Loving The Temperamental Adonis
Chapter 172: Break off the engagement

Chapter 172: Break off the engagement

Mia’s closed eyes suddenly snapped open, and she found herself staring blankly at her hand being held by Owen, noticing the savage look in his eyes as he questioned her about the ring. A nervous shiver ran down her back as she contemplated telling him about her feelings for Neil now rather than wait later.

Despite her anxiety, she somehow believed he would understand and forgive her for betraying him and cutting off their engagement in such an inappropriate manner. He might hate her for this but it was worth having to pretend she was okay with his loving and caring gesture. She wouldn’t be able to stand it one last time if he were to call her ’sweetheart’.

As she braced herself to speak, Owen, who’d been angry a moment ago when he didn’t see the ring on her finger, softened his expression and preempted her with a gentle tone, suggesting, "Did you lose it when he kidnapped you? It’s understandable. I will get you another one and make that animal pay for what he put you through. I will ensure that I ruin—"

"He has a name, Owen," Mia interjected before she could stop herself. She had been unsettled by his previous derogatory remarks about Neil. "Neil Wayner is his name. He did nothing to harm me. You don’t have to ruin him or worsen his situation. And just so you know, I didn’t lose the ring. I took it off," she informed him, too displeased with him to care about how her harsh tone might impact him.

"What?" he exclaimed, clasping her hand tightly as if struggling to believe her words. Mia winced as his grip tightened, observing his expression shift from shock to disbelief. "Why would you do that? Put it back on; there are reporters at your residence, and if they don’t see the ring on your finger, they might assume the rumors about your romantic involvement with Wayner are true," he urged, releasing her hand and rummaging through her handbag in search of the ring. "Where is it?" he demanded in a controlled rage when he couldn’t find it.

Before he’d come here to pick up Mia, Owen had already made the arrangements at her residence for the reporters to be there so that they could see how deeply in love the both of them were. He wanted to clear all sorts of rumors of her relationship with that psychopathic killer, he believed deep in his heart that his Mia loved only him and she’d never betray him, whatever had happened between she and Neil in the past, was in the past because she hated him now. Their marriage was going to be after Christmas and even though she’d been gone, he hadn’t stopped making arrangements for it.

When he couldn’t find the ring, he looked up at her questioningly and was met with an expression he knew so well; he suddenly had a strange feeling that she was about to tell him something that he’d forever be unable to accept, he could feel it in his heart that something was wrong with the look she was giving him.

"There’s something I want to tell you. I thought it could wait until I’m well rested but now I think you need to know." She said, shifting on her seat to face him. But before she could prepare herself to tell him, the car was stopped by the military cars and the countless reporters roaming around the street to her residence in Mirage Mesa.

"The military are here." Owen announced, suddenly delighted that the military were here. Although he’d told his guards not to allow any authorities nor military into Mia’s residence until she was ready to meet them for questioning, but now that she was about to tell him something he knew he wasn’t ready to hear despite the fact that Kelvin Rodrigo had warned him about this outcome, he was delighted with their arrival. He’d do anything to stop her from telling him whatever she’d planned to say even though it meant to keep her busy until she would forgot and remember his love for her. Wayner must have brainwashed her and once he’d won her back, she’d remember she had no one but him in the world.

"What are the military doing here at my house?" Mia asked, turning around to peek through the window, immediately spotting Jason walking towards the Lamborghini, behind him was none other than Davina. Seeing the woman again after five years, Mia momentarily forgot about her ordeal and was consumed by a rage she didn’t know she possessed until now. Five years ago when Neil had been sentence to prison, Davina had approached her in the University and told her in details how much Neil had only used her to complete his mission in Ivy Grove, and because of her, Mia’s hatred towards him had mounted.

Jason knocked at the tinted window of Mia’s side of the car and Owen rolled down the window without asking if she was okay with it.

"Good afternoon, Miss Harrison," Jason said with a charming smile gracing his face as the window rolled down and revealed her to the reporters and the others outside, "It’s been a while. I was expecting to see you in a terrible state, given how nervous you sounded on the phone, but it seems Wayner was a generous kidnapper. Quite interesting, isn’t it?"

"What exactly are you suggesting, Mr. Wallace?" Mia inquired, her dislike for her best friend’s brother and the woman with him thinly veiled.

"I’m not suggesting anything. If you don’t mind, can we head inside your house and proceed with this as soon as possible?"

"And if I do mind?" She bit harshly.

"You won’t mind, sweetheart," Owen cut in, placing his hand on her arm like a supportive partner, "Let them question you inside and get this over with." He said, smiling down at her as if to tell her to play along.

Mia, however, was taken aback. Just the mere touch of him made her want to slap his face for daring to speak for her like she couldn’t decide what she wanted, and after her grueling drive, all she wanted was to be alone but it seemed that too was impossible when she was surrounded by annoying people. She’d rather have preferred to be anywhere Neil was even though he didn’t love her rather than be subjected to this.

When Mia didn’t speak and was only staring at Owen, he turned to speak to Jason, "You can head inside the house, Mr. Wallace, my fiancee and I will meet you there shortly."

"Thank you for your cooperation, Mr. Sullivan."

Mia watched as Jason and Davina and their men walked into her gate and she sat there, frozen, unable to believe Owen’s audacity. What he did just now would be considered controlling, was he trying to control her because he believed they were engaged? In the past he’d done something like that when he’d try to control her life, which had ended up in them breaking their friendship.

"Let’s go inside, let’s not keep them waiting," he said, opening the car for her and she automatically got out while silently making a mental note to tell him about their cut off engagement the moment after her questioning.

****

When Mia entered the warmth of her home, strangely it no longer felt like a home after her one week absence. From the windows, she could see the reporters and many guards going around and she wanted nothing more than to be alone. Thus, she followed the soldiers to her dinning hall where they were all seated, waiting to question her and probably accuse her of helping Neil Wayner.

"Very well, Miss Harrison," Davina said, taking over as soon as they were seated. "Let’s begin at the beginning."

Mia felt a tiny tremor of fear when Jason reached into his pocket, removed a video recorder, and put it on the table in front of her, but she reminded herself of what Neil had told her to expect and face Davina head on.

"Where do you want me to start?" she asked, smiling gratefully at her servant when she handed her a glass of warm milk from the side.

"We already know you supposedly went to Novaria to interview Aurora Quinn even though you don’t normally travel to meet people but the other way around," Davina began, trying to trap Mia with the fact that celebrities travel from all over the world to be on her show in Mirage Mesa but she’d traveled to Novaria to meet Aurora.

Mia’s eyes narrowed. "What do you mean supposedly?"

"There’s no need to feel defensive," Jason quickly interposed in a soothing voice. "You tell us what happened. Let’s start with when you first encountered Wayner."

Mia crossed her arms on the table and tried not to feel any emotion at all as she told them how Neil had been crouching down beside her car when she first met him.

"Did you notice it was him and if he was armed at that point?"

"No."

"What was he wearing?" The questions came at her in rapid-fire successions after that, on and on, hour after hour until she could barely keep up with some of them.

"Miss Harrison, you must be able to remember something more about the location of the house he used for a hideout!" That was Jason who’d been watching her as if she was an insect under his microscope and using an authoritative tone of voice on her that reminded her a little of Neil when he was annoyed. Perhaps all soliders were the same, but for some reason she found Neil’s authoritative tone endearing while his annoying.

"I told you, I was blindfolded!"

"Then do you know where he is heading to now and what’s his next plan? "

Mia shook her head. But Jason snapped annoyingly at her, "Please answer aloud for the recorder!"

"All right!" she said, abruptly deciding no man could be as gentle and as commanding at the same time like her poor Neil. Not even Owen who sat beside her listening instead of supporting her, and their behavior made her wish more than ever that she’d never came back here and it made her miss a warmth she could never get from anyone but her ice cube.

"I did not ask him where he was going because he’d already told me that the less I knew the safer he’d be!"

"And you want him to be safe after he killed your mother, don’t you?" he said, pouncing on her answer.

"You don’t want to see him caught, do you?"

The moment Jason was waiting for was here. He waited, tapping the end of his ballpoint pen on the table. He knew he’d trapped her, and if she slipped just a little, he’d take her into custody as Neil’s accomplice and by doing so, Wayner would come out of his hiding to save her. Just like five years ago when he’d tried to use Mia to get Neil to mess up his mission, he could still use her to get him back to prison before he’d find someways to get fake evidence to prove that he was innocent, and once he did that, Jason knew Wayner would ruin his life the moment he was free of any charges.

’I will never let that happen!’