Cousins (2)

The next morning, we gathered together for breakfast. Maybe Adam was curious about the food we ate, he targeted my main dish this time, something I didn't mind. As long as he didn't target the cake, I was willing to give him the rest. I pretended not to know what was going on, obediently accepting everything Luke passed to me.

As I expected, he popped up around my seat, and grabbed my cup of yogurt. I never liked yogurt in the first place, finding him helping me with his greed. Adam's eyes brightened, and quickly devoured the yogurt and moved onto taking my bowl of soup away. However, Luke frowned in disapproval, and didn't tolerate his actions anymore. He had a limited supply of our meals, carefully scheduled to last for a month.

"I cannot ignore your son taking our plates anymore. Please keep a closer eye on him. These meals are carefully customized for Rika, taking her fragile health into consideration. She won't be able to eat anything else," Luke turned to my aunt.

"Come here Adam, eat your own food," my aunt urged him.

"I don't want to. These taste a lot better than what we eat. They're almost like the cake," Adam shook his head.

Luke's face became icier when Adam stole all my main plates, only leaving me with dessert and the small appetizer, being the salad. I barely ate anything for breakfast anyways, and Luke was going overboard. His stormy ocean eyes faced my aunt, pressuring her to take Adam away. My aunt shuddered as she dragged Adam back to his seat, urging her husband to help her. Noticing Luke's frosty expression, my uncle instantly got the hint.

"Finish the salad and then I'll give you the cake," Luke let them go.

I nodded as I found this breakfast to resemble the usual amount I ate. This was why Luke wasn't giving me any of his portions. Unfortunately after the meal, I was confronted with the study sessions inside our room. A small table was laid on the bed, barely enough space for the three of us. Although I knew they had larger tables, it wouldn't be able to fit inside this room. It was odd that grandma wasn't offering us a bigger room.

"We're going over the same number of chapters as usual," Luke opened the workbook.

As usual, I went through the normal peaceful schedule, and took a relaxing bath around the afternoon. My life hasn't drastically changed from when I lived in the first district from Luke and Alex being extremely prepared. Since Luke didn't trust me to dry my hair on my own, we returned to our room, about to do the rest there. However, April was inside our room, trying on my dresses and accessories, shocking both of us.

"It ripped again," she couldn't fit inside them.

I had to admit, barely anyone could fit in my dresses, the waists were extremely tight. It was unfortunately tailored for me, capturing my detailed measurements. Luke slightly trembled in anger, noticing the oddly messy suitcase, some of my clothes torn or damaged. Although I didn't care, Luke was sensitive about my appearance. But he quickly recovered, and took photos of the evidence.

He knocked on my aunt's door while dragging me with him. Not knowing anything, my aunt opened the door, wondering why Luke appeared extremely upset. Noticing we were waiting for her to let us inside, she gestured to welcome us inside.

As Luke tried to calmly sit down on the chairs, he began to show her the photos, "we cannot turn a blind eye to your children anymore. This is what your child was doing and may be still continuing at this moment."

"I will have another talk with her," my aunt rose to leave.

"I am not finished with our conversation yet," Luke pressured her to stay.

"I apologize," my aunt sat back down.

"This is entering and breaking as well as damaging personal possessions. If we present this to our lawyers, they can easily create a lawsuit we can win. The results can lead to up to twenty years in prison in addition to being fined with over ten billion dollars. The value of the items touched is in the realms of trillions," he warned her.

"Please don't place the lawsuit against us," my aunt trembled.

"We do not want to place the lawsuit. However, I will be forced when Rika's health gets threatened by their actions. The food and clothes I provide for her relates to her condition," Luke tried to seem reasonable.

"What is going on?" My uncle entered the room.

When Luke went over the threats again, my uncle froze from the actions he was willing to take. I didn't pity them, and I barely knew them in the first place. Their son stole my cake, something still burning inside my heart. My uncle begged for mercy, "they are still very young children. Please be more lenient on them."

"It is not your children's fault, it is yours. This is why I am talking to you," Luke was disappointed in them.

"If you taught them to be better mannered, they wouldn't behave like this," he explained.

"Have you ever raised a child before? You're too young to know, it is hard to get them to listen to you," my uncle argued.

"I raised Rika for around ten years. I make sure to erase the possibility of her acting mannerless and without proper etiquette. I teach her every single day, reminding her how she should behave. It is my fault if she acts the same way as your children, the responsibility lies on me," Luke acted like my parent.

My head hung as he was embarrassing me again. Both my uncle and aunt went speechless, looking at him appearing dead serious. I was beginning to cry inside my heart when he took out those books that he used on me, the one for babies from the ages of two months to a year. Once we returned to our room, I was definitely going to kill him. Opening the bookmarked pages, Luke showed them a few methods he used throughout the years.

"You really did raise her," my uncle was stunned.

"You're being petty over some food and clothes," I couldn't stand the humiliation anymore.

"There will be no next time," Luke rose to leave with me.

By the time we returned to our room, April was gone, replaced with Alex. Hearing some sounds of someone sniffling and crying, it was mostly likely her from getting kicked out. I changed my mind in scolding Luke when Alex appeared equally furious. It was best to avoid them, and tried to break Luke's grip to escape from the room. Scanning the room after failing my attempt, I discovered it was clean again, and back to normal.

"I already prepared the lawsuits, let me know when we should send them," Alex faced us.

"Can you stop humiliating me? I get that you're angry, but you keep using me as an example," I mustered the courage.

"This is all done for you. They only touched your food, clothes, and accessories," he was overprotective.

I noticed my younger cousins feared Luke and Alex enough to not go near them. Meanwhile Ally only pestered them with questions, and didn't go over the line. With the threat of the lawsuit, my aunt and uncle were no longer lenient towards my younger cousins during dinner. Both April and Adam obediently sat in their chairs, and were pressured to behave. The atmosphere was more tense after my family heard what had happened. However, my parents were on Luke's side, knowing he was doing this for me.

I lost my appetite in the middle with too many eyes on me, and pushed my plates away. How could I eat when this entire thing started with them being petty with everything? There were countless accessories and clothes purchased for me, enough that I wouldn't be able to wear them all. Food was usually thrown out, and better to go to others. Since I finished the minimum number of spoons, Luke left me alone. When they were nearly finished dining, grandma asked, "are you planning to throw out her leftovers again?"

"We will dispose of them in the compost bin you provided for us," Luke gestured.

"Her plates are barely touched," my aunt mumbled.

"And he was telling us we were raising our children wrong," she slightly sneered.

"I have my own education plan for Rika. Her lack of appetite correlates with her condition based on her health," Luke clasped his hands together.

"Can we have her leftovers?" Adam begged them.

"You can take them," Luke passed my aunt and uncle the plates.

It was obvious Luke was treating them as if they were lesser than us, not offering new plates but giving abandoned leftovers. My aunt hid her pride falling, and gave into Adam. Maybe it helped that I only took a few bites of each plate, nearly appearing like they were never touched. After my cousins shared my leftovers, Adam walked towards us to return the empty plates. Oddly, he stopped in front of me instead of Luke, the owner and the person who made these decisions.

"Please pass this to him," Adam avoided Luke.

Holding out my hands to accept them, I winced when he sneezed, splattering mucus and dirty bacteria in front of my face. At this point, I had to agree with Luke that my younger cousins were pretty disappointing. Adam had enough time to cover himself with his hand or arm, but he potentially placed others in harm by not doing so. This would be inexcusable behavior in the first district, and would instantly get scorns from others.

It was common etiquette in my former life as well, wearing masks when you were sick. When my eyes began to get watery and my nose was tingling, I covered my mouth before I sneezed. Why was this body so weak? Instantly getting sick from a single sneeze from others. The reason why I was sensitive towards people who couldn't display basic manners when they were sick. Slowly turning to Luke, I hoped he wouldn't overreact as usual.

However, my hopes shattered, noticing the worry in Luke's eyes. Looking past him, Alex blamed Adam, his eyes becoming colder as time passed. Like I predicted, Luke instantly resorted, "we're going back to the first district or you can choose to visit one of the villas in this district. We don't have enough medical equipment here."

"It's a single sneeze, it's harmless," I groaned.

"I don't need to use the infirmary for something like this," I added to convince him.

"Is this what you mean by poor health?" My aunt scoffed.

Luke narrowed his eyes, "a sneeze could become life threatening to Rika."