Chapter 51 Sister's Moment
LISA
Damn!
Fuck!
Shit!
I stared at Angel and she stared back at me, gaze unwavering and a blank look in her eyes.
Fuck!
I decided to play smart. I decided to play Angel's games knowing fully that she was a smartass and she might only be playing a mind game.
I hide my fear with a snicker.
"What are you talking about?"
"Don't play dumb, Lisa, it's unbecoming of you."
"I'm not playing dumb, if you want me to understand you, then maybe you should learn to be more vocal."
She chuckled slightly and she took her time to chew her food before looking at me again.
"Are you going to tell me that you were not with Axel at Kay's show?"
My frown deepened, hiding the fear and panic that was starting to bloom within me.
"Axel Ivanov?"
"We both don't know another Axel apart from him."
"Kay's show?" I said the word with enough confusion to confuse even the surest man and I made sure that my eyes remained locked on hers.
Looking away was part of my weakness and I wasn't the type to show any weakness, least of all to someone like Angel who wouldn't hesitate to use it against me.
It was funny how I wasn't bothered by the idea of Axel knowing my weakness but the thought of Angel finding out was enough to have me running for the hills.
"I'm not sure what you're hinting at by trying to associate me with Axel at every single opportunity that you get," I replied to her, sounding as dismissive as I can, "but it's unbecoming and it's starting to get irritating. Just stop it before you annoy me so much that next time, I'll aim for your throat and not a part of your ear."
She smiled gratefully at me but there was nothing grateful about the smile for it hidden a thousand venom under it, "thanks for the advice, I'll keep it in mind and I also hope you'll be this vocal the next time we have this conversation and I have concrete evidence that you've been fucking around with Axel."
I returned her smile as I stood to my feet, "you can search all you want, you can weave theories all you want but you'll never get anything because nothing is going on between us. If you weren't married to my brother, I'd have assumed you were interested in Axel because he's all you talk about these days."
Her smile turned icy at the same minute I turned and I walked out of the dining. I was supposed to head back to school immediately but I couldn't leave without making sure that Tricia was okay after the stunt Angel pulled during dinner.
I was about to knock on her room's door when my phone vibrated in my pocket and I brought it out to see a message from Axel.
I'm starting to think you hate the idea of multiple orgasms with the way you've been turning down my invites. This behavior is really unlikely of someone who'll still beg me to make her come.
I smiled at the tone of his message and I was about to type a sassy reply to him when I remembered my earlier conversation with Angel. I knew she was going to intensify her watch on me. I knew she
might even go against her promise to dad and send her men to tail me now that she knows she could get something out of it so I couldn't risk it, I couldn't risk getting caught with Axel because only
God knows what she'll do with that piece of information.
I had a busy week, but we'll talk as soon as I'm free.
I sent it and almost immediately, he started typing and his message came in.
Red, are you okay? You don't sound exactly like yourself. Is it PTSD?
I exhaled when I saw his reply and I found myself licking my lips nervously as a strange and alien feeling took over my body. This was what I was trying to avoid, our relationship was blurring so much
These days I wasn't sure what we were doing again.
It was just supposed to be sex, to be mindless fucking but these days, I wasn't even sure what we were up to again. And that was the reason why I needed to call us back to order.
Even maintaining our normal arrangement of just sex seemed a little bit irrational now that Angel was out, snooping for what isn't it but the thought of calling it off with Axel was...
I didn't even want to think about it.
No, that's not it, just busy at home with so much stuff, will let you know once I'm back in school.
His reply was instantaneous.
Sure, take care of yourself>>>
I exhaled again, nothing about our conversation sounded like we were from a warring family, that we were just two people who got into a plainly physical arrangement and that fact was starting to give
I have a premium headache.
I locked my phone and knocked on Tricia's door.
"Come in."
I opened the door and stepped in. Tricia was crouched down on her bed, pencil in hand and drawing on a book and I needed no soothsayer to tell me that she was sketching her designs. I smiled appreciatively at her before taking my seat beside her on the bed.
"Is this the part where I get jealous?" I joked as she handed her sketch pad to me, "because you're so good, and like I've said before, Louis Vuitton and the likes should come and start bidding for you."
The color pink rose in her cheeks before she chuckled, "come on, Lisa, I know I'm not that good."
"Never! Don't say that again please, have you seen how good you are? My schoolmates keep asking me where I'm getting all my designs from."
"Really?" her face lighted up and she sat upward so she could see me, "are you for real?"
"Of course, I'm going to chip in some orders for you next week so you can design for other people."
"Yesssss," she shrieked before throwing her hands around me in a hug that sent the both of us lying on the bed. All of a sudden, her excitement evaporated and I felt her tense around me before she
pulled away.
"Hey, what's wrong? Why do you look so sad when you should be happy?"
"There's no point to all these," she gestured towards her sketch pad and her machine that was in the corner of her room, "there's no point to them at all, the orders, the machines, the designs, all of
them. What happened at dinner today is just another testament to the fact that sooner or later, I'm going to get married off and I'll have to give up on these dreams of mine, no man will allow their wife to work, not to talk of one like this."
My heart sank at the sadness and despair in her voice and eyes and it made me feel bad for what happened after she left the dining room. In a bid to pass a message across that, I wasn't interested in any arranged marriage, I wasn't even the least bit fazed about the fact that Tricia was the only option left and the one dad kept pushing.
I knew that was her fate, all the guards and chastity belt were all adding up to this moment when she'll be married off to a man to solidify our mafia bonds with another mafia family.
If Angel should go back to that Italian family and they accept to go with Tricia, then she'd be married off in the next three months or even less than that.
There was nothing anyone could do about that.
But I knew deep down that if Tricia didn't want to if she didn't come to terms with her marriage, I'd do anything to stop it
Even if it means stepping into her shoes.
That was how much I loved my sister, and how much I wanted to protect her.
"Eeh, come on," I grabbed her hands, "don't think about that now, you're still young so why not focus on living your best life for now?"
"There's no point to it, if that Italian mafia had picked me instead of you, we'll be planning my wedding now."
I exhaled, "you know what, Tricia? I'll make sure you don't get married if you don't want to."
"Is that even possible?"
"Of course, it is. It's still going to be an arranged marriage quite alright because we're already in this family and we don't have an option but you'll meet the man and if you don't like him or think you
I want to spend the rest of your life with him, I'm going to do everything within my capacity to stop the marriage."
She looked at me as if I was her god, as if I was the only one capable of making her dreams come true, "promise?"
"Sure."
"Pinky swear?" she held out her pinky finger to me and I smiled before taking it for me to swear, sign and stamp my promise. The gesture made me feel a wave of nostalgia for a time past when we
were both little girls and we indulged ourselves in things like this.
Those days are gone and they'd never come again.
"You know," she started, "I miss the days when we were young."
"Me too."
"But I admire the lady that you've become, you're so strong, so self-opinionated, so badass, you don't take bullshit from anyone, not even Angel with her devious fangs. Most times, I wish I could be
like you; I wish I could be as strong as you."
I was taken aback by the sincerity in her voice, Tricia had never talked to me like this and while I was glad that she sees me as a strong pillar in her life, I was sad that I was still a cover-up. Deep down,
I was still that scared, lonely, and broken girl who had to use pills to sleep.
"I admire you too, do you know that?"
"Don't lie to me, there's really nothing to admire about me."
"Your heart? Your liveliness? Your positive energy? Your talents? Your beauty?"
She blushed at the mention of beauty.
"Do you have an idea how pretty you are? Your future husband will always lose his mind just looking at your face."
"Ewwww," she muttered but the blush on her face deepened.
"And your sex appeal, you have to use it to your advantage when you get married, use it to manipulate your husband into doing whatever you want."
She bites down on her lower lip to stop the blush from spreading.
"Have you even had your first kiss?"
"Ewwwww," she flopped down on the bed and covered her face with her palm, "can we stop talking about all these?"
"Come on," I poked her ribs as I laid beside her, "we have to talk about it, I could teach you a thing or two before you get married."
She turned away from me and she covered her ears but I didn't stop teasing her and making her squeal with the words that were considered obscene to her innocent ears and i was only after she had
drifted off to sleep and I was on the verge of falling asleep myself that it dawned on me that we've not had a sister's moment like we just did in years.
And it also made me realize how much I've missed it.
And how much I needed it.