“How dare you touch my daughter?”
The voice came out cold and devoid of emotion, like he was a threat who couldn’t wait to burn her alive.
Vanessa looked up at the man.
He had an imposing aura that could easily intimidate anyone.
His fiery green eyes reminded her of the green-eyed viper she had once seen while watching Nat Geo Wild.
She hadn’t slept for two nights after seeing that thing.
“I-I… well…” She stuttered, unable to form the words she needed to get herself out of the situation.
Matteo glared at her so hard that all she wanted to do was dig a grave and bury herself in it.
Something she had been thinking about doing lately.
Matteo grabbed her arm so tightly that she thought the blood wouldn’t be able to flow to the other side.
“You were trying to kidnap my daughter, weren’t you?” He demanded.
“I know exactly how to deal with people like you.”
He looked at her like she was a piece of trash, nothing more than mud he would step on without a second thought.
Isabella and Abbie quickly came to her rescue after she had rushed off like that.
“I think you misunder—”
“What did you just call me?” Vanessa questioned, cutting Abbie off.
Holding his glare, she twisted her wrist out of his grip, her eyes darkening.
“You really thought I was going to kidnap your daughter?” She demanded, her voice rising.
“Are you blind?
Didn’t you see that man who just ran past you?
He was the one trying to kidnap your daughter.
And by the way, what kind of father leaves his child alone like that?”
At this point, it was starting to seem like every day brought a new kind of drama into her life.
For the past three days, it has been one problem after another.
The woman who had been with the girl suddenly rushed over and hugged her.
“Bianca.
I told you to stay put.
Why didn’t you listen?” She questioned, tears welling up in her eyes.
“Nanny,” Bianca finally spoke.
“That man told me he had a big cup of ice cream in his car.
I told him to wait for you, but he said the ice cream was going to melt if we waited.”
She pointed toward Vanessa.
“He was about to take me away, but this lady…” Her eyes lit up as she looked at Vanessa.
“She jumped in and saved me like Superwoman.”
Then she wrapped her arms around Vanessa’s waist.
She quickly pulled the girl away from her.
‘Kid, your father is already staring at me like he wants to slit my throat,’ she thought.
“What’s wrong with this man?” someone from the crowd muttered.
“She saved his daughter from being kidnapped, and the best thing he could do was accuse her of kidnapping?”
“Oh!
These rich people and their inability to say sorry.
I can’t believe this.
If his daughter had been kidnapped, I wonder if he’d still be here to accuse her of anything.”
“Where’s that girl’s mother?
It’s safer if she’s with her mother.”
The crowd instantly turned against Matteo after Bianca shared her side of the story.
“Do you hear that?” Vanessa questioned.
“I saved your daughter from being kidnapped.
You look rich, so why don’t you hire some bodyguards to keep her safe if you can’t stick around to do that?
Or better yet get someone to teach you some manners.”
She gave him a disgusted look, one filled with so much hatred.
“Pathetic.”
Then she turned and left, returning to her friends.
They quickly followed her, their steps hurried.
Once Vanessa looked into her cup and found that her ice cream had melted, her rage shot through the roof.
“Argh!”
“Vanessa,” Isabella cried.
“Do you know who you just spoke to like that?”
Her tone was filled with worry, which did nothing to calm Vanessa’s anger.
“My ice cream has melted,” Vanessa whisper-yelled, her fists clenched.
She tried drinking it, but all she got was a watery taste.
“That’s Matteo Devereaux, your fiancé.
Your soon-to-be husband.
The man you’re about to marry.”
Vanessa froze, her hands still wrapped around the cup.
“Hmm?”
She turned toward the middle of the shop, where everything had happened.
Matteo had his back turned to her as he made a phone call.
Once he was done, he turned around and intentionally made eye contact with her.
Those green eyes watched her with rage, anger, and something she couldn’t decipher.
That was Matteo Devereaux.
She had called him pathetic.
Her eyes darkened when she remembered that he had called her a kidnapper first.
“So what if he is?” she questioned, still holding his gaze.
“He’s truly a pathetic and ungrateful man.”
Isabella nearly fell from her seat in shock.
Her family was deeply involved in the mafia business, and she knew that even her own father, who was twice Matteo’s age, wouldn’t dare call him either of those two words Vanessa had just thrown at him.
“I saved his daughter from being kidnapped, and the best thing he could do was accuse me of kidnapping.” She stared down at her melted ice cream.
“I sacrificed you for nothing,” she mumbled with a sigh.
“Stay here.
I’ll go get more ice cream.”
Once again, before they could say anything, she left.
Matteo watched the girl he was supposed to marry, unable to believe she had actually saved Bianca from being kidnapped.
He needed to look into that first.
Bianca tugged at his shirt.
“You need to apologize to that beautiful lady, Daddy.
The way you spoke to her wasn’t nice.
You told me to say thank you to people when they help you, and you didn’t.”
Matteo’s lips turned into a thin line.
“I’ll do just that, my love,” he promised, picking her up and walking away.
“But what did I tell you about walking off with strangers?
Bianca looked down apologetically.
“I’m sorry.
But she’s right there.
We’re not leaving until you apologize to her.”
Bianca crossed her arms against her chest, a clear sign that she was going to throw a tantrum if he didn’t.
Matteo sighed.
While getting herself another ice cream, Vanessa suddenly received a phone call from the hospital.
Her heart dropped, but she forced herself to pick it up.
“Vanessa.”
It was the voice of the nurse in charge of her grandmother.
“Your grandmother is having a heart attack, and I don’t think she’ll be able to survive this time.
You have to get here quickly.”
“Vanessa…”
Vanessa rushed past Matteo as if he didn’t exist, her lavender scent passing his nostrils and giving him just enough time to catch a whiff of it before she disappeared.