Chapter 0014

•CAMILLA•

“My God, can you believe what’s trending?” Francesca scoffed as I walked into the living room and found her on her laptop.

“What is it?” I asked, sitting down with my bowl of cereal.

“Sasha Ross,” she looked at me. “She told the journalists that she left the Parus shopping store because two women were invading her privacy and making her uncomfortable. She called us opportunists.”

I rolled my eyes with a sigh. “Well, I hope she’ll leave Chicago soon before we bump into Lucius. I don’t want to see him.”

“Seems like she wasn’t planning on being in Chicago for too long. Her new location on her social media is New York City.”

“That’s better.”

“My God, we have to expose her, Camilla. She’s not related to you. I can’t believe she has the nerve to flaunt herself as a fake Ross on social media.”

“We should let her do as she wants, Francesca. She won’t be able to keep her lie for too long, anyway.”

“I just hate her fucking nerves. She must be arrested for this. I wonder what Lucius is going to do when he finds out that she’s not the heiress that she claims to be.”

I shook my head, taking a spoonful bite of my cereal.

“Are you okay?” Francesca asked as she closed her laptop and looked at me.

“Yeah, I’m fine, babe. I just have a little headache.”

“No, something is bothering you, and you know that you’re paying me to know you like the back of my palm, so what is it?” She insisted.

“Fine,” I groaned. “I found some weird pictures of me in Santino’s room last night. He didn’t admit that he was stalking me, but I have this uneasy feeling about this. I feel so strongly convicted that he was following me, Francesca.”

“Wait, what?”

“He explained himself and told me he was worried, but didn’t want to tell my parents where I was. I don’t know if I can trust him,” I placed down my bowl on the counter. “I do want to believe that he was only worried about me because I ran away from home, but I don’t trust him.”

“I don’t know if I trust him, either.” She finally agreed with me. “He’s Santino Banks. He had to have a reason to follow you around and take pictures of you.”

“Exactly,” I sighed.

At least I wasn’t the crazy one who couldn’t let go of what I saw in his room. Though the incident happened last night, it was still on my mind.

“But if he was stalking you, Cammy, he wouldn’t have folded his arms and done nothing all the years you were with Lucius. Maybe he was acting out of care for you.”

“Acting out of care for me?” I scoffed with a chuckle. “He might have been worried, yes, but care for me? Now, that’s something that’s never going to happen. Santino Banks has never cared for anyone but himself.”

There was a knock on the front door while we were talking, and Francesca got up from the couch and went to answer it.

When I looked beside me, I noticed Asher walking toward me with a frown on his face.

“How dare you tell Santino that our father can’t make Cecilia the CEO of the mining project? Do you have any idea what she has done for this family while you were away searching for a dick to suck?” he seethed as he stopped in front of me.

I was so surprised to see my brother talking to me in such a manner. It was strange that he was defending Cecilia, even in her absence.

“What?”

“Are you going to sit there and pretend as if you don’t know what I’m talking about?” He scolded. “If you came back home to cause trouble for us, I want you to know that you will cease from being my sister.”

I got up from the couch and looked at him. I was confused and didn’t even know what he was talking about.

“You know,” I scoffed. “If I knew that one day you would stand in front of me and tell me you will disown me as your sister if I don’t please Cecilia, I would’ve sworn with my life that you would do no such thing. I am so ashamed, Asher.”

He leaned closer, scowling. “Tell Santino to put Cecilia in charge of the mining project, or else you will be dead to me, Camilla.”

It suddenly made sense why Cecilia was arguing with my father about making me in charge of the project. It was because she wanted to be the one to run it.

Well, it seemed very naïve of her to send my brother to threaten me with a fact that I had known for a long time.

Cecilia had always treated me like an outsider and only embraced my brothers. She made sure that I felt excluded in everything that she did with them.

Only my father and Sakai were trying to make sure I didn’t feel left out. My father could only try as much as he could, but eventually, Cecilia always won.

“I’ve been dead to you a long time ago, Asher, and you know it.”

“Well,” he leaned closer. “I’m glad you caught on to that fact a long time ago, little sister. Sakai, Paxton, and I had to watch you become Daddy’s little girl all our lives, and I’m sure you don’t know what that felt like. Your birth caused our mother’s cancer to flare up during her pregnancy. You took our mother and father from us. Only Cecilia had been there for us.”

I stumbled back, suddenly feeling lightheaded, and gasped. Accepting the fact that my brothers would never cherish me as I wanted seemed easier, but being blamed for my mother’s death was soul-wrenching.

Every bone in my body lost balance, and my stomach tightened.

“That’s enough, Asher!” Francesca growled behind him. “How could you say something like that to your sister? She’s your flesh and blood. You should be ashamed of yourself.”

Asher looked at me, barely moved by what Francesca was saying to him.

“From now on,” he seethed. “You’re dead to me, Camilla.”

He then turned his back on me, walked past Francesca, and headed to the front door. The door slammed closed behind him, and I sat down on the couch and cried.

“I’m sorry, Cam, but don’t let what Asher said get to you. You did nothing wrong, and your mother’s death was never your fault. She knew her risks when she fell pregnant with you, and that’s not your fault. She loved you, and you were her baby girl.”

“He’s right, Francesca, it’s my fault she died. Had I never been born, she would still be alive. I’m the reason she had pre-eclampsia, which flared her cancer. Asher is right. I killed her.”

I got up from the couch and went to my room. I closed the door behind me and lay down on my bed and cried.

“Is it true that the founder of the Imperial Group, Don Ross, has arranged her daughter in marriage with the heartthrob billionaire, Santino Banks? It’s rumored that the Banks empire’s heir secretly married Camilla Ross a fortnight ago.” A journalist reported on TV in my room.

I lifted my head in the middle of my breakdown session and looked at the screen.

“Stay tuned to the channel, guys, as we bring you the latest news from the one and only Raya Rose.”