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Meeting at the mall

LYNETTE

Getting out the incident that occurred between me and Leone from my head was hard, and I struggled to keep up with my random thoughts after I had my bath in the deluxe bathroom.

For the first time that I wanted to agree with Mum's decision and enjoy my life in the home of her wealthy husband, I just had to meet the person I spent my adolescence loving, who turned out to be my stepbrother.

'How could fate play such a cruel game on me?'

Amanda came to my room to inform me that it was dinner time, and also gave me a chart for the official schedules that guided the huge mansion. She also gave me a house map saying the hallways that lead to different rooms in the house were too alike.

It felt so good to be true that I didn't have to make my dinner myself out of nothing, and that someone would call me down from my room to eat dinner in a mansion. Definitely, the best treatment I have had so far in my teenage years.

Walking to the dining room to see varieties of sumptuous meals served on the table, made my mouth water because it even looked better than the buffer service from hours ago.

The cutleries and porcelain wares that the food was served in all looked so uniform, that I couldn't wait to take my seat and dig into every meal on the table.

I was wondering if I had to wait for everyone else because I got to the table first, but the food was so hard to resist the more I looked at them when I took my seat.

But then again, Mr. Russo's words rang in my mind about being too skinny, and I didn't want to seem like an uncultured swine who would lose her manners and etiquette because of food. I just had to wait.

Then I remembered that Isabella asked me to see her, and I asked one of the maids around about the young child and she directed me.

When I got to the door of the little girl's room, I pushed the door open and entered to see her still sleeping soundly on her bed. I trudged towards her bed noiselessly so as not to wake her up, to check if she was doing okay before I turned to leave.

Looking at her sleeping so softly and innocently on the bed, reminded me of Meredith whenever I checked up on her in the night if she was sleeping already. It was hard not to think of her no matter how hard I tried, and looking at Isabella would constantly make me remember her. It made tears roll down my cheek.

"Get well soon, Isabella,"I whispered into her ears and kissed her on the cheek, before turning to leave the room back to the dining room.

Immediately I took my seat at the spot that felt like the perfect place to sit, Leone appeared in front of me and sat on the one opposite mine. I was about to scream at him to maintain distance between both of us, when Mum and her husband walked in elegantly like lovebirds that were just at their early stage of love. I just acted like I didn't know who Leone was anymore and faced them.

"Lynette. I suppose that you have met your stepbrother. Leone, meet Lynette. Lynette, Leone,"Mr. Russo introduced me when he and Mum had settled down at the table, and I just smiled modestly at Leone whose upper lips twisted into a smirk, as he stretched forth his hands to shake me.

'Why was he doing this to me?' I groaned inwardly.

After the brief meeting and concise words from Emilio, we began eating as soon as the kitchen maids that were around served everyone's dinner according to our choice. It was so weird for me to sit while I had my food dished out for me, because I had been the one to do the serving for people my whole life.

While we ate silently with only sounds of clinking spoons and plates that rebounded the corners of the dining room, I could feel the touch of someone's skin climb up against mine from beneath. It was Leone, and he was using his legs to trail tortuously on mine.

'Holy shit.'

I bit on my lips to avoid making any kind of noise due to reflex, and shifted my legs backward to avoid further problems. Leone was driving me crazy by doing that when it was clear that we couldn't cross the siblings' boundaries anymore. Our parents were getting married.

Because of my darn stepbrother, I ended up eating less than what I planned to, so as to leave the table immediately. I had forgotten that I wasn't in my house and packed my dishes in an attempt to wash them, but a maid was in time to collect them from me so quickly, after she fretted in shock to see me do that.

I returned to my room afterwards and shut the door properly this time, as I dived straight into my bed which dipped the moment my weight landed on it.

I screamed into my bed and punched hard against it, to release every stress and frustration that I had in me. My life was taking a hectic turn, and Leone seemed like he was going to make things hard for me.

The sleep through the night to the next morning on a standard-quality bed was so good, and I didn't wake up with the usual body pains and raging headaches because of working non-stop.

I was feeling better than ever because I didn't have to think about waking up early to work, or thinking of how I would make ends meet so that we would afford food for the day and pay our bills.

"It is really good to be rich,"I murmured with a smile as I came down from the bed , thinking of what to do after waking up with nothing in my mind to do. I then remembered that Mum wanted me to accompany her for wedding shopping.

After taking my bath, I sat in front of the huge dresser in my room to dry my hair and dressed up in matching pants and sweatshirt before parking my hair in a bun. I texted Mum to tell her that I was done after picking up my bag, and told her that I would be waiting for her outside the compound.

Immediately I came down the stairs and made to locate the main door among the many ones in the house, I heard someone call my name as I walked past the kitchen, "Miss Lynn. Breakfast is ready."

'Damn. Breakfast was ready as early as this time? I had never eaten an early breakfast before.'

I turned to the person who was talking to me, and she seemed to be the main kitchen assistant I had seen the evening before. I wasn't used to eating breakfast that early in the morning, and it made me wonder if the food on the menu was worth eating.

"I would like an appetizer instead,"I informed her, and decided to go and sit at the dining table for whatever would be served. By the time I was done eating from the numerous dishes that were served, I had finished a simple three-course meal all by myself.

'Damn. Who knew that I could eat that much?' I questioned myself as I tore the last piece of chicken in my mouth, and munched on the delicious meal.

"I can see my darling daughter is blending so well,"Mum's voice resonated sonorously around the walls of the dining room, and I wished I would just enter into the floor from cringing so badly.

"Mum. What are you wearing? Have you forgotten that you will be married tomorrow?!"I cautioned her the moment I saw her amble down the stairs from afar, in a black body-fitted dress that clung so tightly to her body.

Her heels clanked loudly against the marble floor as she came down, and it was evident that she was meant to portray that she was the new madam of the house.

"My husband loves it like this and that is why he is getting married to me. Must you complain about everything?"Mum's face furrowed in displeasure but I didn't care. I would keep making my points as many times as possible.

"I am going to get my wedding dress checked today. So I'm going to be changing clothes too. It doesn't matter,"she insisted as she came closer to where I was sitting, and the kitchen assistant came immediately to ask her about her preference for breakfast, while another person came to pack my plates.

"If you are ready. We can be on the way,"she informed me.

Mum dismissed the idea of breakfast and just requested a cup of coffee, as she took the seat beside me to show me the credit card that her husband gave her for shopping.

"I think you have made the right decision this time. You should enjoy it to the fullest,"I told Mum truthfully as I rolled my eyes, and she frowned knowing that I would always pick on her.

"Am I driving you, or how is it done here?"I asked her.

"A chauffeur would be driving…….."

"I want to get something at the big mall too. We can all go together,"I heard the voice behind me say and I almost groaned in anger because I knew who it was.

'Just why was he doing this to me?'

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