Silly Bride novel (Winnie and Xavier)

She looked past Xavier’s shoulders and met Josiah’s eyes.

As she stared at him, she hissed, “He’s dead, so can you stop the mindless guessing?”

Josiah did not see her scolding coming, and he frowned in response.

“I just refuse to believe that Xavier was the one who pushed Christopher off. I don’t mean to tarnish

Captain Bennett’s reputation; I’m only mentioning one of the many possibilities.”

Winnie closed her eyes and took in a deep breath. “Then I’ll tell you one more time that it is

impossible.”

Josiah tried to hold himself back, but he failed. “So you’re telling me that Christopher is the only one

who speaks the truth? Am I not even allowed to point out a possibility? If you believe in Christopher’s

words, that means you think Xavier was the one who pushed him off. Is that what it is?”

Rage suddenly crashed into Josiah like a tidal wave as he continued, “I know you’ve experienced some

things with Christopher—even life-and-death moments. But here’s the thing, Winnie. You, Xavier, and I

have been through life-and-death moments too. When you wanted to head to that place to save your

granny, Xavier and I went without a word of complaint. Do the perilous situations we’ve been through

and the injuries Xavier and I sustained mean nothing to you? Are we not worthy of your trust? Xavier’s

head hasn’t properly recovered, and I’m still in a wheelchair. Yes, Christopher’s dead, but can only the

dead gain your unwavering trust?”

Winnie had been overwhelmed with fury earlier when she heard Josiah’s harsh words toward

Christopher despite the latter’s tragic death. That was why she had been equally harsh with Josiah.

She did not consider the consequences and did not expect Josiah’s response to be that bad.

Taking in a deep breath, she said, “I’m sorry. It’s not that I don’t believe you, I just feel bad. I can’t help

the negative emotions from seeping out of me.”

Josiah, too, felt that he had made a mountain out of a molehill, as Xavier did not even say anything.

A pause later, Josiah said, “Enjoy your talk. I’ll excuse myself now. Anything I say is wrong anyway.”

With that, he wheeled himself out of the ward.

Winnie turned to look at him. There were some things she wanted to say to him to diffuse the tension

between them, but she was not in the mood to do that just yet.

After Josiah left, Xavier and Winnie were the only ones left in the ward.

Xavier had already let go of Winnie when Winnie began arguing with Josiah.

Now that Josiah was gone, Xavier did not hold himself back from staring at Winnie in silence.

Winnie lifted her head to glance at Xavier before helping him sit up from the bed.

However, Winnie remained standing.

Seeing that, Xavier held her hand to guide her to sit down beside him.

Winnie continued to stay quiet, her silence fueled by guilt.

Not long after she returned, the police had come to get a statement from her.

She and Christopher had sent important information back to the government when they were at

Harold’s place, but Christopher had been missing in action since then. That was why the police had

come to her.

Her time with the police was not only to authenticate the information they had given to them, but they

also ended up talking about Christopher’s missing status as well.

Winnie chose to be selfish about the matter.

She lied to the police, saying that she saw Christopher falling off the building, and didn’t tell them what

Jacinta said.

She said she knew nothing and heard nothing. All she knew was that the scene on the rooftop had

been chaotic and that many people had died at that time. She was uncertain how Christopher had

ended up falling off the building.

As the incident happened overseas, the local police could not file an investigation in Avenport, and that

was how Winnie removed Xavier’s involvement from the incident.

Winnie could not deny that she was selfish. She wanted to keep her loved ones safe. Even if she had a

second chance to make things right, she might choose to do the same thing.

Still, guilt would fill her insides. She felt sorry for Christopher, and that was why she could not bear to

hear Josiah talk badly about Christopher.

At that moment, looking at Xavier only made her feel worse, so much so that when Xavier lowered his

head to kiss her, tears rolled down her cheeks, and she moved away.

Xavier was startled by her action, but he soon came back to his senses.

“Even if I had pushed Christopher off the building when I wasn’t myself, you still couldn’t face me, could

you?”

Winnie looked at Xavier, her eyes red. “I know you definitely didn’t mean it. I know you were a victim

too, but you’re right. I don’t think I can face you right now, and I don’t think I can face myself either.”

After that, she choked out, “I just came back from the police station after spending almost five days

there. I’m tired; I want to rest. You… You should rest too.”

She then stood up, planning to leave.

Xavier could understand what Winnie felt at that moment.

If he were to put himself in her shoes, no matter how much he loved her, he might not be able to bring

himself to face her for a while if she were to lose control of herself and kill Josiah.

Although he couldn’t control his illness when he pushed Christopher off the building, he still wouldn’t

forgive a mentally ill person who killed his friend or family easily.

Any normal person would hate the crazy culprit. Even if the law were to give the culprit a verdict of not

guilty, a normal person would still be cursing death to the culprit until their last breath on Earth.

Xavier told himself that, at that very moment, what he should do was let her go and let her rest. If

needed, the two of them would stay separated for a period of time.

However, he could barely bring himself to do that.

He was already reluctant to see Winnie go just as she took two steps away from him.

In the end, his emotions won his rationality, and he abruptly hugged Winnie from behind.

As he wrapped his arms around her, his chest constricted, refusing to let any fresh air into his lungs.

“Winnie,” Xavier breathed. The sorrow in his eyes was obvious to the naked eye. “You’ve never even

asked if I’m fine since you entered the room. Do I no longer hold a place in your heart? The first thing I

did when I woke up was to look for you. Grandpa told me that the police took you away, and Josiah told

me that I might have accidentally killed Christopher. He told me you saw Christopher falling right next to

you. I even thought about turning myself in because I wanted to see you, even if it means that I’ll be at

the police station. Winnie, my head hurts. You came in and started talking to Josiah, but you never

even talked to me. I didn’t have the chance to ask you anything too. How is your arm? Does it still hurt?

How did you leave back then? How have you been these days? Have you been eating well? Have you

been sleeping well?”

Winnie’s tears fell. She turned around and buried her face in Xavier’s chest.

“I want to talk to you. I want to pretend that those things never happened. Love is selfish. The love I

have for you triumphs over my friendship with Christopher. To me, you’re more important than him. But

he’s dead; he’s gone, and I can’t get over that yet. I know why you lost control that day. It’s because of

the video Yulissa showed you. I know that some of my words in the video will upset you, but I didn’t

betray you. He was dying, and I couldn’t bear to let him die without getting his peace. If this was why

you pushed him, then this whole thing is my fault. I was the one who said those words that made you

lose control. I feel horrible, Xavier. I’ve never felt as horrendous as this in my life. It feels as if I’ve fallen

into the abyss. In fact, I also accepted a mission from Wilhelm when we were in Jipsdale. I’m planning

to make a trip back to Yartran in the next few days. I need to give my family an explanation about that

missing badge. Take care of yourself when I’m not around.”

With that, Winnie wiped her tears away and turned to leave the ward.

Spread the love