CHAPTER-4

LENA

I descend the staircase as elegantly as an Elliot soldier going to war, back straight, head high. Boosting my confidence is required for this war. Of course it is a war for me. I don't care about anyone else; I care about Alarik's reaction when I tell him. Will he be angry? Guilty? Regretful for not talking to me? Ashamed?

I have a lot of questions regarding this matter.

What if he throws me out, just like my father did? Yet if he does, I am not going to back out before he divorces me. Mostly, I don't think I can tell what he is thinking most of the time, technically all the time. His expression is like seeing a block of granite. A very beautiful piece of granite statue.

The closer I am to the dining hall, the more voices I can hear coming from it. Voices like giggling? And laughing? I frown. This is not what I expected. I expected something like... in the household of Alarik, I thought breakfast would be... where people get their food lined up and in front of him, he will be standing with a big bowl of porridge and he will serve how much portion someone will have.

I know I overexaggerated it, but I literally imagined that. But the scene in front of me is not what I imagined. There are people sitting on their chairs, happily enjoying their morning meal. Even Alarik's expression is a little bit different, like... his face is a little bit softened up?

He is sitting at the head of the table. I try not to giggle, but my lips quirk up a little looking at his bandaged torso. He is without a shirt. He kind of looks cute and hot with his shoulder muscles showing.

Cute! No, Alarik Andressano is not a cute type of guy!

On his left, Sebastian is sitting and stuffing his face with food; on Sebastian's side, Aunt Mary is sitting and elegantly having her breakfast, cutting pieces of bread into perfect squares just like Alarik; and on her side, her teenage daughter Penelope is sitting and mimicking Alarik and her mother's elegance at breakfast.

On Alarik's right side, a chair is empty, and next to that, a man around the age of thirty is also eating. On his side, a woman is also sitting elegantly, having her meal, and on her side, a child of around five is sitting.

"Oh, look, Lena is here. Everybody, she is Lena, who saved Alarik's ass last night." Before I could sneak out of here, Sebastian yelled enough for everyone to stop what they were doing and look at me like I am an alien from another planet who came here to announce war on them, except Alarik.

"Everybody applauds for such bravery. She saved him and safely took him home," Sebastian joked. Only a child clapped, with a bread piece hanging from his mouth.

I try to keep my facial expressions neutral. I meet everyone's eyes. A man and a woman whom I don't know are curiously staring at me. Penelope measured me up and down, and when she didn't find anything special, she continued her breakfast by typing away on her phone. Aunt Mary is still giving me a nasty stare. I don't care; I have received this look more times than I can count. Sebastian is waving at me. Their stares didn't affect me as much as Alarik's did. He is gazing at me. Intensely, coldly. His gaze traveled my entire body, although I think his eyes lingered seconds longer on my legs. The dress I am wearing reaches only my knees. I couldn't complain since they are the ones who gave me this dress. When his eyes meet mine, I frown again. Something flashed in his eyes. Promise? Threat? I don't know what it was. I didn't dwell on it.

"Come sit, have breakfast," Sebastian invited me before I could sit on an available seat beside the boy.

"Sit here," Alarik commanded, pointing to a chair to the right of him. I quickly sat where he pointed.

Everyone is now looking at me more weirdly than before. Now everyone's even including Aunt Mary, whose mouth is wide open, followed by her eyes.

"Alarik really owes something to someone now," the woman added.

"What!? I owe him too. I saved his ass as many times as I could count. And she gets to sit beside him. That's not fair," the man in front of me interjected.

"Yeah, that's not fair, Uncle Ali. My dad does hard work for you," the boy argued.

"That's 'works hard,' honey," his mom corrected him. The family introduced themselves as Clara and Richard, and the boy is named Oliver. Richard's father and grandfather both worked for Andressano, so they are very close friends of the family and are currently only visiting to meet Oliver's grandparents.

Only Alarik's mother, Victoria, is absent right now. I know a lot about her; she is high society's queen. Every tabloid writes about her every movement, donations, charities, galas she organizes, and the designer she chooses. She is more famous than a celebrity actress in our country. I was more afraid of meeting her than her son.

"Yes, Alarik, that's not right for an outsider to sit beside you," Aunt Mary grimaced, looking at me. She must think she is currently the head of the family. She and Victoria have some kind of rift between them; everyone knows that since Mary believes Victoria has a hand in Alarik's father's death.

All of them conversely concluded that they were not so happy about me sitting on this side, especially by his side. Way to start nicely with them.

"I can do whatever I want. I don't think I need any consideration for everything I do," a cold, hard, Arctic voice rang around. Everyone flinched, including the child. He is on the verge of crying. The atmosphere in here is chilling, like a breath could awaken a beast, and they would devour them.

My, my, they are afraid of him that much.

Alarik threw a napkin hard on the table, which he was cleaning his mouth with. He really has a beautiful mouth. I shake those thoughts out of my mind. He abruptly stood up, noisily pushing his chair back. He glared at everyone, excluding me and the boy.

"Ms. Mathew, when you are done with your breakfast, come to my study. We have to discuss something." He gave me his Arctic gaze and then stormed out of the hall, leaving all of us in silence.

I nodded at his order. So, he does know my name.