Chapter 26. The Wedding Photograph

While waiting to get there by the boat trip, Sienna recalled something inside her head.
*Carmelia’s belongings.* Daniel said that he kept everything that belonged to Carmelia on that island, including clothes and some personal stuff.
“Gosh, this is so annoying,” she muttered while her eyes stared blankly at the water view.
She felt kind of worried since she had gone for three days since Thursday that she had lunch with him. Jonathan must have been wandering for her whereabouts since her sudden disappearance was unusual. Sienna was assured that her boyfriend and her family would look out for her.
This was already Saturday. And tomorrow would be the end of the weekend. She hoped Jonathan would call the cops to look out for her whereabouts. She couldn’t find her purse and her phone while staying in the mansion. She wondered where he kept her stuff.
“Don’t pout, Baby,” Daniel suddenly disturbed her quiet moment. He tossed a drink in the air while staring out at her. “Please, have a drink…”
“No, thank you. I will not be a pathetic drunkard like you are,” she snapped sarcastically.
He giggled, but then he grimaced.
She tried to keep a distance from him once he sat down beside her.
“I’m not going to bite you,” Daniel muttered, annoyed when she did that.
But she was tired to debate with him, and thus, she ignored him.
All of sudden, he kissed the tip of her jaw. She gasped the air, astonished.
“What the…” she muttered. “You said you wouldn’t bite me!”
“I said I wouldn’t bite you, but I didn’t say I will not kiss you, did I?” He giggled.
She quickly pushed him away and muttered, “Ugh, so gross!”
But when he came back and tried to kiss her again, one of his bodyguards knocked the door. At that moment, she felt relieved, she felt like she was saved in time.
He sighed heavily. Then he sat steady again once that big man entered the room.
Daniel shouted out, “What is it?”
“Sir, we’re approaching the island in a minute,” he informed him.
He immediately glanced at the window to look outside. Sienna followed to see the view. They saw the island was about one kilometer away.
Daniel nodded. “Good, it’s time to have some fun.”
Then he put his glass of wine at the table and raised from the sofa.
Once the boat was parked at the edge of the shore, everybody prepared themselves. And Sienna followed them to get out of the boat.
This place was not as quiet as she would imagine it to be. Somehow, this place kind of reminded her of Rio de Janeiro, which was a huge seaside city in Brazil.
She saw the port was pretty active when it was still early in the morning. Some people went to catch fish and others went to open their shops in the market.
“Wow, this is your father’s private island?” Sienna wondered. It was hard to believe since she had imagined this place would be somehow abandoned. But it was on the contrary.
“Yes, and we care so much for the folks who live here,” Daniel informed her.
“No way…” she gawked at the beautiful view of this island. “This place is amazing.”
He chuckled beside her. “I told you, didn’t I? We will have fun here.”
“What?” She flickered nervously.
But then he exclaimed out excitedly, “Welcome to the Wilson Paradise!”
After he said that, her eyes caught a wooden board near the market, which was written literally; *the Wilson Paradise Island.*
“No in a fricking way this is real,” she muttered in disbelief.
“Come on, Sienna. You need to see this place,” he said as he dragged her wrist.
When Daniel accompanied her to walk through the local market, she muttered, “Wa… wait…”
He glanced, baffled at her. “What is it?”
She blinked anxiously while her eyes were staring around this place. And then she said, “What time is the folk’s party will be held here?”
“Will start around five p.m. today,” he informed her. “The folks will like to see the sunset together during the party.”
She looked restless. “But this is still nine in the morning. The party will start in eight hours from now.”
“Don’t worry, I have my reason why I bring you earlier here,” he smiled widely at her.
She pinched her eyes at him, suspicious. “What is it you’re going to do to me again?”
“Relax,” he muttered as he continued walking. She quickly followed him. “I have told you earlier, I will show you the storage room. I know you have been missing your pretty clothes, your pretty bags, and your pieces of shining jewelry.”
Sienna chuckled in disbelief. Then she shouted sarcastically at him, “Oh, do you mean, Carmelia’s personal stuff? Yeah, those things are not mine.”
This time, he ignored her and just demanded her to follow him along.
After about ten minutes of walking around, she suddenly saw a house in the woods. It was like the only house that was established far away from other houses in the area. The house was not as big as the mansion that Daniel owned back then in Vancouver.
“Are you ready?” He asked her softly.
She stared up at him to see his beautiful smile. He had a slight dimple. Sometimes she almost fell for his charm. But she had to guard her heart steadily.
And then she murmured, “Whatever, just go on.”
Soon after, he welcomed her to enter the front yard. His bodyguards were still following from behind. They always looked as if someone would attack their boss at any second. They looked terribly defensive. Sienna wondered about their weird attitude sometimes, but she didn’t want to bother to ask Daniel. She didn’t want to show her interest in knowing his dark business.
Nobody lived in this house for a very long time. She could tell by observing the heavy clouds of dust that covered the walls. The front yard’s grasses even looked kind of withered.
Daniel quickly grabbed a key from inside his long black pants’ pocket. Just like what Sienna had assumed, nobody lived here, not even a servant.
As soon as Daniel opened the door, he welcomed her to enter the foyer. When she slightly glanced at the bodyguards at the front yard, they stood still there.
“Aren’t they coming with us?” Sienna wondered.
“Why would they?” Daniel returned the question to her. He seemed baffled when Sienna suddenly cared to ask.
She gulped down her saliva. She almost forgot that she should have not questioned him about that. She quickly shook her head and said, “Ugh, nothing.”
Afterward, she came inside the house with him. The foyer looked rustic. This place looked friendlier than the mansion. And she felt comfier to be here since the interior looked classical, filled with wooden materials.
“The storage room that you’ve mentioned, is in this house?” Sienna wondered.
After he turned on the electric switch, then he quickly returned to see her and said, “Yes.”
Her mouth half-opened for a second. She had imagined the wrong thing again. She thought she would find a mysterious bunker somewhere on this island, considering the rumor that he was a Romanian Mafia.
“Where?” She asked again.
The corner of his lips turned upward. He seemed happy when Sienna showed a little interest to know about it. Then he nudged his head sideway and shouted, “Follow me.”
Sienna carefully walked behind him throughout the dimmed passage. There were some doors. Then he got stopped at the door at the end of the corridor.
He turned to her and murmured, “Everything of yours, I have been keeping them save inside this room.”
She pinched her eyes, suspicious.
Once he opened the door, she saw a bedroom in there. There were boxes placed on the floor and on the bed. She walked ahead, entering the room carefully.
“Just open the boxes, Baby. They are all yours,” he said at the doorsill while watching her observantly.
She slightly glanced at him. Then she turned again to see the brown boxes in front of her.
For a moment, she felt confused about which box to check first. But then she thought, they were all might as well be just the same things.
One box that she opened first, contained the pretty sparkling gowns. And then the other box contained pieces of jewelry.
When she was about to open another box, her eyes turned around and found some photographs displayed on the brown wooden dressing table.
Her eyes caught the wedding photograph among those photos inside rectangular frames. She approached the table to see it from closer. She saw the photo of Daniel looked so happy there. He stood still, holding the arm of a woman dressed in a white gown.
When her eyes looked observantly at the photo, her hands got trembled. Her heart was skipped a beat. Her mouth slightly gawked.
“No…” she murmured, shocked.
Then she turned to glance at him, who was still standing at the door.
She felt a terrible fear inside of her body. “Your wife…”
Daniel gave her the most handsome smile she had ever seen on this entire planet. And he looked so calm and well-reserved, unlike her.
“Your… your lost wife… she is…” Sienna shuddered at the horror thought that crossed her mind. The moment she called him a lunatic was not entirely wrong, but also not entirely right.
When she turned again to see the photo, she held her breath.
The resemblance was insane. The woman who became his wife looked exactly like her.
And for a second, her whole body went numb.