POV: Raphael
“I don’t care what you two have going on, Dominic. Just keep him away from me, I’m not related to him and I don’t want to be!” She called out from the top of the stairs, giving orders to Dominic as if he were her bestie or something. I opened my mouth in shock, and I didn’t need anyone telling me that it was all her. Whatever she is doing to her family is not an order from Dominic.
It’s all her!
She fucking hate their guts right now. It’s as if she suddenly changed into a completely different person, she doesn’t even want to hear anything I have to say, and she used to be so cheerful and chatty around me, what changed?
“What in the world did you do to her?” I asked in shock, looking at him as if he were some strange creature from another planet.
“Really, Raphael?
Really?” Dominic asks in annoyance.
“Did you forget about our plans to help the girls already, are you going to side with your girlfriend and blame me for making her sister bold and fearless?” he responded angrily, smiling confidently to himself as she left our presence.
After Claire left, I decided to listen to what he had to say to me. The truth is that we are both finding it hard to put ourselves out there and get rejected. We both still care about each other and I can tell that he wants this friendship as much as I do. He is only being careful so he doesn’t let out too much information. He is still thinking about my betrayal and he is scared that I will go back on my promise and betray him again.
For me, I really want this to work, I want him to open up to me and let me back into his home like we used to. But he is withholding some information from me and he is making me feel guilty and a little bit scared because I don’t know if he has me in mind for his revenge plot. I feel he is planning to take my life or the life of someone close to me. There are only three people in my life that he can hurt to get back at me.
My grandfather, mom, and Victoria. Who is he going to hurt, I wondered if I should just relocate my family and leave him to his plans. But that’d just going to piss him off even more and I don’t think I can handle him that way, I just can’t. I sat down in front of him, looking right into his eyes for traces of hate or anger, but there was none.
“You have my attention now, Dom. Tell me what you are planning and how do you plan to use the girls to achieve this?” I asked him. He scoffed at my question, looking as if he didn’t want to share his secrets. But I kept probing until he let the cat out of the bag. We had a long talk about his plot for revenge and the part I have to play to help him succeed.
“Without your support and the support of the Myers, Carlos has nothing. So I plan to take away his funding first, then I sink all his businesses and get him to run out of town before his debtors come knocking. I need you to invest in him, I’ve also instructed the banks to offer him more loans that he can never pay back. When he thinks everything is going his way, then he’ll start losing everything dear to him, including his family. I will make him beg for death, I’ll make his life so miserable that he would be forced to take his own life just to have peace of mind,” Dominic explained, smiling to himself as he did.
Forget the fact that he is just beginning to put his plans together, I could tell from the glow in his eyes that he loves what he is about to do. He derives joy from hurting people, he has always been like that. It’s one of the reasons why I didn’t go back from teaming with Carlos to betray him. He has a way of making you so depressed that you go insane with sadness. That’s what Carlos is about to face. I hope he survives it, I would hate to see him dead because of what I did.
We spoke about the girls again. Actually, we have been talking about them since I found out he has feelings for Claire. We started talking about them after I left Victoria in the house angrily. Yes, I actually called him out that day when I found out Victoria had planned to sell her diamonds to save her sister. I was so angry with her for making that decision without my consent and I told him how I’d wanted to help her take the company from her father. But he laughed at me and called me an idiot for wanting to pick a fight with Austin Kendall when the girls were not his.
“You think Austin would step down from the company because you asked nicely, huh?” he asked in a mocking tone. I laid all my cards on the table, asking for his help and how we would help the girls. We didn’t know about their paternity, we have no idea what is going on between Austin Kendall and his wife, Eloise. She wouldn’t speak to me about their real paternity, and she would say it to them too. We tried to get them to talk to both girls, but Austin couldn’t care less about them, and Eloise was so scared of losing her girls.
She loved them too much to let them leave so sadly. We couldn’t find their files in any hospital around, but, we had already decided to help them get back the company from Austin. That’s why we need Victoria and Claire to toughen up for legal battles with him. At least getting the company and all their mother’s assets would offer some consolation for all she put them through. This way she won’t get away with ruining their lives.
Getting the company would give the girls the money they need to find their real families. Not that I could not find their search for their families, but I think it’s only fair that they use the Kendall’s money to carry out their search for their families, after all, it’s their fault that the girls are this confused and broken.
“And about Claire’s unusual behavior,” he began, telling me how he made Claire believe that Victoria knew the truth all this while and she hid the truth from her. He made her believe that Victoria and I knew the truth about their unknown paternity and we decided to his the truth from her because we don’t think she is old enough to handle the truth. That’s how he got Claire to hate Victoria.
“That’s mean and brutal man, even Victoria doesn’t yet believe that the Kendalls had lied to her all her life. You are turning them against each other and that is not the agreement. We need both girls on the same page if they are ever going to defeat Austin Kendall.” I told him sternly.
“Yeah, same way I need you on the same page with me, right?” he asked, his eyes fixed on me, eyeing me suspiciously. He still doesn’t trust me and I totally understand his reasons. We came to an agreement that I would help him get back his money and territory from Carlos. And we would he’ll the girls get back the company and the houses from Austin. But first, we need to see the adoption papers and confirm that Austin and Eloise are the legal guardians of both girls. That is where we can start from.