21: uninvited guests

Carla

My mother wasn’t just shocked, she even had the audacity to look insulted. My brothers frowned at me, like I had suddenly grown two heads. I was even more mad at them, because I grew up being protected and dotted on by them, so all my life, I thought I’d always have them to turn to whenever I got into problems, only for them to turn away when I was at my lowest.

“What do you mean by that?” My mother demanded after getting over her initial shock. “I- don’t need an invitation to come to my daughter’s wedding! I have a right to be here, so don’t take that tone on me, young lady.” She berated me, her eyes flashing angrily at me before she instantly calmed herself down and wore a smile once again.

“Now, why don’t you come update me and what has been going on with you? And won’t you officially introduce me to your new husband?” She demanded as her eyes wandered over Zade and myself.

I could tell that Zade was angry without me having to glance over at him.

“I’ll take whatever tone I want with you, mother.” I finally began, making sure to keep my voice low so we don’t attract unwanted attention. My mother blanched as she gaped at me, clearly shocked out of her mind because the Carla she knows is the one that dosent know bow to talk back.

“You being my mother doesn't give you a right to be here, and you don’t have a right to ask me to update you about all that had been going on in my life, or to introduce you to my husband. Beside, you definitely still remember him, so an introduction instant necessary.” I bit out and her eyes widened even more, then she was glancing back at Ezra and Ethan.

“Hey, man.” Ezra said after stepping forward, referring to Zade. He held a hand out to Zade, but Zade didn’t accept it. Ethan stepped forward as well and had the audacity to give me a smile as he spoke to me. “Congratulations, darling sister.”

I was blown away by the sheer audacity right now, and when I glanced over at Zade, he has a scowl on. When he noticed me staring, he spoke, loud enough for my mother and brothers to overhear.

“Want me to throw them out?” He asked and my eyes queened, especially on noticing that he was dead serious.

Something in my chest fluttered hard and I wondered if he told me this cause he wanted to help me stand up to them even more.

When I glanced over at my mother, she looked like she was about to faint.

“Y- you wouldn’t do that, would you??” She cried out and Ethan stepped towards her to hold her shoulders.

I stared at them for a few more seconds, feeling the irritation within me heightening, then I glanced up at Zade again while shaking my head.

“I think that would just cause some unnecessary drama, so it’s pointless.” I finally responded, and it was also because deep down, I wasn’t sure I had enough willpower to have them thrown out, cause they were family after all.

Zade nodded once, then he glanced up at my family and spoke. “You’re lucky my wife is very forgiving, I’d have had toy thrown out instead if she weren’t here.”

They all flinched as he spoke, and I bit on my bottom lip, enjoying the shocked expressions on their faces as he continued. “You should all be ashamed to be here right now, especially you two.”

The last part of the sentence was clearly thrown at my brothers who flinched and avoided Zade’s gazes, looking guilty as hell, but I scuffed and rolled my eyes, then Zade was turning around and walking away from them, pulling me along with him with his hand still on my waist.

Once we were completely away from them, he dropped his hand from my waist, and was downing a drink when I was trying to gather my wits together cause that encounter that just happened still feels like something I imagined In my head. It was so shocking to me cause I still couldn’t believe he defended me and stood up for me like that. it made me feel giddy as hell, and cared for in a really long while.

A dark expression was across his face when I glanced up at him, and I hesitated before speaking.

“Thank you for standing up for me back there.” I breathed out and he stared at me for a few long seconds before throwing the rest of his drink back, then he gave a lazy shrug.

“That wasn’t for you, it was just me putting on a show.” he stated and something fell into my stomach from my chest, feeling so much like disappointment as I slowly nodded while feeling like a fool on the inside for initially thinking he did it for me.

Why would he do something like that for ms after all? When he clearly hates me so much.

“I didn’t know you weren’t on good terms with your brothers.” He stated casually and I frowned as I glanced up at him.

“Oh, well… we have fallen out. After I went to prison, they abandoned me as well.”

“Hm. No wonder they look really ashamed today. Who could have predicted that they’d turn out to be fucking pussies.” He spat and I remained silent cause there was no way I was defending them.

“They reached out to me a few days ago, after news of us being together began to circulate. I didn’t respond and refused to meet up, cause I actually thought they wanted to ask me to stay away from their little sister who they were so damn protective of while we were growing up. Not knowing they weren’t even speaking to you this whole time.” He explained while rolling his eyes.

I let out a scoff this time. “They reached out to me for the first time in years, and it’s after those pictures of us together got on the internet.” I muttered and Zade frowned.

“Weird, right?”

I nodded. Definitely weird.

“Why did you and them stop being friends? I remebtrr that after our families separated you all still remained friends.” I asked abd he shrugged again.

“I don’t know. We were friends they suddenly, they just stopped being friends with me without any sort of explanation. I tried hard to repair our friendship, truer visiting, left lots of texts, till I got the unsaid message loud and clear that they didn’t wanna be friends anymore.” He revealed and I was shocked this time.

“I later figured out your parents probably forced them to stop being friends with me since they’d want their sons to fight me for the company once of age.” He snorted this time and I frowned.

“But the company was for my father before your father betrayed him.” I pointed out and he laughed this time before leaning down till he was right in my face.

“That’s a lie your parents fed you. It was for my father, he only got back what initially belonged to him!”

I let out a scoff and was about to say something when Zade mother appeared, looking furious as she gave me a look sharp enough to make me whither, then she was facing her son.

“What’s this criminal’s mother doing here?? Did you invite her? Like having a criminal bride isn’t enough, you want to shame your poor mother even more by inviting the wife of the man who backstabbed your father for years!” She cried out, and Zade sighed, and I noticed that some people were starting to glance over at us.

Zade cussed underneath his breath, then he was taking his mother to somewhere private, to clearly go calm her down.

I exhaled once alone again, and I let my eyes wander around. It’s a little unfortunate that I didn’t have a single friend with me right now, so now I didn’t even have anyone to speak to with Zade gone. My bridesmaids were glaring at me right now when I caught their gazes, and I flipped them the bird before turning away from them.

They can go fuck themselves.

I was walking and pulling my dress along with me when my mother arrived in front of me and I was forced to stiffle a groan to avoid pulling attention towards us.

“What do you want?” I cried out and she glared at me. “I’m still mad at you for speaking to me like that, especially in front of your husband!” She whispered and I scoffed, shaking her hand off when she attempted to grab my arm.

“I didn’t let you get thrown out, you should be grateful for that and not get too bold. You’re here without an invite, remember?”

She scoffed, still glaring at me. “Since when did you get so mouthy?” She demanded and I scoffed while rolling my eyes, urging her to say whatever it is that she wanted to say.

“I know you’ve always been smart, my child, and for that I’m proud of you.”

She began with a grin on and I frowned in confusion.

“Huh?”

“For managing to climb the ladder this fast, and you ended snagging the biggest tycoon out there. I’m very proud of you.” She continued and I continued to blink at her cause I was still so confused.

“I don’t understand what you’re getting at.” I pointed out flatly.

“You’re just deceiving Zade, aren’t you? My smart, little rockstar! You’re just deceiving him to get your father’s company back from him, right?” She explained further and I was so shocked that I let out a laugh.

“What?”

“Isn’t that why you’re doing this? Your brothers said that might be the reason.” She muttered and I let it another laugh, everyone making more sense to me.

“Oh, so that’s why they’re trying to reach out to me again? So after I get the company back, they’ll come in and take full reins, right?”

She grinned and let out a sigh of relief. “Of course! Cause it rightfully belonged to them and they can definitely handle it better compared to you, and your father is already too old to even try running the company when you’d finally get it back.” As my mother kept speaking, I kept staring at her while trying to figure out how someone could be this delusional, to this extent.

It’s almost worrying, almost like a few nuts in her brain had came loose.

“Mother, why would I ever chose to help a family that deserted me?” I asked and she frowned at me, then a guilty expression settled on her face. When she attempted to hold my hand, I shook her grip off.

“You’re delusional if you ever think I’ll ever help you and my brothers or father if I ever get the chance, because I’ll never!” I gritted out and she appeared almost panicked.

“Carla, don’t you think that’s too rash? Let’s just—-0 she was still speaking when I shook my head.

“No, mother. Let’s not do anything. Besides, I’m not deceiving Zade, I really love him. And I’ll definitely never betray him for the likes of you and my brothers.”

She glared at me as she bit out. “You stupid girl! You’ll really regret this. Then when you come crawling back after he discards you, we'll never take you back!”

I rolled my eyes and flipped my hair. “I don’t think so, mother. Do you know how much my ring cost? Two million dollars.” I revealed and she almost fainted from shock.

“Trust that I’ll never come back to you all.”

With that said, I turned away just as the bride and groom were being called for their first official dance.