CHAPTER 68: SENT A GIFT

Alisha glanced between them, her lips parted.

"I’m Rico," Rico chimed in.

Silence reigned for the longest time, and the only thing that drew their reaction was the smell of burnt waffles.

Dante immediately rushed to get it off. He hissed as he threw it in the trash can.

Rico ignored him with a grin as he stretched his hands towards Ryan. "I’m Rico," he repeated.

Ryan shook his hands with a smile on his face. "I heard you for the first time. I’m Ryan."

Ryan held his hand for a second too long, which earned him a questionable look from Rico.

"Pardon me. You have soft hands," he complimented, letting him go.

"Thank you," said Rico.

Alisha was still too stunned by what was happening to say a word.

"Alisha, here’s your breakfast," said Dante, taking her plate to the dining area with a glass of milk.

Ryan cocked an eyebrow at the milk.

"You two have been married for about four months now, and you still don’t know she’s lactose intolerant?" Ryan questioned, his gaze narrowed suspiciously at Dante. "She can’t have any dairy products."

Dante subconsciously hissed under his breath, his blood bubbling at this point.

"Shouldn’t I be thankful to you for telling me stuff about my very own wife? It’s like you know her more than I do," he said with a tight smile.

"Well, isn’t it obvious?" Ryan asked. "If I weren’t here and something happened to Eva, I would have thought you did it on purpose."

Rico turned back and snickered. It was obvious he was loving the interaction and Dante wished he choked on his waffles.

"Ryan, it’s okay. I didn’t tell Dante I was lactose intolerant." Alisha felt she needed to intervene.

She had no idea but it felt like Dante wasn’t happy to see Ryan in his home.

Then she turned to Dante, "I’ll be right back. I need to talk to Ryan real quick."

Dante narrowed his eyes at her but she ignored it and pulled Ryan away, heading to her room upstairs.

Every step they took felt like his heart was getting stabbed.

"Why is she taking him up to her room? Couldn’t she have taken him to the garden, terrace, or outside? Did it have to be in her room? Are they... are they going to have sex?" Dante questioned while Rico’s face was already red with laughter.

The latter held him on the shoulder as he tried to control himself. "You look like you’re about to explode. Chill." Then he laughed out loud again.

Dante glared at him with irritation evident on his face.

He might not have told Alisha anything, but he’d planned on spending the day with her, taking her out on a date at least, but Ryan had to come uninvited and ruin his plans.

"Are you being serious right now? You sound like Alisha is cheating on you or something. Hold on, your relationship isn’t real so I guess she can do whatever she likes," said Rico.

He choked on his laughter when he saw Dante’s scowl directed at him.

In Alisha’s room, she opened the document Ryan handed to her, completely oblivious to her raging husband downstairs.

"About one hundred and fifty people were kidnapped a week ago."

"Let me guess, William didn’t do anything about this yet." William was the president.

Ryan shook his head with a sigh.

He rubbed his forehead, trying to rub the sleep off his face. He’d skipped his sleep just to get that information, and now, he was regretting it.

"It also says that Mr. De Rossi plans on introducing more drugs to the locals?" Alisha didn’t get the chance to read them on the documents back in her father-in-law’s study, so she was stunned that Ryan managed to gather this information as well.

"Things are not looking good at all. The election is in less than a month now. All we can do is watch and be ready. If Mr. De Rossi gets that seat, William’s life will be in danger. It’s obvious he’s trying to instill fear in civilians, but they don’t know that he’s the cause of all these misfortunes."

Alisha locked her dry lips, her mood turning sour already.

She took a deep breath and simply closed the documents.

Since Jace and Adrian had taken up stalking Mr. De Rossi, she could refocus on rescuing the civilians who’d been kidnapped.

"When are we going to save them?" She asked n

"You can’t go with me—"

"One hundred and fifty people were kidnapped, Ryan. Who knows where they are now? For all we know, they may be sold to human traffickers as sex slaves or labor workers in another country."

"Going on a mission in your condition is dangerous. Last time you got shot," Ryan countered.

"But I lived," she insisted. "I want to join you."

Ryan knew arguing with Alisha wasn’t going to end well. This was why he reported her to her brothers most of the time when he didn’t feel comfortable with her life decisions.

The man could only sigh, his head lowered, and Alisha smiled, knowing he wasn’t going to refuse.

"You look tired again," she said, walking up to him and rubbing his hair. "You can sleep here."

"There’s no need, I still need to return."

She shook her head. "I insist."

Ryan lay on the bed while Alisha tucked well.

Dante suddenly entered without knocking, while two heads turned to look at him.

Ryan cocked an eyebrow at Dante.

"Why are you looking at me like that? Want to nap with me?" He offered, patting one side of the bed for him.

Alisha scowled at Dante but didn’t say anything.

She placed a kiss on Ryan’s head and left with Dante, while gently closing the door right behind them.

"I want to ask you a question," Dante interrupted her when he saw her walking down the stairs without sharing a word with him.

She halted.

"What is it?"

"Are you and Ryan in a relationship?" Dante asked.

The speed at which Alisha whipped her head so fast and glared at him made Dante gulp down his saliva in fear.

She was about to respond but Rico immediately called for her.

"Alisha, these waffles Dante made are so good. If you don’t come eat them, I’ll have to eat them on your behalf," he said.

In the middle of having breakfast, Alisha received a phone call from Maxine asking her to quickly check social media.

Alisha already guessed it was probably another wave of gossip. She’d kept her phone on silent the entire time.

Her jaw dropped once she saw the latest headlines.

Katherine Cross Signs A Contract With Celestique Entertainment?

"My goodness, is that woman ever going to stop? When you push her from one place, she goes to her next victim."

"Why would Celestique Entertainment sign Katherine Cross? Hold on a minute! The CEO is Celeste Cross, Katherine’s sister in law? Is she really going to start helping that woman now after everything she’d done?"

"Why is Katherine not completely cancelled? Does she think she still has fans that would support her decision?" Under that comment were several replies from Katherine’s fans who swore they would help her no matter what.

Alisha was more than stunned. She’d thought Katherine was out of her way for the meantime, even if it was just a small number of days but the woman signed with Celestique Entertainment in less than a day.

Alisha didn’t want to do anything about this situation. She felt she should let Katherine celebrate her new success and perhaps, send a gift over.

Three hours later,

Katherine was reading the comments with a stoic expression. She didn’t expect fans to support her decision or suddenly like her again, but the sides of her lips curved when she saw her loyal fans fighting for her in the comments section.

"You shouldn’t stay on your phone for too long," said Nathan while Katherine rolled her eyes.

It’s only been a day since she told him about her pregnancy and he was already acting like a doctor.

It pissed her off.

"I’m just glad you were able to convince Celeste to sign me in," she said, a smile on her face.

It hadn’t been easy for Nathan but what mattered was that they were able to get her what she wanted.

Nathan’s expression was blank.

After the video was released, he didn’t shower her with love and affection anymore. It was like they were strangers, living under the same roof—more like they were forced to live under the same roof.

The doorbell rang all of a sudden and a servant went to get it.

"What’s that?" Katherine asked, staring at the box.

"I think it’s a gift," the servant replied as she dropped the box on the coffee table.

"You can go. I’ll take care of this." She said, and the servant excused herself.

The box was wrapped beautifully.

To think she got a gift. She started unboxing immediately.

She opened the box and once she saw what was inside, her face paled.