/Velentina’s POV/
I guess my apology deserved those exaggerated, surprised looks on their faces. I mean, I just apologized...the great Valentina Raven but I’m no Valentina; I’m Macy and I’ll walk the mud if it means I get to keep my head.
Theodore is probably thinking what the hell is this girl up to but dude...I wish I knew myself. How exactly am I supposed to get you to change your mind?
“Tina, are you alright?” Nora asked after a couple of seconds of blank stares and questioning gazes from them, but her question only earned her a glare from me, and she threw her hands up in surrender. I stood from Theo’s side and stared at her face.
“I’m not sure Theo has eaten; let them get him something to eat,” I commanded. Leaving Theo’s room and walking straight to my room while trying to keep together this all ‘Valentina front’ but I’m not sure if I can survive this; I’ll have to try.
Nora, who had followed me back to my room, continued to stare suspiciously at me while my gaze travelled the room, hiding the disgust threatening to spill to my face.
How could anyone even live in this pink dump? I thought to myself as the colour splash made me want to puke. Except from the extra comfy beds and pillows, nothing about the room’s great.
“I think I want to redecorate,” I mumbled.
“What?” Nora voiced.
“I want to redecorate...This-” I throw my hands out, gesturing towards the whole setting of the room. “Isn’t working for me anymore-
“But you just redecorated. You said you liked the colour, and it was now your favourite colour,” Nora reminded. Well, that wasn’t me; if I have to sleep in this pink room once again, I’ll get PTSD.
"Well, I changed my mind,” I declared, and Nora sighed. The thing is, keeping Valentina’s image isn’t all that hard. I just have to do whatever the f**k I want, but the thing is... I have to be able to stomach lots of things.
“Miss Tina” A knock came on my opened door as if to draw my attention. The guy who knocked seems to be one of the guards lying around.
A baldy in charge of the household. Most household soldiers of the Raven family are often retired veterans who’re no longer fit for field.
I thought long and hard, hoping to find the baldy in the encyclopedia of characters I had stored somewhere in my brain, but I was having issues pulling it up.
I’m guessing he’s not among any of the main characters or minors because I could still remember some of their descriptions.
“We’ve rounded up the boys you wanted us to; there are downstairs in the drill hall.
“That’s great, baldy; whose boys again?” I had to ask because I have no idea what he’s talking about. If I hadn’t read the novel, I wouldn’t even know anything about Tina.
“The boys that bullied that ‘Theo boy’, you wanted to have them punished?” Wait? Wasn’t Nora supposed to do that? And it’s only been a few minutes since I asked. I gulped realising just how much power Tina held.
To be able to have everything at her command, when she wants it and how she wants it? It was hard to keep my expression from faltering at the realisation. Fear crept in again.
Will I really be able to pull this off? Tina’s family aren’t exactly normal.
I was still thinking that when I remembered a line in the novel about how Tina always had people of her father’s residence punished anytime her order wasn’t executed immediately. Oh God, what type of life has this b***h lived?
“Tina?” I tried not to flinch so hard to Nora’s call.
“Shush, I’m thinking of what to do.” I lied; it was the only excuse I could come up with, with my distracted mind.
“Get Theo...and Nora.” I glanced in her direction before she commanded Baldy to go drag Theo. “Bring him gently,” I instructed; our lives depend on it, but I kept the rest of my thoughts to myself.
“We should head to the drill hall.” I turned to Nora, who nodded and led me out of my room towards the hall centred at the back of the main residence.
I guess that’s where soldiers of the main residence trained.
“You’re acting strange Tina” Nora blurted, leaving me frozen in my tracks but I was quick to recover.
It’ll be weird if she didn’t notice something was different; they’d been together since they were children; she could pick any of Tina’s habits and would often guess her thoughts, but I guess this time, she’s unable to predict my actions, and anytime Tina does something completely out of character in the book, she’ll say.
“What? I’m just bored,” I shrugged, and Nora sighed, wearing an expression as if to say, ‘Well, I guess that hasn’t changed about you’.
“We’re here” I pulled myself to a stop as I glanced around frantically searching for some kind of large hall or something but what’s right in front of me was just a huge field with professionally mawned lawn that spread out so wide I couldn’t see the end of it.
While it has some equipment I guess was for training, there wasn’t exactly any roof in sight. Wait, does that mean they train under the open sun? That’s brutal, I thought to myself.
It’ll be suspicious if I don’t know this place so I just kept my mouth shut and kept following Nora.
"Y'know, it’s weird that you’re not hissing and puffing about how you hate this place so much. You said the place smells like sweat so you always hated this place-
"Oh, really, don’t really remember.” It was better to play the ‘I don’t remember card with Nora’ since that’s wiser than pretending to know. I’m not sure when she’ll start to test me.
Nora made sure they brought me a chair to sit in front of 17 people, some of Theo’s peers, some probably not much older than Theo, but there were still quite a few really older faces as well.
I’m trying not to feel annoyed with them because all 17 of them gathered around one single person to bully him. These coward bastards! I grinned as I felt anger roar alive in my bones, and then I looked into their faces.
They look anxious, scared even. I swallowed hard, trying to get my nerves in control; convincing myself they couldn’t hurt me even if they tried because, well, I’m Valentina, but they all looked pretty rugged and rough, and most were ugly.
It almost had me thinking they were bullying Theo for his face, but something in my mind whispers that they were pretty average; they just don’t meet the standards because Theo is the 'standard’.
I shouldn’t blame them; I guess they were also just doing what they could to survive. If I should blame anyone, I should blame this ‘Godforsaken b***h’ for letting it happen in the first place.
Then I saw two men leading Theo towards in our direction. His expression remained the same: cold, and nonchalant, but his bruised eyes continue to stalk me suspiciously.
“Theo-
“What do you want from me?” He demanded, and the two big men in fitted black round-neck tops and tech pants, right next to him, almost cracked his skull open for even daring to cut me off. I was barely able to stop them with a glare.
“Like I said, no one touches what belongs to me and all of them.” My index travelled the crowd in front of me. “Has something to do with your bruised handsome face... "Well, that was 100% true because, f**k it, Theo, I’m your number one fan; how could they hurt your face like that?
Theo looked shocked though and I could see the panic on of the guys' faces. So, y’all think it’s okay to bully another person and just skitter around scot-free and when it’s your turn, you look like you’re facing a death sentence.
“What are you going to do to them?” Theo’s words were laced with anxiety which he failed miserably at hiding, and honestly, I get it, because he probably thinks I’ll kill them all.
“Oh, nothing really; it's... what are you going to do to them?” It wasn’t in my position to do anything. Even if I have the power, I’m not sure passing judgment will help Theo. I have to make him feel in control if this is going to work.
“As long as you don’t kill them, you’re free to do anything you want, I’d love to give you ideas but I don’t spoil. So, do whatever you want, Theo... they hurt you, you can hurt them back just as much or you could forgive them if you want, it’s totally up to you,” I suggested.
I kind of hope he’d go for the latter, because if he forgives them, they’d treat him well, and maybe he can finally make some friends and he can... my thoughts were cut off when Theo landed a hard blow on the face of the guy in the first row since they were arranged in rows, all on their knees.
“You said I can do what I want as long as I don’t kill’em, so... can I leave them half-dead then?” His cold question had shivers running down my spine and I wondered for a second if I’d done the right thing. I also kept forgetting...this is the freaking Mafia.
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