"I feel so bad for involving you this far..." The girl whispered.

Nicolae only shook his head. "I don't think I have a choice. Besides... you can immediately annul it."

"You're right. But I'm not comfortable with you because now you are involved so deeply in my affairs. If you married me for real, you will be registered as being married twice at such a young age, and divorced twice. It wouldn't look good for you. Women would think there must be something wrong with you that you can't keep a marriage." The girl looked uneasy for bothering Nicolae in such a way.

The young man stared at Marie with a complicated look. Finally, he could only say, "I have never been married. And I did not ask you to take care of the divorce after your mother died. I asked that you take care of the annulment."

"Oh ... really? I'm sorry for making my own assumption. I thought you were married to your kids' mother and then got divorced," Marie said regretfully.

"No, we are not married," Nicolae answered firmly.

He really wanted to marry Aleksis ... but fate was not on his side.

Marie looked surprised at Nicolae's answer. "Does that mean, you have children out of wedlock?"

Nicolae massaged his forehead. He suddenly felt very tired.

"Marie, I already told you--no, I begged you, not to ask too many questions and interfere in my personal affairs. I am willing to marry you just to help you lie to your mother because I cannot bear to see her suffer. But, apart from the fake marriage registration that we will do tomorrow ... you and I don't have any relationship." He looked at Marie with a sharp look that made the girl stunned. "Please do not interfere in my personal affairs and do not interfere in the affairs of my children."

"All right. I'm sorry. I was just curious. I promise I won't ask any more questions," Marie said hurriedly. After all, she was indebted to Nicolae, and she did not want to upset him.

"All right, then. Who will take care of the wedding tomorrow? You or me?" Nicolae asked her.

"Let me do it. I don't want to inconvenience you any further. I will take care of our wedding ceremony with the hospital chapel and also contact ROM. I will also bring all the necessary stuff." Marie immediately offered.

"All right. Here's my phone number. You can contact me to inform me of all the preparations," Nicolae gave her his card that contained the spare contact number that he had prepared for strangers. No matter what, Marie was nothing to him, he could not give his personal contact to the girl.

"Thank you. I'll keep you updated," Marie said, keeping the card Nicolae gave her in her bag.

"All right, then I'll go home now. The kids are waiting for me," Nicolae said. He turned and walked out of the sanatorium building with long steps. He felt a little depressed, and he tried to massage his forehead, which suddenly hurt.

This morning should have been easy, had Mrs. Lu not caught them in their lies. Who would have thought, their little white lie now had turned into something very serious.

He never expected that he would offer to marry Marie in front of her mother just to give the old lady peace before she died. This is really unexpected.

As Nicolae walked away, Marie stood rooted in her spot.

When the young man almost reached the end of the hall, the girl was moved from her reverie. She ran after Nicolae and hugged the young man's waist from behind.

Marie's tears spilled and wet the man's shirt as she buried her face on his back and cried there despondently. Nicolae could only be silent in his place when Marie's small hands wrapped around his waist. For the first time, he realized that the girl's scent reminded him of the fresh citrus scent of Aleksis's body.

Why, at a time like this, he was still thinking of Aleksis?

He could only close his eyes and keep his own sadness to himself.

"Thank you ... Thank you ... I cannot repay your kindness. I'm sorry, for giving you so much trouble ..." Marie whispered in between her sobs. "I really appreciate what you did to me. I am indebted to you forever..."

Nicolae remained silent and waited until Marie had finished crying on his back. After the girl calmed down and stopped crying, Nicolae felt that his shirt was soaked in her tears. He then turned and faced Marie. Without saying a word, he put his right hand around her head and rubbed Marie's head to calm her down.

They both stood like that in the hospital hallway for some time. After Marie's tears completely subsided, Nicolae then walked away again. He did not look back at all.

When he returned to his apartment, Nicolae daydreamed a lot. Altair and Vega who saw him sitting pensively at his desk could only wonder, what was bothering their father's mind.

Unfortunately, they did not get an answer from the man. The two ten-year-olds didn't know what was bothering Nicolae. He also did not intend to share what was in his heart to them, because the two children were still too small to be bothered by a.d.u.l.t problems.

He was stressed because he felt obliged to help Marie to lie to her mother, to make the dying woman happy before she died. He did not expect things would turn this serious just because he was too kind and could not bear to see Mrs. Lu suffer. Finally, he took the initiative and offered to be Marie's fake husband, and tomorrow they would get married for real.

For someone like Nicolae, marriage is something sacred and important. He never fell in love with a girl easily and then thought of marrying her. Moreover, he is an Alchemist with their conservative culture. They believed that humans should get married only once in a lifetime.

Nicolae knew that the wound in his heart was still fresh. He was still in love with Aleksis and it had been a struggle for him to heal his broken heart. He even thought it would take him decades or even a century before he could fall in love again and thought about marriage with any other woman.

He didn't realize that his heart was too soft. So, when he saw Mrs. Lu, he violated his own principles and immediately offered to enter into a fake marriage with Marie, a woman he barely knew, just to make Mrs. Lu happy one last time, before she took her final breath.

This was one of the things that made him quite depressed today. In addition to that, Nicolae was also very concerned about the fact that a year had passed since he entered into an agreement with his brother, Alaric, that he could live with the twins, Altair and Vega. This week, the agreement ended and he had to return them to their biological parents.

Aleksis' birthday will take place in 5 days and Nicolae had promised to bring the children to Grosseto 4 days from now, so they could meet Lauriel, his father, at Medici Castle.

Later, Lauriel will take the children to Targu Mures to meet Aleksis and Alaric.

He didn't understand how could a year pass like a blink of an eye.