《Contrasting Similarities》5. Guard Dog
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"Dinner." Asher sang outside our door. He knocked twice.
I looked at Rose and sighed. She got the hint and nodded, getting up from the bed and following me to the door.
I opened the door only to be met with a very cheerful man.
"Dinner is ready, babies."
"We're not babies." I said, looking at him with a bored expression on my face.
"Of course." He said, smirking in amusement. I rolled my eyes.
"Stop annoying her." Rose said, looking from my pissed off expressions to his still amused ones.
"Sure." He stepped back, forcing his face to look expressionless. I could still see the slight smirk and the amusement in his eyes.
Rose grabbed my hand and pulled me with her towards the kitchen.
"Calm down, Levi."
She turned to smile at me, which immediately made me cool down a bit. I smiled back. Her smile is contagious.
"I am calm." I smiled, reassuring her.
We walked to the kitchen with Asher following us. I kept Rose beside me when we entered.
All of the brothers, except Lucian, were there and seated in their respective places.
I looked at Rose to see that all amusement had vanished from her face and now she had a blank look on her face.
Asher went to take his seat beside the head of the table, while I sat beside Damien again. Rose took her previous seat again, on my other side.
"We're going shopping tomorrow." Asher said, looking between me and Rose.
"We're leaving tomorrow." Rose replied, looking at him blankly.
"You're still stuck on that topic." The person on my right, gritted. Rose tensed up beside me and looked down.
Damien turned to his left, making me turn to my right abruptly, to face him and his glare. I put my elbow on the back of my chair and glared back at him, while making sure Rose wasn't visible to him.
"If you look at my sister like that, I will do something you will most definitely regret." I gritted in a low tone.
"Are you her guard dog or something?" He said, in an equally low tone. "Or is she your pet?"
"Dex!" Josiah snapped.
"What?" Damien snapped back, trying to intimidate his younger brother.
"You're crossing your limits, Damien. Don't even say another word." Asher warned, having an ice cold look on his face.
"Why? She's treating her like an object she owns. She's being the representative and mouthing off to everyone." He said, before turning to scowl at me.
I glared at him for a long time. Just looking at him with anger for some minutes, during which no one said anything. No one moved, except Rose, who had the sides of my shirt bunched in her small fists again. Partly for her comfort, partly to cool down my anger.
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"How I treat my sister is up to me." I started, not once breaking eye contact. "You're in no place to say anything about us or how we treat each other. So, shut up before someone has to show you your place."
"It's not up to you anymore." He retorted. "You're not in your dear brother Lucas' care anymore."
I flinched when I heard his name. Rose did too, if the small almost unnoticeable jerk I felt on my sides was real.
"You're in Lucian's care now and he has different rules than your step-brother had. So change that attitude before you find yourself in trouble." He said, pointing his finger at me in warning.
"We-" I stopped talking as soon as I heard heavy footsteps thundering down the hall. Maybe I was overreacting but with every step he took nearer to the kitchen, my heart seemed to beat faster. My palms became sweaty when I heard the door open.
Without being able to look at him, I pulled my elbow back to my side, down the back of my chair and turned to face forward again.
"Good evening, everyone," Lucian said as he made his way to his designated seat. The head of the table
I peeked up, keeping my head bowed, only to find him looking at Asher and having a silent conversation with him through his eyes.
Maybe he sensed the tension.
He unbuttoned his coat and loosened his tie, looking extremely exhausted.
"I said, good evening everyone." He repeated in a colder tone.
"Good evening, brother." Everyone chorused, except me and my twin.
The food was served seconds later. This time though, our plates were already set and loaded with food.
I kept my head bowed but still felt the piercing stare on me, making me struggle to breath.
I rubbed my sweaty palm on my pants and stared at the food.
My hands were shaking again and I couldn't pull them up to the table to eat until they stop shaking.
I took a deep breath in when Rose grabbed my hand and gave it a squeeze. That helped. Rose was here. Only strength I needed.
Releasing the silent breath, I calmed down enough and picked up the spoon, proceeding to eat.
I looked up when Rose started putting the meat part of her meal in my plate.
Oh yeah. I didn't even pay attention to the food.
Rose wasn't a fan of meat and I wasn't a fan of veggies, so we exchanged them every time there were meals like this.
I nodded and started putting the vegetable part of my meal on her almost ripped of meat plate.
I froze when a voice cut through the comfortable silence.
"Eat your veggies, Bunny." The eldest brother commanded. My hand froze mid air, so did everyone's as they looked at me.
I looked to my right and towards the head of the table to find him casually holding the glass of water to his mouth, while looking at his fork that was resting in his plate. Putting the glass down with a clink, Lucian lifted his gaze to look directly at me.
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I looked away immediately, coming face to face with Josiah, who was looking at everything with a stoic face much similar to Jayden's.
I lowered my hand down to rest on the table beside my plate, so my fork rested in the plate.
Someone stifled a laugh, making both me and Rose look up.
"You didn't correct him." Jayden smirked at me, mocking me openly.
I was about to give him a piece of my mind, but stopped when I suddenly became aware of the cold gaze fixed on me.
"Why?" Lucian's voice cut through my ears like a sharp knife.
Jayden turned to look at him and smirked wider.
"Bunny..." He emphasized the name, making me grit my teeth. "Has been telling us to call her Levi."
Lucian's face remained expressionless yet his eyes showed me how he was mocking me right now, as he looked at Jayden then at Asher, who nodded.
"And she's still introducing herself as Amira Levi Verlice." Damien put his two cents in, scowling at my last name. Lucian's eyes turned cold again as he looked at Damien.
"That's okay, right?" Josiah said, looking at his eldest brother hopefully. "She should be allowed to choose whose last name she wants to keep."
"No." Lucian said, clearing his throat. My gaze snapped towards him. He fixed me with a piercing glare. "She was born Amira Levi Mazzanti and she will keep that name forever."
Josiah visibly shrunk a little at the cold tone Lucian was using. The hope he was showing, vanished and a sad look crossed his face.
Hearing that direct order from the only man I find scary till now, made me want to shrink and hide somewhere. The first response that came to my mind was 'Yes, Brother'.
Instead, I remembered I had a thing named self-respect and another small thing named opinion.
"No." I said and almost started trembling when his eyebrow raised. "We'd like to keep our names."
My voice came out unexpectedly weak.
"I didn't ask what you liked. You're a part of the Mazzanti family and you will be addressed as a Mazzanti." He stated simply, daring me to argue further. "You will get used to it soon."
"Good luck with that." I muttered, stabbing my food.
Silence followed my response until I looked up into his cold gray eyes.
"Don't challenge me, sweetheart." He said. I just looked at my food again and clenched my jaw.
I hate how much he scares me.
Rose and I ate in silence again, while the others talked among themselves.
The conversation somehow drifted to the twins' day and everyone was focussed on that.
"So, anything interesting happened today?" Lucian asked, turning towards Damien who was the only one left who didn't tell him about his day. Well, only one except me and Rose. We kept quiet.
"Yeah actually." Damien said, smirking at me.
"Dex." Asher muttered, about to say something, when Lucian stopped him by a simple raise of his hand.
Giving Damien his full attention, he placed his elbows on the table.
"Bunny wanted to talk to you about something." He said, turning to me and smirking.
"I didn't appoint you as my PA." I snapped before thinking.
"Watch who you're talking to, Bunny." Lucian warned.
A bitch who keeps poking his nose in people's business.
I just clenched my jaw and looked at Rose, who smiled reassuringly.
"What do you want to talk to me about?" Lucian pointed this question towards me. I stayed silent while looking down, wondering if something could swallow me whole right now then spit me back out when Lucian isn't here.
"Or should we meet in my office after dinner to have this discussion?" Lucian stated, making me look up, but not turn my head to look at him.
That would be scary.
"We want to go back home." I said, which came out quieter than I wanted it to.
"I'd appreciate it if you looked at me while talking to me." Lucian commanded making me stop stabbing my food and look up at him.
"We want to go back home." I said, louder this time.
"You're not going back there."
"We don't like it here." Rose butted in, looking directly at Lucian.
"You're not supposed to like it here just on your first day." He said, raising an eyebrow while studying my twin.
"We don't want to live with you." I said, coming to the most important point.
"Who else would you rather live with?" He asked, turning to look at me again.
I was failing to keep the nervous edge to my voice hidden.
"Anyone. Even a foster parent is better." I said. The room went dramatically silent.
"Are you serious?" Jayden said, struggling to hide his annoyance.
"The answer is no." Lucian said, looking at me. "You're not living anywhere else except here. I don't want to hear another word about it."
That made me go silent again as I pushed my food around the plate, thinking hard how to get out of here.
"Where's Father?" I asked, quietly. The movements stopped again and a heavy tension fell upon us.
"Back home." Asher said, his voice colder than ever.
That means our childhood home. He's alive.
That was the end of the conversation. I didn't talk much after that, nor did Rose.
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