The remarks surprise me. I look at James in shock, but James is very calm.
He knows it all along!
“How could I not know who she is? Carolina is so familiar to me. I know her every move and every detail. Do you think she can really fool me?” James smiles at Isabel.
I stand behind him with no expression on my face except shock.
Isabel looks at me like a poisonous snake. “My son is so smitten with you. Carolina, you’ve been waiting a long time for this.”
“Yes, I wait for it for a long time.” I say. But I still couldn’t look James in the eyes. I am afraid of him.
James smiles at me all the time.
“I hate you; I hate you for ruining my family! My father wouldn’t have died if it hadn’t been for you! Mom wouldn’t have killed herself! You killed them! Today is a punishment for you! How’s that? Feeling sad? I am ten thousand times sadder than you!” I smile at Isabel with a vindictive smile. I just don’t want to make her happy.
“Son, did you see? This is the woman you like, and she is plotting against you and your mother! How can you be with a woman like her? You must wake up from the reality!” Isabel takes James’s hand but glares at me. “She and I are absolutely irreconcilable!”
“Mom, you know what you’ve done,” James says with frustration. “Do you think you can still control all this? I’m in charge of the Orlando Group now. I’m not who I used to be.” James squeezes Isabel’s hand hard and looks back at me.
I look away.
I can see James’s helplessness. There is his mother on the one side, and there is me on the other. However, there is no possibility between James and me.
Porter stays on the side without saying anything. He just gazes at Isabel gently.
I know he loves Isabel, no matter what she has become.
Unlike me and James, our problems are not so easy to deal with.
“Don’t you feel ridiculous by being fooled by such a woman?” Isabel smiles and takes her hand away from James’s. “My silly son, you’ll regret it one day.”
“Let’s wait and see.” James says.
“Her or me? You choose it yourself. I won’t make her feel any better.” Isabel gives me a cold smile.
“Well, me too.” I smile back at Isabel’s cold smile.
“She made me lose what I want to have, and I will make suffer what I suffer one day.” Isabel adjusts her clothes, and continues, “Let’s wait and see.”
What is in sight is a messy wedding. The guests have left, and the groom left in embarrassment.
“I will get back what I want, and revenge for my humiliation of today!” Isabel glares at me and walks slowly out, followed by Porter.
There are only James and me now.
There is nothing I could do about James. I look at him and want to get out of here right away.
“Carolina, how much longer do you want to pretend?” James’s voice sounds behind me.
I pause.
“Do you think I’m a fool? How could I not recognize you? You are the woman I love the most in my life. Even if you turn to ashes, I know it is you.” James says, gritting his teeth.
I dare not to look back.
“It’s ridiculous to think about it now. I didn’t realize that you have recognized me.” I smile sadly.
I didn’t know that James has acted with me all the time. He knew it was me but he didn’t reveal my lies. He would even pretend he didn’t know it was me.
“What do you mean, Carolina?” James grabs me by the shoulder and makes me look at him.
“Look me in the eye! His eyes are so sharp that make me feel scared. I couldn’t help but look back.
“Will you really forget me? Don’t you ever miss me? Don’t you feel unreconciled if we are over? We are still in love!” James is yelling, in the empty church, at me, speaking his mind.
“But I can’t live without you.” He looks at me with pleading.
I look down and try to push James’s hand away, but I couldn’t get it off.
I feel my heart broken, but what can I do?
“You kill my father, and your mother will not accept me, and won’t bless us. Maybe when one of us dies, it will have an end. You ask me to be with you? Do you think that’s possible? Don’t be naive.” I sneer.
In fact, I have fantasized about the scenes with him for countless times. Ella, James and I are a happy family, but this is just a fantasy.
James despairs, but then he looks horrible and looks at me darkly. “There is no end between you and me.”
“No. There is no future between us. Being together is a waste of time. Don’t pester me! You have a fiancé, and you’re getting married soon.” I could not help feeling jealous.
James smiles, “You care about me.”
“Whatever.” I don’t want to tangle with him. I just want to leave as soon as possible.
James looks at me crazily, as if threatening me, “Who is Ella’s father? I’ll know it soon. Although you changed her date of birth, you can’t change her gene.”
“What do you want to do? I look at him warily.
James says, “I just want to know if she’s my daughter. If she is, I’m going to have to do something about it. After all, we didn’t spend the years together. It’s time to build a relationship.”
“She’s not your child! No!” The thing I fear most finally happens. Why don’t I hide Ella at the beginning?
I turn and run away. I want to hide Ella. She is my baby! Is mine!
“Carolina!” It is easy for James to grab me and hold me in his arms. He hugs me as hard as if I am going to disappear the next second.
“Isn’t it good for you, me and Ella to live together?” James’s voice trembles, “She’s my daughter, isn’t she? Isn’t it?”
“No! I close my eyes in his arms.
I won’t admit it. I never will.
“Is it?” James says, “Anyway, I’ll know right away.”
“Let go of me. I’m going home.” His embrace is so warm. It once made me obsessive; even now I still can’t resist it.
“Good, I’ll go back with you.” James let go of me and smiles.
But I see something crazy in his smile.
I walk out in a trance, with James right behind me.
How to do? I can’t let James touch Ella anymore. I won’t let it happen.
“Come on, where do you want to go?” James helps me open the car door.
I sit down uneasily.
“Go back, go home.” I say.
I secretly send Morley a message in the car, telling him to pick Ella up from the kindergarten and hide her. I have to do that for the time being.
But James doesn’t go home.
But to Ella’s kindergarten.
“I think this is the best time for the three of us to be together. James says.
No, no.
I sit in the car and don’t move.
“Or do you mean I can’t see Ella here?” James looks at me.
Why didn’t I hide Ella well before? Why did I let Ella meet James? Why? I hate myself.
And then Morley sends me a message that makes me even more devastated.
“But Ella isn’t in the kindergarten.”
What?
My hand shake and I look back at James, who smiles but looks gloomy.
He points to Morley nearby and says, “You want him to hide Ella, don’t you?”
He knows it!
“But Ella is not in kindergarten at all.” James says, looking cold.
It’s he! He has already taken Ella away! He drives to kindergarten just to show me how stupid I am.
“James, did you take Ella?” I look at him with hate, “Why did you do that!”
James stares at Morley, growing more sinister. “This man has been by your side for years.”
“So what?” I provoke him on purpose.
James’s evil smile spreads across his face. “Why does my daughter call him Daddy? She can’t even call him godfather!”
“Ella is not yours! No!” I shout wildly.
“Carolina!” James turns sharply to cover my mouth, and his eyes are red. “Don’t you think you’re cruel? Why don’t you let me know you are alive these years! Do you know I’ve been looking for you every day? I didn’t believe you were dead. I always had the feeling that you are alive! Do you want to get back at me when you know Ella is my child and don’t let her recognize me as her father?”
I couldn’t speak, only to stare at him.
“I hate you Carolina, I hate you!” says James gritting his teeth, and his eyes are suddenly wet.
Tears roll down my face.
I freeze, stop struggling, and stare at him.
I’ve never seen James so sad.
“You know how I’ve lived through these years? Carolina you are so cruel!” He says, leaning lightly against me. “I hate you so much that I want to kill you.”