The Billionaire Can't Escape His Shameless Heiress Wife!-Chapter 18: Coincidence or Calculated Approach?

"Wha—"

Julienne was confused about what she had just uttered.

He looked at her on the screen, trying to see if she was joking. But Isabella’s attention was already stolen by whatever she was seeing inside the store.

Isabella could hear Julienne’s voice speaking to her, but she didn’t seem to notice it.

Right now, everything else was unimportant.

Maybe it was by coincidence.

No—maybe, a miracle.

Kaelian Veyron stood before her.

Obviously, this wasn’t the first time it happened. She had seen him countless times, in person, on the tabloids and TV screens, and on the internet. But the distance between them were beyond her reach.

The only time she had been able to cross that distance was at the Grand Socialite Ball.

And now, she was just a wall apart from him.

Standing up from her chair, Isabell glanced at the screen where Julienne was, who had a dubious look on his face.

"Do I look good?"

She asked a strange question, a different subject that only heightened Julienne’s curiosity.

But no matter how much the suspicion was building inside him, he didn’t question her. Even if her query was pointed at a very obvious subject.

"Appearance-wise? With your ridiculous make-up and your nunnery uniform... I think you look good enough for the weekly mass."

Isabella frowned.

She did not like his words.

What was so wrong with how she looked? Other than looking overly conservative, it wasn’t that bad, right?

Besides, he won’t see her, anyway.

She could stand with her true appearance—even naked—in front of him, but Kaelian can’t see her. Not when his eyes are in that condition.

Choosing to ignore Julienne’s words, Isabella looked where Kaelian was standing inside the store before glancing back at Julienne with a bright gleam in her eyes.

"Julienne, before you leave..."

"Can I ask you a favor?"

***

A disaster.

Kaelian sighed, his breath slipping in tremors, as he kept his temper inside him. How had he fallen so far?

Going out in the city, entering a store just to buy jewelry for his niece. All of this, he could’ve easily avoided it if only he hadn’t forgotten about her birthday and not given her a present.

Now, that same niece was throwing a massive tantrum in his house. It would be a surprise if she didn’t end up breaking a few glasses with how loud she wailed.

He could stay in his house, accompany her, and let her practice her vocal cords on the glasses, but his ears weren’t made of bulletproof or soundproof material. Even glaring at her wouldn’t work, not when she’s only a four-year-old screeching little banshee of a girl.

He wondered if her sister had married one, too. Was that why their child turned out to be one as well?

Letting another tired sigh out of his lips, Kaelian used his cane to walk. It was much easier now to walk with it. It wasn’t that he needed it. He wasn’t blind or crippled to need one.

But after a year of using a cane, he came to understand that there were other perks to it, not just letting people believe that he was really blind.

No one would bother you when you’re out on a walk.

As dark as that is, it was nothing but the truth.

A silent discrimination.

Be a bit different, and everyone will start thinking and treating you differently.

Although the attention he was getting was still there. Perhaps even more so now.

Yet, no one had dared to talk or get close to him like before.

He could even tell what other people are thinking.

"What a pitiful man."

"It’s a shame he had to lose his eyesight."

"Whoever marries him will definitely regret it."

"Who wants to live their lives taking care of a blind man?"

Those words no longer hurt him. It never did. But the sting still affected him.

In fact, this tragedy didn’t start with a lie.

Kaelian lost his eyesight after the accident. It was a major event in his life, a turning point. His brain had been affected by it, pushing him into a coma.

Once it was announced he would live in a hospital bed, never to wake up, not a chance to ever walk again, and live like a normal human being... everyone close to him had started to drift away.

Even the woman whom he had thought would stay the longest shouted that she couldn’t live a life of taking care of him. How it was unfair for her.

And so he let them go.

Kaelian tapped his cane on the floor. His long, slender legs, wrapped in his trousers, walked with a measured ease, as if his eyesight never hindered him.

Through his eyes, that was covered with the dark film of the sunglasses, the store’s appearance was very clear. The shelves had a variety of jewelry. The see-through glass on the counters displayed a row of diamond rings, bracelets, and earrings. Each and every one of them is a tell-tale of somebody’s empty pockets.

"Are you looking for a jewelry for someone?"

A voice appeared beside him, a velvety cadence that seemed to brush against his skin.

The scent of jasmine and vanilla drifted in the air, filling him up.

Kaelian turned. Or tried to.

He didn’t have to do it as the source of the voice stepped into his line of sight.

A face that belonged to someone who didn’t dare attract attention, and an appearance that made one want to unravel. It was contradictory to describe someone like this.

But Kaelian knew it was the right way to summarize it.

To his surprise, they met again.

This time, he wondered.

Was this a complete coincidence?

Or was this a calculated approach?

"Yes."

Kaelian didn’t hesitate in his reply. He looked at her through the sunglasses, directly and intensely. He wanted to know how she would continue with this play.

Going so far as to pretend to be a worker at the jewelry store... Just what was she after?

Strangely, her lips closed then opened before closing again.

Was she thinking about how she could scheme against him? Perhaps she was deliberating how she could take advantage of him? A plan the Harrington family devised and had her reenact.

His cold fingers wrapped around the handle of the cane, his index finger tapping the shaft with the rhythmic motion of the clock’s hand.

But what he saw in her eyes disrupted the pattern.

Her eyelashes fluttered in an unnoticeable blink, filled with something like despondence.