Mario spared me one last glance before walking down the passage the way I had come in with Antonio, his voice monotone when he spoke.
“Come. We’re late for dinner and my brother doesn’t appreciate tardiness.”
I kept quiet and followed his steps from a moderate distance, barely minding my surroundings as I watched the male in front of me.
Although I speculated that we were perhaps the same age, the way that he and his brothers carried themselves made them appear older than they were. Couple that with the uncaring expression that never wavered from his face, he gave the impression of someone who had seen, done, or experienced things far beyond his age.
We walked in silence for a short while down the stairs, around this and that corner and through that room, until we came upon a wide room with white walls large drapes, a large chandelier illuminating the dining room with a mahogany ten seater dining table with six of the white leather chairs around it occupied.
The sound of our approaching steps made the six heads look our direction and under the gaze of so many people my heart skipped a beat. It took me a few seconds to realize that five of the people sitting on the table were male and when I did notice, I did a double take and my steps faulted.
I looked at the head of the male in front of me and then those seated around the table, counting;
One.
Two.
Three.
Four.
Five…
and Six.
There were six of them instead of five as I had assumed.
My eyes met with the lightest hazel brown eyes I had ever seen that were as cold and piercing as Antonio’s, set on a face that resembled Mario’s in both structure and expression—or lack there of—and belonging to a man who looked a few years older than Nicholas and carried himself the same way.
Unconsciously, my feet had carried me across the room to an empty seat on Mario’s left with an empty seat across from me and an empty one on the left head. Mario’s instruction to sit registered faintly to my mind as I sat down unable to look away from the eyes of the man who I assumed to be the eldest of the Velastro brothers.
The brother’s eyes assessed me going up and down my frame as if searching for information of who I was. For a few seconds silence dominated the room as everyone waited for the eldest brother to say something and when he spoke, it was to Nicholas who was sitting to his right on the side opposite mine since the older brother took the position of the head.
“Explain.”
It was one word but it communicated clearly what he desired. Because I was also curious about the answer my eyes naturally went to Nicholas and his eyes met mine and he smiled faintly before looking at his older brother.
“Her name is Sanelisiwe from South Africa, 24 years old, medicine graduate with friends that were willing to sell her off because of jealousy and, obviously, greed.” The brief description of who I was unnerved me but it did not satisfy the head of the Valastro family because he continued to look at Nicholas with a somewhat bland but expectant look.
Nicholas sighed.
“Though I made it possible for her to be here, she is not mine. Antonio is the one who picked her out.” He said, and unconsciously my eyes searched for Antonio and I found him already watching me.
Our eyes locked or more accurately his eyes locked mine in a cold embrace that I could not escape. The revelation that he was the one who owned me and not Nicholas as I had assumed made ice settle deep in my bones.
Although I did not like any of them, I held a special dislike for Antonio which was rooted from fear and while I had known I was not exactly safe from any of them knowing that I ‘belonged’ solely to him shredded any and all remnants of any sense of security I may have had left. Antonio was sitting on my opposite left which suddenly became too close but the look in his eyes told me I would never be far enough from him.
At the sound of his oldest brother calling his name, he broke eye contact with me and as if understanding his brother’s desires without him needing to speak them aloud, he leaned back and smiling a cruel smile at me, he spoke.
“I suddenly realized that I wanted a new toy and she had all the requirements to be one. You have no need to worry Alessandro she won’t cause any problems and if you want you can have her as well, you know I don’t mind sharing."
YOU ARE READING
Rooted from Betrayal
ActionI would have had a normal life, with mundane problems and simple joys. I would have started practicing as a general doctor by the age of 24 with intentions of specializing and later becoming a neurosurgeon. I would have lived a normal life far from...
