She Is Not Her

Chapter 48

Chapter 48

Adria's POV:

A girl tried to catch the bouquet but was pushed by Andrea. The next thing I know was it coming right in front of my face and I did the last thing I wanted to do, I caught it.

There were cheers and hoots from the audience and a few pats on my back too. I hated it. I hate attention but now I was the centre of it.

I gulped and looked at Austin, his poker face now gone and replaced by a smirk. He realises a toast in my direction making me go all red. Andrea gave me a side hug which was not really a hug but her attempt to hold me and drag me aside from the crowd of people who were on the stage.

If I thought the attention was bad, I was wrong.

The silence after it was worse. It was awkward after that, no one really talked to me. I thought Charlie would pounce on me and start bombarding me with questions and complaints about why I didn't even give her a call all these years. I thought Damon would kill me the moment he see me as I once stabbed his son. I thought Augustus would start fighting with me again and I'd be receiving hate all over. But nothing like that happened after Andrea dragged me away from the crowd all the attention shifted to the couple who were now dancing on the stage. Soon people took turns dancing with the bride and groom. Damon was the first one to snatch the bride from her groom and dance gracefully with her. While Cara was busy with Damon Augustus danced with Charlie but his eyes were focused on his bride.

After her dance with Damon, Cara was then asked for a dance by Austin. I was looking at them dancing on the floor, Austin kept stealing glances in my direction while Cara looked a bit Awkward trying to match up to his amateur steps. Austin Hawk can do everything but dance.

"Would you like to dance with me?", I heard a voice from beside me. I moved my eyes from Austin to the person asking me for dance, it was Damon.

"Yes, Yes", I took his hand awkwardly and we walked towards the stage.

'First time ever I saw your face' by Roberta Flack playing in the background. It was a romantic song and dancing with Damon on it was I-want-to crawl-back-in-my-mothers-womb embarrassing.

"I heard you stabbed my son", he said while moving us with the music. I knew it was coming, I kind of had this scenario played in my mind with all the possible endings, which were 99% him killing me and 1% the ground splitting up and swallowing me.

"I.. I did. I did. Ye.. Yes, I did", fuck! Adria seriously? What about saying 'I am so sorry I acted irrationally in the past', now you are 100% dead.

Damon's body rumbled as he laughed loud enough for the couple beside us to hear. "That was not an answer I expected. But I see why he is so crazy about you. And I hope you don't stab him in the future", he said.

Well, that was not an answer 'I' expected. I thought he would flip and go all aggressive on me like he once did in the past. I should ask Charlie what she is feeding this man.

The song soon ended and Damon left me giving me a chance to walk back and disappear in the crowd.

"Dance with me", someone asked rather than ordered me before I could make an escape. Who could be so rude to me? Of course, the groom himself, best friend of the devil, Augustus Salvatore?

"So Cara huh?", I chuckled, giving my hand in his which he took and we started moving slowly on the mandatory wedding song, 'perfect' by Ed Sheran playing in the background. "Congratulations, by the way".

"Yes, Cara. Thank you and hope you are not dumb enough to still think that we ever kidnapped Cara", Augustus said giving me another shock.

"What.. What", I couldn't even get words out of my mouth.

"God! you are really dumb. Cara helped your so-called 'good' ex-boyfriend but when she learned his truth she helped us reach him and got on his hit list. He was after her all the time, so it was unsafe for her to roam around. Yet the dumb woman wanted to go out and meet her friend that day, so I locked her in the room. But your head had to think the worse about us. Even after we saved you from your evil father and your evil ex", He explained. Why are people shocking me so much today, especially over dances? This was something very hard to digest. I was going to give my and Austin's relationship a chance that day but I misunderstood all the Cara situation.

I looked at Austin who was now dancing with Andrea but his eyes still focused on me. How could I ignore all the love that I see in his eyes for all these years? Was I so stuck up? A misunderstanding caused me to lose 6 precious years of life I could have spent with the guy I love, with the guy who loves me more than I love him.

The song changed and 'how long will I love you' by Ellie Goulding started playing in the background. Augustus left my hand and I started walking towards Austin who was coming in my direction. The time seems to stop for me as I looked into his eyes, not saying or doing anything. There was a distance between us but it felt like our souls were connected. I took a deep breath and walked closer to him, he did the same. Soon the physical distance was gone too, his hands encircled my waist while I tried to keep mine on his shoulder. We slowly moved our bodies along the music, feeling each and every verse of the song.

Soon the song stopped and we came back to our senses. Almost all the eyes were at us which made me blush hard due to embarrassment. Seeing my state Austin held my hand and dragged me away from the crowd. We walked out through a door to some area that had just a lamp lighting it. We could only see each other's faces, everything else was dark.

"Why didn't you explain to me about the situation with Cara?", I asked him in an almost hushed voice.

"I wanted to win your trust", he said.

"I would have trusted you if you have explained it to me"

"That trust wouldn't have lasted longer, Adria. We had a fucked up past and you had doubts in me. The only things that could have healed us were time, distance and effort. I didn't tell you about it then which gave us time and distance. I took efforts to win you back. I did win you back right?", he asked which made me chuckle.

"Well, I came here to stop 'your' supposed to be wedding. So I guess

yes, you did win me back", I smiled at him and he kept his hands on my cheeks.

"You had doubts in me back then, also I didn't want you to take hurried or impulsive decisions. Even for me, it was hard to believe that you fell in love with me after all I did to you. I was afraid that your feelings were just a result of Stolkhome Syndrome", he chuckled. "I feared that it was just a temporary affection you had because you spent a lot of time with me. So I wanted to make sure that my doubts and fears were wrong. I wanted to make sure that whenever I win you back, I win you back forever. Without any doubts or regrets".

It took me a few seconds, rather a few minutes to process what he said and when I did I was in lack of words and understanding.

When and how did all this happen? How come he fell so much for me that he waited all these years to gain my trust back. How did this cruel man who could bend the world in front of him lower his head only in front of me?

I have no answers to all the questions floating in my head the only thing I know is that I want this man in my life and I want my life with this man.