[ Rain ]
The whole afternoon, we spent in my room. An over excited Breece requested me to show me her the rest of my albums, surprisingly Nicholas too joined her. I show them all with pride bubbling inside my heart as he complicated me.
"You have a talent for excellent photography, Rain."
They were simple words but they felt like the best praise I've ever gotten for my work, of coarse except my mentor Mr. Martin Hal. A British photographer who runs the institution where I took my training.
"Cindrella, can we watch my favorite movie now, please?" Breece looks up at me with her puppy eyes.
I look down at the bundle of joy. She really made my day fruitful and enjoyble in a lifeless house where no one else than Elle gives me a sort of companionship I crave.
"Sure, princess. Tell me what is your favorite movie?" I ask her sweetly.
We just had our lunch and now sitting in the living room. Nicholas hasn't said a word to me after we came out of my room. During the lunch, our most of the conversation revolved around Breece. Currently, he's sitting in the farthest edge of the sofa with his laptop.
"Tangled." She jumps in excitement.
"Nice choice, I love the thief Eugene." I clap my hands but hear a scoff from the other corner.
"Breece, you watched it five hundred times." Nicholas says in annoyance.
"But I love the movie. The king and queen loves the princess, they're sad when she's not with them." Breece says sadly but why am I having a feeling that it has some personal link.
Nicholas's expressions turns cold and I guess my suspecion was right.
May be, she misses her father. I've heard from Roselie that Nicole was cheated by her fiance but she didn't disclose that they have a daughter.
"Let's watch the movie, Princess." I caress her soft curls and move to play her movie on the TV.
"I will ask Elle to bring some pop corns or ice cream." Nicholas says.
He's so good around children. He'd be great father to our children, wait what did I just say? Our children, it isn't going to happen in next seven birth.
I shake my wild imaginations in the back of my mind and play the movie. Plopping on the sofa beside Breece, I envelope the little girl close to me. Having no one around me to give me some much needed comfort, I want to live all the moments I'm getting with her because I have no idea when next we'd meet.
Moments later, Nicholas comes back with a big bowl of pop corn and plops on the right side of her. He places the bowl in her lap so we three can munch easily.
I must say, this movie never bores me. No matter how many time I watch it. Breece has her eyes glued on the screen but I feel a pair of blue eyes on me throughout the movie but I don't want to believe it.
Nicholas can't stare at me.
How would he find his interest in me when every single bone in his body hates me to my guts?
I try to concentrate on the movie but his intense stare is making it difficult for me to focus anywhere. I decide to munch on some popcorns to distract my mind from him so I reach out for the bowl but a familiar hand brushes with mine, sending off the sparkles in my body. I dare to tilt my head in his direction and find him staring at our brushing hands.
"I..am sorry. I didn't see." I apologize immediately and pull my hand away awkwardly.
"There's no need to apologize for something you didn't do intentionally, Rain." He says with an amused smile.
He's bipolar. One moment, he hates my guts and the other moment, gives me mixed signals. What should I decipher in them?
When the movie finally comes to an end, I stretch my arms and look down at Breece who falls asleep due to tiredness. She looks so innocent cocooning in my lap. My hand automatically reaches for her beautiful face and stroke her soft chubby cheeks gently.
I wish for a daughter like her, half of me, half of him. If it's possible in this lifetime.
"She misses her bastard of a father." Nicholas's voice draws my attention on him, whose eyes are also fixed on this little angel.
"You don't need to tell me, Nicholas. That should rest in your family." I say. I am in no place to peak through their family matters as he does not consider me as a family member.
"You're a part of this family now, Rain even if it's forced. It makes you a legal Blackwood." His sharpness is back.
I won't lie, it hurts when he reminds me of our last moment arrangement and how much he despises me for saving his ass from humiliation.
"His name is Dylan. He and Nichole had dated for two years since they were in college. I didn't like the man since the beginning but my sister was madly in love with him so I had to accept him for her sake. Then she got pregnant with Breece and our family wanted them to get married before the child born. Don't get me wrong. We're not narrow minded rich bruts but the world is cruel. If they got whiff of Nathan Blackwood's daughter being pregnant out of wedlock, they would have fried us like a big tuna and serve our family issues to the public in silver platter. Our Dad asked Dylan to marry her, he agreed eventually but since then he started acting strange. Eventually, he fled from the country a month after their engagement." He pauses, I notice his body shaking with anger and he has every right to feel in this way.
The Blackwood siblings share a closely knitted bond. They're protective of each other.
"Nicole almost miscarried Breece if my Mom hadn't found her taking sleeping pills to kill herself. She was broken, shattred and empty. He broke her zeal and stole away her soul. We sent her to live with our Aunt in France. I had been with her throughout the period of her pregnancy. With some counciling, she started getting out of her depression and decided to live for her child but she still hoped that one day he might show up and beg for forgiveness but he never came until Breece turned three. He showed up one day, begging to see his daughter and that day, I got the chance to beat the shit out of him. He was dragged away and since then Nicole turned cold as the man was married to another woman and had a son, only a year younger than Breece. That motherfucker never loved her. He only used her because his father lost a deal to my Dad. He used my sister as a revenge tool." He concludes and a heavy silence sprawls in the room.
"Rainard's reaction wasn't wrong then. He's also protective of his sister. He didn't mean to harm you for his personal vengeance." I speak breaking the silence. I have to make him realise that we're not bad people as he assumed about us.
"That's why I invite our families for a dinner tonight. I must apologize to your brother and parents for my misbehavior." He replies.
My eyes bulge out in shock. He has planned a family dinner and he has audacity to tell me just a couple of hours before.
"You invited our families at your house, here I mean and you're telling me this now?" I glance up at the watch and it shows five twenty in the evening.
"I wanted to tell you in the morning but Breece caught us engaged throughout the day. We can't blame this little one." He responds.
I can't come up with a counterback. He's right. Breece had us wrapped around her throughout the day. It was natural to forget the things easily when an adorable child is around you.
I carefully place her head on the cushion and stand up. If our families are coming here means I have to do a lot of preparation in less than three hours' time.
"Would you take her to my room?" I request him.
"Don't worry, she has her own room here. I mean Nicole and her room. Here downstairs." He indicates at one of the rooms and picks her up in his arms.
"I am going to look into the dinner preparation." I tell him and turn to move in the kitchen.
"Don't worry about anything. I asked Elle to take care of the preparations. You just go and decide on your dress and accessories. Mrs. Anderson wouldn't like if she sees her daughter and wife to heir of Blackwoods in something ordinary." He says and goes away.
His sharp words sting like sharp thorns but he didn't say anything wrong either. These materialistic and pompous things actually matter to my mother. He had learnt it during his courtship with my sister.
His hatred for me and my family has a solid foundation.
I just hope this dinner would pass without any hostility, verbally or in Nicholas and Rainard's case, physically.