I Faked My Death—Now I Have to Tame the Crazy Men I Left Behind-Chapter 28 - 26: Real and Fake Fiancé

The phone rang for a long time, so long that Mia’s eyelids were growing heavy. She was just about to fall asleep when she heard a soft click from the other end.

A rustling sound came from the other side. The person had clearly been woken by the call; his voice was hoarse and tinged with impatience. "Speak."

"You..."

The two voices spoke at the same time.

Hearing the unfamiliar male voice, Mia’s eyes snapped open.

She sluggishly pulled the phone away from her ear, squinting to examine the string of numbers on the screen.

She had dialed the number purely from memory.

’I thought it was Silas, but that’s not his voice.’

’So whose number is this...’

’The voice is a little familiar, but I just can’t place it.’

’I ran through all the familiar male leads in my head, but none of them seem to match.’

’Maybe I dialed the wrong number.’

Mia decided she should apologize.

’Waking someone up with a wrong number in the middle of the night is a pretty terrible thing to do.’

’But if I explain, maybe he’ll go a little easier on me?’

The other end of the line went silent, as if the call had been disconnected.

Mia stared at the screen, which still showed an active call, for a few seconds. She put the phone back to her ear and listened intently, but there was still no sound.

"Hello?"

She ventured, but got no response.

She guessed he had fallen back asleep. After a moment, she decided not to disturb him further, silently mouthing an apology before ending the call.

「Meanwhile, on a private island.」

The bedroom was unlit, plunged in darkness. A man lay on the bed, still in the same position as when he had answered the call, the phone lingering by his ear long after the line went dead.

The girl’s soft, sweet voice had vanished.

The screen lit up. In its faint glow, his eyes narrowed and then widened again, glinting with a strange, uncanny light in the dark.

By the time his mind fully cleared and he called back, the other line was already off.

He went back and carefully checked the number’s registered location...

This was his private number; very few people had it.

That was why, woken from a deep sleep, he had answered groggily without even checking the caller ID.

He never, ever would have expected it to be a woman’s voice.

A familiar one, at that.

He suspected he was dreaming. This suspicion solidified when he saw the number was registered to some obscure, second-tier city in the south. He was almost certain it had all been a figment of his imagination.

He casually tossed the phone onto the nightstand. THUD. In the silent night, the sound was like a relentless drumbeat.

A moment later, he realized it wasn’t the echo of the phone hitting the table. It was his own heart, pounding like a drum.

The next second, he sat up, switched on the bedside lamp, and picked up his phone to make another call.

"I need you to trace the location of a phone number."

"Before dawn, I want every piece of information you can find on it."

After saying this, the man lowered the phone from his ear, his finger hovering over the end-call button for several seconds without pressing it.

The subordinate on the other end was waiting for him to hang up. Noticing the pause, he quickly asked, "Are there any other instructions, sir?"

The man pressed his tongue against his back teeth and chuckled softly. Putting the phone back to his ear, he said, "While you’re at it, look into the whereabouts of a certain person."

"No, two people."

"And who might that be?"

"My two dear brothers, of course." The man’s index finger tapped lightly. "I haven’t been back to the capital in a while. I’m awfully curious to know what they’ve been up to."

"You want every detail, no matter how small?"

"Mhm." The man’s smile was laced with amusement. "They’re my dear brothers, after all. Of course I need to show my concern."

"Understood!"

—

Mia couldn’t remember Silas’s phone number. After searching for a bit, she found an intercom by the bed. She made the call, and a maid entered the room moments later.

At three in the morning, the entire manor was ablaze with lights.

Mia was delirious with fever, unaware of who was in the room. All she knew was that it felt crowded around her bed.

The only figure she could make out was the one sitting by her bed, watching over her.

It was Silas.

She pried her eyes open just a crack, able to see only his blurry silhouette.

He was holding her hand, keeping it steady for the doctor to insert the IV needle.

A slight sting pricked the back of her hand, and Mia instinctively tried to pull away, but he held her hand firmly in his grasp.

"Sweetheart, don’t move. The needle might slip."

"Go to sleep. Your brother’s here."

’His voice is so gentle,’ she thought. ’Listening closely, I can tell it’s a little different from how he sounded in the car.’

’Before, his gentleness was tinged with a morbid paranoia, a complete facade.’

’Now, it’s more like he’s coaxing a child to sleep.’

Thankfully, the pain vanished in an instant. Mia stopped struggling and quickly drifted back into a heavy sleep.

The night was long and desolate. Silas kept vigil by her bed, remaining in the same position until the first light of dawn streaked the sky. Only when her fever finally broke did he leave the room.

Of course, it wasn’t that he wanted to leave.

An uninvited guest had arrived downstairs. Who else but Kian Keller would show up at such an hour to ruin the mood?

Silas stood at the top of the stairs, looking down on them. His gaze swept over the men standing behind his guest, and he smiled. "So early, Ethan. What’s the meaning of bringing all these people over?"

Kian Keller looked up at the sound of the voice, his features cold and detached. "You kidnapped my fiancée."

"Is that so?" Silas took off his glasses, squinting as if deep in thought. "My apologies, Ethan. I don’t believe I have anyone like that here."

"As your friend, I’d advise you to call the police. This is a serious criminal matter, after all."

"Shall I call the cops for you?"

"Where is Mia." Kian Keller had no patience for his games.

"Weren’t you looking for your fiancée? What does that have to do with *my* Mia?"

"Unless... are you saying the fiancée you’re referring to is Mia?"

"Did you two have an engagement ceremony without my knowledge?"

"Or did you already have a marriage contract?"

Silas fired off a series of questions.

None of it was true, of course. Silas was just twisting the knife.

"Or do you plan on telling the cops that I, her brother, brought my own sister over to stay the night because I wanted to reconnect with her, and that somehow constitutes kidnapping?"

He laughed at the absurdity of it all and shook his head, offering his "friend" some advice. "Ethan, if you have this much free time, you should probably go get your head examined."

"Or you could wait until Hayes recovers and returns from overseas. I can help you book an appointment with him; he’s a specialist."

Normally, with his glasses on, Silas didn’t look particularly aggressive. He appeared refined and gentlemanly.

But with his glasses off, it was as if a seal had been broken. Whether in a war of words or a physical fight, he always had the upper hand on Kian Keller, the supposed "Buddha of the capital’s elite circle."

No one knew how to press people’s buttons better than he did.

Especially Kian Keller’s.

Fortunately for Kian Keller, these barbs were painless, even childish.

He had no interest in indulging in cheap verbal victories.

"The marriage alliance between the Keller and Grant Families is a done deal."

"Where is she? Do I find her myself, or are you going to hand her over?"

"Be my guest." Silas gestured expansively at the self-proclaimed fiancé. "I don’t mind sharing a headline with you in tomorrow’s news."

Just as he finished speaking, his phone buzzed in his pocket.

"Pardon me, I have to take this."

Silas glanced at the caller ID, and the faint trace of a smile in his eyes froze for an instant.

Then, he smiled and turned the screen for Kian Keller to see. "Well, look at that. Another one of Mia’s fiancés is calling."

[Author’s Note: A quick calculation tells me new characters are lining up for their debut.]