chest.
They savored that moment. They’re engaged. Not by some sort of arranged marriage. Not in the hypothetical pretend world. But for real. In this bizarre turn of events, their alternate universe, where they are betrothed to each other and planned to spend the rest of their lives together without obstacles…just came true.
Adrienne pulled away from Justin and looked into his eyes. He smiled tearfully, as he took her hand and slipped the ring on her finger. It fit her perfectly.
Justin leaned forward and slowly, kissed her lips…thoroughly…passionately. And Adrienne wished that kiss would never end. When it did, he stood up on his feet and pulled her up with him. Then he picked her up and spun her around. She was crying and giggling at the same.
When Justin put her down on her feet, she wiped the tears on her cheeks and admired the gleaming rock on her finger.
“It’s beautiful,” she said to him.
“So are you,” Justin whispered to her. “That was my mother’s engagement ring. She gave it to me before I came up here. She was really hoping that you and Justin J. had hit it off.” He chuckled.
“Yes. I came so close to hitting him…with a titanium alloy bat!” Adrienne said.
Justin laughed. “And I believe that. Jordan actually told me you were quite feisty. Knowing now that it was you…you made me so proud.”
“On his business card, it said Justin J.” Adrienne said. “What does the J. stand for?”
“My middle name, Jeffrey,” Justin answered. “My twin died a few days after he was born. My mother thought to give me his name so he would always live in our memories…through me.”
“Why didn’t you put your surname on the business card then?” Adrienne asked.
“Are you kidding me? If that card leaked out with my full name on it, I’ve just committed social suicide!” Justin said.
Adrienne laughed. “That card was a sure way to turn a girl off.”
“That was Ian’s idea.” Justin said.
“Your cousins actually helped you out in giving me the worst hours of my life?”
“We were trying to mess up with Andrea Blanc. And it worked, right?”
Adrienne nodded. “You got me at ‘machito’,” she said, now giggling at the memory of her afternoon meeting with Jordan, alias N-1-9-8-9.
Justin raised a brow at her, clearly not getting what she meant by that.
“When Jordan ordered coffee at the shop, he asked for a ‘machito’, instead of a ‘macchiato’. I thought he was such a moron.”
Justin laughed. “He is good. There is absolutely no way he could mistake a ‘macchiato’. Their family owns a huge coffee shop chain in the States.”
Adrienne shook her head. “I cannot believe you guys!” she said. “Your cousins are going to be the death of me.”
Justin laughed. “Ian and Gian liked you—Adrienne. So they went out of their way to make Andrea Blanc pay.”
“If you sent Gian, our problem would have been solved earlier.”
“If you answered my calls or actually returned
my messages and told me the whole thing about your real identity, we would have ended this before you even met Jordan.”
“I was a mess during those times. The whole thing about my family was just overwhelming. Why didn’t you call me after that then?”
“Because it was part of my agreement with my Dad. I couldn’t contact you. I was supposed to be focusing all my attentions in making my fiancée fall in love with me. I didn’t want to break that promise because I didn’t want him to find out just exactly what I was doing. Until I accomplished my mission, of course.”
“Congratulations! Mission accomplished!” Adrienne smiled. “What did you plan to do at this party now that you’re showing up as yourself and without the aid of Mischief Jordan?”
“Something that would make Andrea Blanc wish she was engaged to the fake Justin instead. At least he was a little bit funny.”
Adrienne narrowed her eyes at him. “Really? You’d leave the gentleman cloak behind just to make her hate you?”
“Desperate times call for desperate measures, honey.” Justin grinned at her. “I’d rather live in shame than in misery for the rest of my life.”
“Jill told me when she saw you at Blush, you were looking…rather chirpy. You didn’t look miserable at all.”
“Of course. Jordan fed me with news of how my designated fiancée never wanted to see me again. The plan was working. And I couldn’t wait for the whole thing to be over so I could be with you.”
“If you asked him to take a picture of me, we would have been out of this misery earlier.”
“I didn’t need a picture. I didn’t need to know what she looked like. I wasn’t interested.”
Adrienne sighed. “I can’t believe our parents did this to us.”
Justin touched her cheek with his fingers. “It was hell for me, Adrienne. I could count the number of days I actually stayed sober—with one hand.”
Adrienne bit her lip and her heart went out to Justin. She touched his cheek with her hand and he turned sideways to kiss the inside of her palm.
“I think I’d drink every night, too, if I didn’t find out about my new family. It was painful to know the truth about myself. But I was at least thankful that it provided me a little distraction. And of course… now I understand why my sister and my mom never really liked me.”
“Adrienne…”
“Hmmm…” Adrienne stared up at Justin.
“We’re never going to arrange our kids’ marriages,” he said. “We will let them find their own happiness. Let them be free to choose the person who would make them happy.”
Adrienne smiled. “I totally agree,” she said. “My mother arranged my own marriage when I was two. Now that she found me again…she thought I should try to fall in love with my fiancé first. If I hadn’t gone M.I.A., I wonder if she would have enforced this…the way your parents did.”
“Judging by the way my mother was so adamant about this…maybe.”
“Your parents are going to be so happy about this, aren’t they?” Adrienne asked.
Justin stared at her for a while. Then he nodded. “They will be ecstatic. Our mothers would think that it was right to meddle with our lives. My father would be gloating in front of me and they would probably arrange the wedding of the century by tomorrow.”
Adrienne’s eyes widened. “Do you think they would?”
“I know my parents, Adrienne. And I think I may even know your mother more than you do. I’ve known her longer than you have,” Justin observed. “And yes…they would be so damn proud of this! And they wouldn’t even feel sorry for the hell they put us through.”
“You’re right. It was only because of a miracle that we fell in love ahead of the time they set to introduce us to each other… but in any other ordinary circumstance, both of us would have been devastated, wouldn’t we?”
Justin nodded. “Yes,” he whispered. Then he took a deep breath and pulled her to him. He planted a long kiss on her lips and then he asked, “Do you trust me, Adrienne?”
She smiled against his lips. “With all my heart, Justin.”
He pulled away from her and smiled. “Good.” Then he took her hand in his and pulled her towards the exits.
“Where are we going?” she asked him.
He turned back to her and smiled, “Remember my last text message to you?” he asked.
She nodded. “Of course.”
“We still have two weeks,” he said.
“Yes…yes we do.”
Justin stepped closer to her. With a mischievous grin on his face, he said, “Well, I don’t think I can wait two more weeks… Mrs. Adams.” And he gave her a kiss that blew her mind and took her breath away.
35. Rhedeg i ffwrdd
Welsh for Running Away
Two hours later, Adrienne was at the airport with Justin. She wasn’t thinking. She didn’t care. She knew it was wrong in some way. But she felt tired of doing everything that everybody around her expected of her. She lived with a stepmother who never saw anything good in what she did, a father who didn’t know how to stand up for her, and now she had a mother who mapped out her future without even telling her. Maybe the time had come for her to think about herself. Time to follow her heart and go after what she wanted. And that’s Justin.
Jin walked in to the lobby of the airport, carrying a small bag with him. She texted him that she left the party and she needed him to bring some of her stuff to the airport.
He looked at her with a sober expression on his face.
“I hope you know what you’re doing, Adrienne,” he said to her.
“I don’t,” she said to him. “But for the first time in my life, I’m just…doing what I want.”
He smiled at her and looked over at the counter where Justin was, booking their flights.
“And it’s him?” he asked.
Adrienne nodded. Then she asked him, “Jin…did you know that Mom arranged a marriage for me?”
Jin raised a brow. “No. If I knew, I would have done something about it. I’m against arranged marriages, Adrienne. I knew Mom played matchmaker. But I didn’t know she’d already sentenced you.”
Adrienne nodded. “She told me at the party.”
Jin smiled. “She was so worried. She didn’t know how to tell Christine that you didn’t want to go through with it. But then, you didn’t show up at the party and texted me that you left. Now, she feels so guilty that she scared you off.”
“Oh my God, Jin.” Her hand went to her mouth. “Is she okay?”
Jin grinned. “She’ll be okay. Let’s make her contemplate on what she’s done for a while. She can’t meddle with our lives like this.”
“Do they know?”
“That the guy they set you up with was already your boyfriend?” Jin asked. He shook his head. “Only I know. Because when your betrothed showed up at the soiree, I immediately recognized him. I remembered him from the bar the first time I met you. I didn’t know he was the Justin Adams, whose family had been so close to us all these years. But I wouldn’t tell her that, Yen. Let’s enjoy this little joke to ourselves for a while.” He grinned.
“What about Justin’s parents?”
Jin stared over to where Justin stood again. “I think…his phone has rung non-stop. I won’t be the one to break the news to them. If you ask me, our mother and his parents all deserved to be taught a lesson.” Then Jin winked at her. He handed her a small bag. “I just grabbed whatever I could. Your IDs, wallet and passport are in the pocket. Where are you going, anyway?”
Adrienne smiled at Jin uncertainly. For the first time, she didn’t know where her destination was, but she had complete faith in Justin. She trusted him with her heart, and now, she’s trusting him with her life.
“I don’t know. I don’t care. Right now, I just…wanna be with him.”
“I told Mom that I thought you ran away and that I was going to come after you. I’ll probably just tell her you wanted to go back to New York and think for a while. After all…all th
is hoopla could be overwhelming, too. I’m sure she should give you time considering she kept it from all of us how she tried to manipulate your future.”
“Jin, please don’t let her think that she’s going to lose me again. This is just… something that I have to do. I broke up with Justin a couple of weeks ago because his family arranged for him to marry somebody else. His family disowned him. I couldn’t do that to him. So I gave him up so he could get to know the girl chosen by his parents for him. And it almost tore me apart. He didn’t give up on me though. He fought for me nevertheless.
“I hurt Justin when I gave him up. We’ve been through the worst in our lives. I need to make this up to him, now that I know his parents will no longer disown him if he chooses to be with me.” Adrienne took a deep breath. “I just want us to savor this moment.”
Jin nodded. “As long as you’re happy, Yen.” He leaned forward and gave her a hug. “I hate it that I just got you back and now he’s taking you away from me,” he whispered and his voice really did have a trace of sadness.
“You won’t lose me, Jin,” Adrienne said, tears welling up in her eyes as she hugged her brother back.
“I know. But when I see you again, I have a feeling you’ll be…Adrienne Adams. Impressive ring, by the way. Congratulations.”
She giggled then she pulled away from him. “Take care of Mom, okay? Don’t let her get too sad. Yes, she shouldn’t have meddled with my life like this. But I don’t want her to be depressed. Besides, she already apologized to me and promised to call it off.”
Jin nodded. “Of course. I don’t agree with what she did, but she’s still our Mom. She deserves to know that her plan worked out after all…well, after feeling sorry about it, of course.”
Justin appeared behind them. He looked at Jin for a while and then he extended his hand to him.
“I’m Justin.” he said to Jin.
