Chapter 4: First Time Meeting

16 years ago

An ordinary brunch? Darren believed it was more like a business meeting between two of Pack Kyne's most respected families, his family and Genevieve's.

Who didn't know the Genevieve family? The family belonged to the military leader of Pack Kyne who was none other than Frank Genevieve. And at this meetup, Frank only brought his two daughters, Diana Genevieve and Annabelle Genevieve.

The only interesting thing here for Darren was seeing a girl who was secretly stealing some cookies from the banquet table. The girl, who was none other than Diana, glanced around before taking one by one the cookies in front of her, which she then wrapped in a tissue in her lap. No one noticed except Darren.

Seeing Diana's behavior made Darren a bit bothered, he wondered why Diana didn't just eat the cake instead of hiding it.

But as Darren's eyes wandered around the table, he finally understood why Diana was hiding the cake. It was because of a woman with red lipstick, Diana's mother, who glared at Diana when she caught her taking the cake. Not only that, she even hit Diana's hand so that the little girl could only look down.

Watching that made Darren want to do something. He was about to stand up but his mother grabbed his hand.

“Your father is going to talk about something important, stay here.”

Darren sighed, he really wanted to take the girl away from this boring family gathering. But he couldn't help but listen to his father speak first.

“We look like family, right Mr. Frank?” He was Adam Jarl, Alpha Pack Kyne, Darren's father.

Of course before answering that question, Frank chuckled to break the ice. After all he thought it was a good signal to bring two families together. “Yeah, we're like two families already, Alpha Adam. I feel like we're very compatible in every way.”

Meanwhile Darren instantly turned his face away, disgusted by the statement.

“What if we set our children up as partners?” Alpha Adam asked.

For the parents this was good news, but for the children it was the opposite. Because they knew this arranged marriage would only bring them into the suffocating cage of status.

“It doesn't matter if it's your first child or your second child because it's for the good of both families,” said Alpha Adam. For him it didn't matter if Darren married the mute Diana or the deaf Annabelle because his main goal was to be able to get the full support of the military chief Pack Kyne, which would be very beneficial for him.

But in contrast to Miranda, she wanted to propose Annabelle because she was Frank's biological daughter. Because the truth is, Miranda is just a step-wife who married Frank after she had Diana. Miranda didn't want Frank to feel like his biological child was sidelined.

“Our first child is very beautiful and smart,” Miranda said. She gently stroked Annabelle's hair.

It was this difference in treatment that finally made Darren understand why Diana was scolded just for taking a cookie, it was because Diana was not a beloved child. Darren also knows how it feels so he wants to leave this conversation as soon as possible.

Suddenly Annabelle stood up and left the table, leaving everyone wondering inside. Then she sat down by the lake.

“Go with her,” Alpha Adam ordered.

This was Darren's chance to leave, but he didn't want to go alone, so he took Diana along by tugging gently on her hand.

Without Darren realizing it, his treatment of Diana made Diana's mother very angry because Diana should not be close to Darren, but Annabelle.

Darren made sure the grass Diana was going to sit on was not wet, then he put his shoes on. “Sit on my shoes so you don't get your clothes dirty.”

Diana did as Darren said. She sat down and immediately ate the cake she had taken earlier. This time she didn't have to worry about being scolded because she had gotten away from her parents and she could eat as much as she wanted.

Getting too excited, Diana choked.

“Slow down. No one will want your cake, just finish it slowly,” Darren said as he gently patted Diana's back. He was happy to see Diana smile and then go back to eating with gusto.

Darren unconsciously smiled too. This was the first time Darren was able to smile without coercion, which was when he saw Diana being happy.

Darren didn't put Diana down like their parents did, instead he wanted to talk to her more despite her limitations.

“Do you want to teach me sign language?” Darren asked.

Diana stopped eating and looked at Darren with a cake cream blemish on her cheek. This made Darren chuckle and wipe the cream stain on Diana's cheek. “You're so cute.”

Diana's cheeks turned red from blushing. Then she put down her plate and answered Darren's question by writing in a small book that she always carried everywhere. After she finished writing the answer, Diana tore the paper and gave it to Darren.

Darren smiled as he read the answer Diana gave him. “Thank you for agreeing to teach me. So where do we start? I think I need to know your name first.”

Diana answered, *“I'm Diana.”

But Darren furrowed his brow, “what does that mean?”

Diana took Darren's hand and wrote on his palm, drawing the letters of her name.

“D.... i.... a.... n.... a, Diana?”

Diana nodded enthusiastically, she was very happy that Darren could interpret what she wrote down.

“What a beautiful name. I'm Darren.” Darren extended his hand to shake hands with Diana. But instead of getting a handshake in return, he got a cookie in his hand. “You gave it to me?”

Again Diana nodded, she wrote on the paper: It's a gift because you wanted to learn sign language. Thank you for talking to me.

All of Diana and Darren's interactions were witnessed by Annabelle who was sitting not far from them. She was very angry and jealous of Diana because their parents did not choose Diana for a arranged marriage.

The annoyance that Annabelle was holding reached such a peak that she walked quickly to Diana and pulled Diana to her feet. “Why didn't you volunteer to be married to him?” Annabelle's chin pointed at Darren. “It should have been you. We both have flaws but it's not fair to me. I'm my father's biological daughter, you're a stepdaughter, so you're the one who has to sacrifice for our family.”