The Billionaire's Authentic Daughter ▶️

9 4 | J U L I A

The island loomed in view. It was tiny but beautiful. Although I had wanted to be here before desperately, right now I wanted to be as far away from it as possible.

I gave another pleading look to Darius but he just stared ahead at the approaching island with hands on his hips. "Please," I said to him.

"For the last time, Julia, no we aren't going to turn around this yacht because you changed your mind about coming here after practically forcing me to go with you."

"But you didn't want to come here at all so let's just go back," I protested.

"Yes, but that was before you dragged me halfway here. You didn't listen to me so I'm not going to listen to you either."

He glanced at me from the corner of his eyes, then sighed. "I don't know why you suddenly don't want to see him anymore but that's not going to do either of you any good. You need to talk to him and clear the misunderstanding before it drives a permanent wedge between your...friendship," he said, hesitating on the last word.

I knew Darius was right but was there really anything to talk about between us when he'd made it clear he didn't want anything to do with me by tossing the pendant away like trash?

If it meant anything to him, he wouldn't have taken it off at all, just like how he hadn't since the day I gave him. Up until now apparently.

Too soon we arrived at the island sometime around noon. There was a sweltering heat and the warmth of the sand radiated toward us in hot waves. There were a couple of tiny huts on the beach. There were a few houses, one of which could be Braxton's. The vegetation was abundant and it truly looked to be a beautiful place to relax and be alone at. It must be nice to own a place here and to be able to go whenever they needed to get away from things.

Darius took our few belongings off the yacht and after we paid Norman he took my hand in his and pulled me toward the houses after seeing I wasn't going to get a move on.

He led me into a big house and I was left staring around in awe because it was quaint and pretty. He dumped our bags on the couch and turned to me.

"This is Braxton's place here," he said.

"And you have a key?"

"Yes, for emergencies like this."

"He doesn't seem to be home," I said hopefully.

"He's mostly outside during the day, doing whatever interests him. You can go freshen up and we can wait for him or I can show you around the island where hopefully we'll run into him."

I didn't like the idea of seeing him now but there was more chance of that here than outside where he could be anywhere. I just had to wait a few hours for Darius to get over his vacation feels and then we could go home. I had initially planned on staying here for no more than four hours anyway.

Darius was already waiting for me after I was done freshening up and ogling every part of the house.

I was relieved when we left the house without Braxton showing up. Darius took me to the beach.

"When are we leaving?" I asked and he threw an annoyed look at me.

"Not unless we talk to Braxton, for sure," he replied and I groaned.

Approaching Darius for Braxton's location was a mistake. I should've just gone to Park Geun. He was so sweet. He would've given me exactly what I wanted without imposing me with his presence but that would've mostly been because of his acrophobia. Maybe he wouldn't have liked the height of the yacht from the ocean.