The day of Aaliyah’s graduation ~~~~
“Do I look okay for the convocation ceremony?” Aaliyah looked at her mom nervously.
“You look pretty,” Laura smiled and hugged her daughter.
Even after suffering such terrible incidents, Aaliyah managed to rank first in her class, and Laura was beyond proud of her.
Of course, some credit goes to Dominic, who gave Aaliyah extra lessons and helped her learn important things more easily.
“I can’t believe this day has arrived,” Laura wiped the corner of her eyes to dab the tears, and Katherine thinned her lips.
“Mom, she is getting an award for her excellence. Why are you behaving like she is leaving home?” Katherine murmured, and Bryce chuckled at the family drama.
Harry, on the other hand, stood in the corner at some distance, looking at his daughter with a proud smile. His eyes were moist with tears too. For two years, he hadn’t attended any of Aaliyah’s school activities just to keep his family safe from the danger that his profession brings.
He looked at his daughters and wife, who were chatting happily, and sighed. This was what he needed in life. After everything he gained and lost, he knows that nothing can replace a happy family.
This profession took a lot of happiness from him, and Harry would always regret it.
“Rather than regretting the past, wouldn’t it be better if you live in the present?” Dominic’s words shook Harry out of his thoughts, and he looked at the man, who was looking at his daughter with a gaze that was too familiar to him.
“You love her a lot, don’t you?” Harry asked. Even though Harry hated the subject that referred to Dominic taking away his daughter, he couldn’t help but ask as he looked at Dominic’s gaze.
“I don’t know,” Dominic’s answer confused Harry.
“I don’t know if I love her a lot or if I am plain obsessed with her now. It’s like breathing without seeing her is futile. I don’t know how to explain what I feel for her in words. I can lay down my life on a silver platter for her if she asks, but I want to live with her for the rest of our lives. I want to kill anyone who disturbs her peace, but on the other hand, I want to be a good man for her,” Dominic smiled as he looked at his woman.
“Her face is like a scenery I would never get tired of, but more than that, I am in love with the beauty inside her. Her memories are enough for me to spend my life with, but I want to be the one and only one to love her and make her happy. My heart feels like it will explode whenever she smiles at me with that dazzling look. Her innocence is something I would sin for,” Dominic sighed when he realized he had started blabbering again and looked at Harry apologetically.
“I am sorry. I was just -”
“As much as I hate that I have to give my daughter to a man who would take her away from me, if that man is you, I don’t think I will mind too much,” Harry scoffed and said reluctantly, and Dominic raised his brows slightly when he realized what Harry said just now.
“Are you agreeing to our relationship and marriage?” Dominic asked.
“Hah! Who said anything about marriage? Not even in a hundred years, I am letting her get married so soon. Katherine is already marrying in three days. Do you think I will agree to marry my other daughter so easily?” Harry huffed before he walked to his daughter, and Dominic smiled at his future father-in-law.
“What are you smiling at?” Dimitri walked to him with Samantha by his side.
“Are you guys a thing now? Why do you always appear together?” Dominic looked at the duo suspiciously, and the slight blush on Samantha’s face made him look at Dimitri with a questioning gaze.
“Seriously?”
“Well, I couldn’t find a girl who was genuine and okay with my profession, so I thought why not pick a girl of our profession who is at least tolerable?” Dimitri said, and Samantha kicked his shin, making him moan in pain.
Aaliyah turned around when she heard the noise. Her eyes immediately softened when she saw Dominic standing there. She waved her hand to the group, and Dominic’s eyes crinkled with a smile.
“F*ck, this man is really in love, isn’t he? Anyone can tell how widely he must be smiling despite his attire,” Dimitri sighed when he saw Dominic walking toward her without thinking twice.
Right now, Dominic was wearing a mask that covered the lower half of his face. He didn’t want anyone to recognize him as Mr. Volkov, which might ruin Aaliyah’s day by people calling it an illegal relationship between teacher and student.
Since she was graduating today, he won’t have to appear with this mask with her anymore, but until she received her award, he wanted to protect her from all kinds of rumors.
“How do I look?” Aaliyah asked, and Dominic cupped her cheeks, massaging her jaws with his thumb.
Katherine, who witnessed this, nudged Laura and Bryce, and they turned to look at the couple, who looked too engrossed in each other to care about anything else around them.
“As beautiful as ever,” Dominic whispered after a long time, and Aaliyah smiled.
“Aaliyah, let’s go for the ceremony. You guys can talk after receiving your award,” Laura hushed Aaliyah inside, and she looked at Dominic one last time, who blinked at her encouragingly.
“Wait, Mom,” Aaliyah walked back to Dominic and pulled his hand up.
She took something out from her purse and placed it inside his hand before closing his palm and rushing back, not before giving him a mischievous smile.
Once Aaliyah left, Dominic was about to open his palm when he noticed that almost everyone was gazing at his palm now, and he cleared his throat.
“What are you doing? Open it,” Dimitri was the most curious one, and Samantha chuckled at his constant gaze.
Dominic knows how mischievous Aaliyah can be sometimes, and thus, he was wary of opening his palm in front of everyone.
However, when he saw that no matter where he walked, Dimitri was following him, he finally gave in and opened his palm slowly.
Seeing the thing in his palm, Dominic smiled before shaking his head.
.
“What is this? A stone? Why would she give him a stone?” Dimitri looked at others, confused.
“It’s not just any stone. It’s a wishing stone. She must’ve found it yesterday when she went to the beach with her family,” Samantha explained before she sighed when he looked at Dominic’s love-filled eyes, looking at the stone as if he had found some rare diamond.
“Let’s go inside, lover boy,” Samantha nudged Dominic as they walked inside.
After the convocation party was over and Aaliyah received her award from the principal, she was walking down the stage when in one corner, she looked at a particular teacher, who hasn’t been very good to her in her last days at school.
“Won’t you congratulate me?” Aaliyah asked the teacher with a sickeningly sweet smile, and the teacher looked at the student in front of her with an unfriendly gaze.
“Why should I? What good did you do? Sleeping with a teacher -” The teacher couldn’t complete her sentence when Aaliyah stepped forward, her gaze immediately turning cold.
“Look, I know why you hate me so much. If you also blame me for what happened to your niece, I think you don’t deserve to be a teacher with such poor observation skills. You should be thankful to me that I didn’t press charges against Maria for an attempt of planning my r*pe, murder, spiking my drinks twice, kidnapping, and -” Aaliyah smiled when she noticed the horrified look on the teacher’s face.
“Not many people hate me, Mrs. Teacher. It wasn’t hard to find the reason behind your hate. I also know that you tried to ruin my internals quite several times, but thanks to my good relations with other teachers, it prevented my grades from falling under your tricks,” Aaliyah smiled before she patted her shoulder.
“And are you really interested in who I sleep with? He is not a teacher, but definitely someone who can get your niece on a silver platter for me and ensure she never gets to see another day. You should choose wisely who to mess with.
I have been staying quiet about all these things, but please tell Maria. One more attempt from her side to ruin my life, and I, the daughter of the leader of the second most feared gang in the nation, will take things personally,” Aaliyah smiled when she saw she had scared the lady enough.
Aaliyah walked to her parents, who hugged her.
“What were you talking to that teacher? I never liked her. Didn’t I tell you about the things she planned against you?”Ashton voiced out, and his words brought the attention of everyone to the teacher.
The teacher, who was too shocked to react to Aaliyah’s words, looked at the family and friends who turned to her, and she gulped when she noticed how rude and dangerous some of the stares were.
A cold sweat appeared on her forehead before she left hurriedly.
“It’s nothing. She was just congratulating me,” Aaliyah smiled before she looked at her man, who was waiting patiently for her attention.
“I finally did it, Mom,” Aaliyah smiled, and Laura nodded.
“You did it,” Laura said, referring to the college she got admitted into and was leaving just after a couple of weeks.
“Can we go on vacation before I join college?” Aaliyah looked at her dad, hopefully.
She wanted to make up for all the time she lost, and he had to stay hidden to protect them, and Harry looked at Laura, who nodded.
“We will talk to Nathan about it. He would -”
“Mom, I meant just us,” Aaliyah quickly added, and everyone looked at her, waiting for her explanation.
“Don’t look at me like that. I just want some personal time with my family. Is it too bad? Should I just go away with Dominic?” Aaliyah scoffed, and Harry immediately held her hand.
“If my daughter wants to go on vacation, we will go. Alone,” Harry looked at Dominic as if challenging him, and everyone looked at Dominic, whose gaze was fixated on Aaliyah.
“That’s a great plan. I want you to enjoy it as much as you can. After all, when we’ll stay together, you won’t get that much time to meet them,” Dominic kissed Aaliyah’s forehead from under his mask, his challenging gaze on Harry, who looked at him with a scowl.
“Did you see, Laura? Look what this guy is insinuating here,” Harry looked offended, and Aaliyah intertwined her fingers with Dominic.
“Stop it, Harry. You started it,” Laura sighed.
“Mom, Dad, I am leaving to celebrate with Dominic. I will be back by night,” Aaliyah said, and before anyone could object, she left with him, making everyone sigh.
“Do you think they would wait till she graduates from college?”
“They should, but it looks like a far-fetched dream,”
“They are inseparable already. Why not marry them?”
Everyone started talking while Harry crossed his arms around his chest, a subtle smile on his face since he was happy for his daughter.