chapter 7

Vera's POV

The morning sun kissed my face as it sipped through my silk curtains.

  I opened my eyes and sat up yawning.

I turned my head and took in my surroundings.

My clothes from yesterday were scattered all over the room and my bathroom door was left ajar.

I ran my hands down my face trying to get rid of the layer of sleep still in my eyes.

All of a sudden my door burst open and Lexi came running in as she jumped on me and I fell back, hard

"Happy Birthday Ver!"

She exclaimed and mum followed into the room giggling.

"That's enough Lexi"

Mum was still giggling as Lexi

squeezed me till I felt my back pop

"Lexi

T-too tight"

I struggled to breath and fell out of the bed once she let me go.

Yep that was my bestie Lexi

She was a year younger and was part of our trio of Luios,Lexiand I.

Lexi and Luios were unidentical twins.

They both had the most beautiful black hair and she was really preety.

She was those kind of friends every girl had,the type of friend who forced you to shop and put on gowns you know you could never pull off. She was the spice in my life

"Get off your bum.

Your getting engaged today and it's ur birthday" she squealed making mum and I block our ears.

Mum came over to where I still sat on the floor and pulled me into a hug .

"Happy Birthday sweetums"she kissed my cheeks

"Mum" I giggled as I felt my cheeks hot

"My beautiful girl is all grown up.

Now your going to get engaged .

Your dad is taking care of some arrangements.

He'll see you before we leave to the venue"

She let me go and turned to leave.

"Your dresses will be sent up here, along with hair designer and a make up artist"

She got to the door and opened it

"I can d her make up!" Lexi made mum top in her tracks and she turned to smile. "Of course and you can do her hair too"

Lexi squealed again before  mum shut the door behind her .

"So!

Let's go get some breakfast.

You need to have enough energy for what am gonna be doing ,so c'mon" she came to me and pulled me by my hand out of the room.

"Sure

That's the best excuse you've come up with to cover up your hunger" I raised an eyebrow at her and she stopped and turned to look at me.

"You got me.

In my defense third breakfast is always the best"

She is such a foodie.

We got to the kitchen and ate pancakes and bacon that the chef made for us.

  We were sitted in the dinning hall enjoying our meal in comfortable silence.

"So tell me.

Julius huhn"

Lexi didn't look away from her plate as she spoke.

I had told her everything yesterday night. I needed someone to talk to so badly and Luios had traveled for some business transaction after his dad had forced him to join his business after much fuss

"Yeah

And now Nina is still not talking to me"

I sighed dropping my fork

"She isn't being a good sister .

She has always been so immature and such a brat"

Lexi never held back from telling someone the truth. She didn't care the outcome as long as she spoke her mind.

"I think you should just see how it goes from here on out

And I'll be here on every step of the way"

She smiled at me

We finished our breakfast and the maids came and cleared the table

"If you ever need to talk

I'm just a phone call away"

Lexi was such a good friend. This so of he was what I loved the most

She was supportive and saucy which made her the perfect bestie.

I had gotten out of the shower and put on my robe to get ready for Lexi to do her magic.

We had 2 hours to get me ready before the car came to pick us up.

   Lexi started with my hair.

I closed my eyes and let her do her work as I won't her tugging and pulling on my hair.

"Open!"

I opened my eyes after closing them for 30 minutes to see my hair in a Chignon style and my signature strands were framing my face

"It's

It's beautiful"

I turned my head and checked out my hair in the mirror and I loved it.

"Now stay still.

Makeup time!"

My eyes remained closed for another 30 minutes or an hour.

I wasn't sure but during that time I felt brushes and pencils on my face so I was sure she was doing something.

I opened my eyes and was shocked to see how simple and beautiful the make up was.

I was happy to see Lexi remember that I hated heavy make up.

My make up was basically

Eye liner ,a layer of foundation,blush and red lip gloss.

   Honestly I loved it.

I turned to see I was alone in my room and Lexi's dress was not on my bed so I was left to assume that she had gone to get herself ready.

I pushed myself up and walked over to my bed where my dress was laid out.

I looked at it and couldn't believe my eyes. It was beautiful and a little too much.

I slipped into it.

I heard a gasp once I had just situated myself into the dress.

I turned to see Lexi looking gorgeous in her black dress,fully prepared even more than me.

"This is gorgeous" she came up to me admiring my dress and I shrugged.

"It's too much "

I held the heavy flair in my hand pulling it up so my legs could breath.

"Oh shut up and go put on your shoes."

I walked over to my black stilettos as I slid them on ,I put on my diamond stud ear rings and we left the room.

I heard chattering as we descended .

I stopped when we got downstairs and took in the beautiful scene in front of me. Mum and dad looked beautiful in their matching black and red.

My eyes drifted to Nina.

She was staring straight at me with an emotionless look on her face and it broke my heart.

"Vera sweetie you look stunning"

Mum brought me to where they all stood and I kept my eyes trained on mum to avoid looking at Nina.

"My lil cupcake is going to get engaged today.

I'm so proud of you" dad whispered and gave my forehead a kiss.

I blinked the tears away as that single act gave me the strength I needed to go on.

We got into the limousine and drove to the venue.

All through the ride I tried my best not to look at Nina because if I did I knew i would feel nothing but guilt and that was not the feeling I needed right now.

We soon arrived and the paparazzi were all over the place as they took hundreds of pictures of us as we alighted from the car, with the help of the assigned bodyguards we were able to get through and into the venue.

I was stunned at how beautiful and lavish the venue was with the gold chandeliers and lining on the walls it looked like a ball room straight-out of a fairy tale

The place was full of people as the waiters ran around with trays full of drinks in their hands serving people.

Mum and dad excused themselves and went to meet a group of people their age standing at a corner.

   I was left with Nina and Lexi.

"Nin-"

I tried talking but she walked away before I could even say her name.

I sighed as Lexi came to me and placed a hand on my shoulder.

Then all of a sudden everywhere went silent as everyone faced the doors to the venue, they opened and in came Julius and Sir Zeus.

The whole venue erupted into cheers as Sir Zeus waved at everyone but Julius just stood there with a hand buried deep into his pants pocket .

He had on a black tailored Armani suit

with a white shirt inside

The cheering stopped as they walked in and started coming towards Lexi and I.

"Mrs Vladislav"

Sir Zeus took my hand and kissed the tip of my knuckles .

                    Julius's POV

We walked further into the venue and dad came to a halt all of a sudden and when I looked at who it was he was addressing

I just stood there and stared at her.

She had on a beautiful black ball gown with floral designs

It looked great on her as her make up made her look even better, then my eyes drifted to her freckled shoulders that were on full display.

Wait

I shook my head and redirected my gaze.

Why on Earth was I staring at her.

Her parents made their way to us as they exchanged greetings with father and I.

"You two kids carry on"

Dad said before leaving with Vera's parents and the blonde girl she came with .

I looked to see her walking away and I smirked as a great idea pooped into my head.

Teasing her in such a public place where she couldn't react would be fun.

                 

Vera's POV

The last thing I wanted was to talk to this arrogant man so I decided to walk away to go find Lexi, when all of a sudden I felt a strong grip on my wrist and before I could respond I was being pulled roughly and landed on a hard surface.

I blinked and looked to see I was in Julius's arms.

He had a hand at the small of my back holding me ever so closely to himself while his other hand remained in his pants pocket.

"Let go of me"

I struggled in vein as his hold only became tighter.

If not for my hands that were on his chest between us I would have been completely flushed into him.

I could see people staring at us giving weird looks and other expressions I couldn't quite read.

"Feisty

I like that" he had this devilish smirk that danced on his face .

"If you don't let me go

You'll see what feisty really is"

I hoped my threat was enough to at least let him know I was serious.

"Calm down doll.

You can scream or pull away and cause a scene here but I won't advice that"

He spoke right into my ear and I froze.

"Hope I'm not interrupting anything"

I heard a very familiar voice from behind me and I turned to see Luios standing there in a beautiful blue suit without the tie. This was the closest to professional I had ever seen Luios dress and personally he looked good in it.

Julius pulled me to his side and kept his hand around my waist, caging me beside him.

"Happy Birthday Vera"

He smiled down at me after giving Julius a look I understood all too well.

I peeled Julius's hand off my side and lunged foward giving Luios a hug not caring the whispers that I heard from people

"Wow

Careful princess"

I pulled away and looked at him closely to see his hair was more arranged and up doing than usual.

"When did you get back?"

"Yesterday

I wanted to supr-"

Luios stopped midway when Julius hand resumed it's previous position and he practically growled at Luios much to my shock.

"What is your business with my fiancee?"

Julius asked emotionless staring blankly at Luios.

Luios's demeanor changed as well to a more serious one"she is not your fiancee as of yet Mr Chrysantos

She became my best friend before this so called alliance "

I watched between both of them as they stared daggers at each other. Alot of people's attention were now directed towards us.

The amount of eyes that were on me were so many I wanted the ground to open up for me so I could hide.

"Luios c'mon

Mr Vladislav wants to see you "

Lexi came out of nowhere and pulled Luios away as she looked at me and then I knew she was a real life saver as I mouthed a thank you before they disappeared into crowd.

I let out a breath I didn't even know I was holding in until now .

"Your not going to speak to him again"

I stared at Julius who had his phone in the hand that was previously in his pocket.

"Excuse me?"

"You heard me.

Your getting married to me and I don't want you talking to him"

He kept his eyes trained on the screen while he spoke .

"I won't do as you say.

You don't own me"

This man confused the hell out of me.

"Oh doll.

I do own you or at least I would after we get married"

A devilish grin curled at his lips and it made my heart race.

  H-he would own me??!

I stood quiet beside him for a while until he kept his phone down.

The sound of a metal spoon being tapped on glass drew all our attention to the stage where my dad stood with Mr Chrysantos.

  I knew all too well what was coming next.

    Julius and I were called unto the stage and he kept his hand snaked around my waist the whole time.

We faced each other as dad and Mr Chrysantos announced our alliance and the rings were brought foward.

Julius slid the ring on my finger while holding my hand and I had to admit the ring was beautiful.

I held his ring in my right hand while my left supported his hand.

I looked from the ring to him then to the reason I was doing this. Taking a deep breath I slid the ring unto his finger and the room erupted into cheers then a gunshot was heard and a loud ringing noise came soon after.

Everyone was running up and down as the room turned into chaos.

I couldn't see anyone around me but all the men had brought out their guns and circled dad, Julius and Mr Chrysantos.

Julius had his gun out as 8 men followed him to lead all the females out through the back entrance while the other men brought out their guns to fight .

All of a sudden there was a loud boom! That rang through the hall as my heart beat quickened  and the entrance doors came flying open as a hefty and Scarry looking man with a slit running up his eyebrow came in with a small army of men all yielding different weapons.

Everywhere fell silent

"Mr Chrysantos.

We meet again"

His spine chilling voice boomed through the pin drop silent hall and I turned to see through the guards that were surrounding me that Julius and Zeus were dumbstruck as they stared at the scary looking man