Filed to story: Bring It On My Mafia Life Novel (Rhea & Lukas)
“Rhea…” Natalie rubbed her palms together, as if pleading with her, “Let’s not do this in front of the guest.”
“Mimi is not a guest. Although we are not related by blood, she’s my sister and knows more about me than you would ever know in this life like the mole on my thigh or the scar on my body. So whatever you can’t say in front of her, it’s not worth it.”
Natalie was speechless, she simply stared at her daughter hard before shifting her gaze to Mimi and said with a smile that didn’t touch her eyes,
“Make yourself comfortable, Mimi, and have a good time before you leave,” She hinted that the girl was not spending the night, whatever her daughter’s plan was.
And with that, Natalie stood up and left them alone, taking the tension with her.
Mimi turned to Rhea, tugging her hair to the back of her ear, “Alright, what was that?”
“An effective way to make her leave us alone and it sure worked. Come on..” Rhea rose to her feet, tugging her along, “There are too many eyes watching us here. Let’s go to my room.”
“Um, okay?” Mimi had no clue how things worked around here, but she would choose Rhea’s words over theirs.
With Rhea leading the way, Mimi followed her along sheepishly since it was her first time here. Unlike Lukas’s place, there was less security here – at least that was visible to her eyes. Who knows, they might be in hiding or something only to come out when danger arises, her imagination was quite active.
As large as the mansion was, it felt warm and homey, perhaps Natalie had a hand in it. A mother’s touch – something that Lukas’s place lacked. Hence, It was weird that instead of Rhea feeling more at home, she wanted to get the hell out.
They reached their destination and Rhea opened the door, “This is my – Rose?!”
Oh, who is Rose? Mimi lifted her head to see who that was and her gaze rested on a young girl. Now, she could sense more gossip on the way.
“What are you doing in my room?! I thought I warned you not to bother me again?” Rhea scolded her.
The young girl lowered her head and said in a small voice, “I thought that since we have been acknowledged as sisters, we would have more bonding time.”
“Aww, Rhea has a little sister.” Mimi teased Rhea by mimicking her voice, and as expected, she received a glare in return.
Looking at the innocent girl, Rhea had no choice but to calm down and explain things to her. She bent down so the both of them were at eye level as she said, “I don’t know what my mother said to you, but technically, we are not sisters yet, not with your father and Natalie being unmarried. And let’s be pragmatic here, anything could happen and the both of them break up tomorrow. See? No more sisterhood,”
Rose had shown a high level of maturity so far that Rhea forgot that deep down, she was merely a young girl who believed in Cinderella and happily ever after and not an adult’s reality. Because the next thing Rhea knew, Rose’s eyes watered and she burst into tears.
“Umm, Rose?” Rhea didn’t know what to do. It wasn’t supposed to be this way.
But the more Rhea tried to comfort her, the harder the young girl cried and she had no idea how to stop her.
“Could you help me Mimi and stop snickering at the side like a fox?” Rhea growled at her.
If she doesn’t stop Rose very soon, her mother is going to burst in here and assume she’s the evil step-sister for making the girl cry.
“Do Fox snicker?” Mimi laughed.
“Mimi!”
“Fine! Sisterhood is the problem, just convince her that you’d play the part of her sister and you should be good to go.”
“But I am not her sister!” Rhea said and Rose cried harder.
“And I am not the one crying?!” Mimi shrugged.
Rhea had no choice and God! Everything was a disaster. She didn’t sign up for this, you know!
“Fine!” Rhea had no choice but to agree to the girl’s demand, “We would do the bonding or sisterhood that you want as long as you stop crying.” She begged her.
“Really?” Rose demanded through the tears, “Swear on your life,”
“What?” Rhea was dumbfounded, “Why should I swear on -“
“Just do the dumb thing and let the girl go, Rhea,” Mimi told her.
“Fine! I swear on my life! Jesus Christ!” Rhea sighed heavily.
But that was not the end because Rhea watched as Rose rubbed away the tears from her eyes and gave her a smug smirk.
Holy mother of God, did that girl just deceived her?
“You promised to be my sister! Remember, you swore on your life!” Rose told her as she took off knowing Rhea was about to lose her shit.
“YOU LITTLE IMP! ” Rhea shouted as expected and tried to go after her but Mimi held her back.
“Did you just see that?” Rhea asked Mimi, wanting to believe she knew what she had seen. The girl deceived her!
“Yeah,” Mimi acknowledged, “You have quite an entertaining family.”
Their Plan
Silence was soon to descend after Rose left the both of them alone. Without a second thought, Rhea took her friend into her arms and hugged her tight.
“I’m so glad you came for me. You don’t know how much I missed you so much.”
“I missed you too,” Mimi said, resting her chin on her shoulder. Her hands holding Rhea’s waist explored further up her ribs and she said with a displeased look, “You lost weight.”
Rhea pulled back, saying, “It doesn’t matter.”
Looking around, as if there was another person in the room aside from them, Rhea then took her hand and led her to the bed and they sat down on the edge.
Rhea started her interrogation by asking, “How’s Lukas?”
“What do you think?” Mimi asked her, “He’s mad of course. Although, I’ll say he’s handling it well by burying himself in work and ignoring everyone else. Victor says he drinks himself to sleep every night and wakes up every morning with a hangover. He seems to believe that Lukas might become an alcoholic soon. “
Rhea’s heart throbbed at the thought of Lukas becoming an alcoholic and knowing that it was all her fault. She didn’t mean for all of this to happen. How was she going to atone for what she had done to him?
“This is all my fault. You were right, Mimi. I should have told him the truth all this while and perhaps, it wouldn’t have come to this point.” Rhea felt remorseful. No, if there was a way to turn back time, she would do it and prevent everything from going awry.
…..
“Of course, it’s your fault. However, everyone makes mistakes, Rhea. What we have to do now is figure out how to clear this mess because believe me when I say I’m affected as well. I hardly spend time with Victor nowadays because he’s trying to help Lukas grieve properly,” Mimi shrugged,” Even I don’t know what that means. “