He Won In Style

Aria’s POV:

Mother walked and sat next to me before she rubbed my back. “You know how upset your father gets at times, so stop crying, okay?”

I nodded and cleaned my tears.

Caleb stood up and scanned the sitting room; I noticed his eyes grow sore, but I didn’t want to be affected by it, so I looked away.

“Umm…I will leave now,” he said. Neither Mother nor Gigi answered as he found his way out of the house, and I pulled my hair and stomped my foot on the ground.

“I don’t want to move in, Mother.” Why was Father asking me to move in? I didn’t want to live with no freedom anymore, a life where he controls when I go out and when I come in.

I didn’t want that.

“What’s so wrong with moving in? You got divorced, and instead of coming back home, you chose to stay there alone,” Mother scolded with a frown. “If you think your family isn’t important and you don’t need us, then feel free to leave. It’s not like we could hold you back,” she scoffed and left.

Now I had pissed off even Mother.

My family meant a lot to me; my mother and father meant the world to me, and I will always need them, but don’t they get how uncomfortable I am in this house?

-

One, two, three, four, five, six

Today was the seventh day in my parents' place, and I didn’t do much—eat…sleep…read and watch movies.

I repeated this cycle every day. Every time Father suggests I tag along with him when he goes out, I just come up with an excuse to stay home.

Now I was by my bedroom window reading my recently published book. I wanted to remind myself of what life felt like when I thought I had a perfect marriage and if everything I wrote was just fake.

A knock came from my door, and I sighed. “I am not hungry, Mother,” I said with a slightly annoyed tone. She keeps giving me food, and now I feel like I have gained a lot of weight.

“Sister,” a familiar voice called. I turned to find Sam and Ava.

Ava jumped on my bed as Sam hurried over and turned the book I was reading. “How does it feel reading a book you wrote?” She chuckled, and I sighed and picked up the teddy bear next to me before shooting it at Ava.

“Don’t jump on my bed without greeting me first.”

She rolled her eyes. “You should be happy we stopped by.”

I scoffed; I didn’t need them to stop by.

“Here.” Mother walked in with a food tray; it contained three glasses of milk with some donuts.

“Thanks, Aunt.” Sam hurriedly took a glass and sat on the couch.

“Thanks, aunty.” Ava did the same, and I pouted and looked away; I didn’t want to drink or eat anything. My stomach had reached its limit and couldn’t take it anymore.

“Aria?” Mother raised a brow, and I picked up the glass before sitting next to Sam, who was scrolling through her phone.

She kept receiving a lot of notifications, and I caught a glimpse of Liam’s picture.

I bumped her shoulder as she stared at me, and I pointed at her phone using my eyes. Mother was still in my bedroom, so I couldn’t mention Liam’s name… especially after Father made it seem like he was a criminal.

“It’s our girls’ Discord group,” Sam explained, but that wasn’t what I wanted to know. Why was Liam’s photo sent in their Discord group?

Finally, Mother walked out of my bedroom and closed the door. “Is he still…uhm…the topic of discussion in your group?”

“In our group?” She gasped in disbelief, and it made me wonder if I said something wrong. “He is the topic of discussion everywhere; his face is literally everywhere because of his recent case.”

“What case?” I raised a brow, and Ava made an awkward sound that made me stare at her.

“Can you stop asking about him already?” Ava sneered, and I felt like throwing something at her right now.

“I don’t think I was talking to you.”

“Whatever. His face is everywhere; he just released Nero Mera from jail,” she added with a boring tone before diverting her focus to her phone.

“Who is Nero Mera?” I asked Sam, who smacked her lips.

“Don’t you follow the news at all, sister?”

Well, I don’t like watching the news because for me it is boring, and I haven’t been scrolling through social media, so I had no idea what was going on.

“There was a protest in a city in Italy; the people weren’t happy about the sudden change of the mayor, so they burnt down every government office in the area,” she explained before continuing.

“Some people lost their lives, and the police succeeded in capturing some of the protestors who were being violent; after a lot of torture, they admitted that Nero Mera was their leader and he had organized the protest to overthrow the government.”

Wow, I really did miss a lot by not following the news or scrolling through social media. But what has Liam got to do with this?

“The cops arrested him; he is a part of a big mafia family, and the cops have been doing everything to find evidence against him, so they were all happy when they caught him. Then his case was brought to court, and Liam was his lawyer.”

“Let me guess, Liam got him out of jail?” I chimed in, and Sam nodded before jumping in excitement.

“He is so cool.”

“He released the leader of a violent team, so what makes him cool?” Ava snorted, still not withdrawing her gaze from her phone.

“I mean, this man was able to prove to the court that there are more than six citizens in Italy with the name Nero Mera and more than ten in the world. So it doesn’t make sense that his client was arrested because they called his name,” Sam explained with amazement.

“And when the prisoners were brought to court to identify if Nero Mera was the leader of the protest, they said no.”

If they said no, then it only means he was innocent, right? So Liam didn’t release a criminal to society.

“They said no because they were scared,” Ava added, but Sam stared at her in disbelief.

“The point is, Liam Styles won another case in style.” Sam winked at Ava, who had a frown.

I chuckled and picked up my phone to scroll through the internet; I really needed to be connected to the world.

“OMG,” Sam screamed, and this made us stare at her anxiously.

“Liam was asked who his next client is, and he said no one.”

And how is that a reason for her to scream? “Because he is returning to America for a break,” Sam blurted.