Love, Lies and Billionaires

Maren stood at the top of the stairs, suddenly dumbfounded as she stared down at the two men in the living room, who also stared back at her.

For minutes, everyone just exchanged glances, which included the terrified look Maren’s face slowly held.

“Maren, look, it really is more complicated than it sounds” Alexander was the first to speak as he slowly advanced forward to where she stood.

She didn’t move, nor did she speak. She wasn’t even sure she wanted an explanation.

She just watched him slowly walk up to where she was while Kendrick stayed down with his hands clasped behind his back and his face showed no emotion.

Maren shifted her gaze from Alexander to Kendrick and then back to Alexander. And just as the gears in her head began to move again, she blinked multiple times, forcing her tears back inside as she turned away in the direction she had come.

“Maren please-”

“Let her go Alexander,” Kendrick said firmly. “Some things are better left unspoken about.”

“If you understood that, you wouldn’t have walked your ass into my house,” Alexander said as he climbed back down the stairs.

“Don’t forget that we wouldn’t be in this situation if you hadn’t been such a blabbermouth. And more importantly, if you had the courage to actually tell her we are related, as someone who she was once legally married to,” he said in a relaxed voice.

“Don’t put this on me, Kendrick. You’re no less a pussy than I am.” He edged closer. “You knew she wouldn’t take it well regardless of who it came from. That’s why you never told her yourself. If at all you planned on letting her know”

Kendrick smirked. His baby brother really was getting smarter, or was he getting more obvious?

Just as the smirk had come, it wiped off again and Kendrick took a step closer, making the space in between them as short as a breath.

“If you ask me, I think there is more than just reading minds for you to do. You just broke Maren and I sure will fix her.”

*****

“Fuck!” Maren screamed again and ran her fingers through her hair as she tried in vain to stop the words from replaying in her head.

“My god! I’ve missed a lot,” Nella said, her brows arched as she took a sip of the red wine. She returned it to the table and placed her hand on Maren’s shoulder. “What are you going to do now?”

“Well, first, I’ve moved out completely from Alexander’s life and I don’t care if my phone dies from his calls.” Maren answered after a brief hesitation.

“You think that’s the best thing to do?”

Maren suddenly slammed the table with her hand and turned to a startled Nella. “I don’t know, Nella. What would you do if you found out you’re an actual whore who’s been sleeping with two brothers, both in the past and present?”

Nella shrugged. “You’re right. You’ve got this under control more than I’d have”

“How was I so oblivious?” Maren whined and placed her head on the round black table.

“I think a better word is ignorant-or is it blinded?” Nella said, squinting her eyes in thought.

“What are you trying to say?” She mumbled with her head still facing down.

“I think it was right there in front of you but you just never took a second look at it” Maren slowly began to raise her head from the table as seemed to now see what Nella was saying.

“You probably just felt it was impossible, so you never had the thought. I mean, these are two people who you’ve never seen together in a room till that night. All you knew was that they were enemies. Which is really common for Alexander to have”

Maren whined and moaned in realisation as her head fell back on the table. “I hate that you might be right, Nella.”

Nella smiled at her wisdom and took another sip of her wine.

How did I not see this resemblance in their character earlier?” Maren said, suddenly bringing her head up again. “I mean, there’s always something common between siblings, right?”

“Hmm,” Nella nodded with the glass between her lips.

“I mean, Kendrick is more reasonable than Alexander, which probably shows his seniority over Alexander. Alexander is a little more soft-hearted than Kendrick. But both of them have very low quality of selflessness in them”

“That’s probably really common amongst man at the top of the ladder”

“No, theirs feel so similar now that I think about it,” Maren said, and both women felt silent. The chilling wind blew but all it could do for Maren was send a shiver down her spine and cover her with a blanket of goosebumps.

“Why would they keep such a thing from you, though?”

Maren tilted her head a little and looked ahead and at nothing in particular as she allowed the red angel to whisper into her ear.

“Was I just some prize?” She asked out loud.

“Prize for what?”This text is property of Nô/velD/rama.Org.

“For some competition. I mean, first to get the girl wins. Because for as long as I’ve known those two, they have never been on good terms. What if I was the prize for their little game and they’d planned to tell after one had won?”

“Nah, sounds like a stupid idea, like something Alexander would come up with and Kendrick would decline. No offence though”

“So I was supposed to find out for myself? God, I’m so stupid,” she groaned and paused for a while before she turned to Nella. “What would you do if you were in my shoes?”

“What shoes?”

“If you found out you’ve been screwing your ex-husband/ father of your son and his brother?”

Nella chuckled a little evilly and placed the glass of almost finished wine on the table.

“That really is some messed up shoe to be wearing. But if I were to be in that situation, I think I’ll eliminate one of them, just make him disappear with no trace and-”

“Okay, that’s enough!” Maren cut her short. Her eyes were wide with terror. “That’s a terrible idea, Nella. Why would you think of a thing like that?”

“Relax, I was just saying. I mean, it makes things a lot easier judging the fact that you’re screwed between two men who are mad over you,” Nella defended.

“Besides, you didn’t let me finish. I was about to say, the hardest part is choosing who’d be leaving our life, which, by the way, is a choice you need to start thinking about, and fast!”