Rivals To Lovers | ✔️

- 𝐶ℎ𝑎𝑝𝑡𝑒𝑟 30 -

- Roxanne's POV -

Once we walk into the dining room Mattheo's grandmother unwraps her arm from mine. I freeze when my eyes scan the room. My mom was cooking in the kitchen that was across the dining room and Camila was setting up the table with some girl I've never seen before.

This is where Mattheo was keeping my family. A hand on my lower back disrupts my thoughts and I look up to see Mattheo with a light smile on his lips.

"Roxanne?!" I hear Camila say. I take my eyes off of Mattheo and look back down at Camila. My eyes fill with tears but I don't let them out.

"Hey," I say in a breathless whisper. Camila leaves what she had in her hands and runs towards me hugging me tightly. A hint of roses brushes the air in front of me making me smile.

"I missed you so much" Camila mumbles in my hair I laugh enjoying the moment.

"I missed you too, sis," I say squeezeing her tightly one more time before pulling away and looking at her. I pull back a strand of her hair behind her ear and smile.

"I'm so glad you're safe," I say. She smiles with a nod. Looking behind her my mom stands there with a small smile. Camila turns around looking at her as well.

"Mom, I'm-" I try to say but she cuts me off by pushing me into her arms and hugging me as if she couldn't believe I was here.

"Don't say anything, please" She says and I nod. Pulling away she looks up at Mattheo and back at me.

"How could I have been so blinded, you two are perfect for each other," she says with a grin, making me chuckle.

"Where is he?" I ask her hoping she knew exactly who I was talking about. She looks back at me exhaling sharply and shaking her head.

Her expression said it all. My brother was the most affected after our father's death. They had a closer bond than me and my father could ever but he still lived all his kids equally, no matter what.

"Can I go talk to him?" I ask and she nods with a smile. I look up at Mattheo telling him to come with me and he nods in reply.

Walking upstairs, down a hall I look for his room. Guessing the only locked door was his room I gently knock on the door. I hear heavy footsteps at the door and the door unlocks revealing a not-so-good Andre.

Black circles under his eyes and messy hair. He looked...horrible. He opens his mouth to say something but quickly closes it when his eyes land on mines. He opens his mouth again and whispers my name under his breath.

"It's me" I whisper back with a small smile. His strong arms wrap around my waist pulling me into a bear hug.

"I thought I lost you too," He says. Pulling me away his eyes land on Mattheo who was behind me. The hurt in his eyes quickly turned into range.

"You," Andre says in a threatening tone I looked over at Mattheo to see his eyes locked on Andre as if he was waiting for him to make a move first.

"You did this. All of it!" Andre says walking towards Mattheo. I smirk starts to form on Mattheo's lips before anything could happen I step in front of Andre stopping him from making the worst decision of his life. He didn't take his eyes off of Mattheo he just stood there.

"Andre, look at me," I say trying to get his attention. My hands-on his chest holding him in place. He doesn't even flinch, I've never seen him like this in my life, it worried me.

"Look at me!" I order in a more damaging way. That's when he finally tears his eyes of Mattheo looking down at me.

"You need to control yourself, this isn't you. I need my brother back." I say cupping his face in my hands.

"That man is gone. I'm not going to rest until I get my revenge. For our father and our family." He says bringing my hands off of his face.

"He isn't our enemy, on the contrary, he's been helping us," I say and he scoffs looking away for a second before bringing his eyes back to me.

"I should've known you had something to do with this monster, him and his whole family." He says.

The next thing I know Mattheo punched Andre square on the jaw making Mattheo fall backwards hard.

"Mattheo!" I yelled at him. He looked at his fist and then at me almost in shock, like he didn't mean to.

"Get out!" I order him pointing at the door. I don't know what the hell he was thinking. I thought Mattheo knew better than to let Andre get in his head. Mattheo looked at Andre one last time before leaving.

I lean down to help Andre who was on the floor wiping the blood from his busted lip.

"Don't come near me, I'm done with you. I can't believe you could even look at the man whose family brought all of this upon our family" He says angrily.

Even if I wanted to argue back I wasn't. He was hurt and the only person that could help him was himself. I got from the floor walking towards the door frame, I look at him one more time before leaving.

I go back downstairs towards the dining room and see Mattheo's grandmother, my mom, Camila, the girl from earlier all sitting down at the dining table eating. When my mom sees me and smiles patting a spot for me right next to her.

I smile but before I could my eyes look out a window to see Mattheo throwing rocks in the lake behind the house. I look back at my mom and Camila to see them laughing at something, I take advantage of that and leave before they notice me.

I walk outside towards the lake. It was so beautiful here, I loved everything about this place from the house to the lake. The sun was starting set making the view look even more spectacular than it already was.

Standing behind Mattheo close enough for him to know I was there, I stop myself. He doesn't look back, he grabs a hand full of rocks and throws them one by one as they skip across the lake and eventually sink down.

"Mattheo," I say loud enough for only him to hear. He still doesn't turn around so I proceed closer and start talking.

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have-" I say but he cuts me off.

"Your not the one who should be apologizing," He says throwing another rock across the lake, not making eye contact.

He was right, he was the one who punched my brother but I did yell at him. And I know that I yelled at him but shouldn't have. But I could tell by his expression on his face when he did hit him, it was almost as if he acted out of control as if he didn't mean to do it. He just acted out of anger.

"I know you didn't mean it, Mattheo," I say looking at him wanting him to look at me. He throws his last rock and looks at me.

"Why do you always want to see the good in me? I'm a bad person Roxanne, I gave away my father and my brother to the Russians as a deal for me to be leader." He says looking at me in the eyes. I smile walking closer to him. He looks at me confused, furrowing his eyebrows at me.

"Your wrong, you did that to help me. You're doing all of this, for me and my family. Don't say that you're a bad person when you're not, Mattheo. I've know you for a long time now, and I know that Mattheo Anderson would never do anythingthing without a reason behind it." I say.

"And that's what I lo-like about you," I correct myself. Mattheo lifts up his eyes to mines. I could feel my face burn up and I look away immediately.

"You love me?" Mattheos asks with a smirk on his face. And there he is again, the Mattheo I know. He walks closer towards me but this time I'm the one who doesn't look at him. He pushes my hair behind my ear and gently smoothing out my jawline with his fingertips. He lifts up my chin with his fingers making me look at him.

"Roxanne, I want you to know that I've never laid my eyes on another woman and felt the way I feel for you. And when I first told you that I loved you I meant it from the bottom of my heart, I always have." He says making me smile sadly at the memories of us.

"It's you, it's always been you, Roxanne Knight," He says in aw. He looks at my eyes and then at my lips, bringing me closer to him and gently kissing my lips. I felt the same way but I just wasn't ready to tell him yet. But it wasn't as if something was stopping me, or was there?
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