Chapter Twenty-Nine:The Princess And The Pauper.

It didn't take much for the birthday party to be over, and soon enough the guests were leaving for their houses to which she didn't want to ruin Sasha's time with her family, because unlike the perception she had about today's meetup. She's doing a good job at bonding with her family, but the eldest brother, Vladimir, was still being an asshole.

He has been throwing cold glances her way just like his father had done earlier, but then she was really scared of Vladimir's stare. He was hot, and good-looking but he was the kind of guy every mother would want their daughter to stay away from.

There was this dangerous gleam that seemed to live with him, and Marissa being an insightful type was now curious about the sort of business Sasha's family was handling. She could still see the way guards surrounded the arena, especially around Vladimir made her wonder exactly who he was.

It might be stupid saying that she's curious about him, because she would rather get to know Maksim and the other brother Igor, who wasn't much of a cold freak but then saying that she's interested to know more about the brothers doesn't actually mean that she's interested in them right?

Although she doesn't know what Sasha would think of that, but Maksim seemed to have a very different opinion when it comes to her. Since the party, he had been around her trying to get her comfortable, like it was such an honor for her to be here with them, while all she was praying for was for this day to be over, so she could go back crawling to her safe place called her home.

"So, my parents weren't so happy about leaving tonight, which unfortunately would entail that you sleep here, with me." Sasha said, excited while rubbing her hand in a pleading way for her to not say no to her request.

"Fine, whatever you want."Marissa replied, although it doesn't sound like a great idea but it wouldn't hurt to do this for Sasha."But it's just for tonight only,  I'm leaving as soon as possible tomorrow morning."

"You might as well have that vacation we are talking about here, the view is nice and there's hot guys around." Sasha teased, grazing her shoulder with her own until Marissa gasped finally understanding what she's trying to do.

"I'm not hooking up with one of your brothers, Sasha. That's like breaking the girl's code about not dating your friend's brothers or sister." Marissa shook her head, not that she was actually thinking of doing that without the said girls code. But no! She wouldn't do that.

"Oh! Please, come on, Marissa." Sasha rolled her eyes, not caring that she was hiding a huge secret that was likely going to ruin her friendship with her. But she still has a long way to go before coming back for the  family business, so until then she wants to enjoy her normal life being her friend.

"No!" Marissa insisted," And please don't bring this up again, your brother Vladimir looks like he wants to feed me to the wolves for being here."

"Well actually he does have wolves." Sasha mumbled but Marissa heard that clearly.

"What?!!" She shouted, attracting everyone's attention, including that of the said Vladimir, whose  jaw clenched watching the both of them, but Sasha took Marissa's hands in hers before bringing her up to her room.

"So, what exactly did you say that your family does exactly? Your family house is a castle, Sasha. It's beautiful." Marissa asked Sasha, and she could swear she saw her brow shaked. Anytime Sasha was about to lie, or was nervous she always does that, so she doesn't understand why now.

"Real estate business, it's been the family business for years handed from my great-great- grandfather down to my father, Vladimir is now finally in charge since he got sworn in last year. Why are you even curious about that?" Sasha asked, going to her walking closet but doing that she turned the room light on, and the moment Marissa saw the clothes stacked inside her closet, she was shocked.

"Is this all yours?" She asked, forgetting about her earlier question to Sasha, before coming closer to check out her closet.

"Yes, and it's yours now to choose any clothe, you like because we are going down to have dinner." Sasha said, bringing out a blue mermaid tail gown, and showing it to her.

"Why is it necessary that i change? It's not been long since we came here, Sasha."Marissa complained.

"Well, it is in case you haven't noticed that my mother is a fashion guru who likes you, so you gotta look great."Sasha sing sung, going for another dress but Marisa dragged her hand away.

"But it still doesn't change the fact that this is all yours, I can't afford this, Sasha and the way your brothers look at me, it's like seeing deep in my soul to see that i am a pauper compared to a princess like you." 

Marissa complained, she doesn't know  why Sasha is obsessed about making her look glamorous. It's not like it's going to wipe out her real identity that she's a nobody, and her fear of anyone saying that she's leeching off her still stands, because Sasha is adding to that.

Sasha looked at her, to see that she's already having a change of mind. So, to avoid that, she had to give up on playing dress up before dinner.

"Fine, but promise me that you would stop shaking like a fish in front of Vladimir. He's not going to do anything to you, Marissa. Not when my parents are there."

"Why would he even want to do that if your parents aren't there?" 

"Well, because he's …kind of the over protective brother." Sasha laughed nervously, before grabbing her arm." Let's go."

The moment they arrived at the dining room, they were still climbing down the stairs before Lily, Sasha's mother, smiled at them." There they are, I was thinking that she might have left after telling her to sleep over."

"About that, Mrs…." Marissa tried saying, but Sasha cut into her words knowing what she's about to say.

"She doesn't seem to have a problem with that, mother. Let's eat." Sasha said, dragging Marissa to the table before settling down. She sat opposite Maksim and Igor, while Vladimir sat at the head table, was that not wrong?

The father is supposed to be there, not him. Something was definitely wrong here, but she couldn't pinpoint what it was. The guards were still hanging around and in case Sasha didn't know or she's pretending, two guards were guarding just outside their room, which made her suspect that Sasha wasn't being all that truthful to her.

It made her wonder if she doesn't know much about her best friend, what secret is this family hiding?

"So, I heard you are a school dropout?" Vladimir, the eldest brother asked. This was the first question that he had thrown her way, and for him saying that out in a disrespectful way made her understand that she could never fit in.

The rich despise the poor, so why was she thinking that this was going to be any different?

"Mother, talk to your son. That's disrespectful as fuck." Sasha complained, but instead of a fight to start up because of her, Marissa stood up.

"I'm leaving." She says, holding back the tears so as to not embarrass herself further, in front of them, she didn't wait for Sasha to be up before running out of the house.

With Sasha calling after her, it doesn't matter because she has always known right from the start that this was a bad idea in the first place.