You Were What?

"You're the Prince of Darkness?!" Rosanna was the first to break the silence in the room.

"Mhm." Michael chuckled at his mother's response.

Eric winced, feeling a sudden pinch on his left arm. Turning his head to the left, he raised his brow at his wife's calm expression while her slender fingers were squeezing his poor arm. A mischievous smile pursed on her rosy lips as she looked up with her amused eyes. "So, you're the one who was working with us to eliminate our enemies?" She blinked a few times as Michael nodded his head.

Reaching up to the side of her head, Selina scratched her temples. "Uh, I have many questions. Why are you called the Prince of Darkness? What enemies? Eliminate what groups? And how could our enemies affect our reunion as a family?" With question marks circling around her head, she went back to base one of confusion.

"The Prince of Darkness is a well-known title in the underworld. When he makes a strike at his enemy's base, his successful rate in exterminating his enemies is ninety-nine-point nine percent. The ones who survive will be tortured or taken away by him. Like a shadow merging with the dark, nobody ever caught him." Jason explained to her.

"Ah...then our enemies?" Her voice raised to a higher pitch.

"Our last enemy was the Snake Nest Gang, which we've just eliminated. The leader of the gang was the man I kicked earlier with the crazy dog hair. His name is Justin, but he is only my bait. Justin's father is the one I'm waiting for." Michael let out a sinister grin and cracked his knuckles.

"Then our main enemy is that guy's father?" Selina made a guess based on the grin on his face.

"Heh, but he won't be our enemy for long." Michael's eyes darkened in ruthlessness when he mentioned the man.

"Ah, right- But why would our enemies want to separate our family? Were they coming after brother and me?" Selina had many inquiries cramped up in her head as they continued the discussion. Her expression was a blend of questions and concerns.

Eric's hand subconsciously tightened around Rosanna's palm. The silence in the air thickened once again as the couple lost track of their words. After a few minutes of silence, Eric answered her question. "Our enemy had always been Justin's father. He wanted to take either you or your brother for his ridiculous mentality. Other groups were eliminated because they were involved. in harming our family. Anyway, we'll talk more about the details later. Now is not the right time."

At the exact moment, the nurse knocked from outside the room twice. She entered the room with a polite smile to inform Selina about her upcoming body examination. Her eyes scanned around the room and spotted two familiar faces she had been looking for. "There you are! Mister Aaron. Miss. Celinda, please return to your rooms and take proper rest. I've been looking for the two of you for the past half an hour."

Then, she turned to Selina and informed her that the doctor will arrive shortly for a brief body check. "Miss. Selina, the doctor will come in about ten minutes to give you a basic checkup. There are too many visitors in this room, so some of you will need to leave during the examination."

The expressions on Celinda and Aaron's face were summarized by one word - busted!

As soon as the nurse mentioned Celinda and Aaron's name, Bryan and Michael walked over to their side to help them get back to their room. Although Celinda suffered several cuts and bruises on her legs, the doctor had suggested for her to rest in bed for a few days. As for Aaron, he wasn't supposed to leave the bed at all.

Michael had his hands on his hip as he stared at Aaron with an arched left brow. As they exchanged a few glances, Aaron lowered his head, looking guilty for leaving his bed. A sigh left Michael's mouth, expressing the helplessness he felt when it came to him. He bent down, slid his arms around Aaron's body and carried him to his room.

While the crowd watched the couple's interaction, Bryan had also lifted Celinda off her seat and walked out of the room. Even though she tried protesting, her words were ineffective on him.

Celinda tried convincing Bryan a few times by swinging her legs to prove to him that she could walk by herself. "See? I could walk on my own. My legs are fine. The doctors were exaggerating." She pouted, but her pursed lips didn't work as well as she thought it would.

Bryan didn't speak on their way down the hallways, but he wore a concerned expression the entire time. Seeing how she couldn't put a fight in her situation, she decided to lean her head against his chest.

Within minutes, Bryan reached her assigned room and laid her down carefully on the bed. "Be good and listen to the doctor. Does it still hurt?" He asked as his eyes concentrated on her cheek where Shirley had slapped her.

"Not really. The nurses helped me sanitize the area already." Her eyes grew slightly wider and mouth parted in surprise that he remembered about the slap. Flashbacks of him ruining Shirley's face against the sharp stones on the ground appeared in her thoughts. A sudden warmth rushed out from her chest and spread to her raised smile.

Bryan noticed the unopened ointment on the table next to the bed. After reading the instructions, he ripped out the plastic wrap around the product and removed the cap from it. He pulled out a wet wipe from the sanitary box and sanitized his hands properly before squeezing some ointment to his finger.

Before she could say anything else to him, a cooling sensation spread on her cheek. The marks from the slap had mostly faded already, but Bryan was still applying ointment to the affected area. She observed his sharp features closely as his fingers rubbed lightly on her delicate skin. Once in a while, his eyes would wander to meet hers.

The itching burn in her eyes slowly blurred her vision with layered mists, dying it pink. He noticed the change in her expression. "Does it still hurt?" He pursed his lips and blew soft breezes to her cheek.

When she heard his inquiry, she reached up to her chest and clenched a fist against the patient uniform. Although she knew he was asking about her cheek, she couldn't help but link his words to her heart. 'Does my heart still hurt from my previous relationship?' She asked inwardly.

Realization struck her like a lightning bolt's strike on the roots of a tree. "I'm fine now." She replied, but only she understood the deeper meaning behind this response. Her eyelashes slowly touched her high cheek as she blinked in slow motion.

In the middle of applying another thin layer of ointment to her cheek, he decided to give her a small lecture. "I seriously need to teach you more moves in self-defense. If there is a next time where you are held down, I'll make sure you know how to slap those bitches back using other methods. Luckily, we came right on time. What would happen if we arrived later?"

"Then what should I do? I don't want to learn more self-defense moves. I always end up weak with bruises." She said with a soft, gentle voice.

"If you don't want to learn my moves, then I will protect you from now on. With me around, nobody can ever lay a strand of your hair." He twisted the cap back on the ointment.

"How could you protect me? I'm not even paying you or anything." She smiled.

"Why can't I protect you? I like you, so I want to keep you away from danger at all times. When I saw you standing on the side of the road, I wanted to hug you tightly to relieve my anxiety. For once, I prioritized someone else over Selina. My heart almost stopped the second I heard you two were kidnapped!"

Bryan didn't notice he had accidentally confessed his feelings to her. While his complaints filled the room, she whispered something twice, but he missed it. Hearing him ramble all over again, she pulled him in for a squeezing tight hug.

His rants stopped as he felt her body warmth against his. He wrapped his arms around her back and closed his eyes to settle down.

She whispered into his ear. "Bryan, are you listening to me?"

"Mmm." He replied.

"I like you too." She said.

"Mm...huh?" His eyelids flipped open when he heard her confession.

Breaking away from the hug, she cupped his cheeks in her palms and looked straight to his eyes. "I said, I like you too. The type of like I feel towards you is beyond friendship."

"Y..You like me? As in wanting to be boyfriend and girlfriend type of like?" He pointed his finger back and forth between them, making her chuckle.

She nodded, "Yes, silly."

"Then.." He grabbed her hands and held onto her fingers tightly. "Celinda, would you be my girlfriend?"

"My answer is ...Yes!" She giggled and pulled him back into a hug.

"R..really?" He asked twice to confirm her answer.

"Yes!" She gave him a peck on the cheek to prove her thoughts to him.