Marrying her Ex-husband's Uncle

Chapter 14

"What are you still doing there?" Nate called out when he saw that Barbara had remained at the entrance of the dining area.

Barbara blinked repeatedly before quickly shaking her head. "Nothing!" she said and walked closer to the table while eyeing the dishes there.

"You don't like the food?"

Barbara shook her head again. "No. It's not like that. I just thought you prepared so much food when it's only the two of us here."

"Oh, my bad. Ryan and I were supposed to eat this food, but since you came, only the two of us will eat now."

Barbara froze at what she heard. So Nate hadn’t prepared those dishes particularly for her? The food was meant for him and Ryan? She mentally shook her head. Why did she feel utterly disappointed by what she heard?

"Aren't you going to sit down?" Nate asked for the third time.

She didn’t say anything more and just approached the table. It would be embarrassing to keep hesitating when the food wasn’t even for her. They were in the middle of their dinner when she saw Nate open an expensive brand of wine.

"You want some?"

When she stared at the wine bottle, she couldn’t help but remember what had happened between them. She had been drunk when that one-night stand happened.

And even though it had a positive result—since she was able to extract her revenge on Luke and Celine—she didn’t want what happened between her and Nate to happen again if she could help it.

She responded with a firm shake of her head. "No. I don't want to drink."

Nate raised one eyebrow. She quickly averted her gaze and shifted her full attention to the food instead.

"Did you know that I saw your ex-husband earlier?"

Barbara’s spoon froze in mid-air when she heard what Nate said. That immediately caught her attention, so she looked at the man again.

Nate was staring at her while swirling the wine in his own glass. He looked like he was studying her reaction while calculating his next words. Did he think she still had feelings for Luke?

Well, she couldn’t really blame him. She had been in love with Luke for years. If she were in his position, she would also doubt her. But she was no pushover. If it weren’t for the reputation of her late mother depending on it, she would make sure that Luke and Celine paid the price for their betrayal.

"What else did you see?" she asked casually.

"I saw him with his new fiancée. They look so in love together," he replied.

Her grip on her utensils tightened. Celine… She had thought Celine truly treated her as a sister. They shared the same father, but she had forgotten that they also came from different mothers.

Celine’s mother had betrayed her own mother. She had been her trusted employee, then got pregnant with Celine and stole her father from them. And it seemed her sister had inherited that!

"Oh, really? Do you know that mistress of his?" she asked back.

"No. Who was she?" Nate questioned her in return.

"She was my stepsister."

She saw him get slightly surprised by what she said. And after a moment, he chuckled softly. She couldn’t help but frown. Was he really laughing at her situation? That was so cold of him.

"Your love story is so novel-coded," he said while shaking his head.

She stared at Nate. "Do you read novels too?"

It wasn’t impossible for someone like Nate to read romance books. But given his status of running a very large company, she knew how busy he was.

"Isn’t it obvious?"

"No. You look like someone who prefers business proposals over a romance novel," she said without hesitation.

She saw Nate chuckle. "Well, you're wrong on that matter, baby."

She suddenly felt her skin prickle at what he called her. Not because she was disgusted, but because the memory of how many times he had called her by that name was still fresh in her mind. And this was really not a good sign for her. It was bothering her. There was no moment when she couldn’t remember those things they had done. She needed to shut those memories away.

"Anyway, enough with that matter. I am here tonight because I have something important to tell you," she said, changing the subject.

Nate set down the glass he was holding before fixing his eyes on her. "Okay. What is it?"

"I already have a plan on how I can get Oceana back…”