Reine Parker
I sighed for the umpteenth time throughout the boring speech of whatever the host was talking about. Every time I tried to sneak out of my seat, I would see some people from other tables turning their heads back to look at our table. This made me shrink back into my seat as I did not want any extra attention.
In addition to those glances, the people at the Romano table would cast a glance towards me and Roman occasionally. I rolled my eyes internally whenever I caught them doing that. Roman would scoff softly beside me and roll his eyes directly at them whenever his eyes meet with any of them. One point for Roman.
To my horror, it was the so called highlight of the ball was by ending it off with ballroom dancing. I cringed internally when I heard it. I was never good at coordinating my limbs, much less to dance to a certain rhythm. Seeing how everyone was immersed in finding a partner to dance with, I moved to the back of the hall while hiding behind a pillar, hoping that no one would spot me.
I heaved out a small sigh of relief when I realised that everyone's attention was on the stage.
"What are you doing here?" a voice suddenly appeared and I jumped a little. It was Vince, who stood behind me. I smiled sheepishly at him and replied, "I don't know how to dance, plus it's kind of suffocating here. Found a great spot to hide."
He found my words amused and stretched out his hand towards me, "I'll teach you how to dance, you will learn it in no time." I scrunched up my nose at the thought of me embarrassing myself in front of so many people and immediately shook my head at his suggestion.
"I'll make sure that you won't fall, trust me." He encouraged me once more, with no intention of taking his hand back. Hesitating, I placed my hand in his, to which he grabbed mine and led me to the front.
"Take a deep breath, follow my pace and relax." He whispered softly in my ears, as he placed his hand on the back of my waist, while the other clasp onto my left hand. I awkwardly placed my right hand on his shoulder as he guided me with each step.
I winced the moment I stepped on his well polished shoes.
"I think we should stop here." I breathed out softly, as I felt bad for stepping on him. He made no attempts to release his hold on my waist nor my hand. Bending his head down slightly, his voice sounding low and alluring, "You're doing great, Reine. Keep going." The butterflies in my stomach started rattling around and I nodded lightly at his words. I was not sure if that was meant to be a word of encouragement or he was trying to spur on me something.
He continued guiding me, while I followed closely in his steps, for fear that I might step on him again. I finally managed to release that breath that I had been holding when I heard the music stopped, and a wide smile was plastered onto Vince's face.
"That was beautiful." He complimented, as I added, "I've got a great mentor here."
"Ray, it's time to go." Roman was standing next to us, as I realised that the ball had came to an end. At least I was glad that everything went smoothly for tonight. The smile on Vince's face faded when he heard that I had to leave. He stuffed me a small piece of paper before I had to leave the venue with Roman. I smiled sadly at him as I mouthed silently a 'bye' to him.
As we stepped out of the hall, Damian had parked the car right in front of us and before I could get into the car, I was held back by a hand. Lifting my head to see whom the hand belonged to, I came face-to-face with Mateo Romano. His eyes held desperation, as the rest of them trailed behind him.
Roman got out of the car and was ready to lash out, but I stopped him before he could. Shaking my head slightly at him, he looked at me in worry before he sighed and head back into the car. I want to handle this by myself.
"What do you want?" I asked, with no traces of emotions in my tone.
"Can you...spare some moment for us to talk to you, please?" He begged. If this was back then, I would have agreed instantaneously. I would have softened my stand and forgive them on the spot. But things have changed now, so did my feelings towards them.
"I believe there's nothing between us to talk about. I would appreciate if all of you could leave me alone, just like before." I snatched my wrist away from his grip, and sent a death glare to their way.
Alexander moved forward and said, "We know how much you hate us after all the things that we've done to you, but please, it's been so long since we've seen you and we're still-"
"Don't you dare, say that we're still family. I stopped being your sister a long time ago, so don't bullshit to me about how we're still a family." I seethed angrily, hot tears burning at the back of my eyes. Fuck this shit.
"We... we didn't know she was lying back then and we were too lost to think that everything was staged by her. I know, that's all an excuse, it doesn't define the way of how we shunned you away and blamed you for everything." Alexander, the brother whom I used to love so much, was on the verge of tears.
"But in the end, all of you chose to believe her, didn't you? When you could have given me the benefit of the doubt. To put a little trust in me, was that so difficult?" I chuckled humourlessly at my own words. If only they did, we would not have ended up like this.
Mateo attempted to move forward to me, to which I instinctively took a step backwards.
"I hope all of you can keep a distance away from me, and not cross the boundary. This will be the last time that I will be reminding all of you of your place, next time I do, things will turn ugly." My gaze shifted to Mason, who looked at me with a small smile on his face and I did the same and nodded lightly.
They seemed to have not caught on to our interactions and remained their gaze on me. Without a second look, I climbed into the car and watched them looking through the rear view mirror with the look of longing and guilt morphed onto their faces.
Perhaps it was karma, because I had looked at them turning their backs on me back then, with a look of hope and longing etched onto my face when I believed that my family would not abandon me.
But they did.
updated! got a surprise last night as I had received a message from @LoveHadley who kindly designed a book cover for the book!
will be changing the current book cover to the one that she had kindly emailed me! thank you once again for the design! <3
Happy reading! -10/10/2022
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Broken Bonds
Teen FictionAvery Elizabeth Romano had a twin, whom she loved dearly. Yes, you heard it right, had. Her twin was taken away by her mother at the age of 5. Her father was killed on the same day. Her brothers abandoned her on the very same day as well. Sounds tra...
