Filed to story: Bring It On My Mafia Life Novel (Rhea & Lukas)
“You wouldn’t be coming to the wedding. Rhea thinks that Eric and Natalie would be leaving that evening for a short honeymoon considering the recent tension between both of our families. She believes that she can convince Elijah to let her out.”
“Elijah again?” Lukas muttered.
“At least he’s helping this time,” Victor shrugged.
“Yeah, to clean up the mess he made in the first place,” He sassed.
“I don’t like this either, Lukas, but we do not exactly have a choice and are making do with what we have. That is if you still want to meet Rhea.”
“I’ll meet her, but make sure that bastard Elijah doesn’t tag along else fuck Eric and his treaty, I’ll end his pathetic life myself.” Lukas was not joking because his tone held a hint of threat. It would take a long time, if not forever, for him to forgive that bastard for impregnating Adele.
Although Eric marrying Natalie technically makes Rhea and Elijah a family, Lukas still felt jealous. He simply didn’t want that bastard around his woman. Wait a minute, hadn’t he broken up with her? She was no longer his woman! Nonetheless, Lukas couldn’t shake the jealous feeling off.
“I’ll relate the news to them then,” Victor said.
“Good.” Lukas stood up to his feet, wiping away invisible specks of dust from his clothes. “I guess we’d call it a night. See you tomorrow, Victor. “
“Goodnight Lukas.” He waved back before his eye settled on the ice pack lying on the couch. He picked it up, “You forgot your -” But Lukas was gone and he let him be.
Back to his place, Lukas found the aspirin in his medicine cabinet and popped three tablets into his mouth and was still drinking from the water bottle while walking when he bumped into something or rather someone thanks to the roar.
It was Samson and Lukas ran into him in the doorway. It turns out that Lukas wasn’t the only one used to Rhea’s presence because the lion still guarded his place thinking that Rhea was still around.
Who was he kidding? Lukas knew that the lion was simply yearning for Rhea’s presence. Every night Samson laid down here hoping that she would pop in and pet him like she used to. The animal would stay till the day broke only to leave in disappointment.
Lukas felt pity for the poor creature and leaned down to scratch his side. Samson shut his eyes, enjoying the treatment and purring in satisfaction.
“I’m sorry, buddy, but it’s the both of us now,” Lukas sighed, running his hand through his thick mane.
As if he understood his words, Samson moaned and it sounded so sad that it touched Lukas’s heart.
“I’m sorry. Although I thought you would be happy with the way it turned out. You were always jealous of the attention I showed her.”
Samson roared at Lukas in response, nudging his side with his face.
“Oh, you fell for her too. That makes us two fools then,” Lukas smiled wryly.
That was what he was, a fool for love.
But as nonchalant as Lukas seemed, the truth was that he couldn’t wait to see Rhea tomorrow.
Mimi Made Everything Seem So Easy
“Good Morning Miss!”
The curtain was pushed to the side revealing the morning sunlight from the outside that stirred her from sleep.
“What the hell?” Rhea groaned in irritation, blocking her eyes with the back of her hand. What now?!
The housekeeper must have seen the annoyance on her face because she quickly explained to her, “Madam says it’s high time that you woke already. There’s a lot of things to do today, chop-chop.”
Rhea stared at the woman and then back at the clock with an inexplicable look. She didn’t know what to say to her; Rhea was speechless. It was merely seven o’clock in the morning and she wanted to sleep more. However, thinking about it now, Rhea found it quite funny because just days ago, she found sleeping when she had been wallowing in heartbreak. But now, she could sleep the whole day if permitted.
Moreover, Rhea had not slept much last night thanks to the wedding arrangement. If you thought planning a wedding was stressful, then wait until you plan an emergency one. Her mother was making efforts to improve their relationship and hence asked about her opinion on all of her plans. By the time Rhea slept last night, it was almost three in the morning, only to wake up early.
Rhea felt like a walking zombie and doubted her mother would be energetic enough to move on with today’s wedding. With yesterday’s stress, she should have even slept later than her. Her mother should have given a gap between the wedding date to have enough rest, but then it was her wedding and her decision and she had no right to interfere.
But to Rhea’s shock, her mother was as excited as a rabbit in heat when she found her downstairs conversing with some unknown people that were probably involved with the wedding. She was kind of dumbfounded because Natalie looked even more beautiful than when they met last night. There was just this familiar glow about her that she couldn’t grasp until it hit her.
Her mother was in love.
…..
Damn.
She means, what had she been thinking? What had she thought about her mother and Eric so far? Rhea simply felt that her mother was marrying the man out of gratitude for saving her life and secondly, because she wanted a companion. Rhea didn’t really think that her mother loved Eric until now.
Rhea forgot that just like her, Natalie was a woman with feelings too, even if she was a mother to twenty-three years plus adult. Her mother had the same emotions and craved love and attention. Natalie deserved a life to live too.
“Rhea!”
Natalie waved at her, rousing her back to reality and Rhea walked over to her.
“This is my daughter, Rhea,” Natalie introduced her to another stranger, “Rhea meet Mrs. Brown, she manages my hospital in my absence.”
“You have a hospital?” Rhea blinked up at her in surprise.
But it was too late for Rhea to realize her mistake because Mrs. Brown was now staring at her as if she emerged from the planet of apes. Of course, she was dumb enough not to know that her mother had a hospital and probably a doctorate in medicine. At least, now she could see where her love for science came from.
Rhea felt proud and guilty at the same time. It was kind of pleasing to know that she and her mother enjoyed the same career – even though she didn’t go into it full-time – at the same time, Rhea knew nothing about Natalie except the story of how she turned out to be her mother and the reason she abandoned her.
Natalie stepped in to resolve the situation and smiling at the woman politely, she took Rhea’s hand with affection as he said, “Rhea and I just reconnected recently,”
“Oh,” Mrs. Brown nodded in understanding, “If that’s the case, I wish the both of you success as you both get to know each other. And congratulations once again, Natalie.” She kissed her mother on the cheek before leaving.
Natalie turned to her with a deep breath, “You’re up!”
“Yeah, the housekeeper is not exactly subtle.”
She groaned, “Just bear with me today, Rhea. I’ll leave with Eric for our short honeymoon and you can sleep all you want afterward,”
Yep, and I would meet Lukas behind your back, Rhea said in her mind.
The both of them walked outside to the lawn where the wedding would be taking place with Natalie giving instructions to the staff about the decoration every once and then.
“By the way, I invited Mimi to the wedding. I just wanted you to know since we decided to be open to each other from now on.”
“Huh? Who’s Mimi – oh,” Natalie remembered. However, she figured something out and stopped, staring at Rhea with suspicion, “Mimi had already left by the time I let out the news of my wedding. So how did she get to hear about it?”