CHAPTER 83: SECRET MEETING

Quite surprisingly, it wasn’t hard for me to find the group of men that the maids had been chatting about. I slowly peered in through the door that opened into quite a large open space where a group of tall men dressed in suits seemed to be engaged in serious conversation. It didn’t take me long to spot Raphael among the group; however, when I was about to call out to him, I found myself halting because I could feel the tenseness in the atmosphere. Whatever was happening didn’t seem to be a friendly gathering among friends. I managed to slip in silently, but as I made my way closer to Raphael, one of the men spotted me.

“What are you doing here, young lady? Did you perhaps get lost?” one of the men asked as he suddenly grabbed my wrist and pulled me towards him. I could tell from the look on his face that he didn’t like the fact that I had walked in on their event uninvited, and that he wasn’t at all worried about my well-being. The man’s loud, booming voice caught the attention of others, but I had no time to focus on anyone else as I felt a sudden sense of danger. My lower lip trembled as I struggled to find the words to make an excuse for my sudden appearance. I wondered what exactly I had just walked into and why all the men seemed so menacing.

“Let her go right now. She’s my guest,” a familiar voice said coldly.

Raphael was right beside me in an instant, and the way that he stared at the man holding my wrist made my blood run cold. The man must have gotten the message because he released my wrist immediately. Once again, I could feel blood flowing to my hand, and I realized that he had been gripping my wrist so tightly.

“Who is she?” another man asked as he approached us. I stared at him and found myself flinching when I met his gaze. Out of all the men there, there was something about him that made him seem more fearsome than the rest of them. The way that he spoke so casually to Raphael also told me that they were somehow close or on equal standing.

“She’s my stepsister,” Raphael introduced me simply without bothering to introduce me by name.

“Why is she here?” the man asked, keeping his eyes on me.

“I invited her here. It’s not like we have much to hide,” Raphael replied smoothly, although he was clearly lying. I kept silent when I realized that I wasn’t sure how to read the situation that I had found myself in, and it did occur to me that perhaps Raphael was lying in order to protect me. But what was he trying to protect me from?

“So she’s your stepsister. I guess I did not recognize her from the wedding. Does that mean that she is fully family now?” the man asked before the corners of his lips lifted upwards into a sneering smile.

Fully family? What exactly does he mean by that? What did Raphael mean when he said that there wasn’t much for them to hide?

“There’s nothing for you to worry about. She’s a woman, so she’s harmless,” Raphael replied without any further explanation.

I could tell by the way that the man was still staring at me, as if he was trying to read my inner thoughts, that he wasn’t exactly satisfied with Raphael’s lack of explanation. Regardless, when he shrugged his shoulders and looked away, it seemed like he had decided to leave things the way they were, at least for the day.

“I guess we’re done here for today. Let’s catch up later if there’s any development,” Raphael said to the man before reaching for my wrist.

“I’ll be seeing you two around,” the man said with a low chuckle.

Raphael did not bother to respond to his friend before practically dragging me out of the room. I could tell by the way that he was clutching at my wrist that he was absolutely angry at me for turning up uninvited. Although nothing so eventful unfolded during that brief encounter with Raphael and the other men, I could tell that I must have done something wrong and that I had put myself in a very precarious situation. I didn’t want to imagine what might have happened to me had Raphael not been present. Raphael’s men followed after us at a respectable distance, but I didn’t have the bandwidth in my mind to pay them any attention.

...

The door to our suite opened and closed with a loud bang before I heard the distinctive click of the door locking behind us. Raphael turned to face me, and I could tell that he wasn’t at all pleased with what had just unfolded.

“I...,” I began saying before trailing off when I realized that I didn’t have much of an excuse for myself. It wasn’t like I could tell him that I wanted to see him so that I could convince him to attend the party in the evening with Rosabella.

“What do you think you were doing?” Raphael asked coldly, and I could tell that he was extremely angry.

“I was just looking for you,” I replied with the only thing that I could come up with that resembled the truth.

“And why were you looking for me?” he asked bluntly.

“I was having tea with Rosabella, and I started to feel bored,” I replied as my mind raced desperately about how I was going to talk myself out of the situation and then convince him to attend the party later that evening at the very same time.

“I told you that I had business to attend to,” Raphael said with a clear warning in his tone.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t think that I would be getting in the way of your business,” I replied in a small voice.

–To be continued...