Anxiety was crippling her by the eventful Bridal-dress selection and then the whole media looking for Li Yuan's bride who was going to go AWOL.

Why couldn't he wait before doing something audacious?! Did he had to involve the media in this mess?!

She had everything planned for tonight, after drying her nails Lei Xinyi sat on the vanity table to blow dry her hair when she heard a car pulling up the house's drive-way.

She glanced at the clock, 10:34; n.o.body with good news visited you at such an hour, unannounced.

A frown etched on her face, she picked up the pointed tweezer from the vanity table and slowly stepped forward to the blinds. 

She held the blinds by the edge of the fabric and saw out of it as she did, her heart thumped loudly in her chest.

It was Li Yuan car that was on the drive-way.

A joy bloomed in her heart, after the initial shock, at the thought of meeting him now when she expected the least. The only person on Earth who knew most about her without knowing a thing...

After meeting Su Qianwei the eyes that had dimmed regained their s.h.i.+mmer.

Then as if her feet had a mind of their own, she ran out of the room and down the stairs without her sleepers, in her nightdress, with still her 'weapon' in her hand that she threw by the staircase.

She was running out of the door to meet him half-way through when she collided with a brick-hard chest and a vine-like arm draped around her.

She relished being in his arms but she knew she had to face the consequence of her actions.

Taking a hesitant breath, she faced her sanctuary and demise. Their eyes met like planets clashed. She felt the atrocity in her chest.

He was still ridiculously handsome, enchanted shock waves ran through their contacts. He looked just like he left but hard cigar traces in his cologne spoke volumes.

They stood with parted lips and longing yet consuming eyes waiting for the other to utter a word. Their silence fed the metaphorical distance between them.

There was a lot unsaid yet nothing to say between them. He thought a hundred things he would say to her when he saw her but they both held bigger points of pride than hearts.

She took a breath in his cologne of what she had missed and what she will miss. She detached herself from her and he let her and took a side to let him pa.s.s.

Li Yuan looked at her avoiding eye contacts. He wanted to pull her to him but in this moment it felt like there wasn't anything but dark abyss in their intimacy that any touch they had would turn into void.

He took heavy steps to their room and she followed him. 

She took a seat on the edge of the bed, staring at him like she was drinking him in but it didn't really matter because he was looking at her the same way.

He threw his suit on the couch, "The guys wanted a... mini-Bachelor Party before the actual Bachelor Party so, I came to change."

That was his poor attempt of saving his pride and making the first move at the same time so that he wasn't the one that bent neither did he cave in.

Lei Xinyi wasn't an idiot or slow-witted. He didn't even take a toothbrush when he left. Sure as h.e.l.l, he could afford a new party attire.

She averted her eyes and nodded. She didn't know what 'guys' he was talking about but she didn't trust her voice not to crack if she spoke now.

He gazed at her then sighed and went to the bathroom. She wasn't going to say a thing.

The door wasn't locked like it never was when he took bath. She could hear the water running. She wondered if he didn't lock the door when he was bathing in some other...woman room.

She shook her head, it wasn't her concern. Everything aside it was going to be over after tonight.

He came out of the dressing room...dressed. He wasn't really playing around anymore. She has faced her back to him. She heard the foot-steps leaving the room.

He was walking all over her heart, hammering with every step he took. The barely audible sound was deafening to her ears. The sound was dimming, so was her heartbeats.

He was leaving. Soon she will be leaving too. He deserved a closure, so did she. 

She took a deep breath and stood up and ran down the stairs, without a slipper again.

"Li Yuan!" She shouted, stopping him in his track and snap to her.

She stood in front of him, only a step away. She bit her lip and met his charcoal-black eyes. She licked her lip, in hopes, it would break the lump in her throat.

"Sorry... Forgive me. I will not expect you to do this right now but...." Her voice broke with tears that pooled her eyes with the sincerest and most pain-filled smile.

She swallowed the lump that became hard, that it hurt, in her throat, "...But promise me someday you will."

The words couldn't convey their messages anymore. No language could decipher the emotions they were feeling so he kissed them away.

He kissed her but he didn't promise...

He pulled her to him, with nothing but their secrets between them. Their lips moved in sync. It wasn't lover-sweet kiss but a consuming toxic-lovers kiss.

She breathed on his lip before he pulled her back. He pulled her close, even when there wasn't air between them, there was the distance between them, miles long distance.

He rested his head on her hers and whispered, "I missed you."

She looked in his eyes and replied in nothing but the truth, "I missed you too."

She was right in his embrace but he felt like she was slipping like sand from his fisted hands. So he pulled her close. 

"Wait for me."

"I will always wait for you."

He pecked her lips and reluctantly turned to leave. Lei Xinyi saw till he couldn't be seen. A tear slipped out of her treacherous eyes and slid down her cheek.

"Li Yuan!" Hearing his name he turned around.

Lei Xinyi smiled genuinely and waved her hand that was s.h.i.+vering, "Goodbye!"

Li Yuan returned the smile and waved back like a young school-bye, "I will be back before midnight."

She had done it again but this time she didn't feel like she had accomplished anything. It felt like she had lost everything.

She wiped the stray evidence of her heart being slain.

It will be her last lie, last tear, last betrayal...last agony, that had slain her heart. No matter how she denies it. He stole what was left of her heart.

But little did she know it was always second last if it was intentional.

She stayed there looking at the drive-way he drove away from, for a while longer then she walked and climbed the stairs.

She took out the closed carton and checked it, the Yu's heirloom, The Lei's heirloom, and the... orchid. She closed the carton and went into the bathroom. 

She changed in an off-shoulder black dress with a leather belt that had a metallic strap in the centre on her waist, grey stockings and black moto boots. She went to the vanity table and took out the rectangular box Su Qianwei had given her. 

She bowed her hair high in a ponytail and dipped all the needles on her waist-belt, wore the Yu's half a million bracelet on her wrist, strapped the dagger on her thigh.

She held the orchid and sighed. She knew she was taking far more from him than an artificial thousand-dollar orchid but she had given something precious to her too...

'CRAs.h.!.+'

A loud booming explosion shook the Mansion with screams and things breaking sound and she knew it was her time to leave.

She put the orchid on her hair and turned to the two storey-high windows when she turned to see the room one last time and saw the bugged phone on the bed and an idea struck her.