Art of Darkness

chapter 34

NATALIA ELYSE DELAVIN

"I would like my now complete extended family to personally meet my boyfriend. I felt like it was time for all of you to meet him since dad and mom already approved of him," Maeve said with a sweet genuine smile. "And now that Avy's twin is here, he also gets to meet Natalia too!"

My eyes observed his gesture from top to bottom. He looked unfazed with his usual emotionless look but I already know the thoughts running through his mind.

"Everyone, this is Zathrian Knight, twenty-one. We've been together for seven months now," she placed her hands on his shoulders.

Everyone greeted him with a handshake or with a small hug. He was already welcomed into their family. I guess they already had an idea of him even before he was introduced.

"Pleasure to meet you, Zathrian." I smiled. "Natalia Rossi," I introduced, shaking hands with him.

I saw him hide a small gulp as we both made quick eye contact.

Zath is supposed to be with Dasan and the team finishing a job! And they're currently in Mexico right now so why the fuck is he still in Los Angeles? And none of them bothered telling me, huh?

"So, where did you two meet?" Nicholas asked.

"Here in L.A., of course! You know I've been studying here for three years now." Maeve answered.

"Where do you work?" Another question now from Kaizer.

"I'm a manager of a club here in L.A." He answered. "Zenx. The one in Beverly Boulevard," he proudly answered.

Lie, he owns it. Tsk.

"How about let's proceed to have lunch as we catch up, don't we?" Elizabeth said as everyone, literally a fucking crowd started to walk their way to the second dining room which I think has a table that has around forty seats.

I don't want to go into much detail about this whole family lunch reunion thing or whatever they call it because it's just the same questions and approach as when I first arrive here.

Nothing in the questions had changed. I gave short answers to some, and some half-truths and half-lies when it reached the topic of my job. I guess they already got the message when I refused to answer some of them.

After that whole tiring question and answer portion with me, they proceeded to talk about business.

They used some terms and in-between-the-lines statements so it wouldn't be too obvious that they were talking about their mafia.

Gotta give it to them. If I were a clueless person and knows nothing about it, I would think it was just the businesses they were talking about. They are really good at this but sad for them that I'm already a few steps ahead.

"So, Zathrian, would you like to tell us how you two actually met?" Hugo said, looking intimidating. "You're dating our little cousin after all. We just want to know you more."

A small smirk crept on my lips as I covered it while drinking a glass of water.

I'm curious to know too how they met. Zath, Claude, and Idalia mostly tell me everything that happens to them even their personal shits even if I never asked.

They're very vocal about their love and sex life aside from Dasan and Yvaine so I'm starting to wonder too what made him hide it from me.

"I almost hit her with my car," Zathrian shrugged.

Wait wait wait! That felt familiar.

"My boss," he held quick eye contact with me before averting it to Hugo, "Called for an emergency meeting that day. She hates people who are late even for a minute. She can get very... violent when her orders are defied so I sped up to her office with my car and she suddenly crossed the road," Zathrian storied.