Present Day
Skylar walked into the flagship of her brother's restaurants, Delicious Dream, thinking of what the chef would prepare for them this year. It has been eight years to the day since her rescue. The five soldiers that saved her that day stuck with her even after their return to A Country. They took her as their little sister and ignored whoever protested to that, even her. Her brothers also decided to celebrate this day as her birthday every year, not caring about the actual date or anything really about her past. After getting adopted into Braylen's family, she never lost touch with any of them. Or it would be more accurate to say, they never left her alone, even for a day.
The Aredhels welcomed her with open arms, her new mother happy about finally having a daughter and her new father ecstatic to just have another person to shower his love on. Both of them were the most amazing parents she could ever wish for. Having loving parents, a little brother and five big brothers, was quite a shock in the beginning. But now, they were her family.
The main store of the Rennel chain of restaurants was a majestic two-story building, with ceiling high windows at the entrance and sides of the ground floor, and individual large windows for every private room on the second floor. Decorated anew every year and always ahead of the styling trends, it was the most popular restaurant for the rich and royalty to dine at.
The restaurant was always closed this day every year though, for their own private use. So, Skylar was surprised to find all of the staff inside this time around. They were preparing a big table in the middle of the ground floor, rearranging the other tables away from it and placing flowers everywhere around it.
Yeah, this was definitely not their table. Skylar disliked red roses, so her brother would never organize something like this for her.
Walking directly to the second floor after greeting the staff, she headed towards their usual room. Inside Grayson, Maxwell and Braylen were already seated. Grayson, with his huge build and muscles, occupied a whole two-seat couch on his own. Max and Bray were sharing the other one, both texting on their phones. Skylar had to admit that all of her brothers were amazingly good looking.
"Where are the others?" Skylar sat down on the last couch, taking off her coat.
Grayson, the only one not on his phone, smiled and responded to her. "Owen had an emergency operation and he is on his way now and Zach is fighting with his head chef. Again."
Right on cue both of her missing brothers walked in the room. Seeing the servers bringing in the food behind them, everyone moved to the table and took their seats, waiting for the staff to finish before starting to talk.
Skylar looked at the table full of her favorite comfort foods and almost cried tears of happiness. This was definitely Connor's idea, the head chef of Delicious Dream, and all around the most amazing chef who always knew what to cook for her. Seeing how she couldn't even boil an egg without somehow burning down the kitchen, she was a regular customer of their exclusive take out service for family only. Skylar was sure that Zach created the take out service in fear that she would starve when she moved out of the family house.
Braylen: "Really, Zach? You own a five-star restaurant and this is what we get? Mac and Cheese, Pizza and Chicken legs? Really?"
Zach: "This was not the menu I created. That damn chef. He changed the menu again without asking. I am going to order the original one again right now."
Before he could stand up from his seat though, Skylar glared at him and banged her hand on the table. "Don't you dare Zachary Rennel. This is MY dinner. MINE! You are not allowed to take it away from me or scold Connor over it you hear me?"
Zach: "Why do you always take his side?"
Sky: "Because he feeds me. Duh."
After catching up during dinner with all the happenings since their last monthly meeting they moved to the sitting area. And yes, her big brothers demanded a monthly sit down to "keep in touch" as they called it. Not that they didn't already know everything going on in her life. Or at least they thought they did. The monthly meetings had started right after bringing her back, mostly to monitor her for the government, and over the years it just became one more way to stay close with her new family.
Skylar was enjoying the playful banter of her brothers when she suddenly remembered the scene from downstairs. "Zach, what's going on with all the flowers down there?"
Zach's face lit up, more than eager to share some gossip. "CEO of Sterling Edge booked the whole first floor to share a meal with the famous Katarina Milkovic. Though others would also –"
Before he could finish though Braylen stood up screaming "DEAD?!"
Everyone turned to look at him. "What happened?"
Bray sat back down with a dismayed expression. "The top super model of our company, who was scheduled as the closing model for Estelle's fashion show tomorrow, was just found dead. Where am I going to find a replacement now?"
Zach looked at him like he had gone crazy, voicing everyone's thoughts at the moment with his trademark sarcastic tone. "Because of course the fashion show is more important than the human life that was lost."
Bray sighed heavily and leaned back closing his eyes. "You don't understand. Our company, Shining Star, stipulated in the contract for the show, that in case something happens we will provide an adequate replacement. But it's fashion week, every model of similar quality has been booked in advance, and none of the models in the lineup of models is good enough to be the final model. And this is 'Estelle' we are talking about. The top brand in the fashion industry for the last 5 years."
Suddenly Bray turned to Skylar with shining eyes. After seeing that look, Sky could already guess his intentions. "No way, Bray. Forget it."
Bray: "Please, Sky. You are the only one at that level available at the moment. Plus, this show is a masked one, so no one would actually know it was you. Please, Sky. I would owe you a favor."
Sky looked at him, calculating in her heart the pros and cons. "You owe me two favors already. I want the land you bought last year at the edge of the city, for half the price."
Bray scowled at her. "That's extortion."
Skylar smiled and smugly reminded him. "Yes, it is. But you need me. So, pay up."
Braylen growled and turned to Maxwell. "This is all your fault. She learned all those sneaky and underhanded tactics from you!"
Maxwell smirked at him. "Pot, kettle, black, my friend."
Braylen glared at him then turned to glare at Sky. "Fine. My assistant will be at your house at 8 am tomorrow. You better make my company proud or forget about getting the land."
Sky smiled, quite satisfied. "Deal!"