Chapter 2 – Soon-to-be-Brothers
1636 Words
(Elle’s POV)
Twins!
Billy seemed to forget to mention that to us because even Mom got excited to see how his babies. I swallow hard and dart my eyes at sea, at the sand, anywhere, so long as not look at the two gorgeous men who are soon-to-be my brothers.
“You have handsome boys, honey,” my mother says adoringly, smiling at them.
Billy cut in, holding my mom’s hand. “Meet your mom, Mitch, and your sisters, Cinderella and Belle.”
“Cinderella?” Aiden or Caleb, whoever, the one sitting across from me, raises his medium-thick eyebrows. He smirks, then presses his lips, suppressing his laugh. It seems Billy failed to mention how charming we are, our names, too, to his identical twin sons.
“It’s Elle,” I corrected, frowning at my mother. I glare at the Adonis in front of me, suddenly hating how he laughs at me.
She laughs nervously, touching my cheeks. “His father was an illustrator, and when I gave birth to her, he was doing a Cinderella project.”
I heaved a sigh, lowering my gaze and wanting to cry. Why does Mom make it sound like the story behind my name was not important? My father was better at telling the story. Whenever he asked me about it, I always felt delighted listening to how he wanted me to be like Cinderella, a strong-willed girl with lots of faith and always believing that good things happen to good people.
Belle tugs the hem of my shirt, and when I move my head closer to her, she whispers in my ear, “They look the same, Elle.”
“I know,” I answered in a low voice, but enough for them to hear me. “Don’t look at them in the eye, Belle. The beast brought his reflection from the mirror.”
Billy burst out laughing, finding the humor in what I said.
“Don’t worry, little sister. I’m not a beast, not even a reflection. My name’s Caleb,” says the one sitting across from Belle. He smiles gently at her but scowls at me.
My eyebrows raised at the man sitting in front of me. He is Aiden, then. Just a while ago, I admired them for being hot and gorgeous, but now I just want to shoot daggers into their faces, especially Aiden, who seems unhappy seeing me.
I remember them happily talking as they walked in our direction a while ago, but his beautiful smile disappeared as soon as he saw me.
Caleb raises the topic as we start to eat. “The wedding? When do we have the happy day, Dad?”
His question makes his father happy because Billy’s face lights up with excitement as he starts sharing their plans. Billy looks at my mother adoringly as he relays his plans.
“We hope to have it in December, Caleb.” It was my mother who answered him.
My eyebrows raise as my eyes dart to her, but I shut my mouth. My heart feels a pang, realizing that she had taken her wedding ring and replaced it with the engagement ring Billy gave her. Mitch Miller has forgotten my dad, and her memories of him will be erased forever in ten months.
Caleb reaches for his father, holding and squeezing his hand. “I’m happy for both of you.”
Aiden just looks at him as if we have the same feelings about this union of hearts.
“Congratulations and welcome to the family!” Caleb continues, smiling at my mom and trying to look friendly. He gazes at me and simpers his lips. “Welcome to the Page family, sister.”
I sneered at Caleb, hoping and wanting to tell him his smile didn’t even reach his eyes, but when he started eating, ignoring me, I pressed my lips again. My eyes caught Billy glancing at my mother, and my heart hammered my chest because that look meant there was more.
I breathe in, forgetting to breathe out.
Billy clears his throat. “Mitch and I talked about this, and we hope you understand, but we wanted you to get to know each other,” he stops talking, taking a deep breath as he glances at me. “We’re asking you if we could stay together here for -”
“Ten months?” My eyebrows knitted as I finished his words, and I sounded unhappy about their plan the way I said it.
“You have a problem with that?” Aiden asks me in a hate tone as if I would cause the problem in their plans.
Yes, I have a problem with it. Ten months for wedding preparation is fine, but ten months of living together with them are not. If Billy had two identical twin babies, it would be okay for me to live with them, or Billy could have said, Belle and I would live with them, but not including his two sons would also be acceptable. Feeling his sons' strong hate and dislike, especially from Aiden, worries me. They are not married yet, but his son is already starting a war with me.
“I don’t think I can live with you,” Aiden says, his eyes are fixed on me. Just on me.
“What do you think I can live with you, too?” It is late for me to shut my mouth, but Aiden Page is getting on my nerves, and right now, he is making me really angry. I am like a volcano ready to erupt.
He scowls at me, clenching his fists. Does he think this marriage of our parents is easy for me?
“What is your problem, Aiden Page?” I snarled, ignoring Billy and my mom.
“I don’t like you, Cinderella Miller,” he said without any emotions in his voice.
My lips purse, ignoring his words like shards of glass that pierce my heart. Aiden could have just said he didn’t like my mom to marry his dad, but he told me he didn’t like me, why did it hurt so much?
“Argh! Come on, Aiden, we already talked about this.” Caleb groaned. “Let’s exchange seats. You’re starting a fight with our Cinderella.”
It only ignited the fire in me. I grit my teeth as I glare at Aiden.
“No need, Caleb. It won’t make any difference, since I will still be seeing the same face.” I turned my face to him and scowled. “And I’m not your Cinderella!”
“Enough already, Elle!” My mom hushes me, looking daggers at me to stop me.
“Aiden!” Billy’s voice changes, and we can sense he is angry at how his son acted.
Aiden heaves a sigh as he finishes drinking the pineapple juice in his glass. I could not just let go of my anger, and I had to do something without breaking my mother’s heart. I took the lobster on the table and put it on my plate, causing Belle’s eyes to widen, but she knew I had to divert my anger into something instead of putting a knife in Aiden’s handsome face.
Mom groans, wanting to stop me, but Billy shakes his head.
“This is what I want to do with you!” I snarled in a hushed tone, and even if I didn’t tell who, Aiden knew I was referring to him.
I separated the lobster’s tail from its body, pulling it off, and when it didn’t come right off, I twisted it, gritting my teeth and cursing under my breath. I cracked its claws angrily, and when I successfully separated its parts, I realized I had wasted expensive food. By the time I finished hurting and harassing the poor lobster, I felt better.
Hernan immediately took the plate away, giving me a new one.
“Feeling better?” Aiden asks, causing me to groan. I think he will not stop until I die of irritation.
“Yes!” I growled, thinking I looked ugly as my nostrils flared outwards.
When I look up, I catch Caleb staring at me, and as our eyes meet, he smirks, gesturing at Hernan to give him the plate of the lobster I massacred.
“I guess I won’t be hating you, Elle. You’re strong and made it easier for me to eat this.”
Aiden frowns at him as Caleb starts enjoying the food. My cheeks blush when Caleb grins at me, asking me if I want to have some.
“She’s allergic,” Belle answers for me.
They are identical twins, but Aiden seems to be the polar opposite of Caleb. We have not started the journey yet, but I could say I will never get along well with Aiden because he is a devil disguised as a gorgeous man.
“So…” Billy chimed in when he thought the storm between Aiden and me had calmed down. He excitedly relayed their plans, but I did not bother to listen. It would not matter anyway, and in the end, it would only look like I was the one causing trouble for them.
My cellphone chimed in as Apple replied to my message.
Apple: Hmm... Cinderella finally met her stepbrothers, huh? So, how was it?
Me: Not great, Apple! Before this day ends, I might have killed one of them. Visit me in jail!
I returned my phone to my pants pocket and raised my head, accidentally meeting Aiden’s eyes. For a brief second, our eyes dueled, trying to kill each other just by glaring at each other. I did not back off, so I smirked and enjoyed my victory over our silent war when he finally avoided my gaze.
- Writer
