Loathsome Brothers

Damon

Andrei's Pov

He enters my office and halts in his steps. He didn't expect so many people to be here. He is clearly intimidated by our presence. Good!

Everyone's eyes are on him. We are judging him. And we are judging hard. Each and every thing that could be considered slightest bit suspicious is being noted by us.

We saw how he paled seeing us. We saw how fisted his hands to keep himself from freaking out. We saw how he masked his nervousness by plastering a smile on his face.

A smile. A smile that makes him look genuine, convincing, anything but a threat. It looks like he has mastered it for years now and only person who would need to do that is obviously trying to hide something.

He might had convinced us with his facade if he didn't exaggerate it. It is normal for people to be scared in our presence but he's trying to act all calm and collected which obviously isn't true. His eyes are betraying him.

"Take a seat" Dante ordered coldly.

Damon wasn't least prepared to be spoken to like this. He was taken aback but again puts on his decent gentleman act and takes a seat on the sofa as instructed.

Grandfather and both of my uncles are seated across from him, while I lean on my chair, staring intently at him. Dante puffs another cigarette as he takes his seat next to Damon turning towards him so he has a clear view.

If having Dante this close wasn't enough, Zion makes his way towards him leaning on the wall next to Damon as he shoves both of his hands in his pockets.

Damon uncomfortably squirmers in his seat due to our hard gaze on him. We kept on staring at him saying nothing. We wait for him to get anxious enough to start the conversation and he does.

"Hello. I'm Damon Walker. Isabella was my wife" He offers us another smile that we didn't return.

We hummed at his introduction and I know he's trying his best not to panic but it's becoming more difficult by every passing second. 

"And what brings you here Damon?" Uncle Ezra asked with his face expressionless and voice harsh.

"I was hoping to see my daughter Nora"

"Stepdaughter" Zion corrects.

"What do you do?" Uncle Lennox asked getting into his interrogating mode.

We do not intend to purposely intimidate him or maybe we do. But the point is to see through him. We know Isabella's choice of friends, we can't trust her choice of husband.

"I'm a pediatrician" He replied.

"How many friends does Nora have? Dante asked exhaling a huge amount of smoke.

This question might sound irrelevant but it's not. It's a distraction to get him offtrack so he says something that he's desperate to hide. This can also help us figure out how close Nora and her stepfather were and how much does he really know her.

"One. Lucas. He and his family lives in our neighborhood. Very decent and sophisticated family they are. We know them for years now, Nora and him are friends since they were kids like when they were 7 or 8"

And there it is. The result of Dante's slightest bit of effort to loosen him up. He started way easily than others do. He immediately proved us right, it's confirmed that he's putting up a show.

Dante asked a simple question that could've been answered in just a sentence or two. But Damon became defensive. He didn't have to mention the family or how well mannered they are, but he did.