Valentina

Sofia looked around my lavender painted room, scanning each and every part of it with wide eyes. Her smile reemerged when she moved against the window, watching the garden.

"Did Antonio leave for his study?" She asked, walking over to my side while cradling her injured arm.

"No he is in his room." I was searching frantically for the first aid kit to nurse her injury when the realization struck me. I confessed to Sofia about a glitch in our relationship. The fake bond. Glancing at her carefully, I saw her frozen in her wide eyed stance. "I mean, he went to his room because..we fought."

Her lips curled up. Paleness disappeared as her cheeks flushed when Agustin entered the room. She peeled her eyes from him to me, clearing her throat. "You both need to patch things up. I can see love in your eyes."

Sofia was many things, bad emotion reader being one among them. What Antonio and I had was complicated. I was pulled apart with the struggles of my heart and mind. Nobody would understand if I said the moment of vulnerability I exhibited, upon realizing Ramon's truth made me feel guilty the next day. I wasn't the girly girl. To be put in the right sense, I wasn't Sofia. There were times when I envied her simplicity, her innocence.

How easy it must be for her to like a person, exhibit her weakness. Toss away the fears of her heart, the one looming over, telling her that if her father could betray her, anyone could. Oh! That wasn't Sofia's saga. I was projecting again.

"What are we talking about?" Agustin fell on my bed, eying both of us. He tucked his head beneath his hands as a pillow.

"Oh, Val was saying how she and Antonio fought and why he was in his room instead of here."

Agustin giggled, rising from the bed. I swat his hand as he tried to turn me to face him. "Help me find the first aid." I ordered.

"HELP." His voice bellowed through the room. Sofia and I watched him continue his giggle and raising an alarm.

Mateo rushed into the room, darting from the door. He skidded in front of us, panting. I was assuming, he ran the long stretched steps, assuming one of us was in trouble.

"What happened?" Mateo's reddened face snapped at each of us, his x-ray vision monitoring us before he turned to Agustin. "Why did you yell?"

Agustin pointed to me. "Val needed first aid kit," he picked up Mateo, who was still grounded on the floor. "Be a good boy and fetch her that."

Before I could reprimand Agustin for getting working members of our security to do mundane task, I heard someone.

"What happened?" Our eyes slid to the door where Antonio, mimicked Mateo's actions. He banged himself on the ajar door before falling into the room. We all bit into our lips as his eyes played the same game as Mateo's. "Why did you yell?" he panted, walking the rest of the distance.

Agustin rolled his eyes and rose his hands up in the air, frustrated. "Val needed first aid kit." When he opened his mouth to repeat his previous words, we all chimed in.

"Be a good boy and fetch her that."

Antonio's forehead wrinkled as he looked at us, laughing, trembling like autumn leaves crumbling onto the floor and bed. Even Mateo wasn't able to resist, succumbing to the laughter riot that took over the room.

"You all are.." Antonio sighed in frustration, running his hand into his set hair. His vision slid on all of us, laughing but then held over me for a brief moment. I couldn't tell if he was about to smile or scold us. When he walked out, Mateo followed behind.

For a brief moment, the mansion echoed in laughter. Shock and anger from the past incident stood aside, letting happiness to steep in. For a brief moment, Moralez mansion felt like all those homes and laughing people felt like those families, I grew up watching on television.

After we patched Sofia's sprained arm in a flesh colored crepe bandage, Maria came to check on her. She held her hand, evaluating the damage caused before holding her face. "I am so sorry for what that idiot did to you." It didn't talk a lot to see, she was disappointed in her second son's behavior. Maria walked away before Sofia could state her peace.

She turned to us, the spectators to the drama. "Can any of you tell her that she doesn't have to feel bad?" Placing herself on the chair opposite to the bed, Sofia's eyes danced between me and Agustin. "I knew Santos was upto something. There were men who kept coming to have meeting with him. At times, when they left, I remember hearing Antonio's name. But I thought that was because of the alliance. I mean, I wouldn't be able to beat you, Val, in any way but the alliance was decided without my consent."

"What are you taking about?" I asked. Her words made no sense to me. As Sofia's eyes widened, another realization hit me. She must have divulged something which I wasn't privy to. "Do you know what she is talking about, Agustin?" I turned to Agustin, who looked like a fish, trying to breath out of water.

He rubbed the back of his neck, tossing his head in all direction. When I cupped his face, tunneling his vision, he nodded. "Sofia was the choice for Antonio's second marriage. We all were proposing for that. But.."

"But what?" My insides flared, not with jealousy but curiosity.

"He choose you," sighing, Agustin continued. "Antonio researched on you or something, I am not very sure of what. But he rejected Sofia and said to mom, to ask for your hand in marriage instead."

I was only reeling over Ramon's news, his betrayal when another wave of information crashed over. Sofia moved up from her place and held my hand. "And then my brother got me engaged to Nicolas."

"My Nico?" I stuttered. "My brother Nicolas?" Both of them nodded.

Now wasn't it something.

In the grand spectrum of deceit, I was chosen for this alliance while Sofia had no choice at all. In a way, we both didn't have any choice. Our men, killer fathers and egoistic brothers decided things for us, signed up on our lives. The marriage was arranged, true. But there was never a shred of remorse from any of them, not asking for what we wanted.

"It's a thing of the past, Val." Agustin placed his hand over mine. His head hung low, admitting to having knowledge of all this.

Worst of all was Nicolas. My own brother decided to keep secrets from me. I held my head between my hands, trying to shut the words that playing in my mind. Secrets. Betrayal. My jaw trembled in the wake of a rising pain radiating from my gut. I wanted them to leave me alone, me and my darkness.

"Is she okay?" Sofia's words were soft and laden with concern.

"She will be fine. She is strong. Very strong." Agustin answered.

I felt a hand running over my head as I pulled myself up from the bed. Agustin was right. I could kick myself for the happenings of my life or I could steer it into the direction I wanted it to go. Talking Sofia back to her room, which was now shifted closer to our floor that the previous hellhole she was put in, I watched as she talked and playfully nudged Agustin. She seemed happy. Content. Not a kidnapped girl.

Although Agustin and Sofia were almost the same age and Al a couple of years older, even at twenty three Sofia managed to preserve her charm and innocence. She would have been good for Agustin. They gelled well like water and sugar. I couldn't remember seeing Agustin this happy, ever.

After retiring Sofia, it was Agustin who continued our conversation. "So, Nico didn't tell you, he was engaged?"

"Nope," I sighed. "How did he manage a Salazar girl. I thought he was sent to spy on Santos."

Agustin smiled, turning me towards the outer doors of the place. We both walked out into the garden, breathing in the fresh air. Wind blew Agustin's straight, soft hair in a haphazard manner. He managed them somehow, palming his hand over it before accepting his defeat.

"Nico was sent to win over Santos. Whatever he wanted, Nico would have do."

"So the engagement?" I looked back to Sofia's balcony. Agustin sighed, rubbing his face hard.

"It was supposed to be a sham. But it seems like Nicolas did ended up liking her."

"Who wouldn't?" I said, watching Agustin's hands run through his hair and his weight shift on his legs. "Many seem to like her. A few in the Moralez mansion itself."

Agustin's eyes widened. His face was dusted with a pink hue as be bit into his lips, turning them purple. "Who?" he stuttered.

"Maria and I," my lips curled on a side. "Why? What were you thinking?"

Agustin continued his stride, nodding his head and unwilling to match my gaze. He was visibly flushed. We continued our walk in the garden. The sun has set beneath the horizon. Remnants of pinkish hue remained in the sky. The whole place carried a pale orangish glow as if someone put up Instagram filters over the area.

Sitting on a swing, Agustin's mouth opened a few times but managed to emit no words. I could see the frustration in his eyes, togging hard at the chains of the swing.

"You like her, don't you?" I was ready to put him out of his misery. Without any words, Agustin's eyes spoke a million words when it danced up into the open balcony of Sofia's room. "So smitten," I laughed, pointing at him.

Swatting my finger, he knelt next to me in the dirt. "Antonio will soon decide what to do with Santos, Val." Holding my bent knees, he placed his head over, swaying me on the swing. "Any change you could keep her here?"

"Stockholm syndrome." I whispered. He grinned, cupping my face in his palms.

"You do knew we were all childhood friends, right?"

It was my turn to look like a dead fish with my eyes popping out and an agape mouth. There were so many things I didn't know about this family and its members. So much to learn.

Pulling up Agustin, I gave him a tight smile. "I will try," I wanted to convey the truth. A lot of times, we try to protect the ones we love, unwilling to tell what could crush them. Watching doe eyes Agustin and his affection towards Sofia, I wanted them to be together, if she accepted. But it all culminated to what Antonio would decide. My husband wouldn't let business suffer for his brother's heart. "I can't promise you, but I will try my best."

His smile returned as he pulled me into the dirt. As my cream colored clothing were coated in thick black dirt, my heart soared. It was ages since I played in the garden. Maybe, once in a while the stars align themselves, giving us what we missed the most, what we longed for.

Since seven, I had everything but a childhood. With this new family of mine, I felt being at my place. The one where I belonged. I may have signed the documents, affixing my name with Antonio's since our marriage, it wasn't till today that I became a true Moralez.

One, who was ruthless and compassionate. One who loved and cared and killed and plundered. But I was also more than that. I finally realized what Moralez actually meant. Unity.

~~

Ohh so the funny, caring Moralez likes Sofia. Do you think he stands a chance?

Let me know in the comments, your thoughts. And how are you liking the book till now? 

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