Submitting to My Best Friend's Dad-Chapter 818 : Something’s Wrong

*Elio*

It felt like deja vu all over again as I woke up to the empty side of our bed where Cat should be. The sun had just started to rise and the alarm was still an hour from going off, but as I reached out to her side, it was cold.

She’d clearly been up for a while.

I sighed, heaving myself to my feet as I headed to where I knew she would be.

I walked into the kitchen and saw Cat sitting at the kitchen table with an empty look on her face. The scent of coffee hung in the air as she clasped her hands tightly around her favorite mug, even though it was chipped.

I couldn’t remember how many times I’d told her it was better to throw it away and get a new one, but she’d insisted on it being special cause it ‘had character.’

I frowned, lingering just outside of the kitchen as I watched her for a moment, wondering what on earth she was up so early two nights in a row. But as time passed, I slowly realized that the answer was nothing.

She was thinking, or overthinking maybe, but she didn’t move a muscle, eyes unfocused and dark circles under them as she stared blankly at the wood grain on the table. She was completely lost in her thoughts.

“Cat?” I called quietly, not sure if she would hear me.

I saw her flinch, glancing up at me with wide eyes like she’d just woken up from a long sleep.

“Hm?” she hummed, taking a sip of her coffee, then making a weird face. It was probably lukewarm at best. 𝐟𝚛𝕖𝚎𝕨𝗲𝐛𝚗𝐨𝐯𝐞𝕝.𝐜𝗼𝗺

I sighed, taking the seat beside her as I gently brushed the hair away from her neck. “Did you even sleep at all last night?” I asked worriedly.

I didn’t know what was going on with her, but I could tell something was wrong. Cat liked to sleep in. She always made sure to get as many hours as she could.

Waking up so early was not normal for her.

“Yeah, I did. Emilia woke up early so I got up to soothe her back to sleep and I just... didn’t fall back asleep.” Cat explained it away, but she tapped her fingers against her mug insistently, not meeting my eyes.

I knew when Cat was lying. I’d known for her more than half of her life at this point.

She was definitely lying to me.

I opened my mouth to question her, push a little harder and find out the reason why she was lying to me, but right at that moment the baby monitor sitting beside her lit up with three red dots, the sound of Emilia’s cry coming through.

Cat rose out of her seat on instinct, but I held a hand against her shoulder, pushing her back down.

“It’s okay, I’ve got her. Just relax, okay?” I said, brushing her hair from her face so I could lay a kiss on her forehead.

She nodded, humming a little okay as I rose, heading to the nursery with quickened steps.

I didn’t really feel right about leaving Cat like this, but I trusted that she would be okay for a few minutes while I got our daughter up and ready for the day.

Emilia, as it turned out, was having a bit of a fussy day, which I normally wouldn’t complain about. But today was a bit of a special day. We had test photos with our photographer, and Cat wanted to bring Emilia to get at least a couple with her. But dressing her in her little flower girl dress was nearly impossible.

I ended up giving up, just putting her in a onesie for now, at least until after breakfast. When I came back into the kitchen, Cat was already making breakfast since it was so early the cook hadn’t arrived yet. Emilia’s bottle was warmed up and ready to go.

Unfortunately for me, Emilia wasn’t having any of it.

With a third tooth on the way, she was ornery as she slapped her hands on her highchair, trying to wiggle out of it. I had my hands full with her to the point where Cat’s unusual mood slipped my mind.

It took every trick in the book I had just to get her to drink some of her formula and take a few bites of her mashed bananas. And even then, most of it landed on the floor. Cat and I only ate a bagel each, our hands full with getting Emilia ready as it took both of us to get her into her dress.

Cat headed into the bathroom to get ready while I did Emilia’s hair up for the day.

“There, isn’t she all nice and pretty now?” I grinned widely at Cat when she walked back into the room, showing off what I thought was my best work yet–our little princess dressed in a light pink frilled dress, a row of fake lilies and roses across her waist and a flower hairclip pinned to keep her tufts of hair from her face.

She was a vision. Cat smiled, taking her from me to try to cheer up our pouting daughter.

“After the photos, I’m going to meet with your mother,” Cat said matter-of-factly. “She just called and she was hoping to see Emilia today, so since I didn’t have anything to do after this, I figured I could take her to lunch while you’re at work.”

“That sounds great,” I said, having no problem with it. My parents didn’t get to see Emilia very often but they adored her just as everyone else did. “Make sure you have Tony with you when you go, though, just in case.”

“Sure,” she agreed easily.

If I hadn’t noticed her unusual mood earlier, I would have now. Cat never liked having guards following her and she always put up an argument, or at least a glare of defiance, but she didn’t do any of that.

Her agreeableness was a huge red flag that something was clearly very wrong. I raised an eyebrow at her but she only smiled innocently, a weary look in her eyes.

I played dumb for her sake, giving a sigh before folding her into a hug.

“You can talk to me always. You know that, right?” I said quietly, wanting her to know that I was here whenever she was ready. I felt her nod into my shoulder.

“I know.”

She answered quietly, but despite my hopes that she would open up, she didn’t.

Cat and I grabbed our outfits in bags and a change of normal clothes for Emilia before we headed off to meet our photographer. Cat was silent the whole way, playing with her fingers in her lap absent-mindedly.

Though I wanted to dive deeper to find out what was wrong, I could tell she didn’t want to talk about it.

Our photographer met us at the cathedral, which I’d booked for a few hours just to do some test pictures. We changed into our formal wear, a simple dress and tux we were using for just the announcement photographs here and the rehearsal later.

“Oh, you two are simply stunning!” Our photographer grinned wildly as she saw us. “Simply amazing. You’re both some of the best models I’ve had in a long time, though don’t tell anybody I said that. A perfect match for one another.”

We took photos outside then at the venue and the rehearsal hall.

The beautiful arch was blooming full of flowers in the spring air. Despite the wind being a bit finicky, our photographer made it work for us as she directed us into positions, snapping photos faster than I’d expected.

We headed inside to the hall next and Cat laughed, happily clinging to my side as the ceiling projections lit up into a starry galaxy around us, her golden dress shining like a star in the lights. I twirled her a bit, happy to see her relaxing and becoming more playful like she normally was.

We lost ourselves a bit, ending up taking more photos than necessary, but our photographer was more than happy with it, practically beaming with hearts in her eyes as she showed us the digital photos. With a little bit of editing, they would be perfect.

Cat and I picked our favorites, having them sent to our phones, though we both agreed that our favorite was the three of us in the starry sky, Emilia laughing between us as we kissed each side of her cheek.

That one I made sure to personally save. My beautiful girls were radiant.

We changed back to our normal clothes, including getting Emilia out of her flower girl dress, which she was very excited about. Our photographer stayed to take some more photos of the venue without us, making sure she had enough spare ones for touch-ups and editing later for the official ones.

“So, feeling good about everything?” I asked playfully as we left the cathedral to wait outside in the nice spring air.

It was cloudy with just enough sun to keep it warm, a beautiful day. Tony was on his way to pick up Cat and Emilia so I could head to work and she could go meet with my mom.

“You know, I actually am,” Cat said, shooting me a grin. “I was feeling really nervous, but not so much anymore. Even if the ceremony ends up as a mess, I know it’ll be perfect because I’m finally marrying you.”

Her eyes were soft, full of emotion as she looked at me. I couldn’t resist ducking my head to kiss her, my hand entwining in her silky hair. She was adorable sometimes.

“My soon-to-be wife is a romantic.” I grinned once we parted.

“And my soon-to-be husband is easy to trick into kissing me,” Cat smirked back.

I laughed, ready to pull her into my car and be late to both our destinations, but then I saw Tony drive up in the corner of my eye.

I was disappointed but I let Cat go, helping to buckle up Emilia into her car seat. Once she was secure, fast asleep from the busy day she’d had, Cat turned to me with a small smile.

“I’ll see you later, after work,” Cat said, a bit of a nervous look to her.

“Say hi to my mom for me, okay?” I told her, kissing her one last time.

I tried to ignore the unsure look in her eyes, like she was hiding something from me and didn’t want me to know. She only nodded, and I stepped back, not saying anything though I desperately wanted to.

It was only once they were gone and out of sight, I headed back to my own car. I had work to do, unfortunately, since I had some details to work out for my friend’s development project.

The office was at least a thirty-minute drive, but I was barely a third into that before my phone rang. Once I answered, Franky’s voice came out urgently.

“We found something.”