Free Web NovelChapter 11: Starring The Greatest Actor
ADRIEN’S POV
There’s tension, and then there’s the feeling of wading in a vat of syrup so thick that every breath feels like you’re already drowning.
What I’m feeling is more like that than a simple tension.
"It’s good to see you, Orion." She smiles gently, gazing at the madman like a blooming flower.
I lied when I said Louise’s voice sounded sickly-sweet. It doesn’t. She sounds both soft and elegant, but because I’ve seen what she hides underneath, I can’t see her as anything else but a vulture.
With sharp, hazel eyes, and hair the shade of mahogany, she’s a vision. Disgusting, but still beautiful. Like a poem created by a problematic poet.
But even though she’s a beauty, she’s nothing more than a scavenger to me. Just like her mother.
"Have a seat, Louise," Leon responds instead, rising to drag out her seat like a gentleman.
She sits, but she never stops looking at Orion— gaze zeroed in on him like a hawk.
"Help me Leon," Orion says dryly "your fiancé is giving me bedroom eyes."
"And right in front of my fiancé too." A wicked grin splits across his face.
And that’s when Louise finally notices me.
I as well as the other two bastards see the way her eyes flash with something dark, and her lips curl in disgust when she sees me. But then, the moment she processes Orion’s words, disgust gives way to disbelief.
"He is your fiancé?" Her fingers clench around her purse, turning her knuckles white. "Him? Adrien?"
Orion throws an arm over my shoulder, plastering himself to my side with a shit-eating grin. "Yes, he is."
At least someone is having fun with this.
He’s basically crowing in delight. "I wasn’t sure he’d be it for me at first," his grip on my shoulder tightens, "but now, I think he’s just perfect."
Looking at Louise now, I remember why I hated a lot of people whom I knew before I left, but if there’s one reason why I hate this vulture, it’s that she never loses her composure.
If anyone else had been presented with the half-sibling they hate who’s been missing for seven years and is now hanging on the hand of their ex-boyfriend— they’d scream bloody murder.
"I see."
But Louise goes from being disgusted, to surprised, and now, calm.
It infuriates me.
They’re always like this. All these monsters. They’re always so quick to get a hold of their emotions, making the rest of us feel small for feeling too much.
I hate them all.
"Well then," Orion murmurs, voice sweet like poisonous honey, "won’t you congratulate us?"
Louise’s composure doesn’t even falter. "I would, but...I’m a bit confused about this," her gaze flickers to me, "you are aware that he has been missing for a while now, right?"
She looks at me like I’m lesser than gum scraped from the bottom of her shoes. It’s a look I’m painfully familiar with.
"I won’t lie," Leon chimes in leisurely, "I too am very interested in your...love story. After all, an engagement in the Vassilis family is no joke."
While I’m sitting here trying to process whatever those ominous words mean, Orion launches into a very embellished retelling of how he ’found’ me.
"...And then he jumped into my arms and kissed me." He ends it with a manic chuckle.
"He kissed you?" Leon and Louise ask at the same time. One staring at me calculatingly, and the other sitting straight with a tight smile.
"He did," Orion nods happily, "tell them, darling. Tell them how happy you were to see me."
I would rather exchange his hand around my shoulders for a noose around my neck than speak, but from the way his fingers painfully dig into my shoulder, I know he isn’t asking.
It’s an order framed as a question.
"I honestly didn’t expect to see him there," I lean into his hold, "it was a surprise, like a bullet to the face..."
Orion snorts. Bastard.
"But then he was so touchy and playful with me, that I decided to give whatever this is a chance."
"He was touchy...with you?" When Louise speaks to me, I feel smaller than I am. It makes me want to shove my fingers into her mouth and rip out her tongue.
But I can’t do that. Instead, there are other things I could do...like piss her off even more.
"Yes," I take Orion’s other hand lying on the table in mine, "he’s always so touchy with me, and you know I’m not one for physical contact..."
I rub circles suggestively into the back of his hand, feeling the way everyone’s gaze follows my finger. "But when he touches me, I find that I don’t really mind."
I look up and lock eyes with my seething scavenger of a sister. Her posture is flawless, and her features are serene, but her eyes carry a certain amount of bloodthirst which makes me smile.
"Though, I’m sure you already know how touchy Orion can be when he’s in love." I run a finger down Orion’s matching engagement ring, then gasp. "Oh sorry...I shouldn’t have said that."
"And why should you not say that? You know I like it when you talk about us. It makes me feel...excited. " Orion says, turning my face to his gently.
He wants a show doesn’t he? Well, I was going to give him one anyway.
"Well," I glance at Louise, "you did say you’ve never loved anyone before, and since you dated her for almost a decade, it just seemed...wrong to say." freewebnovel.cσ๓
The unholy gleam in Orion’s eyes can scare the devil. He’s so excited, I can feel the manic energy coming off him. He’s like a dog with a very tasty bone.
What kind of man likes watching people tear into each other?— Orion Vassilis, that’s who.
"Don’t you think that’s a rude thing to say, Adrien?" Louise asks, jaw tight with barely repressed fury.
Leon says nothing, watching both of us with a look I can’t and don’t care enough to read. He can die with that look on his face for all I care.
"Yes, I do," I sigh tiredly as I lean against his shoulder, "but you see, Orion likes it when I’m being honest. He says it’s a turn-on."
Her eyes light up with rage like a match to a dry branch.
"You think— "
The entire hall goes silent. All the murmurs and side chatter die at once and only the steady tap of a walking stick on the floor can be heard.
"It seems almost all of you are here."
Everyone rises at once, backs straight and chins tucked, because the star of the event— the celebrant has arrived.
The woman whom I’m supposed to fool into believing I’m happy and in love with her psychotic nephew— Dimitra Vassilis— just walked into the hall.
I’ve somehow survived the first act, and now the curtains have officially risen. May the play be successful.
