"When did this start?" Avery asked, resisting the urge to hit her chest so as to relieve the pain growing in there.
If she had thought Brian would reply her questions seriously, she discarded the thought when she saw the smile tugging at the corner of his lips. He was enjoying this.
"Why don't you guess?" he asked back, his tongue slipping out to lick the nape of Robert's neck. A giggle escaped through the latter's lips, an intentional action to irritate their onlooker.
Feeling the bile rushing up her throat again, Avery knew she would only get more disgusted if she continued to keep her eyes on them. So she lowered her gaze instead to stare at her own hands.
Thinking she lowered her head so as to blink back tears, Brian only grew more excited.
"Why Avery? You could have just said you can't guess, then I will tell you I have loved Roberts even before I met you," he said, a hint of mockery underlying his voice.
"If…" Avery hesitated, her head still bowed low. "If you really didn't have the slightest bit of love for me as you claim, why did you have to date me? Why did you not go straight to Roberts?" she asked.
Roberts was the one who replied her, "Of course, he came straight to me at first. Don't delude yourself into thinking he had the slightest bit of attraction for you. He only approached you because I asked him to."
"Why would you ask him to? I never took anything of yours, neither did i ever attempt to hurt you in any way. Why do I deserve to be hurt in this manner?"
Roberts tightened the sheets around himself and stepped forward, wriggling out of Brian's embrace. He only stopped walking when he was right in front of Avery. She raised her head to look at him, fury and curiosity flickering through her eyes.
"Answer me, Rob. What did I ever do to deserve this?"
"Everything. You were the luckiest being on earth even when you didn't deserve it," Robert replied. The smile on his face disappeared and for a second, Avery could feel he was saying the truth. He continued, "Grandpa, Emma, and Arthur; they all loved you while they treated Dad and our family like we were trash who didn't deserve to be loved."
Avery's brows furrowed in perplexity. She did not have a single memory of her grandfather and siblings maltreating her uncle's family as Roberts claimed. If anything, she only knew that Jon and his family avoided offending any of her siblings and her. Avery had thought they were trying to stay on good terms with the future head of the family since her grandfather had established the fact that the heir or heiress to the group would be chosen between Arthur, Emma, and her. But Roberts words now showed her that wasn't the reason.
"I can't remember any of them treating you, Tina, and your parents like trash. Why would they?"
"The same reason the position of head of the family bypassed Dad and came to you and your fucking siblings!" Roberts replied, a hint of anger starting to reflect in his tone. "Because Dad was adopted too! He isn't Grandpa's biological son so his fate was to butter up to kids decades younger than himself just for his own family to survive. You think that was an interesting life?"
"No, Love. It definitely wasn't."
Avery cringed at the reply from Brian who had now joined Roberts in front of her. She took a step back, unable to bring herself to breath the same air as them.
"Is that all? Is that the reason why you had to ask Brian—" she started to ask, when Roberts cut her off.
"Not at all, that was just a part of our plan to take over this fucking family. You know what, Ex-cousin? I really found it unbelievable when Brian told me you agreed to pay the bills for the wedding hall and the cost of your honeymoon. Since Grandpa froze all of your cards and bank accounts, aren't you penniless now from paying those bills?"
"I only paid those because Brian said…" Avery trailed off, and for the umpteenth time that day, she hated herself for being so stupid. Brian had told her his family disowned him to discourage him from marrying her and blinded by love, she had willingly paid the bills needed for their wedding, in cash. Knowing her grandfather would forgive her soon enough, she had believed she would be able to support both of them without any help from Brian's family. Who knew all the money she paid to hold the wedding would go to waste? And worse, who knew her family would have been upturned by this time?
She tilted her head up to stare at the ceiling, blinking back the tears that had now formed in the rim of her eyes.
"So what I have to understand now is that to the public, I just destroyed my family and because i am adopted child, they all believed it?" She found it absurd. They had to have submitted countless evidences before people could believe this, right?
"Yes, they believed our testimonies," a voice echoed from far off.
Avery turned to see the strangers whom she used to regard as her uncle and aunt walking down the hallway towards her, with Valentina trailing behind them. A smirk was planted on all of their faces which told Avery there were more taunts to come.
As they drew nearer, she noticed how they were all dressed in black outfits.
Kathy stepped forward, ever the proactive elder. She placed a hand on Avery's shoulder just like a real aunt would, ''My, the adopted heiress hasn't left yet. You sure have the nerves to be here when the police are searching for you, favorite niece.''
Roughly jerking her shoulder so Kathy's hand could fall off, Avery asked, "How was it so easy for you all to frame me?"