“I don’t think I’ll be coming here anymore.”
Gwen smiled at the cleaner and gave her a wave.”
Goodbye!”
She turned and walked toward the security checkpoint. Steven stood still while looking at Gwen’s back. Suddenly, a weird feeling appeared in his heart as though he was reluctant to see Gwen leave. ‘Who am I to tell her to stay? I’m not her friend or anyone she knows,’ he thought.
He smiled sarcastically at his thoughts. At that moment, he felt like a stalker who followed a random woman.
He thus stopped entirely, and the thought of saying goodbye to her disappeared.
“Miss!”
Suddenly, the cleaner called out to Gwen. Gwen smiled and looked back. “What’s…”
Before she could finish her sentence, she saw the man standing near the cleaner. Her heart skipped a beat.
Gwen thought she was hallucinating again, but as she snapped out of her daze when the janitor called out to her again… She realized she was not dreaming. She bit her lip as she felt her figure shivering. She strode toward the direction Steven was in like she was running.
“Gwen!”
Bethan felt something was amiss when she noticed that Gwen had not returned after a while. She furrowed her brow as she called out Gwen’s name. When she looked back, she saw Gwen running toward a man.
She was shocked to see this and wondered what had gotten into Gwen again.
Thus, she quickly chased after Gwen. As she got closer, however, she finally saw the man’s face better, and her heart nearly leaped to her throat. ‘That’s… Steven Hughes? No. That’s not Steven Hughes! That’s Luke! That must be Luke!’ “Luke!”
Gwen was running toward Steven like a deranged woman. She hugged the evidently stunned Steven when she reached out to him. “I knew you weren’t dead! I knew it! Did you miss me? I missed you so much!” |
She placed her head on his chest as she wrapped her hands around Steven’s slim waist. Tears were rolling down her face. “Is this a dream, Luke? I don’t care if it’s a dream. I don’t want to wake up from this dream ever!
“Luke, I…”
She was crying so much that her tears soaked Steven’s clothes. “I missed you so much. I really, really missed you a lot!”
Steven furrowed his brow. ‘It’s that name again–Luke. She called me this name when she hugged me the last time when she was drunk.’
He furrowed his brow and wanted to push Gwen away. Nevertheless, Gwen hugged him so tightly that he could not separate himself from Gwen. People around them were starting to recognize him. “Isn’t that the eldest young master of the Hughes family?” “Isn’t he engaged with the young miss from the Miller family?” “Who is that woman in his arms, then?” “Oh my God. He’s not married yet, and he’s already hugging another woman in public!” “I feel sad for the young miss from the Miller family…”
Along with the discussion from the crowd, many people were taking photos of Steven and Gwen.
Luke’s face turned pale. He could not let those photos leak out to the public. His family was in the talk with Kate about their wedding, and if his family and Kate saw the photos, he would have had a hard time explaining the situation to them. Although he did not have any feelings for Kate, Kate had been waiting for him for five years and had worked hard to save his life. It was natural for him to be together with Kate for the rest of his life as a repayment.
Then again, what was he doing?
He furrowed his brow and tried to push Gwen away from him. Gwen looked slim and weak but she had a strong pair of arms. She was hugging Steven so tightly that Steven was unable to break free.
“Luke.”
Gwen was not about to let Steven go. “Please don’t push me away. Can’t I even make you stay in my dream?” } } “Miss, you’re not dreaming.”
Steven took a deep breath. He furrowed his brow and said helplessly, “Luke… He must be someone really important to you.”
Hearing Steven’s deep, low voice from above her head, Gwen’s arm around his waist loosened. That voice…was Luke’s. However, the way he talked, his tone, and his habits were a far cry from him.
Luke would never speak to her in this way. Instead, he would use her finger to pinch her nose and say dotingly, “Silly, did you miss me? I know you can’t leave me.”
To others, Luke was an apathetic man. To her, he was always a warm and caring man. The man that Gwen was hugging had a different tone, different way of speaking, and logic from Luke. Luke from the past would never address a woman so politely, even if he was speaking to outsiders.
Gwen took a deep breath and slowly loosened her arms around his waist. She cocked her head to look at the man in front of her.
His brow, eyes, nose, jaw, lips… Even the scar on his forehead and the scratch mark on his neck which was caused by Gwen… They were all identical to Luke’s.
She bit her lip and looked at the man in front of her warily. “Luke, what happened to you?”
By then, Bethan made her way toward them. The first thing she did was hold Gwen’s shoulder and looked at the man in front of her. If she thought this man looked similar to Luke previously…she was certain this man in front of her was Luke now that she was up close.
Two people could not possibly look this identical. This man was Luke! “Miss.”
Steven looked at Gwen helplessly, and then at the crowd around them.
He had tried to explain to Gwen when she was drunk that he was not Luke, yet Gwen was relentless. His explanation did not work, and he refused to reiterate or repeat himself to Gwen.
There were too many people around them with their phones out, and he was afraid they might have taken photos of what happened. Thus, he needed to explain it to Gwen in front of the crowd. He needed to make it clear that Gwen had mistaken him for someone else and that he did not betray Kate. He took a deep breath and said,”
Miss, I know the Luke that you mentioned is an important person to you, but I’m not the Luke you’re looking for. You probably don’t know me, so let me introduce myself.”
He took a step back and looked at Gwen solemnly. “My name is Steven Hughes. I’m the young master of the Hughes family, no longer single. I have a fiancee named Kate Miller, the young miss of the Miller family.”
After that, he took out his phone and showed Gwen the selfie he took with Kate with their faces pressed together. “This is me and my fiancee. We’ve been together for more than five years and are deeply in love. Our engagement and wedding are well underway, so I’m afraid you have the wrong person.”
Gwen felt like she was struck by thunder, petrified as she stood still, her mind going blank ‘How could that be? I can accept he is not Luke…but why is he saying he is Kate’s fiance! They’ve been together for five years? Bullshit! Kate was chasing after Luke before this, telling him how much she loved him more than a month ago, yet all this while, she’s been in love with this man for five years?!’ Gwen did not believe it. She could not believe what the man said.
She knew, without a shadow of a doubt, that the man she was looking at was Luke!
“Gwen.”
Bethan finally regained her senses after the shock she received when she first saw Steven up close. She bit her lip. Although she did not know why Luke had become Steven all of a sudden, this was not the time to discuss it.
After fighting her way through the onlookers, finally arriving where Gwen and Steven were, she furrowed her brow and spoke with a small voice, “Come, Gwen. Let’s go.”
Gwen, stunned to hear Bethan’s voice, quickly turned to look at Bethan excitedly. “Bethan, look! Luke! It’s Luke!”
She had lost her mind at this point and did not care how others perceived her. “I found Luke, Lulu! Are you seeing this? I found Luke!
“Did you know he was supposed to be here? Is that why you brought me here?”
Bethan’s heart throbbed as she faced her friend’s rambles. She bit her lip and looked at Steven while apologizing to him. “Mr. Hughes, my friend here had experienced something bad not long ago. So…”
She extended her hand out to grab Gwen’s hand. “Gwen, why don’t we leave?” she muttered under her breath. “There are too many people here.”
She tugged at Gwen’s hand, making her face the many onlookers encircling them. “You know it’s not good for Luke to expose his identity to so many people. You’re drawing too much attention by hugging him now. Let’s go back to the hotel first. We could go look for Luke where he stays later. Is that okay?”
Bethan’s words managed to draw Gwen’s lost mind back to reality. She bit her lip and looked at Bethan, then at Steven.
Finally, she extended her hand to grab Steven’s hand and said, “Then…you have to call me when you are back at home. Okay?”
Her eyes were sparkling with sadness and worry as she looked at him. Steven’s heart trembled lightly as he looked into Gwen’s eyes.
‘That legendary Luke… How important was he to her?’
This was not the first time he met this woman. Every time he did, she changed to another person when Luke’s name was mentioned, which was what was happening at this moment. No matter how he explained to her that he was not Luke, the woman did not listen to anything he said.
It was only when her friend came to tell her that Luke’s identity should not be known to the public did the woman mellow down. Not only did she let go of his hand, but she even told him that he must go look for her.
“Can you call me, please?”
Gwen started to panic when she saw ‘Luke’ did not answer her question. She bit her lip and looked at the man in front of her earnestly. “Luke, please come and find me. Please.”
Steven felt his heart skip a beat when he saw her clear, pure eyes. After a while, he nodded.”.
Okay.”
He could not bear to reject the woman when he saw the look on her face.
Once Gwen heard his promise, she turned and left with Bethan.
As the two women were out of his sight, he cocked his head and glared at the onlookers around him coldly. “I know you’re all thinking it’s a good chance for you to sell the story that I was hugging a woman, who’s not my fiancee in public, to the media. However…”
He curled up his lips into a smile as a ruthless glint flashed through his eyes. “You should all know that woman had mistaken me for another person.”
“Those people who stood nearer to us should’ve heard everyone. She was calling me Luke, but as you all know, I’m Steven Hughes. That woman had just lost her loved one, so she’s not of a sound mind. Understandably, she had mistaken me for her loved one, and I don’t intend to seek compensation from her. But…”
Steven paused a while before continuing, “If anyone here escalated this issue to a different level that it affects my relationship with my fiancee, or–God forbid– the cooperation between the Miller family and my family… I think not only will I sue that person, but I’ll also make sure they’ll have a hard time living in this city.”
Coldness appeared in his eyes, the intensity matching his tone. “If any of you isn’t afraid to offend me, my family, or the Miller family, you’re free to post what happened to social media or sell it to the media.”
Instantly, no one dared to make a sound. The onlookers exchanged looks with each other, visibly intimidated by this ominous taunt.
As the onlookers dispersed, Steven had an incoming call. It was his assistant calling him. “Sir, did you go and pick up Dr. Liddell? Her plane has landed, and she’s already at the airport. Where are you?” his assistant asked.
Steven smacked his forehead in realization; he came to pick up Dr. Liddell!
New Book: Back Home to Marry Off Myself
Loredana’s father left the family for his mistress, leaving them to fend for themselves abroad. When life was at its toughest, her father showed up with “good news” after 8 years of absence: To marry off Loredana to a paralyzed son of the wealthy Mendelsohn family.