“Oh my God, this place is magnificent!” I gasp as I enter.
The living room is the first thing I see when I step into the house. The marble floors are ridiculously spacious, and it is so unlike Brandon’s mansion in Manhattan. It is so bright!
The interior looks exquisite, and I first think of a spacecraft upon following glass walls with curves and shapes like at an art exhibition hall. The large windows frame a stunning ocean view.
The furniture is modern, unlike in his New York home. The place doesn’t have gray curtains, and beautiful paintings of flowers hang on the walls. After all, it is his mother’s villa, though it doesn’t look like just a villa for me. His mother must have been a cheerful and warm person.
Brandon walks to the huge glass door and stands there, releasing a breath of relief. Circular stairs lead to the second floor, where John took our luggage.
“This place is very different to yours,” I say. I stand next to him and stare at the endless seawater.
A smile curls one side of his lips. “My mother initially built this for us, her children, so we could live here when we’re older and have a family,” he explains, with his eyes also on the view.
“Here... it is breathtaking,” I murmur.
“You haven’t seen the whole house yet. The bedroom is exquisite too.”
“Don’t start with the bedroom.” I look up at him, smiling meaningfully. “Shall we have brunch now? I’m starving.”
“Of course, come. I’ll show you around the dining area.” Brandon holds my hand and leads the way through another door.
The dining room is also breathtaking; what else did I expect? The interiors are made of glass, which allows me to see the other side from where I am standing. The chandeliers look like white umbrellas, and there’s a long, oval-shaped white table in the middle.
Our brunch is already on the table. I haven’t noticed a housekeeper around, but by the aroma, it seems to have been prepared only minutes ago. There’s French toast, eggs, crêpes, slices of assorted fruits, bacon, sausages, and a pitcher of lemon and cucumber juice. Everything is attractively arranged on the dining table.
“Brandon, why don’t you just live here? This place has more privacy, and it’s delightful. You won’t see a single person around. You are going to live just like Iron Man in this kind of house.”
He lowers his face. “Hmm, that is a tempting idea, Alayna, but I have a lot of memories here of my mother and my sister, and I’m not ready yet. I wanted to heal myself first and deal with everything before I settle down.” His expression is serious. “The reason I brought you here is that I wanted to discuss an important matter with you, and I want to show you who I am.”
I look at his masked face.
“We have had a long day, and I also want to spend time with Oliver and Betty. Afterward, we can have time to ourselves again. Can we eat first, before we start with the real issues?”
I’m nervous about the issuesI choose eggs and crêpes, and Brandon pours me a glass of juice. I didn’t want to ask Brandon during a meal, but I’m curious about what he means by the realI watch him as he eats, fascinated by him. Brandon is gorgeous, even if I only see half his face.
“What?” He stops.
“You’re not aware of how insanely attractive you are, are you?” I rest my chin on my palm, gawking at him.
He smirks. “I was. I was aware, until this.” He points to the masked side of his face. He continues to eat.
“Are you ever going to tell me what happened?”
I’m dying of curiosity. I want to know him more deeply. I know it isn’t proper to ask him about it over a meal, but I can’t help to want to find out more about him. Sure, I know small things about him—stories from his cousins, but none from him. I want to know his side of the story.
I munch on the last of my pancake. I'm waiting for him to answer. All I hear are his heavy breaths.
“Are you finished?” he asks, looking at my empty plate, soaked in maple syrup.
I nod. “Yeah. I’ll just drink my juice.”
“Hurry. Let’s go back to the living room.” He gulps down a glass of water, wipes his mouth with a napkin, and places it back beside his plate, then springs up.
I drink my juice fast and hold his hand again, entwining our fingers.
We go back to the living room. Gently, he pulls me to him, and we sit on the couch with our fingers still locked.
“You want to talk about what happened to me?” he asks in almost a whisper.
“Yes, please.”
“You see, Alayna, I told you that this is one of the reasons we are here.”
“So, you’re going to tell me now?”
“Yes.”
I smile. “Right now? How should we start?”
“With the root of all, I guess.”
“Root? What root?”
He heaves a sigh. Suddenly, his expression turns serious.
“It was greed,Okay, I guess that’s the cue. “I’m a threat to the Katrakis family. Everything you see and everything I have is because of this very brain.” He points to his temple. “I finished a degree online without setting a foot outside, though I built my empire with Ollie’s help, of course. I swore to myself that I didn’t need them. I still haven’t got anything from my mother’s inheritance except the mansion in Manhattan and this villa, but it’s because this is all I wanted to keep. I wanted to take care of it.”
“All your wealth is not from the Katrakises. I got that part too from Casey.”
“I guess I don’t have to elaborate much, then. Yes, everything is my sole property, Alayna. I worked hard to get it all from that room I showed you. Day and night, I never stopped.”
I guess he has all the time in the world because he cannot even go out. If it were me, I’d probably have lost my mind, but his situation didn't stop him from getting what he wanted. He is strong. He’s just not aware of that.
“From what I heard, your family still wanted your mother’s inheritance?”
“Yes. The Katrakis family is bound by rules, and all of them depend on the family’s wealth, except for Oliver’s family and mine since we’ve established our lives outside the circle. Aegeus, my uncle, chose a life without any of my grandfather’s wealth to keep his family safe and for the sake of my mother’s memory.”
I nod. “I’d do the same. I mean, that’s what a real family has to be. You care for each other.”
“It’s not that way for some of them, at least. I don’t have concrete proof, but I’m certain.” His expression is of deep pain, but he is willing to share it with me. It must be hard for him to go over everything. I can understand how he feels. My father died, and we never even knew who killed him.
I touch his hand. “But you didn’t go for your inheritance, right? Are they still trying to take you down despite that?”
“My grandfather still wants me to inherit his fortune, but no one is ever going to let me because of their fucking rules that destroy lives. They believe I’m a bastard.”
“But you are not a bastard,” I say softly. He should stop thinking that of himself. “Maybe they’re just afraid of you. You are stronger now, and that’s enough for you to take them“You don’t know what they are capable of,” he insists. “Not when two powerful families in Greece are on their side. They’re not going to stop until they kill me, Alayna.” He gazes at me, but there’s no fear in his eyes, just anger. “I don’t know what my grandfather was thinking.”
“Do you still talk to your grandfather?”
“Yes, on the phone.”
“God, what did they do to you?” I touch his face. “You’ve been living in hell for a long time.”
He draws a deep breath for courage and says, “My—my family was murdered in our own house in front of me.”
“And you were there?”
He nods. “They were stabbed. I didn’t see it happen because I came out too late, but I saw them lying on the ground, almost dead. The killer burned our house down with us inside, and I was the only one who survived. It almost took my life.”
“Oh noDread rushes through me as the images of a murder scene creep into my head. I instantly imagine a young man screaming for his life while his family agonizes, or even worse than that. I shut my eyes in horror.
“Brandon...” I whisper. “That’s completely brutal. I don’t know how I could go on if something like that happened to me...” I swallow the lump in my throat, which causes my chest to tighten.
“I guess some of your questions have been answered,” he says.
“This is why you can't trust anybody. This is why you locked yourself in your room.” I keep my tears back. “Is that how you got your scars?”
“Cassius said the incident gave me trauma,” he informs me bitterly. “They tried to get me treated; I had surgery, but I freaked out, and my misery didn’t end there.”
Brandon rams his fist on the table in frustration. I can’t do anything for him but hold him in my arms.
“You were just a kid back then. It’s not your fault.”
“A few days after the incident, I was kidnapped from the hospital,” he continues. “Oliver’s father thought I ran away, but I didn’t.”
What?He locks his eyes on mine. “When I opened my eyes, I found myself in a very dark and foul-smelling room, alone and stripped naked. My arms and feet were tied, and the stitches on my chest were still fresh from the wounds I got when they stabbed me. I didn’t know what I was doing there until I felt the excruciating pain in my face. I touched it and found that I was severely wounded.”
This is way, way worse than anything I’ve ever imagined. Whoever did that to him isn’t human. They’re evil. How could someone do that to a boy?
I sob hard. “Oh, Brandon... You didn’t deserve any of that. You didn’t do anything wrong.” I wrap my arms around his neck, and I pull him into a tight embrace. “I’m so sorry all of this happened to you.”
“They left me there because they thought I was dead,” he goes on. “But I heard them, those people who did this to me, Alayna. Before I lost consciousness, I heard themHe lets go of me and looks into my eyes, touching the side of his masked face with his palm.
“No one ever heard me scream,” he goes on. “They left me to bleed to death, but I did not die. Uncle Aegeus found me. I cannot think about it anymore. I can’t—”
“You didn’t die because you have to make everything right again. I’m so sorry for what happened to you. You don’t have to talk about anything like this anymore. Not with me.”
“I want you to see what’s behind this thing,” he murmurs. “But I’m afraid of what you might think of me.”
Oh my God. Is he taking off the mask?