Valeria was startled by the man's sudden appearance before her.
Before she could finish her sentence, the man pushed Valeria inside and closed the hotel room door.
"Do you want them to see you wearing just that?" the man asked, looking at his fiancée, who was wearing only a towel.
"That's none of your business! How did you find me here?!" Valeria snapped at the man.
The man turned out to be the man who would soon become her husband— Dominic. He had managed to find Valeria in no time at all. Even before Donn called him, he already knew where Valeria was.
"How did I know? Of course, because I'll know wherever you are," Dominic replied, glancing at something before looking back into her eyes.
"You've been stalking me?! Did you send your people to watch me?!" Valeria asked angrily, since Dominic had managed to track her down just four days after she'd escaped.
Yet she hadn't turned on her phone at all, hadn't used her ATM card, or anything else that could be tracked.
So how was he able to track her down?
However, he didn't answer her; instead, he asked something else.
"How was your vacation, hmm? I let you go until today so you could relax a bit before our wedding," Dominic said with a smirk.
Valeria furrowed her brow, glaring at him with disdain. "Next time, I'll go as far away as I can so you can't find me."
"You won't be able to run away from me, Cara Mia."
Annoyed by Dominic's words, Valeria swung her hand to slap him. However, Dominic quickly grabbed her wrist and pulled her closer by the waist. Their faces were so close that their noses were touching.
Valeria's blue eyes locked directly with his honey-brown ones as they were illuminated by the light.
"I really love your expression right now," he whispered before finally pulling Valeria into his kiss.
A soft and warm kiss, though very brief, as Valeria immediately pulled away.
"What… What the fuck are you doing?!" the woman asked, annoyed at suddenly receiving a kiss from Dominic.
"Heh… Actually, I wanted to save it for our wedding later. But you're too tempting tonight for me to resist kissing you—especially these lips of yours," he said, running his finger along Valeria's lower lip.
"You're disgusting."
Ignoring Valeria's words, Dominic took off his long coat and wrapped it around her. He immediately hoisted her onto his shoulder like a sack of potatoes and carried her out.
"Pack up her things and take them to the car!" he ordered his subordinate.
"Yes, sir!"
Valeria struggled, trying to break free from Dominic, but he held her tight so she couldn't move much and then put her in the car.
"Let me go! Hey! I'll beat you up if I manage to get away! Hey!!"
"You've had enough vacation; I've let you take your time off. Now it's time to go back and take care of our wedding."
Dominic's car, along with his men, sped away from the hotel to return to Vansia City.
In the end, Valeria returned to Vansia with Dominic. That very night, she was immediately taken home to the Scarlett family residence. Donn, her father, immediately approached them and thanked Dominic for finding Valeria.
"Oh, thank you, Mr. Lawrence, for finding her. I'm sorry for the trouble of having to contact you like this. We're truly grateful," Donn said to his future son-in-law.
"It's no problem at all; I'm actually glad I could help bring my future wife home safely," he replied, glancing at Valeria, who was glaring at him angrily before finally entering the house with Jane.
"Arrghh! So fucking annoying!!! That bastard really annoying! I don't want to marry him!" Valeria exclaimed in frustration, nearly throwing her father's expensive vase that was in the hallway of their mansion.
The servants who followed her tried to calm her down, including her father's subordinates who were in the vicinity of the mansion.
"Calm down, Miss Valeria. That vase is worth 150 million dollars. The Master will be furious if it breaks!"
She took a deep breath, trying to calm herself down.
"Ah, forget it! I'd better go back to my room!" said the ginger-haired woman, then headed up to the third floor toward her room.
Upon arriving in her room, Valeria changed into the evening gown she usually wore. She flopped onto the bed and tried not to let her emotions get the better of her.
Even though she had tried to avoid marrying Dominic, there was always something that brought her back to him.
Sometimes she wondered, would marriage really be that bad? She didn't know what Dominic was really like, and she didn't know what her marriage to him would be like either.
"Just thinking about it gives me a headache," she said with a long sigh.
She turned her body to look at a small photo frame on the table next to her bed. She reached for the frame and saw a photo of herself as a child with her mother.
This reminded her of the past, when she was just 10 years old. That was when she lost her mother in an unexpected yet terrifying incident right before her eyes.
"If only I hadn't gone to school that day, and had spent my time with you. I'm sure I could have stopped you from leaving me," Valeria said in a trembling, slightly hoarse voice.
If only she could go back 12 years and stop it all. Her mother would still be with her. "If only Dad had paid more attention to Mom, none of this would have happened."
The memory was still so vivid in her mind. The image of her mother's body hanging from the ceiling of her room. Something a 10 year old shouldn't have seen. Especially since it was the body of her beloved mother.
Her bedroom door suddenly swung open, and Jane walked in carrying a tray with the strawberry milkshake without she ask. Instinctively, she placed the photo frame back on the table.
"Don't just barge into my room. You should have knocked first, Jane."
"I knocked several times, but you didn't answer. So I decided to just come in," replied the elderly woman as she set the milkshake on the table.
Valeria didn't make an issue of it, since she had known Jane for a long time. She was a very loyal servant to her mother when she was still alive. The woman got out of bed, sat down in her chair, and enjoyed her strawberry milkshake.
"Miss Valeria, are you missing her?"
"Who do you mean, 'missing'?" she asked as she sipped her milkshake.
"Madam Arabella, of course—your mother. Are you missing her right now?"
Jane had known Valeria for a long time, ever since she was a child, so she was familiar with the woman's habits. Especially after her mother's passing.
Valeria fell silent upon hearing this, then looked out her bedroom window. Jane walked over to her.
"Let me."
The older woman hugged her gently and stroked her head, saying everything would be all right.
Valeria's gaze dropped. She felt that this was her weakest point, one she had never shown to anyone, but Jane always knew when moments like this came.
"Stop treating me like a little kid, Jane."