I saw Dante Morelli

SERAPHINA

It has been a week since I received that message. A week since my step father dropped a bómb named: arrange marriage. One would think in this age and year, the practice must’ve stopped and maybe it has in the world around but not where the rich families and their hunger for expanding their business was concerned.

Still… my impending arrange marriage wasn’t what had me looking over my shoulder every hour of the day.

I felt eyes on me every time I went to university this week, and more than once I thought I saw one of the Lords in the café where I got the part time job.

I could barely sleep. It has become more difficult in the last week than it was for the last two years. And believe me, when I say every night since that faithful night I have felt like they were here in the same room with me, taunting me with their presence that I dared to go against them.

But it had only become more, my fear had escalated to the levels where every time I closed my eyes, I saw them. Dante. Oliver. Allister. Their faces blurred in the shadows of my mind, twisted with rage and something darker— something I didn’t dare name.

The message from the unknown number burned behind my eyelids.

Did you miss me, little sister?

I shouldn’t have reacted. I shouldn’t have let it shake me. But it did.

Now, everyday I debate if it was a sick prank from someone in the Uni or it was really him coming back.

“Hey!” A girl with purple highlights slapped the counter in front of me. “I asked for one iced latte.”

“Yeah, sorry,” I blinked focusing on my work. “Just a minute.”

She gave me a look and then turned to her friend. I barely paid attention to them as I made her iced latte. But then their words jolted me to attention when I heard the other girl say, “My older brother said that the Lords are back.”

“Really? It’s been two years, and there was no news about them till now, are you sure?”

“Yeah, my brother always have the right info.”

“Well… we’ll have something to talk about in the town, it was getting boring anyways.”

With stiff fingers I put the cup on the counter.

But the girls were busy as they chatted, continuing, “My brother said, some girl sent them to the prison for something they didn’t do. And Lords always get even, it will be a huge drama unfolding when they get back.”

My heart nearly stopped.

I froze, the tray I had just picked up wobbling in my hands before I tightened my grip. I said, “Your drink.”

The two girls jumped, and as I focused on them I realised they must be in highschool, or younger, which was why they didn’t recognise me probably.

The purple hair girl scowled at me and slid the money on the counter before picking up her drink and walking out with her friend.

“Hey, Sera, can you take table three. I have to go to the washroom.” Kate said as she slid her tray in my hand and rushed inside.

I took in a deep breath, trying to shrug off the foreboding feeling taking hold of me as I walked out from behind the counter.

When I reached the table three and pulled out my pad to take their orders, I found out the topic of conversation was the same here. They weren’t even trying to be quiet or subtle as one of them said, “I saw Dante Morelli last night, he was outside his house.”

“The Morelli Estate?” The second one asked.

“Where else?” The third one responded.

I almost told them it can’t be true. I lived in that house, slept there, if he was there last night I’d have known. It could only mean that they were just rumours and they hadn’t come back yet.

“He looked scary,” the first girl murmured. “Like, even more than before.”

A shiver slithered down my spine. Even as I told myself it wasn’t true, the weight of their words settled into my chest like stones. I cleared my throat. “What can I get you?”

As one by one the three girls rattled on their orders, the fourth one held up a finger and started to look through the menu.

As I waited, the second girl said, “It could also be the Frat house that Dante used to throw parties at. It was a gift to him by his father, because he married another woman after his mother’s death.”

The girl looking at the menu let out a giggle. “Imagine being rich enough to be gifted a whole arse house because he got offended with his father’s second marriage.”

The girls laughed.

I gritted my teeth. “Excuse me, have you decided what you want yet?”

The girl looked at the menu then back at me. She said, “Hey, I know you!”

____

A. Gupta

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