CORBIN'S POV
"YOU KNOW I'M SHOCKED YOUR FATHER LET YOU TAKE OVER?"
I rolled my eyes, "thanks, it makes me feel so great to know you have so much faith in me, Roman"
"You know what I mean!… He's always been so uptight about projects like this that he doesn't himself instead. How did you get him to let you handle this?"
I snorted, "I didn't. He just came over one day and handed me the files for it and told me to take care of it so here I am."
"Old man Lewis turned a new leaf."
I shook my head, "did you know Lana went home yesterday with someone?"
"She what?!" His eyes almost bulged out of the sockets at the news. I guess he. was just as shocked that Lana took someone home with her last night considering she had sworn off all men this year.
"Yep, I found out on my way up here."
"With whom? Did she take him back to the Manor?" I shrugged.
"Don't know the details. You could ask Ford but seeing his loyalty to Lana, I highly doubt it so you're better off getting information from the girls instead."
He sighed, rubbing his temples, "I swear this girl is going to kill me."
"Is it that bad?"
"She always nails someone's head to a wall for asking her out in front of me. God knows what she did to that poor guy alone…and don't get me started on Ford. He lets her reign free like a wild horse everywhere they go."
I held back a grin seeing the despair on Roman's face at the thought of someone dating his little sister. The Azad kids were dramatic in their own way. They were a conventional family, but they were a mess nonetheless, and we're the next Kardashians.
He sighed, stepping onto the elevator, "I'm putting that girl six feet under tonight."
"You sure she won't get to you first?"
He huffed, "I'll put something in her food tonight and throw her in. I should be good."
I raised a brow at him in question. He says suss things so casually and in public as well as if he won't get his ass hauled to the police station for attempted murder and poisoning.
"I'm kidding!"
"Lana knows when something is wrong with her food, she'll get me before I can get her."
I scoffed, shaking my head at him, "You deal with her for two years straight with no help and tell me you don't want to murder her."
Two years with Lana sounded like a bliss. I would take it if the offer was ever there. Two years alone with just her. Being able to be around her constantly and see her every second of every day was a dream for me.
But I couldn't exactly stand her and jump around and rave about how amazing that was to her brother. Roman had one rule and one rule only.
To stay away from Lana.
The only relationship we were allowed with her was a friendship basis unless she wanted more than that and let him know of it.
"She's like an untrained pup. they just piss everywhere and think a little twirl makes up for it."
"You know comparing her to a pup doesn't make her seem less annoying."
He scoffed, "you say that because she's nice to you…she hasn't shown you how insane she really is."
"Also, what happened last night? With Edmund."
I sighed, "just Edmund being his usual jackass self and pushing people's buttons. He knows that Khadir was the one who – in his words – controlled Lana and once our father's got a whiff that Khadir was behind bars Edmund think he can poke the bear and get it on his side."
"Dirty little bastard…If he thinks poking her would get her on his side, he's a foolish man that he has on our hands. Lana wasn't controlled by him…She was—" he pursed his lips stepping out of the elevator.
"He helped her in ways that I didn't see until recently. He was training her not controlling and if Edmund keeps this up it's a big mess for all of us."
I raised a brow, "a mess? What exactly does that mean?"
"You know Lana…she gets protective and angry quickly when the things she cares about are threatened or talked about wrong. She'll throw something out there in a fit of rage and not cover up properly and we'll have it blow up in our face."
I felt the word slipping from the tip of my tongue urging me to ask what the hell he meant by all of this. Everything he said left a blizzard in its wake in my head, wondering and questioning who the hell they really were.
If I truly knew my friend as well as he makes me believe I do.
If I knew Lana as well as I thought I did.
Each day they leave me with these thoughts and questions. Ones I couldn't voice to anyone or let out because if I did it would make them warily of me. They would also shut me down faster than I can finish my sentence or thinking.
The more he talks the more he makes me wonder how much of the spreading rumours going around are true. How many of them did they really commit and how they were able to run freely?
He says it so naturally. As if it had happened before.
The chance of them telling me themselves about what really went down in those two years was low. Anyone knew that you got get your way into knowing what they do in private by asking questions and doubting their integrity.
You get in through loyalty and trust.
That was how Ford managed to be one of the few people who had free access to the Azad Manor. He had his own space within the mansion from what Dalton had told me about them.
Asking them wasn't an option.
🍒🍒🍒
"That's not going to work, you idiot!"
I let out a sigh, rubbing my hands over my face. You'd think after being with these two insufferable asses for almost three years that I would be used to coming home to this crap every other day.
They were always down each other's throats. Usually, it was about which damn Taylor swift album or son was better. There was no greater topic of discussion for the two of them than her and her music.
I never understood the hype but if it got them to shut up and leave me alone, I'd pay for her to give them a private concert just to get them away for a few hours.
"It works for me so shut up!"
I stood by the living room entrance watching the two wrestle for the remote. The wrong remote for the TV may I add.
Snatching the remote from the table, I dropped onto the couch across from them and changed the channel, "you think after living in this house for so long you'd know which remote is for the TV."
A smirk pulled on my face watching as realisation sunk into the both of them, "I told you it wasn't the right one!"
"Then why didn't you try the other one if you knew it was the wrong remote?"
There was a pause where Isaiah's response should have existed.
"See you thought this was the remote as well!" Ronan shoved him off and scooted away from him like a pouting child.
"Where did you disappear to so early in the morning? I thought you had no classes."
"Had to go see Roman about some work that dad wanted me to take care of."
My body burnt thinking about what he said outside the building. It wasn't exactly what he said…it was how he said it.
It set something off inside me that I no longer will settle until I have the answers that I need.
The sound of a horn snapped me from my thought, and I watched Ronan hassle to grab his things, "where are you going?"
"Out with a friend…I'll be back late so don't wait up for me." He smiled before leaving. Isaiah and I peered outside the window finding a black mustang sitting outside.
Once he was in it, it took off from our sight, "whom the hell do you know owns a car like that?"
"Not anyone I know of. Everyone we know either owns a Honda or BMW. Must be someone new or he got a girl and he's trying to hide her from us."
I snorted, "Ronan is terrible at secrets. He'd end up telling us about it."
"He hid what happened with Dimitri for a good few years from me. Don't underestimate what he'll do for someone he cares about, Corbin."
Again, with that fucking tone, call me fucking nosy if you want but why the hell does everyone seem to know something about the people close to me, but I don't know shit.
It's seriously pissing me off.
I grew up my whole life with it and I wasn't going to live this entire year with it as well.
I've had enough of it.
All of it.