Lucero and I soon joined the rest for dinner. When we get to the living room, his mom is already sitting in my seat. I find another vacant one next to Rhys and I settle there avoiding her eyes that seem to be burning into mine.
We start eating, the room is very tense with Lucero's mom being there. It's as if one word can cause an explosion.
Lucero makes eye contact with me and I look away toward Rhys who holds my trembling leg in place.
I thank him silently by squeezing my other hand on top of his.
"Rumor has it, you're adapting to this house. I hope you're not adapting too much seeing as you'll be gone after giving birth to Luc's son." Mrs. Rey says loudly for the whole table to hear while looking straight into my eyes.
Lucero looks at her with a glare so hard it could kill somebody. "Mama, stop it." He grumbles.
She looks at her son and raises an eyebrow, "Stop what?" she snickers and sends me a disgusted look.
"People will hate you for your density! When will my words finally sink in that head of yours?" is what my mom used to say to me when I was ten. Now I get what she meant. Is that the reason Lucero's mom hates me so much? Because I'm dense?
"Of course Mrs. Rey, I wouldn't think of getting too comfortable at this mansion. After all I am just a surrogate." I say, looking at her shocked face before she covers it up with a cough.
We all finished dinner, Mrs. Rey gets up with a scowl on her face. She doesn't seem too happy about me. I help the maids clean up the table even though they told me not to. I feel bad when I have able hands and not doing anything useful with them.
"Hey" I hear someone call out in a low tone from across the hall when I get to the front of my room. I look back and saw Rhys body peeks out the hallway, he uses a hand to tell me he wants me to go over there. I scurry there and nudge my chin upwards.
"Come here." He pulls my hand into his bedroom and closes the door.
"What is it?"
"I have a variety of clothes you can choose from." He continues pulling me into his closet full of clothes splayed out on the long sofa. "Can you help me choose an outfit for my date tomorrow? I really don't know what to wear!" He panics and jumps around on his toes.
"O-okay." I points at one and he shakes his head no. I look over the whole choice and points at the other, he shakes his head no again. Until he decided to just choose it himself. "I'm sorry I'm not of much help." I sigh looking at the floor. I'm not the best choice he's got here. I've never been on a date, how would I know what to wear.
"It's quite alright." He shoo me out of his room and I quietly walk back to my own room.
I open the door to the balcony and look out to the slab of concrete the round pathway is made out of. In the middle there's a fountain that's nonstop pouring out water from the tiger's mouth. The view out here is amazing especially at night.
I feel drowsy and decided to just sleep it off, I make my way to the vanity mirror and look at my eye bags that are getting heavier each day. I hope there's no more nightmare tonight.
I've been having the same one each night since that time when Lucero slept with me. I mean- slept in my room with me, no. Slept in my bedroom with me in a professional and polite manner, yes.
I've established that I would never get rid of this nightmare. It's the same thing I dream of everyday but at least that hooded man from before doesn't appear in my dreams anymore since I stepped foot in this mansion.
However, his words still haunt me. "Find out what makes El Mar powerful."
How do I do that? And why would I do that?
I hear talking outside the door so I peek out and saw the one guy I hate the most. Ángel García.
"What is he doing here." I don't bother peeking anymore and just come out of my room standing directly in front of Ángel and Lucero.
"Go back to your room." Lucero orders in his all mighty voice.
"Not before you tell me what he is doing here." I stand at my spot unwavering from the heated gaze Lucero gives me.
I squint my eyes at Ángel both natural hatred and gratefulness float out my eyes.
"Nice to see you too best friend." He scoffs and turns his head away.
"Go wait in my office." Lucero points down the hallway to where his office is at.
Ángel nods and waves goodbye to me and walks away.
"He has work to do, from me." Lucero grumbles out.
"Why him?"
"Because he's one of my men. And since he did something terrible, he needs to prove to me that he is actually loyal and not another rat I have to get rid of." He shoots daggers at the office door. "Done with your 21 questions?"
That was personal.
I nod and watch him strut down the hallway with his coat swinging at his back like superman's red cape.
I wish he was a hero. Sighing I get back to my room and try to sleep the best I can without waking up to nightmares. I really need someone to talk to about this nightmare or I'll keep having it.