The two cousins made their way to the café. The manager walked to Valeria, "congrats on your graduation kid"
"Thanks, Mr. Wells" Valeria smiled politely. She had grown fond of the man who had taken her as a foster daughter when she started working for him.
The only thing she didn't like though, was the way he kept persuading and pushing her to go out with his egoistic son, Mark.
The fool had no sense of personal space nor how to talk to a lady.
"You know, Mark came home from his grandma's place last night, if you're not busy…" he trailed off giving her a bright smile.
"I—" she started, only to be cut off by Julianne who suddenly appeared.
"She's definitely busy. Raincheck?" she gave the man a lewd smile.
"Of course, Julie" he said, then tilted his head as though thinking about something. "What about you?"
Julianne was taken aback as she didn't expect him to switch ships so easily. "Excuse me?"
"This Saturday we're having a family dinner, maybe you can come to meet our family" he grinned at her.
"Our? Family?" the ever composed Julie lost her cool in front of the persistent man.
"Of course, Mark's family is your family too. You know, I always wanted a lawyer in the family. I've been charged for harrasment by my useless neighbor and his ugly daughter. Can you believe that?"
Julie blinked.
"I know right? I was only trying to get Mark a date for his cousin's wedding. So what do ya say, pretty Julie?" he adjusted his thick framed glasses on the bridge of his nose.
"No?" Julie had never met someone as shameless as Mr. Wells. He'd always tried to poach Sara or Val but this was the first time she's had an 'encounter' with the man.
"You seem unsure girlie, anyways if you ever change your mind, this is my number" he slipped his card into her hand, patted her hand and walked back to his office.
"What just happened?" Sara asked, walking to where they stood by the door.
"Jules just got poached" Luke said before bursting into laughter.
"I can't believe you turned speechless in front of him, looks like you've started to waste that degree, huh?" Sara laughed.
"You've met the man. He's down right shameless" Valeria said.
Julianne's left brow twitched. "Let's go sit down"
As they walked to where the rest were, Luke's phone started ringing. He removed it out to check the caller and pulled a long face.
"Who's it?" Val asked.
"Your dad" he replied glumly.
There was a dead beat silence among the four for five seconds.
"Pick it up" Val said.
"What?" Luke asked. "No way, what are they gonna say that'll make any of this better"
"I agree with him" Sara said.
Even Julianne who was always the neutral party, nodded in assent.
"Just do it" Val pleaded.
"Let's go outside. We're crowding this area" Julianne suggested and they moved outside.
Once they were outside, Luke accepted the call and put it on loudspeaker.
"Luke, it's me" came the voice that Valeria hadn't heard in five years.
"I know uncle" Luke rolled his eyes.
"I have amazing news" Mr Remington said.
"You won a billion-dollar lottery and went to collect the prize money which is why you weren't here today?" Luke asked, every word dipped in sarcasm.
"Even better. Bianca got a promotion to be a reporter because of the news she covered yesterday. We're at a restaurant with her boss who treated us to brunch, if you're free come join us"
The girls watched in silence as veins popped on Luke's forehead showing how much he was controlling his anger. "Is this a joke?" he asked through gritted teeth.
"Of course not. Look her boss is here now I have to hang up, I'll send you the address. Make sure to be here"
Tut Tut. The line went dead.
"Told you there was a Bianca emergency" Valeria said after ten minutes. Her brows furrowed and her eyes closed as she accepted the defeat.
"Val—" Sara started only to be cut off.
"Let's go" Valeria said.
"Go where?" Luke asked.
"To the restaurant" Julianne said with a smirk, understanding the train of thoughts of her friend.
"What? Why? That's very fucked up. They don't even care. Did you hear them ask about her? No, she has been left alone. Again. And you want to go meet those people?" Luke vented out in anger.
"Cheer up, Lulu. Don't ever say no to a free meal" Sara said.
Luke stared at the three girls who were looking at each other with wicked smirks. "Y'all need a therapist. Understanding each other like like y'all using telepathy or shit" he said shivering.
Julianne told him to tell Mr. Remington that he's coming with three friends. He did so and got a positive reply.
The four flagged down a taxi and got in. "Where to?" the driver asked.
"The Eastern Recipe" Luke read out the name of the restaurant.
"Fancy" the driver said quietly.
Valeria looked out of the window as the other three started to talk and laugh at silly things to take their mind off the matter at hand.
Her eyes closed as she felt tears threatening to spill out. All her life she had tried to be their perfect daughter.
Putting their own selfish desires before hers. She always wondered why they treated her different. She went as far as conducting a DNA test behind their back just to be sure, just to be safe.
When the tests came out as 99.999% positive, she concluded that they were demons and rotten to their very core. That was also when she made up her mind to run away.
She had experienced way too much of the wrong kind of emotions with those people.
She opened her eyes when she felt the vehicle slow down and come to a stop.
'Expensive' she thought looking at the building which was like a glass house.
As she opened the door dazedly, it hit someone who was passing. She snapped out of her daze immediately. "I'm so sorry" she said to the man who looked to be a few years older than her, maybe four or five years older.
He simply looked at her before giving a scoff and walking away towards the entrance of the restaurant.
"Er…rude" Sara said, climbing out of the car after Julianne while Luke paid the fare.
Valeria stared at his back feeling like she had seen him before but couldn't remember where. She stared at him till he entered the restaurant, although before he entered, as if he felt her eyes on him, he paused his strides and turned to give her a glance before entering.
His red eyes which looked like vampire eyes from the movies and books she had seen dazzled her.
He even had the makings of a vampire. Cold, egoistic and devilishly beautiful.