To stop Alaric from pressing him to pursue Marie, Nicolae finally decided to tell him about their father.
"If you have that much free time to interfere in my love life, why don't you go after Father? He looks mysterious lately," Nicolae said. "Do you know what I am thinking? Our father has finally got a girlfriend! There, you have it!"
Alaric looked pensive at his brother's words. Nicolae was dumbfounded because his brother wasn't at all surprised.
"Hmm ..." Alaric just nodded. "I know. And that's okay, right? Our father has been alone for more than a hundred years. Isn't it about time for him to find his happiness?"
"You knew?!?" Nicolae's pair of big blue eyes went round in shock. He touched Alaric's shoulders and shook them with great curiosity. "Who is that woman? Where did they meet?"
Alaric cast his eyes off into the distance, in the direction in which his father was sitting with Altair and Vega. His father's face was very similar to Nicolae's but his personality was truly similar to Alaric's, so you could say, Alaric understood Lauriel like he understood himself.
He was also surprised when Lauriel arrived at their house a few days ago before leaving together to F Island. He immediately recognized that there was something with his father. However, because Lauriel was very similar to him, Alaric understood that his father did not like to share his personal issues with anyone. That was why he did not ask.
In his opinion, when the time was right, Lauriel would share it with him and Nicolae. Until then, he would respect his father's decision and privacy.
"I know the red woven wristband that Father is wearing. That's all I can say," Alaric said. "We better let Father get privacy."
Nicolae became increasingly curious. He was not prepared to hear that his father had found new love after more than a century of mourning the death of their mother. And most importantly ... who was the woman who could melt their father's icy heart?
Because he was very reclusive and rarely present at the clan events, he almost became a legend among women even though they didn't know how he actually looked. They only knew Lauriel was very impressive and he had a pair of brilliant blue-green eyes. It would be easy to recognize him when he came.
"You know who that person is? But you don't want to tell me ...?" Nicolae asked again in a disappointed tone. He felt excluded because his brother was hiding something.
"I already told you, this is not my place to talk about Father's personal business. Let's hope our father can be happy," Alaric shook his head slowly. He then looked at Nicolae fixedly. "I also want you to be happy. You should settle your business with Marie."
Nicolae finally sighed and nodded. "I know..."
He couldn't wait to meet Marie and confirm his feelings. For some reason, since Altaïr showed him the girl's photo, he kept thinking about Marie.
What was the girl doing now?
"I have something to do. You guys can continue sunbathing here ..." he said as he stood up.
He rushed to his room and took his tablet. He went to the balcony and sat on a lounger, watching the open sea and his family members who were busy relaxing while sunbathing and chatting.
Nicolae opened the internet and tried to find all the information about Marie. After ten minutes, he could only find a little data about Marie. As the girl said, she had a sad childhood. Since she was 10 years old, her mother had been in and out of the hospital and she lived a lot with Sanna's family. He could see that Sanna was Marie's only friend.
Sanna only invested money in their shop, but on the day to day basis, it was Marie who did all the work. Sanna studied in a university, and since last semester, she had been taking leave because she wanted to move to Paris to be with her new boyfriend.
Nicolae hardly found Marie's photo on the internet. It seemed like the girl didn't like being photographed. She also didn't have an account on any social media. Marie gave out the impression of being reclusive. She did not like crowds, even though she had a warm and bubbly personality. Marie's face was always blurred or so small that Nicolae could hardly recognize her in one or two photos he found from Sanna's social media.
Nicolae found only one photo where Marie's face looked quite clear. It was in Sanna's Splitz account. They were holding hands and smiled broadly. It looked like they were celebrating their graduation from high school.
"Hmmm ... you're so beautiful," Nicolae murmured softly as his eyes stared at Marie's photo almost without blinking. He really liked Marie's broad smile and carefree expression. When she was smiling, her small eyes will seem to disappear, making them look like two cute lines. Her full red lips looked luscious, and Nicolae was immediately reminded how sweet they tasted when he kissed her.
Ah ... suddenly he was overcome with a deep longing for Marie. Why was he so dumb and only realized his feelings for her now?
Did Marie still like him?
Nicolae couldn't wait to get to Singapore and meet the girl. He really had to prepare an excuse as to why he disappeared for three months. Was Marie trying to contact him at that time? Nicolae did not give Marie his personal contact number, only his temporary phone number. Marie also didn't know his email address ...
If the girl had tried to contact him and she was unsuccessful ... Nicolae would have to explain why he was unreachable for months.
And... now, the most important question was...
Nicolae finally decided to hack Singapore ROM data and find out for himself. He couldn't wait to see Marie and ask her about the annulment.
He secretly hoped that Marie would not process the annulment. If Marie had not annulled their marriage ... or if she didn't have time to do it ... Nicolae would feel very relieved.
At this point, he realized that he was truly in love with Marie. He knew because his little heart wished Marie was still his wife.
Soon, he entered the Singaporean government database and sought information about the marriage registrations and annulments that had taken place over the past three months.
It didn't take long for him to find the information he was looking for. Within five minutes, he entered the database he was targeting and, with a thumping c.h.e.s.t, clicked on the information.
"Ahh ..." His lips let out a soft complaint involuntarily when the data was displayed on his tablet screen.
[Annullment of marriage between Marie Lu and Nicolae Sorin. Friday, 30th December 2050. Status: granted.]
Marie did annul their marriage on the last day before the three months passed. Apparently, she waited until the last moment before she did so.
Nicolae's c.h.e.s.t felt so heavy when he realized that Marie had just annulled their marriage three days ago. It was the day when he arrived in Singapore before leaving for F Island.