Ferd don’t welcome them in

"What are you doing here?", I walk further into the living room and both of their heads turn around to face me immediately.

"I'll give you all some time to talk", Victor says before I have a chance to do anything. He walks out of the room and leaves us alone.

Mario stands first and shuffles on his feet almost awkwardly. I can't help but to raise an eyebrow at his uncharacteristic behavior and I glance at Ariadne but the moment our eyes meet she immediately looks away.

I clear my throat when the silence settles in for too long.

"Solace", Mario finally says after what seems to be a moment of deep concentration, "I came here to apologize for what my brother did to you".

His eyes look up and finally meets my slightly narrowed ones.

"Is that so?", I ask cynically before walking fully into the living room and talking a seat on a single sofa adjacent to Ari.

"I know you must hate us-", he paused abruptly as my eyes narrow at him virtually pinning him to the spot where he is standing.

I scoffed and sat straight in the sofa, "It's more than just hate and petty resentment Mario. Your brother tried to murder me and I am not willing to just let that go".

"Don't be ridiculous", he cut in immediately, "it was a stupid mistake on his part. That's why I'm here to apologize. He didn't mean to hurt you the way he did!".

Is this guy for real?

I eye him with a tilted gaze just as I hear the front door being opened, "So he didn't mean to hurt me?", I snorted, "You shouldn't be the one apologizing though Mario. Lewis is the one who should be here to own up to his mistakes. I'll make sure that he does".

For a moment longer than a second I see something flash across his face and his eyes harden their gaze on me, "What the hell is that supposed to mean".

Standing up abruptly I take a few steps across the room until I am standing at least a meter away from him, "You'll find out soon enough". I mutter the words loud enough for him to hear and his entire body goes rigid the moment my stepmom walks around the corner and she sees us.

"Oh, hey honey", she greets me, "I didn't know you were having guests over".

Apparently, neither did I.

"Are they going to be having dinner with us?", she asks next. I look over to Mario and Ari who hadn't uttered a single word since she has been here.

The two both look at each other before hesitantly nodding.

"Mom you remember Ariadne right", mom nods as a smile stretches on her lips and she moves to hug Ari, "this is her- uh boyfriend Mario Levi".

The mere mention of his last name has my mother stiffening beside us.

"We'd love to stay for dinner Mrs. Solace", Ariadne said for the first time since she had been here. Mario looked like he wasn't too fond of the idea but he didn't try to oppose it either.

"Good", mom said under her breath before leaving us to our own devices.

A buzzing had us all looking at Mario whose hand was fishing his phone out of his pocket. He pulled it up to his ear and answered as Ari finally spared me a glance.

"I'll be right there", I hear Mario say before he turns to us. "That was my mom, she wants me to come home immediately, apparently we're having a meeting with our family lawyer, I don't know what that is about".

I bet I do.

I reside the urge the smirk and allow my face to remain as impassive as I could manage.

"We can't stay for dinner after all", Mario said sadly though his expression was anything else but sad, "we'll see you around Solace".

Yeah, I'll see you in court!

"You're leaving?", Mom appeared out of nowhere eyeing Mario with subtle distaste.

"Yeah I have to go, my mom just called", he smiled politely at my mother and I nearly had to do a double take at how polite it looked.

"I see", mom nodded, "but surely Ariadne can stay, I haven't seen her in a while and I'd love to catch up dear", mom looked at Ari with hopeful eyes.

She seemed reluctant at first but eventually she relented to my mother's request like everyone usually does.

"I guess I can stay", Mario shot her a stern look at her words but she ignored him and smiled at my mom.

"Brilliant, Ferdinand will give you a ride home afterwards", she stated and I had to refrain from snorting. She walked into the kitchen immediately afterwards and I was positive it was definitely not to cook but more likely to call up the cooks and order them to prepare dinner.

I glanced at Mario before walking away from the two of them and up towards my room not uttering another word.

***********

I remember when I first came here and started school. Ari was actually the first person that I met and I had immediately liked her. We got along well up until the 'Hadley' incident happened which was pretty much when Ariadne started dating Mario. I still don't know how exactly those two ended up together even now.

Victor had convinced me to man up and admit my feelings to her and when I finally did it she had told me she liked me back. We kissed once and then we hung out at my house afterwards where I asked her out on a date for that weekend. Everything was going fine but then by the next day I learned that she was going out with Mario and she never even gave me an explanation why.

Victor was with me in my room when I got that flashback from the past. When I tell him about this memory he agrees that what Ariadne did was a total bitch move and warned me that she wasn't the person I thought she was. He finished by saying he doesn't get what I love about her.

That much is enough to pique my curiosity, as far as my flashback goes even I don't see any outcome where I'd ever still be hung up on that girl. Apparently, this must not have been so though, however, when I asked him why he thought I was in love with Ari he froze up as if realizing he had made some important information slip. He only admitted one thing, he told me that per the doctor's instructions they weren't allowed to tell me anything from my past that I didn't remember myself. I was supposed to do it all on my own and any outside help could affect and even hinder my healing process.

I called bullshit.

Shaking my head I buried my face into my pillows as I tried to get comfortable on my bed.

Maybe I was just confused. Nothing really made sense to me. I know I had memory loss so that explains a few of the holes in my memory that needs filling in. As for what I can tell I've recovered nearly all of my memories except for the last month of my life which I could not recall a single event from.

I'm refraining from doing anything about Ari until I remember everything about what happened. Victor seems to think that I am in love with Ariadne but from what I can remember about her I know that I totally hate her guts for using me and lying to me the way that she did.

So, if Victor thinks that I love her now after what she did then I know there must be another part to the story that's missing. A part that I can't remember. I just have to wait until I recover fully, until then I have to let all this go.

I was so busy indulging in my thoughts that I didn't notice when the door opened. When I finally looked up I saw Ariadne entering my room and closing the door behind her.

Sitting up immediately I tried not to narrow my eyes at her. I had almost forgotten that she was here.

"What are you doing in here?", I asked as she took a few steps closer to me.

She offered me a small smile which I was unwilling to return, then she said "Hi Solace. We need to talk".