THE ENCHANTED ENFORCER

chapter-28 "worries"

♡Andrea pov♡

Benjamin and I were just sitting in the corner of the cafe, laughing over some silly joke he'd made, completely lost in our own world. He was leaning back in his chair, looking relaxed, with a carefree grin plastered on his face, when suddenly, a group of men appeared.

They were tall, dressed in black, and before we could even register what was happening, one of them grabbed Benjamin by the collar and yanked him up, his chair clattering to the floor.

For a split second, I froze, watching as they lifted him off his feet like he weighed nothing. The fear in his eyes was unmistakable, though he tried to cover it with bravado.

My heart hammered, a rush of anger flooding through me. I shot up from my chair, my voice loud and sharp as I shouted, "Who the hell are you? Take your filthy hands off him!"

My voice was a growl, cutting through the cafe’s usual buzz. I stepped forward, glaring at them with a fury I hadn’t known I had in me.

"Andrea!" A voice, sharp and fierce, rang out behind me, slicing through the noise around us. I turned, pulse quickening, to find Aunt Mia standing there, her face contorted with rage. Her usually warm brown eyes now blazed with an icy, unforgiving fire that pinned me in place, her gaze burning through me with the weight of her fury.

"You're talking with them? With the betrayer's family?" she spat, her voice laced with venom as she fixed her glare on him. It was as if she were trying to burn him with her stare alone, her disgust so intense it seemed to poison the every air between us. He shifted uneasily under her gaze, but her attention quickly snapped back to me.

"You are like a daughter to me, Andrea," she said, her voice trembling with both pain and anger, each word as sharp as glass. "How could you bring yourself to associate with a bastard like him?".

Before I could answer, her bodyguards large, imposing men in dark suits moved forward, their hands clamping around my arms. Their grips were firm, unyielding, leaving no room for resistance as they started to pull me toward her waiting car.

"Stop! You have no right to take her from me!" Ben’s voice boomed, laced with desperation and fury as he struggled against the bodyguards holding him back. His eyes locked onto mine, a mixture of defiance and raw determination flickering in them, even as he strained against the men gripping his arms tightly, barely able to move.

The guards pulled me toward Aunt Mia's car, and I was whisked away from the scene. When we finally arrived at the mansion, Aunt Mia didn’t waste a second. Her hand clamped around my wrist, her nails digging in slightly as she dragged me into the decorated living room, where the grand chandeliers gleamed coldly above us. She let go, gesturing for me to sit on the plush velvet couch.

"Sit, Andrea. I want to talk to you," she said, taking the seat opposite me, her gaze steady but filled with judgment.

I lowered myself into the seat cautiously, feeling like a child under her watchful eye. Her expression didn’t waver as she spoke, her voice now soft and composed, yet laced with a thinly veiled disappointment. "Explain yourself. How could you even consider dating a bodyguard from a betrayer’s family? When did you become so...cheap? You deserve better than him, Andrea," she said, her words deliberate and cutting, each one aimed directly at my heart.

"Aunt, it’s not like that..." I started, feeling my chest tighten as I tried to explain. But before I could finish, the sound of the doorbell cut through the air, immediately followed by shouts of bodyguards and the gunshots echoing from outside.

Both of us froze, the in Aunt Mia’s eyes as she whipped around toward the door. We exchanged a tense look, then rushed to unlock it, barely knowing what to expect. As soon as the door swung open, there stood Ben and Lucas, framed in the dim glow of the mansion’s entryway lights, their expressions fierce.