“Achi, you know that I’m not going anywhere, right?”
He nodded his head in acknowledgment but made no move to release me from his grasp.
“You’ve been holding me since you came back last night… Are you sure you don’t want to do something else?”
He gave a soft shake of his head as he silently buried his face even further against my stomach.
I sighed and set my book aside. He really wasn’t budging in the slightest.
I leaned back against the headboard of our shared bed and laced my fingers through his hair, gently taking my fingertips against his scalp. I tried to reassure him, “You know that I won’t disappear if you let me go, right?”
He pressed his lips into a thin line. Eyebrows furrowed in silent discontentment.
Sighing again, I decided to continue stroking his head comfortingly in hopes of easing his nerves.
Just like the night before, he ended up spending the entire morning lying in bed with his head nuzzled deeply in my abdomen, only lifting his head briefly to call his guards to bring us some breakfast when my stomach growled.
But eventually, all things had to come to an end.
His cuddling session was forced to a halt when Watson called him about a group of visitors at the front gate.
Apparently, Achilles’s mother heard that I regained my memories from Achilles’s father, who found out through his daily chats with Liam. She came over as soon as she could since Achilles no longer had an excuse to keep her away.
Through the phone’s speaker, I heard her shouting at Watson about how “her wretched son who kept her away from daughter” and winced when I heard a loud crash from the other end of the phone. It seemed like utter chaos on the other side of the phone call, but Achilles didn’t seem to have a single care for it as he continued to lounge across my stomach, completely unfazed.
Covering the phone’s microphone, I warily asked Achilles, “Did you ban your mother from having free entry to our house?”
He nodded nonchalantly, making no move to address the issue at the gate caused by his own actions.
Trying to get an actual explanation from him, I tried asking again, “Why did you ban your own mother from entering? She’s only worried about us.”
He rolled his eyes and grumbled, “She just wants to steal your attention away from me. I don’t see why I must let her in.”
I sighed, shaking my head at his antics.
Uncovering the phone’s microphone, I told Watson that he could just let Mrs. Cordova through.
A call of hallelujah rang through the call as the faint sound of our gate creaking open echoed in the background. Within minutes, I could see a familiar SUV barreling up our driveway at a frightening speed.
I hurriedly tried to push Achilles off of my lap, but he didn’t budge in the slightest.
Despite knowing how stubborn he can be, I tried pleading with him, “Achi, please let me get up. Your mother is going to be here any minute, and I need to greet her at the door.”
To my dismay, his arms only tightened around me, nearly squeezing the breath out of me as he adamantly shook his head in refusal.
As I struggled to get out of his grip, I froze when I heard the front door slam open, and a familiar bubbly voice echoed through all four floors of our house.
Trying to snap him out of it, I tried to bargain, “I won’t make you let go. I’ll even give you a kiss or anything else you may want if you can just come downstairs with me to meet your mother.”
He hummed softly in thought, taking no mind to my urgency. After what felt like forever, he eventually gave in to my request and lifted his head from my lap.
Scooping me off the bed in a single swoop, he filed in his request, “I want extra cuddle time when she leaves, and I get to feed you during dinner tonight.”
I sighed heavily and reluctantly agreed. He was saying it as if he wasn’t already going to do that later, but at least he wasn’t being so stubborn about meeting with his mother anymore.
I just couldn’t understand why he was being so clingy all of a sudden.
By the time we made it downstairs, we found his mother smothering Liam with a highly affectionate hug, half sobbing in joy and half interrogating him about my state. However, she was not alone.
She had brought the entire family. Achilles’s father. His brother. ‘Benedict. And even Haraya.
I waved at everyone and hesitantly greeted, “H-Hello, h-how have you all been doing?”
Mrs. Cordova’s head snapped up to us the moment she heard my voice. She bolted right up to her son’s towering figure, both verbally and physically fretting about my state, but Achilles refused to set me down for her to quell her worries and only lifted me higher out of her reach.
She propped her hands on her hips and angrily huffed, “Can’t you just let go of your wife for a moment? It’s not like I’m going to eat her.”
Unaffected by the fuming lady, Achilles replied blandly, “I don’t see why I must let go of her. As you said, she is my wife.”
Mrs. Cordova looked as if the vein on her forehead could pop at any minute, but Achilles did not care in the slightest.
My eyes darted frantically between the two, worried that a fight might actually break out if Achilles continued to ignore his mother like this.
Luckily, his father stepped in before anything could happen. He placed a calming hand on his wife’s shoulder and gently eased her back to his side. He turned his attention to Achilles and calmly told him, “Why don’t you put Danary down and let the girls talk for a bit? Your brother and I have some things to talk to you about.”
A flash of recognition passed through Achilles’s eyes.
Nodding quietly, he carefully set me back down on my feet. He kissed my forehead tenderly and explained, “I’ll be in my office if you need anything.”
I looked up at him, slightly confused since they usually talked about work things in the open, but nodded anyway.
He pursed his lips, hesitantly momentarily before pulling away. Giving me one last glance, he eventually followed his father and brother upstairs.
The moment his towering stature disappeared from the stairwell Mrs. Cordova tackled me with a giant hug and exclaimed, “I’m so glad you’re alright, Danary! You had no idea how worried I was when I heard you ended up in the hospital and lost your memories. And to top it all off, Rafael wouldn’t let me visit you, saying that I wouldn’t be able to restrain myself and end up overwhelming you instead.”
I patted her head reassuringly and replied softly, “Achilles can be very protective, but I’m alright now, so please don’t worry anymore.”
She nodded mid-sob, but before she could answer, I was tackled in another hug by Mr. Serman.
He was also half-sobbing in joy as he exclaimed, “You have no idea how much a pain Rafael was when you had forgotten about him. He’s been so tense and uptight this last two weeks that I thought I might have actually lost my pretty face to his fist if you didn’t get your memories back.”
I raised an eyebrow. “He was at your office these last few weeks?”
He froze at my question, immediately diverting his eyes as he snapped his lips shut.
When I had lost my memories, all Achilles had said whenever he left the house was that he was going out to handle some business. Ignoring the fact that I originally thought he was meeting with another woman, wouldn’t that have meant he was going to his headquarters in the city to handle his business? So why would he be at Mr. Serman’s business?
But before I could question him, he was abruptly pulled off of me by Haraya. She yanked him up by the back of shirt and scolded, “You should know better than to tackle Danary like that. You’re going to freak her out like that and you know that Rafael will have your head for it.”
Mr. Serman immediately latched onto her instead and whined, “You’re always so civil with Rafael. Why can’t you treat me the same way? I’m also older than you just like him. Shouldn’t you show me some respect too?”
As she tried to pry his hands off, she scowled, “Rafael doesn’t act like a man child like you and actually knows how to be a normal human being. And why should I respect an animal that beds every person in sight?”
Mr. Serman’s expression fell for a brief second before he covered it with a pout before anyone could notice. “I’m just saying that it wouldn’t hurt to show your elders some respect.”
Fed up with his behavior, Haraya roughly shoved him off of her and darted away from him before he could catch her again. She grabbed my hand and pulled me out of Mrs. Cordova’s hold with ease. “I’m going to spend time with my best friend now, so I would like it if you could get lost, manwhore.”
Mr. Serman’s eyes dimmed the moment Haraya turned away from him. She probably didn’t notice his change of expression as she dragged me off into the kitchen, slamming the double doors behind us as we left.
She released her grip on my hand when we finally arrived in the kitchen. She paced back and forth in the kitchen, ruffling her hair and groaning with distaste. Muttering incoherently with mentions of Mr. Serman’s name here and there.
I looked at her worriedly and asked, “Does Mr. Serman bother you? I could try asking Achilles to tell him to come back another day if that would make you feel better…”
She tensely came to an abrupt stop in her pacing. She eventually released a heavy sigh and flopped down into a chair in front of me, “You don’t need to do that for me, Danary. It’s not that I actually hate ‘Benedict. I just get annoyed by his childish behavior. It’s like he doesn’t care about anything or anyone around him.”
“I don’t think that’s true… I think he is cares a lot about his friends… Despite how much he complains about Achilles, Mr. Serman has never left his side and constantly worries about his well being…”
She pursed her lips and muttered, “I know that… I just wish he would stop sleeping with every woman he meets…”
I raised an eyebrow. “Do you like Mr. Serman?
“N-no! W-why would you think s-such a thing?!” She snatched a cookie off the plate I was handing to her, clearly flustered by my question as she stuffed the entire cookie into her mouth in one go.
I shrugged nonchalantly as I set the plate down.
Even though I wasn’t saying anything, her face was turning redder and redder with every passing second. “I-It’s just that I-I don’t think it is appropriate for someone of h-his stature to l-live so loosely. Although his fame might not be at the same level as Rafael, h-he is also under the scrutinizing eye of the public and i-it wouldn’t be good for his i-image if p-people found out about h-his lifestyle. I-I’m just w-worried about his reputation. T-That’s all.”
Her eyes were practically spinning in circles as she struggled to justify herself.
I giggled quietly as I sipped on my tea.
Haraya was usually so calm and put together that I found it just a tad amusing to see her flustered instead of me for once.
It seemed like she, herself, didn’t even realized how much she actually cared for the man that had supposedly annoyed her to her bones.
Setting my cup aside, I told her, “I think Mr. Serman has feelings for you too.”
“W-what do you mean ‘too’?!” She hide her face behind her hands and stuttered, “T-There is no way I would h-have feelings for someone like h-him and t-there’s an even smaller chance t-that he would feel the s-same.”
“But he always sticking to your side whenever the two of you are in the same place.”
“That’s… That’s just because he is very childish and likes to annoy me for no reason. There’s nothing else to it…”
“But wasn’t he your date to our wedding reception? I remember seeing the two of you together the entire time.”
She stubbornly shook her head in denial, “Your wedding reception was made of only the most influential families on the east coast. I’m sure he would’ve ran off with another woman if he didn’t have to risk accidentally angering one of the ten major families.”
I sighed tiredly.
She really had no idea about how Mr. Serman felt about her.
Even though Mr. Serman seemed to have a poor reputation for having wandering eyes, I knew that wasn’t true when it came to Haraya. He was always looking at her when he thought she wouldn’t notice and sadly, she truly did never notice.
If he truly didn’t have any feelings for her, he wouldn’t look at her like his whole world was walking away every time she turned her back to him.
I couldn’t only hope that they would someday realize their feelings for each other.