Chapter 2043 The woman‘s eyes glided over the curtain. She could see the silhouette flitting about behind the veil. “Joaqin expressed his wish to marry Ms. Serrano to you.” The silhouette inside froze, comb still locked in black, smooth hair. A peal of laughter suddenly erupted from beyond the curtains. “Oh, Joaqin has such a sick sense of humor. Imagine, asking me to marry a squawking chimpanzee!” The woman cast her eyes to the floor. “Mr. Southern has refused.”
Cameron was done grooming. The silhouette emerged from behind the curtains, cutting a sleek, tidy figure made even more handsome by an aura of heroism. A melange of languidness, laid–back casualness, and unflappability hung over the figure‘s face. “So, Dad‘s decision to let Mr. Beck take care of The Commune really threw The Serpents off, didn‘t it? And the only solution they could come up with was political marriage. Well, sucks to be them. I‘m not…‘ husband‘ material.”
The woman sighed. “It‘s a potential blow to your identity. That‘s what this is.” Everyone knew that Sunny had a son, but only Sunny, the butler, and this woman knew who Cameron really was. An enigma in both thoughts and actions, he… was, in reality, a “she.”
The woman followed Cameron downstairs. A stormy–faced Sunny was sitting in the living room. It was quite obviously related to Joaqin‘s request. Cameron lifted the teapot. “What‘s with the sulk, Dad? I‘m one of the two main characters in that proposal, and even I look less upset than you are.” Sunny looked up. “I shot it down, but that rat had a contingency plan up in his sleeves! He dared mention the promise your grandfather made to pressure me!”
Sunny‘s father used to be best friends with Joaqin‘s father back in Jakukari. That friendship had been the basis behind Sunny granting the Serrano family asylum in the East Islands when the latter faced a crisis. What was more, Sunny‘s father had even promised Joaqin‘s father that their grandchildren should definitely marry each other in the future.
Nevertheless, all it took was the passing of Sunny‘s father and Joaqin inheriting The Serpents‘ leadership to expose who The Serpents really were. Sunny managed to hide that his ‘son‘ was really a daughter, while Joaqin never had a son at all. There was no way to make their parents‘ promise come true, but there was an inherent problem with coming clean. If words of Cameron‘s real s*x got out, the Southern Clan, and their family, would be plunged into chaos. Cameron caressed her father‘s palm reassuringly. “I‘ll handle this, Dad.”
The older man looked at her, took a deep breath, and nodded. “Alright. This is about your identity. I‘m much more at ease knowing that you‘ll solve it yourself.” News about the proposal spread through the island like wildfire. It was clear just how much Joaqin had prepared for this. With the promise between their fathers as the foundation and the virality of the news, the Southern family‘s rejection would automatically become an invitation for an insurrection.
Nollace set the newspaper down and looked across the table, and his eyes fixed on Cameron drinking tea. “They are using that marriage proposal as a litmus test for your father‘s thoughts, aren‘t they?” Cameron stared into her cup, her eyes tracing the circling steam rolling out of its surface. “ They grew antsy after you assumed control over The Commune. They don‘t know what my old man‘s thinking, so they resorted to this tactic.”
Nollace‘s eyes flicked aside for a second. “If the Southerns reject them, they will mount this as an excuse to join Fabio‘s camp. Fabio is only all–too–happy to see the house divided. The fact that I‘m the new overseer of The Commune only sends things hurling in that direction,” he said. “I doubt Mr. Southern had expected The Serpents to use a political marriage as a test.”
He had expected Joaqin to be confused and anxious about Sunny‘s thoughts about The Serpents, but he had not predicted this tactic at all.
