CAUGHT

EIGHTEEN

So many new faces and thankfully, their entrance wasn't grand enough to draw all their attention because of their arrival. Everyone seemed to be mingling and dressed elegantly. All the men she greeted when introduced by Antonio, were dressed in designer suits.

Clar questioned her Creator why everyone in the room was fit to be a face and or body model. The genes of attraction and high appeal that included varies which run all the way to the gutter in one's mind, was an all-time high on a majority if not all the persons she had taken a good look at.

Amongst all the people present, she saw no children.

All his family she had been introduced to spoke to her kindly, asked if she knew Spanish, and spoke using the language when she reluctantly nodded. Almost like wildfire, everyone who spoke to her from then on spoke in the language. No one asked about her arm, her foot was covered by the long elegant, and expensive material of the long black dress that sparkled when hit by light. If the wounds on her back were still showing, the mesh-like lace that made up the long-sleeved top of the dress covered them.

Clar had decided not to look at her back. Her skin was healing and that's what she decided to concern herself with. Deep down, she feared standing in front of the long mirror to see what Antonio's hand had done to her back with the whip. Every day he tended to them, she always shed tears silently into the sheets. The very hands nursing her back were the very same ones that had inflicted harm on her skin.

Clar was seated next to Antonio on the long elegant table that had a chandelier above. Everyone was smiling and chatting. the atmosphere tugged at her heart. Reminded her of the family gatherings she used to have times back before her parents had passed on. Before she had distanced herself from her family.

She was yet to have a lengthy talk with one of Antonio's parents. At the head of the table sat his mother who had the lightest shade of blue eyes Clar had ever seen. She had caught a glimpse of them when Antonio's mother hugged and kissed her on both cheeks with a wide smile. She was strikingly beautiful and to no surprise, equally smelled good. Raksana resembled her more than her sons did.

Antonio's mother had introduced herself and had asked Clar to take a seat after noticing her foot which without a doubt meant that she had observed Clar up closely and with a keen eye from head to toe. Showcased affection for the strain and pain she must be going through.

Clar took the seat offered by Antonio and before the meal, they all said grace. Clar was the only one whose head was not bowed and had her eyes wide open. She hadn't excepted everyone to bow their heads in such sync.

Throughout the meal, Clar kept throwing subtle glances in Antonio's mother's direction. Her mind worked double time. Maybe she was her savior. She looked nice. Her eyes appeared to be kind, a ting of eeriness but kind nonetheless. There was an air about her, one that held authority of her own.

She leaned in and asked Antonio where his father was. Antonio informed her that he had gone to settle an urgent  matter. Clar had wanted to ask if he too was in the mafia but thought against it.

Antonio made sure she finished the food on her plate even when Clar had to plead lowly for him to stop placing food before her. She had stuffed herself on the first two meal courses. A mistake she kept in mind not to repeat.

Knowledgeable about her full stomach, he still filled her glass with water. It was getting irritating real fast. Clar was about to ignore it and pick up a wine glass, only for him to give her a look that dared her to do otherwise. She pushed her arm back and picked up the glass of water pissed off.

She wasn't a kid. Yet she had to obey him like one because he was beyond capable of making her 'pay' for her 'disagreeable' behaviour. Clar fought feeling inferior to him. It felt like he was trying to mess with her mentality. He was bigger and stronger than her physically but she wouldn't let him bully her mind.