Silly Bride novel (Winnie and Xavier)
Chapter 78

On the other side of the phone, Josiah immediately texted Xavier after receiving his message.

Josiah: What's going on? Louis told me you're safe from harm now, so how is it inconvenient for you to pick up my call? Xavier stole a glance at the woman sleeping peacefully in his arms and kissed her on her forehead, not resisting his urges.

He texted again after that: You probably shouldn't be asking because a man who is still single won't understand.

Josiah replied: What the hell! What are you trying to tell me? You can't possibly have found that little Dumbo of yours on that island, can you? I thought you told Louis something's suspicious about Calvert! The news he gave you is real, after all?

Xavier: It's complicated. I'll talk to you about this in detail once I'm back. Also, do me a favor. Perform an investigation on that Paulina. The fake Paulina.

Josiah: But we've already tried to replace out more about her, did we not? We couldn't get anything because she was too mysterious. By the way, she went after you that night in the hospital because she felt something was off after you left. Did you see her? Did she come looking for you?

Xavier stole another glance at the woman sleeping beside him.

In his text to Josiah, Xavier typed and deleted his text several times before he finally texted: Yes, I did see her.

Josiah: Oh. So she's fine?

Recalling the bruises on Winnie's shoulder, Xavier frowned and replied: She was a little bruised, but it's all right.

Speaking of which, he remembered being thrown into the ocean with heavy metal weights tied to him. This woman called Paulina risked her life saving him and even performed mouth-to-mouth resuscitation on him.

Hence, he texted: She saved me.

Josiah: Not bad. You're lucky enough because you took her things. She said that thing is her family heirloom, and she wouldn't go all the way there to save you if it weren't because of that.

Is that so? Xavier frowned, for he did not remember taking something that belonged to her.

Did she really come to my rescue just because of something I had never seen?

He was unconvinced.

Paulina and Dumbo might be the same people.

With that slightly odd-looking face of Paulina, the silica gel on Dumbo's neck, how their timeline coincidentally merged, and how Dumbo could express what she wanted to say despite looking dumb and naive, the clues were pointing toward the same truth, where Paulina and Dumbo were the same people.

But why is she pretending to be dumb? Why is she disguising herself as Paulina to get close to me? And what's all this with the family heirloom? What was she looking for in my house?

There were so many questions unanswered that Xavier was eager to bite the woman awake to answer his questions.

However, he was afraid because he saw the decisiveness Paulina displayed.

When Winnie went missing, Paulina appeared, which meant that the woman knew he had never stopped looking for Winnie.

She watched him suffer all the while but never decided to show up.

When he threatened Paulina to rescue Yulissa with him, he lied to her about planting a bomb on her bulletproof vest.

Yet, Paulina decisively left him when someone threw a smoke bomb.

When Winnie was Dumbo, she was naive and pure. However, when she was not, she was firm and decisive.

However, at that time, he had no idea that Paulina was his Dumbo.

If he had known it sooner, there was no way he would threaten and scare her with the bomb.

Now, no matter what, he would not dare to cross Paulina's—or Winnie's, for that matter-bottom line, for he knew once he did that, she would leave unhesitatingly.

As for Xavier, he no longer wanted to experience the torment of losing her again.

He told himself long ago that he would still want her, even if she stayed a fool for the rest of her life.

If she was not, he would want her even more.

"Winnie." With a frown, Xavier hovered his finger on Winnie's face and traced the outline of her facial features. "You'll tell me the truth someday, right?"

Life on the island was relaxing and peaceful. Ever since she returned to Chanaea, it was the first time Winnie could bathe herself under the warm sunlight on the beach. Sitting somewhere close to her was Xavier, barbequing some food.

It all happened because the woman said she was craving chicken in a spoiled manner. As a result, Xavier had the driver and bodyguards set up a barbeque pit. Winnie did not bother about helping. All she did was build sand castles and swipe her phone.

A moment ago, she finally managed to get in touch with Christopher, but he quickly left the conversation to deal with his affairs, leaving her questions unanswered.

For this reason, Winnie was a little upset. As she still had her phone in her hand, she had nothing else to do. Upon seeing Xavier being busy in front of the barbeque pit, she switched on the camera feature and took a few photos of Xavier without a thought.

She wondered how the social media would react if she posted the photos of the CEO of Fairchild Corporation making barbequed chicken for her with his sleeves rolled up while sitting in a wheelchair.

Hehe, this angle in this photo is pretty good. I can see all the muscles on his arms. This photo is also good. His shirt is a little wet, so it's sticking to his body that I can almost see his abs. This one is amazing! The lighting is so great that it further amplified his pretty facial features! Every shot is taken randomly, but they're so good as if they're edited!

The bored Winnie started scrolling through the photos of Xavier that she just took.

Just as she was commenting on them inwardly, a shadow suddenly towered over her.

What she heard next was Xavier's voice.

He sounded as if he was in a good mood. "You're taking photos of me?"

Winnie almost failed to resist the urge to put her phone away, feeling as though she had been caught red-handed. Yet, she soon convinced herself.

So what if I did? There's nothing to feel guilty about.

Hence, she shoved her phone toward Xavier's face and uttered, "Handsome, look! You're so handsome in the photos! You're the most handsome man I've ever seen!"

Happy with what he heard, the man reached a hand out and gently stroked her head. "How many times do I have to tell you I'm your hubby, not Handsome?"

Pretending as if she heard nothing, Winnie reached her hand toward the plate in Xavier's hand.

"Oh! The chicken wings are ready! I want to have some!"

"Why are you in such a hurry? At least wait for me to sit down first." Xavier hurled his cane to the side and prepared to sit beside Winnie.

Seeing his broken leg, Winnie helped him to sit down. "Be careful of your leg, Handsome!"

Xavier was delighted that she decided to help. Even though she refused to address him as her husband, she still cared about him.

He gave the plate to Winnie, and after a thought, he reached his hand toward her. "Give me your phone."

At his words, Winnie froze as she stared at him with widened eyes. "Why do you want my phone, Handsome?" He can't possibly notice I'm talking to Christopher, right?