BELLA.
"Stop being rude. You should see too, he looks extra dashing today," I replied as I turned my face back to admire him. "Look how gorgeously his hair strands are falling on his forehead, enhancing his handsomeness even more."
My cheeks blushed as I kept looking at him upstairs. Today he was dressed in a black t-shirt and jeans with a navy blue jacket, he looked so youthful and badass. His chocolate brown hair slicked back in a stylish hairstyle while his thick brows remained serious and his hazel eyes searched for me in the room.
I still couldn't refresh last night's scenes from my mind, the way he kissed me again and again, made love. It felt so special in his embrace, he made me feel like I was everything for him, even after so many months of being apart and fighting.
Never have I felt this special with any man, Caspar brings out the little girl of me. The girl who has made so many mistakes and wants to forget about everything, and start a new life again.
"Could you stop embarrassing yourself? I can clearly see your blushing face and you look stupid," Olivier taunted me as he poked my forehead, pushing me back. "I get it that you can't forget about last night but please stop making it obvious. You are–"
"Brother," I spelled out his name in horror, "you know what happened last night? How?"'
"Hilarious," he laughed at me, "Bella, you do know you are in Hawkins' headquarters? I'm informed about everything happening in this premises, not even a fly can trespass from the tight security here."
My eyebrows flung up when I heard him chanting the greatness of his Hawkins. Never expected Olivier to be such a showoff busybody. I turned back to leave when he pointed out, "Don't worry, I didn't eavesdrop."
"Why the hell would you even come near my room?" I yelled at him as my face turned red in embarrassment.
"Woah, calm down," he backed off. " I'm not almighty God who would have known you were with Caspar. I only went to your room to ask you about dinner and tell you about Nancy. I'm not a creep, you know?"
"Nancy?"
"Yes, now you are interested?" He teased as he asked Vincent to bring the blue file. Flipping through the pages, he showed me. "She signed the divorce papers, now you only need Caspar's on it."
I rubbed my eyes in disbelief, taking the file document from his hand. I looked at it without blinking. My embarrassed face dissolves into a happy one, with a grin on my lips I ran into Olivier's arms. Embracing him, I exclaimed, "You are the best brother in this world."
“Yeah, I know.”
Stomping my feet in excitement, I danced in joy and then realized I was behaving like a child who got candy. Stopping myself, I cleared my throat awkwardly and bowed in front of Olivier, "Thank you for this surprise. I'll never forget about your great contribution in building my relationship with my husband."
"That's enough cheesy compliments, let's get down. They're waiting for us," Olivier held my hand and we both walked through the staircase.
I leaned close and whispered, "Why are you still wearing your mask? Do you perhaps plan to be anonymous?"
"No, Bella. Just be patient."
"Oh, so this you. I thought you were a grumpy old man," I scoffed, remembering the time when Olivier was working as my bodyguard and had that aloof cold personality.
"It's come off naturally. I don't have easy-going behavior with others."
We arrived at the meeting hall and Caspar was clenching his fists already when he saw me holding onto Oliver's arms. Other bosses of Black City started murmuring amongst themselves.
"Isn't she the ex-wife of the boss of DarZ? Why is she coming with the boss of Hawkins?" One of them commented.
"Heard she was the one who staged the assassination on the boss of DarZ! I thought she was caught and serving behind bars. How come she is out and with another man?" Others added.
"Shh, be quiet. You must not be aware of the fact that she's the daughter of the Dior group's boss and she was well known among the elite family's heirs."
"A playgirl?" All of them stared at me with unwelcoming eyes.
They were digging into my past and claiming that I was the reason my dad lost his company and went bankrupt. Naive!
"Never had I suspected that the top assassin codename Ishabella was her. She has crazy skills but for what?" The men laughed as they continued throwing mud at me and objectifying my looks.
And I can't do anything about it, in this underworld of mafias and dons, there's no morals. One has to assert their power to demand respect and submission. I used to have respect for them during my activeness in this world before I officially married Caspar.
I don't know why my hands were itching to show them I haven't changed a bit.
"SILENCE. We are here to discuss important matters, not to gossip," Brother informed, his voice having an effect of judgment. Everyone went silent in just one glance. "Please get seated, today I will introduce you to a new member of the board of judges, Miss Ishabella."
As soon as my name was called out, one of the bosses from the meeting board got and pointed at me, he shouted, "No Mr Anastasia, I don't want her to be one of the judges. She's not worthy of it."
"Yes, we agree with Mr Shadow. She's not worthy of receiving the honorable title of judge. We only have one judge and that's you, Mr Anastasia."
"I will have to stop you there, Mr Silverstone, "Olivier interrupted the snobbish man. "We have a group of sub judges which consists of Mr Xavier of DarZ, Mr Sharad of Moon, and Mrs Rhys of Scorpio."
"My intention is to add another woman to the group of sub-judges to fit the equality criteria. And all the sub-judges agree with my decision."
The faces of Mr Shadow and Mr Silverstone turned grumpy and irritated. They were bosses of two different groups and had their own achievements. The Black City has more than 100 different Mafia organisations but only 10 or 20 were influential and had names in this business.
And only these influential group's bosses were invited to attend the meeting of the judiciary. They had their voting rights in the decisions of the judge. And this meeting was organized only once a month and invited ones were supposed to attend at any cost.
It was done to protect the rights of Black City and kick out the traitors who broke the rules of the City and turned their members to the cops. Sub-judges were like advisors of the judge and took part in his every decision; they had three times higher voting rights than regular members of the meeting council.
And there's a very strict rule: Nobody is allowed to mention anyone's true identity. One must address the residents of Black City with their given codenames.
"Still, how could you add her just so to show equality? You could choose another woman, "Mr Shadow argued and other old bosses agreed.
"Mr Anastasia, please rethink your decision. She's just a woman, and her father's group Dior has fallen. She has no reputation now," others added.
I could see the hatred in their eyes, putting aside my character, they did not want another woman rising to power. They assume this business is only for men and think that without my dad's support, I'm nothing but just a pitiful woman! Wow, patriarchal beliefs are embedded in their blood!
I was baffled and my hands reached up to my thigh, grabbing on the holster belt I forced myself to keep calm. That very second Olivier removed his mask and showed his face to everyone, taking them by shock and confusion.
"Do you recognize me? Eldest son of Dior group and brother of Ishabella."
"H-How could it be…?" Members stammered as they jumped on their chairs, not able to believe their eyes.
To the world Olivier was dead and seeing him alive, and holding the position of one of the strongest judges of the City had them suffocate in terror.
They started regretting the insulting comments they passed to me and wondered what Olivier would do to them. But you know who was more confused?
"Ishabella," Caspar called my name. "When are you going to stop playing around me? I had planned everything to take him down and he turns out to be your brother?"
"Oh, I apologize."
I couldn't stop myself from bursting into laughter, Olivier accompanied me too. Hitting on the table, brother sarcastically commented,"LoL, sister look at his and his men's faces. They look so petrified in shock!"
"I'm sorry Caspar but it's too funny," I almost teared up laughing.
"I knew something was fishy. I did see his face but thought he was one Hawkins' soldier," Alex informed and was given a quick glance by Caspar.
"And you didn't report me, wow," Caspar pressed his lips together as he suppressed his urge to hit his stupid man.
"I thought he wasn't important. Also who have thought Mr Olivier Dior was boss of Hawkins and now–"
"I would have, fool," Caspar replied, stopping him in the middle. "You don't even know anything about Bella or her elder brother."
Olivier stopped laughing and came forward to Caspar, extending his hand to shake, he said, "You have grown up into a handsome man. When I saw you in your teenage years, I never expected you would become my brother-in-law in the future."
"My brother used to consider you his role model. He really admired you and your tactics."
"Shut up, Erick!" Caspar glared at his brother.
"Oh please, I'm just helping you to be comfortable," Erick gladly said, stepping forward and eagerly standing beside Caspar to shake hands. "If I had known that you were still alive, I wouldn't have harbored negative feelings towards my sister-in-law."
"Excuse me, Erick! Weren't you planning on never addressing that?" Caspar pointed out.
"Oh, don't ruin the vibe, brother. I never said that, you are making up your own. Now please get back, I have to introduce myself to Mr Olivier."
Erick pushed Caspar back and shook hands with Olivier, then Alex proceeded to do the same. Wow! Just how men interact with each other has always amazed me. They were laughing, chatting like they were long-lost friends.
And then I looked at the members of the meeting, they were all confused. A few of them were clapping for the reunion of both groups while the other two men were lurking at me with their venomous wrinkled eyes. Even their wrinkles had wrinkles LoL.
"So what I was saying is that we will still not approve of her, even if she has an association with two powerful groups," That old man Mr Silverstone and Shadow argued, causing Olivier and Caspar to look at them.
"Mr Anastasia, you must not know but your sister used to be a playgirl. She has a very bad reputation," they pointed at me and then looked at Caspar, "How could you forget what she did to you? Are you forgiving her just because she's the sister of Hawkins' boss?"
"I love her and she had her own reasons for doing that assassination. And I'm alive and that's what matters more," Caspar answered calmly but his eyes were icy cold, ready to beat the hell out of that man.
"She's a whore," Mr Silverstone shouted. "Her daughter is a bastard child and she will become a whore in—''
BANG BANG
I slapped my mouth with my hands in shock when Caspar and Olivier took the headshots of those men at the same time. Terrifying the Shit' out of everyone else present there. Pathetic. Those old men don't know when to give it rest and accept the reality.
"Damn, they were running their mouths like a river. It was not even funny to insult my sister and my niece," Olivier mumbled annoyingly as he scratched his gun's tip into his forehead.
"How dare this bastard call my wife and my daughter with such filthy titles? Not acceptable!"
Olivier glanced at Caspar and a wide smile spread on his face. "Brother-in-law, please come here," wrapping his arm around his shoulders, he looks at me. "He won. I approve of your relationship with him. When is the wedding?"
"Was it this simple?" I was speechless. Yeah, that's me, standing with a perplexed face and wide eyes. There was an awkward silence when two of the security guards arrived and dragged the dead bodies out.
"Uncle, where are you?" My daughter's voice alerted me and I looked up at the staircase.
Vincent ran to Karina to carry her before she trips herself on the staircase while Olivier panicked and quickly pointed his gun at the members of the meeting, "What the fuck is wrong with your faces? Laugh. No stop, it will be creepy. Smile, yes, look approachable, my niece is joining us."
"What should I do? My daughter hates me!"Caspar worried and looked at me for answers.