Surprise

Chapter 4

"Son, meet Alexa Donald, my fiancé and your soon-to-be stepmother."

The look on his face was everything I had been expecting. His eyes widened as he glanced at me, then at his father, and then back to me.

"I—"

He was speechless, good. That was what I wanted.

"Hello Mark, it's nice to finally meet you, I've heard a lot about you from Oliver," I stretched my arm out for a handshake and he glanced at it.

"Oliver?" He questioned quizzically, furrowing his brows.

"Sit down son, I called you here to introduce an additional member of our family," Oliver said to Mark who had been standing in a daze like a statue

Oliver reached out to brush my hair down and tuck a stray lock behind my ear. The intimate gesture alarmed me, but I quickly realized that everything was to make Mark jealous and I grinned at him.

Turns out, Oliver knew who I was and what had happened.

That evening at the club, he had finally revealed that he thought I looked familiar when he saw me on the day he nearly ran me over and went it was later he realized that I was Mark's girl.

He finally found out about Kiara's and Mark's betrayal and was thinking of a way to reach out to me when he surprisingly found me at the club.

The offer he had proposed was for us to date. We were going to make everything so real that everyone would think it was real and Mark was going to get jealous.

Mark was looking at us wordlessly, he was smiling but I could see the hurt in his eyes.

Oliver smoothly wrapped an arm behind my waist and pulled me to his side. The gesture was oddly reassuring even though it was another embellishment to our act.

"I thought I wouldn't get to fall in love after losing your mother, that was until I met her." He smiled and then Continued.

"I couldn't let her get away. She didn't make it easy on me but I quickly convinced her."

He gave me a meaningful but teasing look and I flushed.

"Well, When Oliver has his mind set on something, nothing can stop him. It was a little overwhelming at first, but I like a decisive guy."

Mark hurriedly gulped down the wine in his glass and faked another smile.

"Well, I'm happy for you both."

Brunch went by silently, with Mark occasionally giving me weird looks and Oliver displaying his 'affection' for me.

"But Dad, isn't she too young for you?" Mark finally asked, I was beginning to wonder if he wouldn't talk about that as I was already expecting it.

"Too young?"

"She's like times two of your age!" He exclaimed and I glanced at Oliver.

He shrugged. "Love doesn't care about age. Besides, there are people out there who get married to people times three or even times four of their age."

"But—"

"But what, Mark?" I glanced at him and I could see him clench his jaw.

"This is different!"

"How so?"

"It's—I—" he was stuttering. It was obvious he didn't know what to say.

"She is going to be officially a part of this family in a few week's time and I expect you to treat her with all the respect she deserves as your stepmother. With all your expensive schooling, I imagine you won't have any trouble being polite and well-mannered," he said in a firm voice.

I felt Oliver's glare burn a hole through me as his Adam's apple bobbed up and down, without saying anything.

"Do you understand!" Oliver barked and he nodded.

"Yes, father."

After that, we ate in silence.

Later that day, Oliver was talking to me, but I could still feel Mark's gaze on me.

Suddenly his phone rang and he excused himself and stood up to go take the call.

It wasn't long after and I felt Mark seated beside me.

"Lexie," he said huskily and I hissed as I turned to him.

"How can I help you, Mark?"

"I get that you're angry, sad and you're hurt about what happened, but that doesn't mean that you should do this."

"Do what, Mark?" I raised a brow as I dropped the glass of wine I was holding.

"This!" He flung his arms.

"Dating my father? You're making a big mistake here," he said and I scoffed.

"Look, I care about you so much and I'm sorry that I..," he sighed and I peered at his face.

"Look, if this is about Kiara, we need to talk, I've been looking for you ever since.."

I cut in quickly."Congratulations to you and Kiara, but I'm not here to talk about that…" I was still saying when I felt someone's hand on my waist.

I smiled upon seeing who it was.

"My love," he leaned in and pecked me on the cheeks.

From the corner of my eyes, I saw him walk towards the main house and I smiled In satisfaction.

I had heard that he was getting married to Kiara in a few week's time.

"What are you thinking about?" Oliver's voice broke my reverie and I smiled as I glanced at him.

"Nothing."

"Mmm, sure about that? I hope you aren't thinking about him?" I glanced at him with a knowing look in my eye.

I loved Mark, so much, and being under the same roof with him was hard. Even though he had hurt me, I was still in love with him.

"Come here," he said, pulling me into his embrace.

"He was probably expecting you to be in a corner, bawling out your eyes. Very soon, he'll realize what he has lost." He said and then brought out a phone from his pocket.

"Look," he said, showing me his phone.

It was an invitation to a wedding. Kiara weds Mark.

"Wow!" I exclaimed as a song of sadness hit me. The K&M I had seen on the ring that day wasn't a brand name, it was their initials. Kiara and Mark.

I blinked back the tears that threatened to cascade down my face. I had been so foolish.

"It's going to be fine," he said, rubbing my hair in a comforting manner and I let the tears out.

The wedding was in a week and I wondered if she was pregnant. Perhaps that was why they were rushing the wedding.

"They want to rush their wedding," he voiced out my thoughts and I nodded.

"I think she's pregnant," I whispered as he gently used his thumb to wipe the tears off my eyes.

He looked at me skeptically and I nodded. I was pretty sure that was the reason they were getting married so quickly.

"Should we rush ours too?" He asked and I smiled.

We had spoken about getting married once and I had laughed over it. I wouldn't be able to live with myself if I had to stay in a marriage with a man whom I felt nothing for.

Not like I didn't feel anything, on the contrary, I felt some sort of spark whenever I was near him, but there was no way I was going to have anything with a man who was years older than me and who was also my ex-boyfriend's father. It just wasn't right.

And I wasn't going to be okay with deceiving everyone like that with a fake wedding.

I still didn't know why he was doing all this. He had nothing to gain from all these and was only helping me, but I had no idea why he was helping me. I had racked my brain for an answer but I had no idea.

"Why?" I questioned and he blinked as he stared at me.

"What?"

"Why are you doing this?"

"What?" He furrowed his brows and I sighed.

"All of these—helping me!" I pointed out and he smiled.

He held my hands and I swallowed hard as he looked at me with an unrecognizable look on his face.

"What do you think?"

What did I think? I had no idea what to think. I had thought that he just felt pity for me, but I wanted to be sure.

"I don't know—"

I couldn't complete my sentence

as he leaned in, bridging the distance between us as he claimed my lips with his.