The next day, Eva completely forgot about Alexander since there was chaos at the house all morning. Aunt Claudia’s housekeeper, Maria, brought a young girl, Cara, to help her. Eva didn’t get to interact much with the girl since she was shy and stayed in the kitchen, mostly.
After breakfast, they put on the wedding fineries and have the last rehearsal, but strangely, Sienna’s expensive jewelry went missing. Aunt Claudia suspected Cara’s hand in it. There was utter chaos as Sienna fell sick because of the stress and aunt Claudia insulted Cara and had her bag searched. She left the house in tears while everyone was busy with Sienna. The doctor arrived. Lucas was upset and admitted to having stored the jewelry in his closet since Sienna had left it lying on the bed. The mystery was solved, but Marcus, Lucas’s brother, was upset that they unnecessarily insulted Cara. He stormed out of the house and went in search of her. Aunt Claudia felt guilty and upset, but slowly everything settled down. However, Marcus didn’t return at all and everyone was worried about him.
They tried to enjoy themselves with different activities throughout the day. Skylar came in with her fiance, Christian St. James, an arrogant hotelier who was the only son of a family friend of hers. They all instantly clicked with him and the fun activities multiplied. He churned out cool dance numbers, and the girls giggled, seeing him and Nicholas Donnelly dance with one another.
“You guys are such lousy dancers.” Lucas rolled his eyes, seeing them stamp on each other’s feet.
“We’re bored dancing with each other,” said Nicholas, his eyes twinkling with amusement as he eyed Alyssa.
“If I get another partner, I can prove my dancing skills,” said Christian, his glance going straight to Skylar, who looked away.
“Go, dance with him!” Alyssa pushed her towards Christian, but she shook her head vigorously.
“Lucas, dance with me,” said Sienna, grabbing his hand. Nicholas chuckled, knowing how clumsy his brother was.
“You won’t be able to walk down the aisle if he does,” he teased.
“C’mon, I’m not that bad,” protested Lucas. Eva and Hayley danced with one another and Alyssa too joined in while Nicholas eyed them with jealousy. Sienna practiced their dance moves with Lucas and with every false move, the girls giggled more.
“Lucas, you’re doing it all wrong,” said Sienna with despair.
“I’m trying to do it right. Why did you choose such a difficult song? It has no melody, no rhythm,” said Lucas. “We should have danced to ‘Bailamos’.”
“What’s wrong with this song? It’s a slow, romantic number and perfect for weddings,” said Sienna. So the argument went on and on till they all got bored and started the song, ‘Marry You,’ by Bruno Mars. Everyone started dancing when suddenly Alyssa froze as she looked towards the door.
“What happened? Why aren’t you dancing?” asked Eva, following her line of vision. She, too, froze at seeing Alexander and Ashton walking inside the house angrily. With Alexander’s eyes pinned upon her, Eva stopped dancing immediately. Her heartbeats raced with apprehension, remembering the hurtful words he had said to her. She didn’t know why he was here, but his presence filled her heart with dread.
“Enemies! Enemies!” yelled Nicholas, making everyone look towards the two enemies walking into their territory. Lucas stopped dancing and walked towards them, with Nicholas alongside him. Everyone froze, not knowing what would happen now.
“What brings you here, Alexander and Ashton?” asked Lucas, with a grave look on his face.
“We won’t cause you any problems. We’ve just come to take away Alyssa, Eva, and Hayley,” said Alexander.
“We’re not children that we will quietly go back with you, Alex,” said Alyssa defiantly.
“We will return only after the wedding,” said Eva, her eyes challenging an angry Alexander, who looked angrier at her comment. Did he seriously think that she would return with him after his insult?
“Sienna means more to us than your silly, immature enmity,” said Hayley.
“So? Have you heard them? What do you have to say now?” asked Lucas.
“I won’t let you stay here a minute more,” said Alexander, his hands turning into fists, his eyes pinned upon Eva. She somehow had the feeling that he was here because of her.
“I won’t allow you to use force here, Alexander,” Nicholas retorted.
“I’m talking to my sister. Get out of the way Nicholas,” said Alexander, wrenching his gaze away from Eva to focus on the enemy. His blood boiled at seeing Nicholas in front of him with his sister. How could she stay here knowing that he hated them?
“She’s our guest right now,” reminded Nicholas.
“Calm down, boys. Alex, good to see you after such a long time! Why don’t you stay with us till the wedding tomorrow? The sky is overcast, and it’s risky going back now. Tomorrow after the wedding you could take the girls with you,” said granny. Alexander smiled at Lucas’s granny. There was a time when he and Ashton were six to seven years of age and used to visit Lucas’s house only for granny’s cupcakes. Afterward, they just fell apart as they grew older till, at high school, they turned bitter enemies.
“Hello, granny! So nice to see you,” said Ashton, giving her a hug, and so did Alexander.
“Fine, we will stay the night and return home with them tomorrow,” said Alexander grimly, looking at Lucas briefly before pinning Eva with a hard stare, to check her reaction. Of course, his decision to stay in the enemy territory had nothing to do with his feelings for Eva. He wasn’t here because of her. Although he kept on reminding himself of that, deep in his heart, he knew it wasn’t true. He came here to check what Eva was up to, unable to trust her with the hot Donnelly brothers. What if one of them fancied her and approached her?
“Fine, but if you create any trouble, I’ll do the same to you at your wedding!” threatened Lucas. Sienna curbed the grin that was trying to break free on her face. What sort of threatening was that? Were they really enemies?
“Done. Give us a room and we’ll stay out of your way,” said Alexander while Alyssa grimaced at her brother’s words. She knew she would feel claustrophobic with him, breathing fire down her neck all the time. Eva stood a little farther away from them and refused to even look at Alexander. She could feel his gaze upon her now and then, but she knew better. She now knew what exactly he thought about her.
“Alyssa, show them the room next to yours,” said Lucas and a displeased Alyssa led them to the elevator and everyone breathed a little sigh of relief that no one would be getting murdered. Eva hated the fact that Alexander would stay right next to them. She tried to avoid him to the best of her ability while Alyssa took them upstairs.
“I’m really stressed out!” said Hayley, melodramatically, sitting down on the rug spread on the floor. Eva, too, sat down with her. She was more stressed and needed something to distract her from worrying about Alexander’s presence. She just hoped that he remained locked up in his room till the wedding, but that was impossible knowing Alexander’s nature.
“Let’s play a game to cheer you’ll up,” suggested Christian, joining them on the rug. Skylar joined them as well, but Sienna preferred to play board games with granny and Lucas’s little daughter, Alexia.
“What game are we playing?” asked Eva.
“Truth or dare,” said Nicholas, joining them, and Hayley clapped her hands with glee.
“We’ll start with you then,” she said to Nicholas, who shook his head. They were all eager to know what was cooking between him and Alyssa. Alyssa came down right at that moment and Eva called her.
“Alyssa, join us,” she said, patting the place next to her. She grinned and sat down beside Eva while Nicholas, who was sitting beside Hayley, glared at her, looking more annoyed than ever before. Alyssa’s eyes widened as he pushed the others aside and made space for himself beside her. While they fought, the others argued about who should toss the coin and start the game.
However, they all stilled when the elevator came down and Alexander and Ashton emerged. Alexander’s glance immediately fell upon the group on the rug and he approached them angrily, followed by Ashton. Alexander glared at Nicholas sitting beside Alyssa and was about to force them apart when at that precise moment Lucas appeared and rolled his eyes at him.
“Lisa, come here right now,” growled Alexander.
“Don’t f*cking control me, Alex,” she growled back.
“Okay, cool down, Alyssa. Come and sit with me,” said Skylar, making some space between her and Christian. Alexander watched Eva sitting on the other side of Nicholas angrily and thought of a way to talk to her. He saw Ashton pull a chair, and he too picked one up and sat opposite them just to keep a watch.
“Eva, I need to talk to you,” growled Alexander, but Eva just shook her head, infuriating him further.