Hello, Little Sister
1773 Words
SERAPHINA
It has been a week since I received that message. A week since my step father dropped a bómb named: arrange marriage. One would think in this age and year, the practice must’ve stopped and maybe it has in the world around but not where the rich families and their hunger for expanding their business was concerned.
Still… my impending arrange marriage wasn’t what had me looking over my shoulder every hour of the day.
I felt eyes on me every time I went to university this week, and more than once I thought I saw one of the Lords in the café where I got the part time job.
I could barely sleep. It has become more difficult in the last week than it was for the last two years. And believe me, when I say every night since that faithful night I have felt like they were here in the same room with me, taunting me with their presence that I dared to go against them.
But it had only become more, my fear had escalated to the levels where every time I closed my eyes, I saw them. Dante. Oliver. Allister. Their faces blurred in the shadows of my mind, twisted with rage and something darker— something I didn’t dare name.
The message from the unknown number burned behind my eyelids.
Did you miss me, little sister?
I shouldn’t have reacted. I shouldn’t have let it shake me. But it did.
Now, everyday I debate if it was a sick prank from someone in the Uni or it was really him coming back.
“Hey!” A girl with purple highlights slapped the counter in front of me. “I asked for one iced latte.”
“Yeah, sorry,” I blinked focusing on my work. “Just a minute.”
She gave me a look and then turned to her friend. I barely paid attention to them as I made her iced latte. But then their words jolted me to attention when I heard the other girl say, “My older brother said that the Lords are back.”
“Really? It’s been two years, and there was no news about them till now, are you sure?”
“Yeah, my brother always have the right info.”
“Well… we’ll have something to talk about in the town, it was getting boring anyways.”
With stiff fingers I put the cup on the counter.
But the girls were busy as they chatted, continuing, “My brother said, some girl sent them to the prison for something they didn’t do. And Lords always get even, it will be a huge drama unfolding when they get back.”
My heart nearly stopped.
I froze, the tray I had just picked up wobbling in my hands before I tightened my grip. I said, “Your drink.”
The two girls jumped, and as I focused on them I realised they must be in highschool, or younger, which was why they didn’t recognise me probably.
The purple hair girl scowled at me and slid the money on the counter before picking up her drink and walking out with her friend.
“Hey, Sera, can you take table three. I have to go to the washroom.” Kate said as she slid her tray in my hand and rushed inside.
I took in a deep breath, trying to shrug off the foreboding feeling taking hold of me as I walked out from behind the counter.
When I reached the table three and pulled out my pad to take their orders, I found out the topic of conversation was the same here. They weren’t even trying to be quiet or subtle as one of them said, “I saw Dante Morelli last night, he was outside his house.”
“The Morelli Estate?” The second one asked.
“Where else?” The third one responded.
I almost told them it can’t be true. I lived in that house, slept there, if he was there last night I’d have know. It could only mean that they were just rumours and they hadn’t come back yet.
“He looked scary,” the first girl murmured. “Like, even more than before.”
A shiver slithered down my spine. Even as I told myself it wasn’t true, the weight of their words settled into my chest like stones. I cleared my throat. “What can I get you?”
As one by one the three girls rattled on their orders, the fourth one held up a finger and started to look through the menu.
As I waited, the second girl said, “It could also be the Frat house that Dante used to throw parties at. It was a gift to him by his father, because he married another woman after his mother’s death.”
The girl looking at the menu let out a giggle. “Imagine being rich enough to be gifted a whole arse house because he got offended with his father’s second marriage.”
The girls laughed.
I gritted my teeth. “Excuse me, have you decided what you want yet?”
The girl looked at the menu then back at me. She said, “Hey, I know you!”
I stared at her, knowing what was to come. Everyone in town knew me. People outside the town and in the whole country knew me, or at least knew of the girl who sent her step brother and his friends to prison. And they definitely knew that Dante Morelli, Allister Hale, and Oliver Romano were sent to prison by a girl who was no one, nothing more than a case of handouts in their world.
Most of the news outlet even came up with their theories and speculation that I sent my step brother to prison because I wanted money from my step father. Some stated I was jealous. Some stated I wanted attention. Some stated I was hurt and acted out of rejection.
If only…
“Aren’t you—” She trailed off as the bell at the door chimed and her eyes went behind me. I watched as her eyes widened and she looked back at her friends as if to say, ‘Do you see what I am seeing?’
I swallowed as cold fingers of dread skated down my spine.
Slowly, I turned around and the world tilted beneath me.
He was here.
Dante Morelli.
My step brother.
The man I was crushing on before I sent him to prison.
Two years have passed, and now here he was.
He stood just inside the doorway, filling the small café with a suffocating presence. And then he took a step inside and then another presence followed his.
Oliver Romano.
I hadn’t seen them in two years. And two years had left their marks on them. It had sharpened their edges, chiseled them into something more lethal and cold because I could feel the iciness of their presence.
Dante stood in the center, broad and commanding, his dark eyes scanning the café like a predator surveying his territory. Like the beast looking for his prey. His hair was slightly longer, his sharp jaw covered with the shadow of a beard.
Oliver was to his left, all lean muscle and cold calculation, his icy blue eyes slicing through the room. He looked even more dangerous than I remembered, like an animal just waiting for a reason to tear into something.
And then there was Allister. I didn’t even realise when he slipped in behind the two of them. But his presence pulled my gaze to him like a moth to a flame. He was leaning against the doorframe like he had all the time in the world. His whiskey eyes, dark in colour, met mine, and a slow, knowing smirk curled his lips.
My stomach twisted.
I remembered all the texts I had been receiving for the last two years. And the threatening notes that someone was leaving me. It didn’t matter when and where, I always found one, either in my locker at uni, my bags, my bed or a post it note on the bathroom mirror.
I didn’t know how someone put those notes in my bedroom of all places, but I had stopped questioning it after a few months of constant verbal torture and bullying at the Uni, knowing they will go to any limits just because they wanted to.
I turned on my heel, heart slamming against my ribs.
I needed to get out.
I needed to—
“Going somewhere, little sister?” Dante’s voice stopped me in my tracks. Deep. Smooth. Deceptively calm.
It felt like a noose was tightening around my throat. I swallowed hard and turned back around, forcing myself to meet his dark gaze.
Dante stepped closer, the café falling into a heavy silence. He stopped just in front of me, his towering frame casting me in shadow. His dark eyes raked over me, slow and deliberate. “It’s been a long time.”
I lifted my chin, trying to keep my voice steady. “I didn’t know you were back.”
His lips twitched. “Why? Would you have welcomed me with open arms or with tears of joy?”
My throat went dry.
Oliver chuckled, low and dangerous. “She could still do that, right, Seraphina?”
Allister tilted his head. “Maybe she needs some privacy to welcome her brother home?”
A sharp tremor ran through me. Their eyes and the aura clouding them told me that I needed to run if I wanted to survive. Every instinct inside me screamed danger.
Dante reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone. My stomach dropped as he turned the screen toward me, displaying the message I had received.
Did you miss me, little sister?
He stepped closer, his scent invading my sense. I couldn’t breathe, my lungs refused to draw in a breath.
Dante’s voice was quiet and dangerous, rough with warning as he said, “Because I missed you.” He directed a cold smirk at me as he added, "Little sister."
_____
Hello, dear readers.
I write Dark Romance- about mafia, bully, arrange marriage, obsessed anti-heroes that you'll always fall in love. And the theme of this book is the same. But this is the first time I am writing a book where the Heroine is going to be with 3 Men.
And if you skipped the Introduction, please note, this book will be DARK, with various themes you might not be comfortable with.
A. Gupta
- Writer
