Chapter 8

The cake came in and the servants placed it in the middle of the table. Then as Drake came into the spotlight everyone started to sing the birthday.

Drake blew the candles and cutted the cake. Everyone clapped and cheered for him.

“Our turn.” Andrew said.

He took a glass from the table and a spoon. He tapped the spoon against the glass. It made a bell like sound which diverted everyone’s attention towards him.

He placed the glass and spoon back on the table.

“Everyone,” he said in a resonant voice, “ since today is a happy occasion then let’s all add one more happy thing to today, shall we?”

He then looked at Clara and held both her hands.

“Clara,” he looked at her, “ I knew that when we met for the first time I fell in love with you and wanted to get married to you.”

Everyone went quite and whispered to each other excitedly.

Though Clara felt troubled and her face started turning red. She tried to calm herself to get her act ready.

Andrew got down on one knee and looked at her. He took out the square box from his pocket and opened it to reveal a ring.

Clara pretended to be surprised and touched. She gasped and covered her mouth with her hands pretending to be shocked.

“Clara Rose,” Andrew said, “Will you marry me?”

“Yes.” Clara said nodding her head pretending to be excited and happy.

Andrew got up and placed the ring on her finger. He hugged her and smiled at her.

On the other hand Angelina’s mouth was wide open. It looked like her jaw may fall off from the shock.

Andrew then leaned back and kissed Clara’s forehead softly.

Everyone was extremely happy for them.

Except for Jennifer who was infuriated beyond words and of course Andrew’s father’s.

The audience’s attention was fully diverted from Drake to Andrew. Everyone was congratulating them and had completely forgotten about Drake.

Andrew’s father made his way from the crowd to Andrew. He had a smile on his face but inside he was furious for ruining Drake’s party.

“Congratulations, son.” His father said and hugged him.

“Meet me in the study.”  He whispered in Andrew’s ear.

And then his father pulled away. Andrew smiled as his father disappeared in the crowd.

“Wait here for me. I’ll be back in a few minutes.” Andrew said in her ear in a low voice.

“Okay.”  Clara said with a gentle smile.

Andrew kissed Clara’s cheek and then went away.

Once again Andrew had surprised Clara again today.

‘If only you could be that sweet in real life.’ She thought to herself.

Suddenly, someone grabbed her hand and started to drag her away. She looked at the person and saw that it was Angelina. She dragged Clara out to the garden and looked at her demanding her for an explanation.

“You wanted to know why I stopped you from taking those articles so here’s my answer.” Clara told her.

“Tell me Clara are you being absolutely serious right now?”

“Yes, Angel I’m one hundred percent serious."

“But don’t you think your rushing into marriage too fast.” Angelina asked concerned.

“Look we just got engaged. It not like we are getting married in a week.”

Angelina sighed.

“Coco, are you being blackmailed by him?” Angelina asked worried.

“No, Angel. He’s not blackmailing me or anything.”

“Then do you love him?”

“Of course I do. I won’t marry someone I don’t love.” She lied.

She slapped herself in her mind.

“What about him? Does he love you?”

“Of course, he does why would he want to marry me otherwise. You saw how sweet he was.”

Now she stabbed herself in her mind.

“I don’t know. It all seems too suspicious to me.” Angelina said having a hard time to believe her.

“What’s so suspicious?”

“You clearly didn’t like him. Even the first day he called you turned him down in an instant.”

“It was love at first sight. And I hadn't met him yet.” She told her.

She buried herself in her head.

“I don’t know. I don’t believe you Coco. This isn’t something that you would do."

Clara placed a hand on her shoulder.

“Angelina, you have been following me around like forever and we have been friends for far as I can remember. You trusted my every decision and now I’m asking you to trust me on this one too.”

Angelina pursed her lips and nodded.

“Okay. I trust you.”

“Come on, let’s get back inside.”

“Okay.” Angelina nodded.

???

Andrew went inside the study room and saw his father back facing him. He walked towards him.

As soon as he was close enough to him his father turned around and slapped his face with all his might.

“You ungrateful bastard. What did I do to have such an ungrateful son like you?” he said angrily.

Andrew looked at him with a cold expression. He smirked at his father.

“Weren’t you the one who told me get Clara? What now that I have her you’re still not satisfied?”

“You bastard did you had to ruin your brother’s birthday party like that?”

“Drake, is no brother of mine. I will never accept him. That evil son of a bitch only acts innocently but he’s the real devil.”

“Andrew! Do you have no shame at all?”

“What about you?!” Andrew almost yelled, “ Where’s you shame? Where were you when my mother was on her deathbed? You say I have no shame. What about you? Who caused mom to die? It’s all because of you. The reason I hate this family is all because of you and that woman you marry and had Drake with. You never cared about mom or me.”

“Andrew I am your father how dare you talk to me like that!”

“I don’t have a father or a family.” Andrew told him.

Andrew turned around and left.

“Andrew you bastard you come back here this instant!” his father called but he ignored him.

Andrew eyes felt watery. He felt a burst of emotions. He was barely managing himself. He tried his best to control his emotions. Instead, of going to the hall where everyone was, he went into the garden instead.

???

Clara stood at a corner while Angelina went to try out the food.

A man came towards her. She knew that it was Drake because he had just cut the cake.

“Hi. I’m Drake.” He said friendly and took out his hand.

“Clara Rose.” She introduced herself and shook his hand.

“I know who you are.”  He said with a smile. “You’re the girl who took my spotlight tonight."

“Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t know that Andrew was going to do that.” Clara said apologetically.

'Actually I did.’ She said in her head.

Drake laughed.

“My brother is like that. He’s always unpredictable. I’m actually surprised that he even proposed today."

“Why?” Clara asked.

“Andrew, doesn’t open up to people. I have never even seen him smile. So it was pretty surprising that he was so… warm towards you.” He told her.

“He used to be a very cheerful boy.”  Jake said coming behind Drake.

“What happened that made him change?"

“Mum died. After mum's death he became aggressive. You have no idea how much he fought at school.” Jake told her.

“He must’ve been very close to his mom.” She said.

“You have no idea how much he loved mom.” Jake said.

“What about his dad? Is he not close to him? “she asked.

“Oh no, no. The two hate each other.” Drake told her, “ they would always fight with each other whenever they meet.”

“Why is that? She asked.

Jake hesitated a little.

“Because of my mom.” Drake told her." Andrew thought that dad was cheating with my mom because he got married to her soon after Andrew’s mother died. So, he hates dad. Those two are practically enemies.”

“Dad hates Andrew because he caused him a lot of trouble. Dad thinks that he’s useless. Also he’s the most rebellious.” Jake added.

Clara felt a bit sad for him.

“What about you two?”

“We have a good relationship with our dad as long as we don’t do anything to embarrass him.” Drake told her.

Jake looked outside the window.

“Hey, I think you should go and check on Andrew.” Jake told her.

“Hmm?” she looked at Jake and looked at where he was looking at.

She saw Andrew standing outside in the garden.

“He had a fight with dad again.” Jake said looking at him, “You should go to him. I think he would want some company right now.”

Clara nodded and walked away from them. She walked towards the garden where it was empty.

She saw Andrew’s back and walked towards him.

“You told me to wait for you but here you are after leaving me in the crowd.” Clara said as she came in front of him.

She looked at him and was shocked. His left side of the face was red and so were his eyes.

“What happened to you?” She asked looking at his face, worried.

“Nothing.” He answered without looking at her, “You should go inside it’s cold outside.”

“It’s too noisy inside.” She told him and looked at the sky, “It’s more peaceful out here.”

She looked at him and saw him looking at the sky.

“Do you want to go somewhere else?” she asked him.

He looked at her.

“Where?”

“My secret hideout.” She told him.

“And you want to take me there? Why?” he asked.

“So you'd disappear from the face of the Earth.” She told him jokingly.

"Killing is a crime."

"Not until a killing is discovered."

"Bad things don't go unnoticed in this world. If you do something bad it's gonna catch up to you some day."

Clara rolled her eyes.

"Are you going or not?"

“Okay.” He said after considering for a while.