Chapter 45

Juliette's POV:

Everyone’s eyes were trained on the couple who entered, and when they spotted us, they walked up to us. Loana was wearing a royal blue dress just like mine. Kiara looked at me and then at her. She had her arms linked with who I assumed to be Kristian.

On the other hand, Kristian looked and reminded me of James Dean, with a bad boy aura. He had his black hair sleeked back and he wore a gray-colored business suit. Unlike Zachary, he had facial hair and a chiseled jaw, and sharp hawk-like eyes. He didn’t really seem like a welcoming person; you would want to run away whenever he was near to you. I gulped when he looked at me and gave me half-smile.

“You must be my sister-in-law,” he said in a soft tone, and I couldn’t help but notice a scar above his left eyebrow and his crooked nose.

I stood up when he came to me with Loana and took my hands in his.

“Yes, I am,” I answered softly smiling at me, and looked at Loana, who gave me a nasty look of disgust, raising an eyebrow at me as she looked me up and down.

“Pleasure to finally meet you.” We shook hands and I replied with the same.

“I’m sorry, for not coming earlier to meet you two, because—” He was speaking when he looked beside me. I followed his eyes to find him looking at Kiara, who was uninterestingly eating her food.

I heard him clear his throat and I looked back at him, he rolled his shoulders and said: “I was stuck in an important business meeting, and I was in the other part of the world. I could only make it today because I had to bring mama over here,” he said and I made a confused face when he said ‘mama.’

“Grandma,” he said as if he understood my confusion.

“Oh, no problem. I am happy to be finally meeting you,” I told him and he smiled.

“What took you so long?” Grandma asked him, and he smiled at her and bent down to kiss her.

“Everyone, she is my date, Ms. Loana Ularu,” he introduced and from the corner of my eyes, I watched as my mother-in-law rolled her eyes.

“Nice to meet you all again,” she said in fake sweet coated tone, and bent down as if she was some kind of princess.

“Again?” I heard my mom ask.

“She's Zachary’s former business partner’s daughter,” my mother-in-law answered, and my mom nodded.

“What? I didn’t know that,” Kristian said as he walked with Loana to greet and hug everyone. Loana greeted everyone, even Zachary.

“How are you?” she asked, holding Zachary’s arm.

“I am doing good,” he answered and sat back down on his seat.

Kristian and Loana sat next to grandma and Kiara. Kristian sat next to his grandma, while Loana sat next to Kiara, glancing her way once and making a face.

“Who is she? Your sister?” Loana asked Zachary, who raised an eyebrow at her.

“No, she is my daughter-in-law’s friend, Ms. Kiara Richmond,” Mom answered, and that made her cringe when she heard the word daughter-in-law.

“Nice to meet you,” Kristian said, glancing at Kiara from the back of Loana.

“Same,” Kiara being a foodie, stuffed her mouth and nodded at him.

“Oh, I totally forgot. I have a gift for you,” Kristian said as he fished a small box out of his suit and handed it to Loana to pass to me. Instead of passing it to Kiara, she handed it directly to me. But as I took it, she gave me a look.

I swear if she gave me any more of her looks, then I’d totally rip off her eyes using a fork.

Nevertheless, ignoring her cold, hatred-filled looks, I gave her a small smile and took the gift.

“You don’t really have to do this,” I said, showing him the box.

“No, actually I wanted to because I didn’t even present a gift for your wedding, consider it as a small token of love and gratitude for marrying my stupid brother,” he said, which made Zachary huff at him.

Oh so, I guess he is kind of welcoming. An important lesson. Never judge a person by his looks.

“Don’t start it over here, I’m telling Kristian,” Zachary said, and Kristian shrugged at him.

“Please, don’t call Zachary stupid,” Loana interfered, chiding at Kristian and I looked at her. Kristian, oblivious to anything, just raised an eyebrow at her, and I looked back at Zachary to find him rolling his eyes. When his eyes fell on me, I looked to the other side, crossing my arms over my chest.

“Okay, so Kristian what will you eat?" Grandfather asked him and them other food for them.

As everyone talked to each other, I kept glancing at Loana to find her glancing at Zachary playing with her food. This irked me even more. First, Zachary lets her kiss him at the party, then he goes to her and eats food prepared by her, and now here she is, glancing and trying to flirt with him every opportunity she gets. I realized that no family member actually liked her presence, and that gave a little support to the burning feeling in my chest.

I looked at her, she had her black hair braided to the side and she was wearing a dress exactly like me, but a different color. It was royal blue with a thigh slit. She was taller than me, and she had a sultry figure. No doubt, she must be a model or something, I assumed.

“So, where do you both meet?” I asked the question to both Loana and Kristian, but more to Kristian.

“Oh, we met yesterday in the art exhibition. We talked to each other, and instantly he grew a liking for me, asked me my number, and asked me for a date." Being the narcissist person she is, she answered everything I asked as if she wanted me to know that she is wanted by men.

“I have an idea,” my mother-in-law said all of a sudden, gaining everyone’s attention.

“Why not go out for a small picnic tomorrow?” she asked and we all looked at each other.

“We can go out for a family picnic and then we can all together go out to visit some places in Romania,” she added.

“Mom, I don’t really think that it’s a good ide—” Zachary was cut off by Loana.

“Yes, it’s a brilliant idea,” she said, smiling as if she won something, looking at Zachary.

“It’s been a long time since we have gone out for a family picnic and since everyone is present here, I really want to take Juliette and her family for a picnic,” Mom said, and I looked at my mom who smiled at her. Gale, Dad, Grandpa, and Grandma nodded, agreeing with her, which left no room for Zachary to answer with a no.

He sighed and fished his phone out of his pant pockets muttering, “fine, let me arrange everything.” He got up from his chair and walked to the rail of the terrace to talk.

“What part of family picnic does she not understand?” Kiara said into my ear, looking at an over-excited Loana, who literally jumped in her seat as if she won the lottery.

“See, Zachary can't ever disagree with me. I said it’s a good idea, and that made him change his mind instantly,” she laughed, but no one joined her. Kristian smiled.

“Bitch please,” I heard Kiara mutter.

“Excuse me? Did you say something?” Loana asked, raising her eyebrow at Kiara, who shook her head and gave her a sarcastic smile.

Grandpa stood up, and together he and Grandma left to sit near the pianist. That left the chair next to Zachary vacated. Zachary walked back and sat back on his chair.

“Why are you not talking to him?” Kiara asked, nudging me with her elbow.

“Why should I?” I asked drinking my champagne.

“Did you have a fight?” She whispered and I shrugged in response.

“Maybe,” I said, looking at him when he was typing something on his phone.

“Let me guess, is this because of the loud mouth snobby woman?” she asked and I looked at her.

“Look, just lift up your ass and go to him. This bitch is not worth fighting over. Go and resolve all your probl—”

She stopped mid-sentence, looking at Zachary.

“What?" I asked, and followed her gaze to find Loana already pulling the chair up next to Zachary and sitting on it.

“I told you,” Kiara sighed, leaning against the chair and looked back at me.

I looked at Zachary who put the phone back on the table and looked at Loana. She smiled at him and said something to him, which I couldn’t really hear because of the music in the background. Zachary answered her questions and nodded whenever she laughed.

“This man brought her as his date, and he is allowing her to stick around with another man. What type of man exactly is he?” Kiara asked, but then I clutched the spoon tightly when Zachary laughed and got up. As I stood up, everybody’s eyes were on me. I lowered my head and excused myself for the washroom.

In the washroom, I paced around and stood leaning against the counter, but then when my eyes fell on my own reflection in the mirror, I burst out crying.

“Why are you crying?” I wailed at myself, looking at my crying state in the mirror.

“I don’t know,” I answered my own question.

“Damn, it hurts,” I cried and pull the tissue out of the roller, wiping my tears, which were already ruining my makeup.

“For God's sake, stop crying!” Throwing the tissue paper at my reflection, I cried even more.

So, this is how it hurts when the person you like, likes someone else. Thinking about it, I realized that these were my real feelings. Emmett never really looked, or even talked, about any other women in front of me, making me believe that he actually and truly loved me. I trusted him, and that is how I never really got to know what jealousy actually felt like. But when I feel it, I’m breaking. I am in even more pain than I was when I knew about Emmett being Nicholas.

I don’t really like it.

I sobbed and wiped the continuous stream of tears as I continued to feel the pinching and burning sensation in my heart.

“Look at me, here I am, standing, crying my eyes out, and there he is, void of any of emotions, talking and laughing with her,” I spoke to myself and as I was about to pull another tissue out, I heard a knock.

“Juliette?” my eyes widened hearing the familiar voice that was the reason for my tears.

I pulled the tissues out and hurriedly tried to wipe every smudge of my eyeliner.

“Juliette? Are you there?” he asked, knocking on the door again.

“Yes, I am,” I answered and heard him knocking.

“Are you crying?” he sensed it from my brittle voice.

“What is your problem? Go away,” I told him, and the next moment the door flew open and he walked in.

“This is the ladies' washroom,” I said, shocked and angry; at the same time pointing towards the door, which he closed, asking him to get out.

“I am done with you now,” he said as he walked up to me, which made me take a few steps back and stood when stopped by the wall.

“Why are you crying?” he asked more in an accusatory tone.

“None of your business; now out!” I snapped, pointing towards the door.

“Listen, I don’t have any idea why suddenly you are behaving like this, but you need to stop,” he warned.

“Or else what?” I challenged him by glaring at him.

“Stop that!” he argued now pointing a finger at me.

“You stop that!” I argued slapping his finger, which angered him, because his face contoured into an angry one, and he got hold of me from my arm and turned me around, shoving me to the wall.

“Enough of your drama now,” he whispered in my ear.

“Let me go,” I struggled against him, but then he held and folded my right arm on my back, twitching it painfully.

“Ow!” as a hiss left my mouth, he loosened the grip, but still didn’t leave me.

“You are going to tell me now; what exactly is your problem?” he asked through gritted teeth.

“I won’t,” being the stubborn woman I was, I refused to bow down in front of him.

“Fine, we can stay like this until we grow old. I don’t have any problem with it,” he said and gripped my forearm tightly making me whimper.

“Of course, you will do like you want, do my opinions or feelings even matter to you?” I used my other hand and elbowed him hard in his stomach, causing a whoomph sound forming in his mouth but still, he didn’t let me go.

“Juliette!” he snapped and pushed me harder into the wall.

“Let me go, Zachary!” I tried to free myself, wiggling against him, but he didn’t free my hands that easily.

“Just look at you, you are so stubborn and different from all those other women—”

“Other women?” I said cutting him off.

Oh now, he compares me to her.

This didn’t go over well with me, because the next moment I started crying, again. No matter, how much I tried not to cry in front of him, I always did. I sobbed and wept, and I felt him loosening his grip and turning me around to face him. I looked at the other side of the wall and sobbed, not able to control the tears any longer.

“Why are you crying?” he asked with a disbelieving look, as he raked his hands through his hair and looked at me as if I had two heads.

“Juliet—” he took a step forward, but I raised my hands and shoved him back.

“Stay away! Leave me alone,” I said weeping and through stuttering breaths.

He pulled a tissue and offered it to me; I snatched it away from him and wiped my tears away.

“You know I can’t do that,” he sighed and said in a low voice.

“At least tell me why are you crying?” he urged me to answer.

“Did anyone tell you something you didn’t like?” he asked, and I shook my head.

“Did anyone hurt you?” he asked, and I shook my head again.

“Then?” He then questioned, “Did Nicholas try to contact you?” Anger was burning in his eyes. I shook my head again.

“Then what?” he snapped with irritation.

“You!”

“You are my problem,” I said in between my sobs.

“What? What did I—?”

“Shut up!” I said with annoyance.

“Fine, remain angry then,” he said, and got hold of my hand and dragged me out back to our table. I thought I would go back and sit with Kiara, but instead, he pulled me with him. He politely asked Kiara to slip over to the chair next to her, where Loana was previously sitting. Kiara obliged and slipped into the other chair, sitting next to a confused Kristian, and then he made me sit on Kiara’s chair. He sat on my chair all the while holding my hand in his. Loana looked as if she was going to pass out. As if she never had witnessed Zachary holding the hand of a woman. I tugged and tried to pull my hand away from his, but he glared at me and he whispered into my ear, “Don’t make me do anything I don’t want to." That made me stop.

He made sure, to remain close to me the whole night, not letting go of my hand, as if I was a spoiled, stubborn kid. Even if I glared and tried to pry my hands away, he didn’t let me go, and the worst thing was when he dragged me to his car and made me sit next to him.

“You think you are the only stubborn one in this world? Well, get it in your mind. I’m even more stubborn than you, and until you tell me what is the reason of your behavior I will make sure I have you under my wings, under my watchful eyes.” He said, and I crossed my arms over my chest and looked out of the window to find everyone walking out of the restaurant, but Loana's expression made me a little happy. Her pissed off expression as she marched to Kristian’s car and hopped in, all the while glaring our way.

Kiara and Jace joined them in their car while the rest remained the same and we all drove back off. Kristian would leave Loana at her house and then he'll join us, because he will be living with us.

Zachary slapped my thigh because I wasn’t listening to him and that angered me. I glared at him and pinched the skin on the back of his hand. He hissed and glared at me.

He just can’t slap a woman. Mannerless jerk!