The Billionaire's Authentic Daughter ▶️

4 0 | J U L I A

The moment he said my name, the other people present there burst into an even louder "SURPRISE!" for the second time.

Braxton was startled before he made sense of the situation and instantly broke out into a huge grin. His close friends and colleagues swamped him with hugs, back pats and their warm wishes.

"I knew you guys didn't forget my birthday! I knew something was up!" He said happily, while hugging Imani.

"Of course we didn't forget!" Darius said, ruffling his hair to which he grimaced. "We wouldn't forget our baby's birthday for the world."

"I am not a baby!" Braxton whined.

"You are the band's baby. After all you're the youngest. Happy twenty-two!" Imani said, a genuine smile on her face.

"I'm only like six months younger to Park Geun!"

"So what? Don't expect me to call you hyeong[older brother]!" Geun teased. "My only hyeong is Darius and my only noona[older sister] is Imani."

Braxton huffed. "Fine!" But then he smiled. "Why didn't any of you pick up my calls all day? That was a dead giveaway that you were planning something."

Imani whacked Darius on the back of his head. "Yeah, that genius idea was his. I told him to not do that but we were very busy with the preparations anyway."

Braxton tended, his eyes widened and he wildly looked around as if having remembered something at that moment.

"What is it?" Darius asked, following his searching gaze.

Braxton caught sight of me at the back of the crowd with Jade and his eyes further widened when he eyed my bandage. Unexpectedly,  he strode in my direction.

He stopped right in front of me, assessing my wound. "What happened? Are you okay?"

I felt everyone's gazes on us. "I–I'm fine. It's just a scratch."

"How did it happen?" He asked, clearly not picking up on my discomfort.

"That would be me," Geun said sheepishly. "I hit her on the head."

"What?!" Braxton's outburst shocked us all. Then he lowered his voice. "What did you hit her for?!"

"We didn't know she was your guest and we thought she broke into your house. It was quite a scuffle and these two," Geun pointed at Imani and Darius, "pressured me to do it."

"I'm fine, really." I said quietly. Then I smiled. "Happy birthday."

Braxton's scowl melted into a soft smile. "Thank you." Then he moved closer. "You sure you're okay?"

"Yes!" I assured him. "Now go on, there's a lot of people waiting to catch up with you."

He allowed his gaze to linger on the bandage for a few seconds, looking conflicted but I smiled reassuringly at him and he left after returning it to mingle with his friends and people he hadn't seen in a while.

Soft music played in the background, a few songs of the band. Jade and I sat down on the couch, watching the mingling crowd. Braxton was in the midst laughing at something as he hugged someone.

Ajax walked up to him and Braxton offered him a smile. I couldn't hear what they were talking about after Anax wished him a happy birthday. Beside them, Imani looked on, annoyed as Ajax kept talking about something.

She said something to him and steered Braxton away but not before he threw Ajax an apologetic look and a "We'll talk about it later, promise!" loud enough for me to hear.