۞ XXVIII ۞

EVERYONE LOSES PEOPLE THEY LOVE. SHE'LL GET OVER IT. Damian got back to staring at the window, "If she's so weak to break on that, she should have died with them. Then we would all be free from this bullshit of marriage!"

"Damian!" His father yelled in reprimand.

"Am I supposed to lie? I am simply speaking my mind, papi. And I do wish she had died with them. No hard feelings, but I do not feel happy with the prospective of being sentenced to a life with that kid. Because that's what she is, a kid. A weak and fragile 17-year-old, who knows absolutely nothing of the world. A country bumpkin whom I'll have to tolerate for the rest of my life, because of your stupid deal with her father. Not even allowing me to get a divorce!"

Ah, the fire in this kid. If the hacker is right and Rebecca is anything like my daughter, they will burn each other. I can't wait to see that. Keira grinned, "You can. As long as you are ready to forfeit your inheritance!"

He greeted his teeth, "Not at that cost." Not my precious money. But the kid is doomed being with me. I'll never love or be kind to her. That me is dead. "As I doubt she'll forfeit hers, we are both sentenced to this miserable matrimony!"

"Ugh," Nina groaned. "You better not mistreat her, brother. Or Black Mamba might destroy us all in the process!"

Florentina chuckled, "Hah, they said she would make us pay for hurting her, didn't he? That made me want to know her even more. The grey hat got me thriving for October to come," she grinned. "I love you, D, but I can't wait to meet her."

"Black Mamba said what?" Cornel gasped wary.

His youngest sister rolled her eyes, "Like Tina said, they gave us a warning that, they wouldn't retaliate if we poked her, she would. I think they'll only destroy us, if we do something that there's no going back. I mean… not us, but Damian. He's the one who were are worried about."

Damian glared at Nina and she winked at him, "I will not be faking anything for this girl. Rufus's daughter or not. If she expects any kind of affection from me, she's in for a deception, and so are you. I've made myself clear more than once."

His paternal grandmother clicked her tongue, "We know, we know." Then she turned to her daughter-in-law, "Maddy, show us the picture. Black Mamba got in contact with us and we didn't even see it. I've been dying to ask you that for a lifetime!"

"What picture?" Cornel asked suspicious.

"A photo that Millie secretly got for us, from Khloe, who for some miracle managed to get Rebecca to send it to her," Florentina told him. "It's a picture of Rebecca with her twins, uncle Rufus, and her mother, Conny." She turned to her mother, "I want to see her, mami," she said leaning closer to her mother's phone.

"Show me!" Cornel exclaimed and went to them too, while Damian stayed unmoved on the chair. Feigning disinterest.

Madalina licked her lips, "Let me just open her chat," and as she did it, her eyes widened, "oh. Wow. Rufus really did his best!"

Her husband chuckled to that, "That bastard. He wasn't joking when he bragged that his children were extremely beautiful. Ryan is identical to him, my, my. And he was even taller, look at that!"

"Wow, Sienna was an eye candy," Natalia blinked surprised. "Did she had Mediterranean roots? She has a beauty similar to that. I don't know who was luckier, her or Rufus! Rebecca is identical to her mother."

Is she? I had a feeling she would take after Rufus. Damian who was pretending not to pay attention, thought to himself. I was hoping she would be blonde, because I don't like blondes.

"Then the one in the middle must be Ruby," Cornel pointed. I hate to admit, but Rebecca is really beautiful. To make it worse for him, she is totally Damian's type. Let's pray she's dumb. "She had Rufus's blonde hair, like Ryan. And is it my eyes, or Rebecca is the shortest of them all?"

She's short? Damian gulped, glad that none of them were paying attention to him.

Their mother nodded, "Millie told us that she's the shortest in their entire family, and that she was slightly shorter than Ruby. Seems like Sienna was also slightly taller. I can't even imagine how short she will look near us. Poor kid didn't even reach 1.70m," she giggled amused. "She is in quite the contrast with her sister here, Ruby's all adorable in a lavender dress, and she's in snatched shirt with a pair of shorts. Look at that waist!" God, she's gorgeous.

Does she has a tiny waist too? Damian closed his eyes angry.

"You should see the picture too, brother," Nina poked him with a mischievous grin. He'll definitely feel attracted to her. "She has dark hair, big boobs, and her legs are thick. She also looks fit as if she trained a lot to keep her body perfect like that!"

Ugh, this little devil. "No, I'll pass. I have zero desire on this girl. Besides, that picture probably isn't displaying her current looks. That was when her family was still alive. A weak girl like her must be starving herself with their death," he scoffed. "You shouldn't be getting your hopes high!"

"You are infuriating, Damian!" His mother clicked her tongue in annoyance. "Even if she is having difficult eating, she'll get back to her natural healthy body again. You should know better than to judge her. You've been through depression too, and you also lost your weight during grief!"

There they go again. Ugh, I fucking hate this. He got up, his face stone cold. "Do not mention that!" It was all he coldly said, before storming out of the house. Cornel ran after him, to make sure his brother was alright, and Florentina followed behind.

"Don't mind them, mami," Nina rolled her eyes. "Damian is probably afraid of feeling something for her, after swearing so many times that he would never fall in love again. He's prideful as hell, and we know that gets the best of him. We can only pray that Rebecca will be able to fold that pride of his, with her own!"

Let Jesus hear her words. "It's of no use fighting about that with him," their mother sighed. "Now I feel sad for Rebecca. They all look so close in the picture. That kid must be going through a lot."

"We'll help her go through it, my love," Nicolae caressed his wife's shoulder, feeling the same worry eat him from the inside. Ah, frate, why did you have to left us? I wish I could have seen you one last time. "For Rufus. We'll take care of his daughter as we did ours. We don't need to worry about her doing anything, because we won't hurt her in any way."

"We'll just test her in the beginning. Test her knowledge on some things, and we'll see how perceptive she actually is," Keira looked at her nails that were painted silver. Let's see how much did little Rufus prepared his firstborn to be part of our family.

Natalia grinned, "Just some precaution tests. Something that can possibly harm her in a deadly way. Rufus failed them all when he first came here, I bet he trained his daughter not to fail like he did."

Oh, but he was petty enough to make her fail like him, just so he wouldn't be the only one to go through that. Nicolae grinned, as he knew his best friend way too well. Or at least, he thought. "Just the basic!"

"She'll need to get used to our family ways," his wife grinned.

Sweet baby Jesus, I hope she's tough! Nina licked her lips in pure excitement for what is to come in the following month. "Either way, where's grandpa Theodor during all this?"

Keira held her laughter, "Your grandpa's sleeping!" It's not like I can tell her that he's exercising his shooting range skills. At least we can use this excuse, now that we are old. "He took a medicine for his back ache, and it makes him sleepy." Back ache my ass.