The sunlight filled the room through the curtains. Melody’s eyes flicker open. She whines and stretches her arms as she awakens.
She stares at the ceiling for a moment, trying to make herself fully awake. She turns to her other side and slightly flinches to see Damian facing her side, sleeping peacefully. This man looks so calm when he sleeps.
Melody rolls her eyes as she thinks that. When he woke up, he wouldn’t stop picking a fight with her. She gets up slowly from the bed and leaves the bedroom. Surprisingly, Damian kept his word about not touching her.
“I feel so good after a good sleep,” she talked to herself as she stretched her arms.
She went downstairs to see no one. It must be too early for her to wake up. Melody glanced at the clock on the wall and it was only 8 in the morning.
“Hm, maybe Mrs. Gabriella and Mr. Flavio got some work to do,” she mumbles.
She is about to sit in the living room but her eyes catch on the framed picture on the small desk beside the couch. Her hands reach to grab it.
The picture shows their family. Once again, she saw the same little boy with Damian in the picture. Melody furrows her eyebrows and tilts her head. She kept wondering who is this little boy.
“Melody, dear?”
Melody flinches and almost drops the framed picture. She turned around and saw Mrs. Gabriella standing there, dressed up so well. As if, she plans on going somewhere.
“M-Mrs. Gabriella…” she chuckles awkwardly.
“Oh dear, please call me Ella, yeah? We are family,” Mrs Gabriella smiled and went to move beside her.
“Sure… Ella,” Melody feels hesitant to say her nickname.
Mrs. Gabriella chuckles to see her in an awkward moment. Then, her gaze met with the framed picture in Melody’s hands.
“You looking at our family picture,” she speaks up. “Is there something wrong with it, dear? Since I saw you keep staring at it.”
“I’m sorry if I touch something I shouldn’t. It’s just… I saw this same picture back at home,” Melody explains.
“Besides, it’s beautiful,” she added.
Mrs. Gabriella looks at her with delight, “Really? Do you like it? I like it too. It’s my favourite out of all.”
“Why? Is there something special in it?” Melody looks at her in curiosity.
The woman gently took the framed picture from her hand. The smile on her face stays on her face. All memories flash back in her mind. Of course, she doesn’t want to show tears in front of Melody.
“It’s more than that, dear,” she sighs. “It’s where I could see Damian smile and enjoy his life.”
“I’m sorry but I wonder who is this boy beside him?” Melody points at it.
“That? He’s Damian’s twin. His name is Damien but with an ‘e’,” Mrs. Gabriella explains.
Twin? She didn’t expect that answer. If Mrs. Gabriella answers that the boy is his little brother then, she is fine with it. But, expecting Damian to have a twin is kind of shocking news to her.
Besides, that boy looks so similar to him. Just the eye colour is different. His twin, Damien got brown eyes while he got pure black eyes.
“He got a twin!?” Melody is jaw-dropping.
“Shock?” she chuckles. “I know Damian is not someone who loves to tell people about his life.”
“It’s new information about him and I didn’t expect him to be open about his life since I just… a contract wife,” Melody shrugs her shoulder. It’s not that she put high expectations on him.
She agreed to this marriage with the deal he made.
“Even you are just a contract wife to him, but to me, you are more than that. I know you will be something else in his life, dear,” Mrs Gabriella smiles, patting her shoulder.
Melody clears her throat as if it will happen. “So, where is Damien now?”
The question makes Mrs. Gabriella look away. She lets out a deep sigh and puts the framed picture on the desk.
“There’s some incident happened and… Damien got died in it,” she chuckles laced with sadness.
“O-Oh…”
“It’s okay. Don’t feel guilty about asking it. His death affected Damian’s life causing him to shut everybody out,” Mrs Gabriella added.
No wonder why he looks so gloomy, intimidating and cold every day. Somehow, Melody felt guilty for thinking bad stuff about him. She rolls her eyes and sighs.
“But I could see the change in him now because of you,” the woman looks at her with hope in her eyes.
“That… uh…”
Mrs. Gabriella chuckles, “I know it sounds too fast but… mother instinct is never wrong.”
Hearing those words shut Melody up. There’s no way her existence changed that old man. She and him just stuck with each other because of the contract. The contract is like a rope that ties both of them.
He wants to fulfil his father’s requirements while she just wants to escape from her stepfather.
“Oh well, don’t think much about it. Let’s prepare breakfast, yeah?” the woman smiles before leaving for the kitchen.
____
They are on their way back home. Melody fiddled with her fingers. Thank goodness, Mrs Gabriella got a dress that suited her since she didn’t have any spare clothes in Damian’s parent’s house.
Damian is doing his work in his tab. She glances at him who looks so focused on it. She couldn’t see any expression on his face.
“Are you a workaholic person?” Melody starts the conversation.
“Why did you say that?” he questioned, keeping his gaze on his tab.
“Because I keep seeing you with tabs or paperwork. You always buried yourself in that kind of stuff,” she leans on the window, “Don’t you know how to let your steam off for a moment?”
“I have no time to let my steam off,”
Damian speaks in a deadpan tone. His fingers keep moving on that tab. Melody rolls her eyes and crosses her arms.
“Hm, no wonder you have no wife. If I don’t agree to your deal, I bet you will die old,” she blurts out.
“Wife? I have no time to have that kind of burden,” Damian finally turns to her.
“That just excuses…” she mumbles to herself.
Suddenly, his phone rang. Damian pulls out his phone and answers as he sees Victor calling.
“What?”
“Hey, I found the location of that guy,” Victor informs.
“Where?” Damian puts down the tab.
Victor looks at the computer in front of him, “He went to Thailand. We got to scan his ticket and it says he’s going to Thailand.”
“Thailand, huh?” he chuckles. “If that is so, looks like we have to go there and have a nice talk with him,”
Melody’s ears perked up as soon as she heard that. She looks at him. Did he just say he will go to Thailand?
“When do you plan to go?” Victor asks.
“Today. I have to settle this as soon as possible so that I don’t have to see his face again,” he grumbles. He felt like he had enough of this problem.
Victor chuckles to hear that. “I understand. I will prepare the private jet right away.”
They hang up after that. Damian sighs and puts his phone in his pocket. That’s when he felt like something was wrong. He slowly turns his head to see Melody looking at him with sparkling eyes.
As if she was excited about something.
“Why are you looking at me like that?” Damian frowns and scoots away from her.
“Did you say you are going to Thailand!?” Melody squeals.
“Yes.”
She squealed brightly, “Yeay!! We are going on vacation!!”
“Hold on, we?” he arches his eyebrows.
“Yes, we. Why?” she titled her head.
Damian chuckles at her statement. ” Oh, no. There’s no ‘we’. I’m going alone and you will stay home,”
“What!? That’s not fair!!!”
“Nothing is fair in this world, little one,” he smirks and continues focusing on his tab.
Melody puffed her cheeks, glaring at him. She wanted to go on a vacation even if it’s not a vacation.
“Why I can’t tag along?” she questioned.
“Because it’s not a vacation. It’s work. I didn’t go there to have fun,” Damian rolls his eyes.
“But, that didn’t mean you can’t bring me along! I promise I will behave!!” she pleaded but the man seemed not to buy it, “Please. Pretty please. I will become obedient!”
“Still no,”
“Please”
“No,”
“Pretty please,”
“No,”
Melody huffs, getting frustrated with his simple answers. She just wants to join him for outstation. It’s not like she will be a burden. Damian glanced at her for a moment and could see she sulking like a little kid.
Suddenly, Melody got an idea. She smirks and turns to Damian.
“It’s okay. I understand if you don’t want to bring me along,” her fingertips traced her lap.
Damian looks at her suspiciously.
“But…” she leans closer to him with a smirk still on her face.
“But what?” Damian narrows his eyes on her. He could feel a bad vibe from her.
“But, don’t blame me if something happened to your mansion or accidentally burnt it down,” Melody grins, “You know you can’t leave me alone by myself. I can do anything if I don’t have anyone to supervise me.”
His fingers twitch.
“And you can’t depend on the guards,” she added.
Finally, Damian lets out a deep sigh.