Lies & Vows

SERENA'S POV

"Will you just please just shut up?" I groaned at the weird woman screaming in my dream, my voice groggy with sleep. Luckily, she did.

"Thank you," I murmured before snuggling into the soft pillow at my right hand. I remember thinking vaguely that this wasn't my scent on my pillow-and when did pillows start to hug back?

I grinned. I was probably in a dreamlike state. I've had many of these in the past-some nice, some terrifying....

"SERENA!!!"

I jolted up from sleep.I guess this was was one of the terrifying ones.

But why was my father shouting angrily at me in my sleep?

"Wake up, you shameful child, before I..."

My eyes immediately flew open, just in time to catch him standing over me, his hands curled in the air like he was on the verge of losing control.

"Papa," I mumbled, looking at him in surprise and trying to sit up.

"Don't you dare!" he warned, wagging one of his ringed finger at me, as he literally vibrated from what I thought could only be pent up anger.

I paused in reflex. I had never seen him this angry in my life.

What was all the fuss about? I tried recollecting what had happened before I decided to rest my head, but my unreliable brain was trying to play a prank on me at this crucial moment. As expected, I scoffed.

Something stirred in bed next to me, temporarily taking my attention off my fuming father. My mouth dropped open as I scrambled to move away.

"What the hell?" I yelled, looking at my father for a tangible explanation to the naked and attractive Antonio, who was just beginning to stir from sleep beside me.

That was when I realized he was not the only one in the room.

Standing not too far from him was Raphael, his arms crossed, eyes slightly widened in surprise, a grin playing at the edge of his lips.

I could almost hear his voice in my head saying, "Haven't you been really, really naughty, Serena?"

Just beside him was his aunt, a hand on her chest, her mouth hanging wide open. Nice. I had just about given poor Aunt Issadora a heart attack.

My stepmom and sister stood side by side, trying to hide the malicious glint in their eyes behind a shocked expression .

My fuzzy memories started to return little by little. I could clearly remember Lilian helping me to my room before I passed out.

"You fool. What were you thinking?" I palmed my face in both of my hands.

Of course, I had just been played, and the naked fool beside me was just a key player used against me. I couldn't even muster enough energy to blame anyone other than myself right now.

"I can explain, Don. It really is not what you think," Antonio blurted out the thousand-year-old excuse people mostly used when they'd been caught doing something wrong, as he tried to sit up with his bare chest.

"Just shut up," I murmured, jabbing him in the side as I made to get up.

"No!" they all almost screamed at the same time, but it was too late.

I guess they knew something that I didn't know because before I could blink the blanket had slipped down to my waist, revealing a very sexy, red laced, one-piece lingerie-which I don't even remember owning.

"Fuck!" I muttered, running past my shocked audience-almost in my birthday suit-to the bathroom and locking myself in.

"Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!" I kept on muttering as I paced around the room, my body filled with tension.

They really got me hard this time. A picture of Lilian and Isabella laughing together in mockery flashed through my head, making me punch the door hard and shout a frustrated,

"Fuck!" in the empty bathroom.

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RAPHAEL'S POV

"What do you want, son?" I raised a brow, staring at the father of my wife-to-be.

The only man I respected as much as my own father.

I was currently sitting in his study, across from his large mahogany desk.

The door was locked. The room seemed soundproofed and the air was filled with a sizzling tension which was coming mostly from the old man.

I could understand that he was angry, seeing the position Aunt Issy and I found his daughter in. But I've never seen this man look so unsettled, not in the twenty-four years I had known him.

Could this all be because of the love he has for his daughter?

Or, it was a whole other different matter and Serena was actually in danger from her own family.

I bet, it was the former.

I propped one leg over the other, adjusting myself to get more comfortable in the high-backed leather chair as I answered his question .

"I do not-"

"Never mind. I'll deal you in on my Spanish cargo, which is going to be landing two weeks from now,"

I tried to quickly hide the surprise I was feeling from reflecting on my face.

"Fifty-fifty," he said, stretching his hand out toward me, waiting for me to take it.

"What's the catch?" This kind of offer never came freely-not even from Uncle Giovanni. Especially not from him.

He watched me for a while, opened a half-drunk bottle of whiskey on his table, and poured himself a glass. Then slid it toward me with the tips of his fingers-all the while, his gaze steady on me.

If he had given me the chance to speak before dropping this mouth-watering offer before me, I would've let him know that I was less concerned about the drama that happened earlier.

In fact, if it did anything, it just added a splash of color to my already dull day. And also it did give me a deeper inkling on the kind of people Serena's stepmother and sister really were.

Nevertheless, business is business. I was never the kind of person to look a gift horse in the mouth. If he's willing to part with fifty percent of his cargo in good faith, then I'm in. No arguments.

I picked up the drink he offered and took a sip of the dry liquid, which burned down my throat, as I waited for him to lay all his cards on the table.

"You and Serena will get married in two weeks' time."

"Ahhh!" We both heard the soft gasp, followed by a slight creak by the door.

Surprised our head turned in unison towards the door.