جميع فصول : الفصل -الفصل 10

Elena's eyes fluttered open to harsh morning sunlight streaming through the curtains. She lay there for a moment, her mind replaying the events of last night. The ballroom. The humiliation. Four men claiming to be her brothers.It had to be a dream. Some desperate fantasy her broken heart had conjured.She sat up slowly, rubbing her eyes, and that's when she saw the wine-stained dress crumpled on the floor. Her shoes kicked off by the door. Her phone on the nightstand showed multiple missed calls from unknown numbers.Her heart began to race."Aaron?" she called out, her voice hoarse.Elena wrapped herself in her robe and went to the kitchen. The dinner she'd prepared last night sat exactly where she'd left it untouched, cold, the edges of the food starting to discolor. She'd made his favorite. Beef stew with roasted vegetables. She'd spent three hours cooking it, hoping it would make him smile when he came home.But obviously he never came home.She checked her phone. No messages. No

Elena smoothened her dress as she sat across from brothers in the platinum booth. Crystal chandeliers sparkled overhead, and the soft murmur of conversation filled the upscale restaurant."Do you feel any better sister? I don't want you to worry about anything." Said Kelvin, the youngest brother. Ethan, the oldest brother, wore a big smile. "You don't have to cry any more. I'm going to protect.""As for your ex husband and his girlfriend, they will pay for ever messing with one of the Andersons." Her second brother Martins cracked his finger."You can count on me to protect you as well sister, also I'm going to spoil you so much." Mark was the third brother. Since the day Elena arrived he has actually been spoiling her. Elena's heart fluttered. So this is how it feels to have brothers. She then glanced around at the gold-trimmed walls. "Why are we spending so much at a place like this? I mean, I know we're.." She stopped mid-sentence, remembering. Right. They were loaded. Sometim

Elena opened her eyes slowly and for a moment, she simply stared at the ceiling. The house was quiet. She couldn’t smell Aaron’s woody cologne or hear the cold voice of her mother-in-law downstairs. It took a while for reality to hit her. She was no longer Elena Calvalli, she was Elena Anderson, a legitimate daughter of one of the wealthiest families in the country. She smiled slowly as the memory of the photographs Tiffany had sent flashed across her mind. Aaron sprawled across the bed, with Tiffany pressed against him. It was no longer as painful as it had been when she saw the pictures. Now, all she felt was determination. She sat up, her eyes hardening. “Both of you will regret it,” she whispered. Just then, there was a gentle knock on the door. “Miss Anderson?” A soft feminine voice called out. She furrowed her brows as she walked to the door, wondering who it was. She had declined her brother’s offer of a housekeeper. She wanted to be alone after all the chaos. She open

“Hell no!” Ethan looked at his sister as though she had suddenly grown a horn. “What the hell are you saying?” He continued. “I won’t let you do that. It’s dangerous!”The others nodded in agreement and Martins cleared his throat. “We lost you for years, Elena. And we’re not about to…”Elena let out a deep breath. “But you won’t be losing me. I’m always going to be your sister, but Elena Anderson has to go! It’s the only way.”Ethan shook his head. “We’re not doing that! You want us to bury…”he clenched his fist tightly. “It’s not going to happen, Elena and that’s final!”“Let me explain,” she winced as she tried to sit up again and Mark was at her side immediately.“You just survived an attempt on your life, Elena. You need to rest, not scheme. Let us handle this,” he tried, but Elena wasn’t having it.“This is not a scheme,” she said, her voice lower this time. Her entire body ached and she had been straining her body and voice.“It is,” Kelvin said coolly. “And it’s dangerous.”

Elena stared at him for a long while and then slowly, a smile stretched on her lips.“Dinner sounds lovely,” she smiled in what she hoped would look seductive, although the Aaron she knew never bothered with her silly seductive acts.Aaron’s expression brightened almost immediately. “Tonight?” He sounded hopeful.She hated how her body reacted to his closeness and wished that there was a switch or something she could use to turn off her feelings and focus on the task at hand.An opportunity had presented itself. A dangerous one, but still, she couldn’t let it pass her by.It would be like killing multiple birds with a single stone. If Aaron had anything to do with the accident, she would find out. And even if he didn’t, she would make him fall for her, make him want her and love her and when he did, then she would destroy him the same way he had destroyed her.“No,” she said finally and smiled. She needed more time in order for this date not to be her last with him and besides, tonig