A Fool

THE NEXT DAY

Aurora heard sounds in her sleep and she groaned as she pulled the sheets over her head.

She heard a louder sound and she groaned loudly and opened her eyes. She sat up to see the maids and she furrowed her brows.

“Do you guys have to do this every morning? The room isn't even dirty, ugh. Get out!” she raised her voice at them and they exchanged looks before bowing and rushing out of the room.

Aurora groaned and fell on the bed. She groaned loudly again as memories from last night came flooding in.

As real as it was, Aurora chose not to believe it; she believed she hadn't witnessed a crime and that it was just a normal outing.

She chose to forget everything that happened and move on. After all, the last days of her life have been hell.

This is a new beginning. A fresh start so she would ignore every negative thing in her way.

She got ready for the day and made a call for her breakfast to be brought to her room.

After having breakfast, she decided to spend her day in her room. After a few hours, she got bored and decided to take a walk around the house, after all, she hadn't gotten a good look at it.

She headed out of her room and headed down the stairs. She got to the stairs and walked down slowly. She paused as she heard voices.

She couldn't figure out who was who so she grew curious and headed down.

She froze when she got down to the living room. The room fell silent as they all turned to her.

Lucino was in the room with five other men. Out of all, only one looked about Lucino’s age. The rest were middle-aged men and she recognised three amongst the five from last night.

The one about Lucino’s age and the other two middle-aged men. They all kept staring at her and Aurora’s lips parted slightly as she had no other thing to say or do.

She knew she interrupted something and made it all awkward.

‘What do I do? Walk away? Greet them? Say hello? Ignore them? Talk to Lucino? Fuck, what the hell do I do?!’ she screamed in her head and one of the men groaned. The one who looks the same age as Lucino.

“Hmm. Fuck.” he groaned as he ran his hands through his hair. Lucino turned to him and glared hard at him, as if he understood what was wrong.

Lucino turned to look at Aurora.

“Can you excuse us for a while?” he asked.

“Oh, yeah, okay. I was about to take a walk anyway,” she replied and walked in a direction immediately, avoiding eye contact with any of them.

Aurora walked around the house for a while, and at a point, she got exhausted because the house was too huge to just take a walk in.

She couldn't cover up so much distance so when she was exhausted, she headed back to the main building.

Walking into the living room, she met only Lucino and the other guy. They both looked at her and she stared at them for a few seconds and looked away. Then she proceeded to the stairs.

“Wait.” she heard the other guy say and she paused before turning to him.

“You must be Aurora,” he said with a smile and she raised her brow, wondering who he was and how he knew her name.

“Nice to meet you. I’m Jace, Lucino’s best friend,” he said and stretched his hand towards her.

‘Lucino has a best friend?’

She stared at his hand for a few seconds before moving closer to him. She glanced at Lucino too before taking his hand.

“I didn't get a chance to talk to you last night. How are… “

“Go to your room, Aurora,” Lucino ordered without looking at her. His eyes were on his phone and he was seated opposite Jace.

Aurora found his order funny. Although he might be scary, Aurora isn't the type to be ordered around. She found his order ridiculous so she turned to him and scoffed.

“Why?” she asked with an expression and Lucino looked up at her. He was taken aback by her response but it wasn't visible in his expression.

Lucino didn't give her a response, he just stared at her like he was trying to read her. Trying to figure out what was going on in her head that made her question his order.

“What? Why will you tell me to do that? I don't want to go, I want to stay here.” she said and took a seat beside Jace.

Jace turned to her and she held his gaze.

He looked away from her immediately and turned to Lucino.

Lucino said nothing and paid attention to his phone.

“How long have you been friends with Lucino?” Aurora suddenly asked Jace and he turned to her with a smile.

“Twenty-three years,” he replied and she raised her brows before nodding. That's a really long time.

Aurora was about to ask him another question when he stood up.

“I have to go now,” he told Aurora with a smile and she nodded.

“See you later,” he told Lucino and walked out of the house without waiting for a response.

Since Aurora couldn't have a conversation with Lucino and she had nothing to do, she decided to head up the stairs to her room.

She stood up and climbed the stairs.

She was about to get to her door when she felt a force pull her and pin her to the wall. It wasn't rough but it was a little bit painful due to the shock.

Aurora groaned in pain, her heart racing in fear seeing Lucino in front of her.

He was just downstairs seconds ago.

He pressed her hard against the wall and she whimpered loudly.

“Oh, I hate being defied, Aurora. I hate it so bad, I lose it when it happens. When I tell you to do something, you have to do it without giving it a second thought.” he warned, holding her gaze, ignoring the tears that were welling up. Aurora was trying so hard to fight her tears but the pain was a little bit unbearable.

She didn't want to seem weak to him but the more she tried to fight it, it got worse.

She wasn't just feeling pain, her emotions were messed up and he seemed to be doing that. For some reason she was terrified. She had no idea why.

Lucino might be scary but she isn't so terrified of him. This was insane!

He raised his hand to her hair and tilted his head a little as he ran his hand softly on it.

“I believe you got the message already and if you haven't, why not try defying me again so I can show you what happens when you do. Besides, you seem to have forgotten I own you which includes your life, your fucking way of leaving so when I tell you to do something, you do it!” he raised his voice a little and Aurora whimpered out loud as she shut her eyes.

“Hmm, pathetic. Even a fool wouldn't have signed a contract with the devil,” he added and pulled away from her. He walked away and Aurora slowly sank to the floor.

She placed her hand on her chest as tears streamed down her cheeks.

What the fuck was that?