Adan’s Mistake

Twelve

The dining room was chaos by the time we arrived. The cousins were busy talking amongst themselves and their voices only seemed to lower an octave when we entered the hall. Because it was a hall. It was huge and I honestly couldn’t see where it ended. Large windows lined one wall while the other held doors, two of which were being pushed open and close as servers went in and out as they served their employers.

“Well, well well,” Noah chimed as his eyes took me in. “It’s time you brought her here. We’ve all been waiting to meet her.”

“Only to f**k with me,” Adan muttered.

Noah cackled and I couldn’t help but smile at the dynamics between the two. I counted a total of seven men including Adan. I already knew Aston and Mack were married and were no longer living here. If Adan would marry then he would have to move out as well.

Immediately my mind painted a picture of a faceless bride walking down the aisle to Adan and they both getting married. The thought pinched my heart for some reason but I decided not to focus on it. I had more important things to worry about, like my impending break up with Wesley.

“Evangeline, come and sit with me,” Noah said and patted the empty chair next to him.

“Don’t even think about it,” Adan said and grabbed my wrist before Noah’s word could properly register in my mind. He led me towards the empty chairs and there were a lot of them. I was sure one could fit an entire generation of a family here. He pulled a chair out which was five away from where Noah sat and instructed me to sit down before he sat down beside me, so that he was closer to his cousins instead of me.

“Damnit Adan, we’re not going to eat her,” Ryan remarked in a sly tone. “No need to be so possessive.”

“You guys are lucky she’s here. If it hadn’t been for Gramps telling me to bring her to dinner I never would’ve,” Adan said in a snarky tone.

“Aww,” Ryan mocked, his eyes twinkling with mischief. “Little boy feeling possessive.”

Adan narrowed his eyes at his cousin. “Just wait until you find your woman. Then I’ll see how possessive you are.”

“I bet he’s going to keep her in the cage he’s having our manufacturer build,” Kalen spoke up and my eyes widened in surprise. Cage? Ryan was building a cage? Was he really going to keep his woman there? Good God, that poor girl. Nobody deserved to be in a cage for the rest of their life. I was already feeling trapped with Adan and I didn’t like it. If he put me in a cage, then my life was over.

“For the last time, it’s for the birds!” Ryan snapped and all the cousins chuckled as if this was a running joke between them.

“It’s too big for birds, Ryan,” Kalen said.

“I swear. The thing is like six feet tall,” Noah commented and now I wanted to see that cage for myself. I wanted to know if he was really building it for the birds.

“I like birds, okay!” Ryan said in a defensive tone and I bit my lip to stop myself from laughing with the others, because I could feel the glare burning my side and I knew who it belonged to. And sure enough when I looked at Adan I found him staring daggers at me.

“What?” I asked.

“Stop smiling at them,” he growled in a low voice which I didn’t know he was capable of.

I slapped a hand over my mouth to cover my smile and he narrowed his eyes at me before focusing on his cousins. I knew he wanted to punish me but he wasn’t doing so probably because we were in a public setting, and that had me sighing in relief. I was afraid of coming and facing his cousins, but now I wanted to stay here for as long as possible.

The door opened once again all the Diamandis cousins fell into silence as their grandfather walked in. It was as if a king had entered his domain and all his subjects fell silent in submission.

I tensed and wished I could leave. But I knew Adan would stop me if I tried. I had to endure this. I didn’t want to but I was stuck now. I didn’t know why Adan wanted me or what he intended to do to me. All I could do was fight and see to it till the end.

“Why did you all fall silent? Continue with your ruckus,” Cornelius Diamandis said as he took his seat at the head of the table. That’s when I noticed that his chair was slightly bigger than the others. It really did look like a throne fit for a king which I knew he believed himself to be.

Cornelius’ eyes darted to me and I looked away before he could say a word to me. No matter how brave I wanted to be, Adan owned my f*****g soul and I was just as subservient to his family as I was to him, despite his Grandfather telling me otherwise.

“Evangeline, how nice of you to grace us with your presence,” Cornelius said and I winced. He should be blaming Adan for my absence. It was his fault that we ate separately.

“It’s not her fault, Grandpa,” Adan said. “I told you once I have her here she’ll be eating privately.”

“Yes, that’s why I’m surprised that she’s here,” Cornelius replied.

“I am more than happy to take the credit for it,” Dillon spoke up and all eyes turned to him. “I told Adan to bring her out and have dinner with us.”

“He wasn’t the only one,” Noah piped in. “We all badgered our cousin here to let us spend some time with his favorite woman. After all, she’s going to be family soon. But it was because of you, Gramps that he even brought her here.”

My head whipped to the side to stare at Noah. What did he mean by that? Family? How the hell could I be a part of their family when I was nothing like them? I had no idea what he was talking about and how in the world what he said would be possible. But now I just wanted to leave before I had to listen to any more nonsense.

“I want to go upstairs,” I whispered to Adan, hoping he would hear me.

“Sit tight and enjoy this dinner. You can’t get out of this,” he stated and I bit back a curse and sighed deeply.

“Well I have to say it worked,” Cornelius said and if I wasn’t mistaken, I detected a hint of satisfaction in his tone which I didn’t understand the reason for.

“Here here,” Dillon said and raised his glass which was half-filled with water as if in a toast. The rest of Adan’s cousins followed suit and I was surprised when his grandfather did the same with a strange smile on his face.

The scowl on Adan’s face darkened and I once again had to stop myself from laughing at his obvious displeasure. It served him right, considering what he was about to make me do. I actually wanted to piss him off by laughing along with his family but I was in enough trouble already.

It’s not like he’ll tell you not to breakup with Wesley. You shouldn’t be afraid of him.

My inner voice was right, I had nothing to lose now. Adan couldn’t do anything worse than what he was already forcing me to do. In a few days I’d be required to break someone’s heart. A man who had been nothing but kind to me since we started dating. And now I’d have to hurt him.

“Let’s eat,” Cornelius said and all of a sudden the food which had been sitting in front of us for so long finally became the focus of everyone’s attention and they began eating. I was eyeing the different cuisines laid out, wondering what to try first when Adan began filling my plate. He placed a drumstick on the side with some pasta in the center. He finished off my plate with two spoons of salad and all I could do was stare at him in shock.

“What?” He asked in a soft voice.

“I can choose what I want to eat for myself,” I said in a tone I hoped came out as menacing.

“I have more right over you than you have over yourself. So I decide what you eat and what you don’t. Now eat and then I’m taking you to bed. You have a lot of preparation to do in the coming days after all,” he said as he piled food in his plate. I noticed he added a couple of empanadas in his plate and I actually wanted to try some, but I just stared at my plate and started eating.

The only sound which was heard for the next fifteen minutes were of the cutlery scraping against the plates. A server would be filling somebody’s glass every few minutes with whatever wine they requested and I eyed my glass with disdain as it remained empty.

“I want wine,” I said to Adan in a soft voice.

“You’ll only get water,” he replied and I bit back a scream of frustration. I shot him a glare before focusing on my food once again. He signaled the server to come and the next thing I knew the server was filling my glass with plain water. “This is healthy for you.”

I didn’t care what was healthy for me or wasn’t. When the entire family was having wine why couldn’t I have it? Why did I have to be excluded just because my life wasn’t my own?

The server left and I spent the entirety of dinner just glaring at the water in my glass, willing it to turn to wine due to my rage. I didn’t touch the glass at all, despite the glances Adan kept throwing my way.

Once everybody finished eating the servers came out with dessert. They placed ice cream cups in front of all of us and I was glad Adan didn’t tell them to give me a bowl of fresh fruits because ice cream wasn’t healthy for me.

I dug in before he could tell me to stop and finished it as quickly as possible. I placed the spoon in my bowl as soon as I was done and looked around to see everybody was still busy eating. I looked to my Master to see him eating with amusement dancing on his lips and felt a surge of anger towards him.

I wouldn’t let him get away with this. He thought he ruled my life but I’d make him regret it. I’d make him rue the day he forced me to breakup with Wesley. I’d make him regret kidnapping me and bringing me here and stealing my life from me. He would pay for taking over my life.

“You can go up to our room if you want,” Adan said in a tone that was less of a suggestion and more of a command.

“It’s your room, not mine,” I told him.

“Go and wait for me there,” he commanded, completely ignoring me.

I pushed my chair back and silence fell as I stood up. “Excuse me. I’ll be retiring for the night.” Without another word I left the dining hall and went back to Adan’s room. I paced the length of the room as I began plotting my revenge against him.

There was no way I was going to sit back and let him do whatever he wanted. I knew I was his slave but that didn’t mean I was okay with it. I was okay with being his when he didn’t bother me or my family. To be honest, I was selfish enough to wish that he preferred taking one of my cousins rather than me for his own amusement.

“I have to do something. I have to make him regret it,” I said to myself as I moved back and forth. But what could I do?

After pacing for a few minutes I sighed and flopped on the bed in defeat. The only thing my brain could focus on was that I was about to break Wesley’s heart. I wanted to break Adan in return but I couldn’t do that. I didn’t know how.

That doesn’t mean you can’t try.

The door opened and Adan walked in and the only thing I did was glare at him. The smile which lit up his face and the mirth dancing in his eyes pissed me off even more.

“What?!” I snarled.

“There’s no need for you to be angry. Although it’s mighty adorable to see,” he said.

I got up from the bed and faced him. “You barge into my life and take over it and you’re telling me I have no right to be angry?”

“No, you don’t. Because I can choose to take over yours or anybody else’s life whenever I want. You can’t stop me and you definitely have no need to be angry. Your life is mine after all,” he said and I hated that he was right.

“Then why not take over somebody else’s life? Why come after me?” I demanded.

In response he snaked an arm around my waist and pulled me to him until my chest collided with his. His vivid green eyes bore into mine, keeping me prisoner as he tilted my head back and secured me to him.

“I have no interest in anyone. You’re the only one I want and now I have you. So be angry all you want, firecracker, you’re not going anywhere.” His lips brushed against mine in a whisper of a kiss, but it was enough to have electricity shooting through my bones. “And you do a splendid job in entertaining me.”

The f*****g nerve of this man!