The next day Aubree woke up with dark circles under her eyes. It being the first time she left home in so many years and the first time she slept in a different place; she couldn’t sleep well at all last night.
She wanted to go to Sydney, but she felt she shouldn’t disturb him as he must be very tired too and stayed in her room all night.
“Aubree, did you sleep well last night?” Sydney entered her room as she was washing her face.
Seeing her dark circles reflected in the mirror, he immediately thought he should have been more considerate of her comfort.
“How can I go to a wedding looking like this?” She pouted and grumbled like a child.
“Of course, you can go, don’t worry.” Sydney comforted her.
Only then she regained some of her confidence. She never doubted Sydney’s words; everything he said was the sacred truth to her.
The wedding venue was a little far away in the suburbs. There were no signals and not a lot of traffic so the ride was very smooth. Aubree fell asleep in the car lying in Sydney’s arms.
When she woke up, she was alone in the car and was still draped in Sydney’s coat.
She got out of the car and curiously looked around at her unfamiliar surroundings, a little afraid of the unknown place.
It looked like a backyard. There were no people around, and she didn’t know where to go. She wore Sydney’s coat and found a swing to sit on.
Sitting in the swing she swayed gently.
She had her guard completely down, so much that didn’t even hear someone coming towards her from behind.
Suddenly, someone pushed her hard on her back, and the swing that was swaying gently increased in speed all at once. Aubree clenched the swing’s chains in panic. If she hadn’t been careful, she would have fallen down.
“Who is it? Stop the swing now!” Aubree’s cheeks were red, and her heart had fallen down to her stomach. She was scared.
“Who are you? You tell me and I will let you go.” An unkind male voice came from behind her, coupled with a teasing laugh.
“Let… let me down and I will tell you!” Aubree tried to look back at the owner of that voice, but was pushed again and the swing increased in velocity.
“I came with Uncle Sydney!” She felt like she would fly off the swing at any moment and had to scream it with her eyes closed.
As soon as she said that the man really stopped.
Aubree dug her heels into the ground to stop the swing quickly. She jumped off, her eyebrows knitted together in anger, and adjusted her skirt.
“Oh! So, it’s you!” The man said. He was tall and at the first glance he looked quite similar to Sydney. However, the more she looked the different he felt from Sydney.
Aubree was a little annoyed. She didn’t like talking to strangers.
“The girl Sydney adopted and kept hidden all this time, he brought her here himself. That is great!”
“Sydney has always been as stubborn as his mother!”
The man sneered, looking at her carefully. He was busy looking at Aubree and didn’t pay attention to several men walking out of the corner behind him.
“Josiah! You are going to be Thirty soon, why are you still playing with kids?”
When Aubree saw them approach, she stepped back subconsciously.
Their tone and body language seemed quite similar to Sydney. She thought about the possibility of them being Sydney’s cousins?
The person who was called Josiah was Sydney’s sixth cousin. He and Sydney were only a month apart in age, so the elders liked to compare them a lot. Every time he was compared to Sydney as if he was worthless.
He was just passing by when he saw an extremely beautiful girl swinging in the backyard. He just came over to tease her on a whim, he didn’t expect even in his wildest dreams for her to be related to Sydney.
“Who is she?” One of the men saw Aubree, even though she had retreated to a distance, trying to avoid being seen. However, she was so eye-catching that she was discovered quickly.
“Sydney’s girl.” Josiah deliberately raised his eyebrows on the word “girl” to emphasize that the relationship was unclear between her and Sydney.
Among the brothers, Josiah hated Sydney the most. As long as something was Sydney’s, he always wanted to have it.
The brothers all exchanged glances, looked at Josiah and then they all left without saying anything.
As they walked away, Aubree exhaled a sigh of relief. She was scared to death just now. Having experienced what she had to when she was a child and two years ago, she felt incredibly fearful whenever she saw a group of men together.
However, Josiah turned around and walked towards her for some reason.
“Come on, I will take you to Sydney!”