
Charles POV
I couldn't believe what was happening.
First Meg suddenly appeared in my family's charity event. And now Amy was my sister? What sort of freak show had I stumbled into? The reality of the whole situation began to hit me. My mother had been unfaithful, and apparently, father had started it considering the conversation I overheard last night. I had a sister, a fucking sister who I had planned to fuck and torture for God sake. Why did those bastards make me spend my childhood in loneliness? Why did they make me almost harm my sister?
I turned towards my mother to throw another string of curses her way but discovered she was nowhere in sight. The woman had conveniently slipped away, as it was her way. Along with Meg apparently, because she was also missing. I couldn't take this shit anymore, today had turned out to be one of the worst days of my life. Where was Annabelle by the way? She had slipped away with Eric's date, Laura, to go get some drinks for themselves and possibly have some girl time together. But that had to be over thirty minutes ago.
I began to look around the sea of people that were strutting around in cocktail dresses and expensive suits, trying to see if I could spot Annabelle somewhere. I couldn't, and I began to get slightly worried. Where the hell was she? She is okay? Why couldn't I spot her anywhere? I turned to Eric.
"Can you spot Laura?" I asked him, trying and failing to hide the worry etched between my brows. But trust Eric to never miss a thing.
"Are you okay?" He asked instead.
"I'm good, just answer me," I replied, a little too salty.
"I can see Laura over there," he said, pointing towards the direction of the food court. "But I can't spot Annabelle." He finished with an unrecognizable look on his face. For the first time since this drama started, I finally noticed Eric. The Eric I knew would have teased me about being a pussy over a woman. But right now, he was just being straight out sarcastic. Something was up with him.
"You okay bro?" I asked him, my face softening.
"What?" He asked with his signature smirk plastered on his lips. I knew it was just a decoy. When I gave him the, 'I know you look,' he scoffed.
"Man, I'm fine. Go look for the love of your life and stop looking so pussy whipped." He teased with a smirk and a slap to my back. I turned to Amy, but she too had already disappeared. I ignored the tightness I felt in my chest at the thought of Amy and walked towards Laura. She was engrossed in a deep conversation with the most notorious womanizers in political history. Ambassador Mohammed. They were talking animatedly when I stepped in.
"Laura," I whispered into her ears, completely ignoring the ambassador, who sent me a heavy glare. "Where is Annabelle?" I asked, ignoring the deadly stare I was getting from her also. They looked ready to kill and I chuckled inwardly.
"She should be in the restroom." She whispered loudly, ensuring the ambassador hears what we were whispering about.
"Should be?" I asked with a frown.
"Yeah, probably-" when she spotted the dangerous glint in my eyes, she smartly finished with, "Definitely is in the restroom. Can you go now? I was in a discussion--"
"I'll make sure to tell Eric exactly where you are," I sneered, " Loverboy has been very worried."
Her shoulders tensed and I gave her a wink before working out of their presence. Making sure to completely ignore a foaming ambassador Mohammed.
I swivelled through the sea of bodies to the restroom. Why would Annabelle spend such an amount of time in there? Was she okay? A wave of guilt hit me. I had completely abandoned her, left her to face off the sea of vultures in this place all because of my fucked up family. I got to the restroom and began to turn the doorknob only for a string of words to hit me.
"You can't what?" I heard a deep male voice say, I looked at the sign on the door to confirm if I was going into the male or the female section of the restroom. The sign confirmed it was female. Then I heard her voice.
"He is a good guy dad," My heart soured. Was she talking to her dad about me? I didn't wait for her to say anymore, I turned the knob and stepped in.
"Who is a good guy?" I heard myself ask. I couldn't even pretend to have accidentally walked in on them. I was that excited.
"Charles!" I heard her call in surprise.
"Annabelle," I answered. Turning towards the man opposite her, I noticed he was in a very expensive tux, and from this angle, I could very well see the resemblance between them.
After a few minutes of observations, I decided to break the silence. "Hello sir, I haven't had the pleasure of meeting you," I said with an unreadable expression on my face. I hear when you meet a girls father for the first time, you have to come off all confident and mature.
He was about to answer when Annabelle cut in.
"Charles! This is my father, Dr William, senior partner at W.B law firm." She said, walking towards me to wrap her hands around my left arm. Then turning to her dad, she said, "Dad, this is Charles, the guy I was telling you about."
"Hello Charles, I hear you are the man making my daughter go crazy." Mr William joked, with a smile covering his already handsome face. He extended his palms to me for a handshake and I took it boldly into mine and delivered a firm handshake.
"Crazy?" I asked, stealing a glance at Annabelle as I released his hands.
She looked flushed.
"Okay, it was nice meeting you, Charles, hope to see you in more civilized circumstances soon." I heard Mr William say.
"Oh, the pleasure is mine, sir." Turning to Annabelle I asked," Why didn't you tell me that your dad was around? I would have made--"
"Oh Anna didn't know I would be here, I had a change of heart at a dine minute. This is as much a surprise to her as it is to you. I needed to talk to her about business. I'm sure you can understand?"
I looked at him as he spoke. Annabelle was eerily quiet and I didn't like it. I felt there was more to this meeting than they were letting on. Why come into the restroom to talk business? What kind of business needed that level of privacy?
"Yes, of course, I understand Dr William. I'm just glad to have met your amazing daughter." Annabelle tightened her fingers on my arms.
I gripped her closer.
"I'll be on my way then. See you home honey, have fun." He said with a smile and made for the door, but before he moved past us, he stopped and planted a kiss on Annabelle's forehead then proceeded out the door.
"Are you okay?" I whispered into her hair as I took her into my arms.
"I'm fine." She muttered, burying her head into my chest as if holding on for dear life.
"Would you like to get out of here?" I asked her softly.
"Yes please, I've had enough of this ball shit for one night." She said as she raised her head to stare at me. A small smile playing on her lips.
"Ball shit?" I asked with a chuckle.
"What other name would you have called it?" She asked, her lips turning up into a full-blown smile.
"Something that involved ball and shit, maybe," I said with a smirk.
We both giggled.
I took her palm in mine and stepped out of the restroom. Maybe the night wasn't completely bad after all.
As we got out of the hall and into the car, Annabelle grabbed me by the collar and slammed her lips on mine. I groaned immediately, not expected her actions.
"Annabelle," I grunted, right before I filled my fingers with her hair and angled her neck to deepen the kiss.
Annabelle moaned breathlessly.
I released her for a moment to ask, "Where should we go, your hotel or my house?"
She breathlessly whispered, "Yours" then slanted her lips to mine again.
It took everything in me to unlock my lips from hers and take the wheel. And as I turned on the ignition and started for the mansion, I silently prayed we make it to my room in one piece. Because, the rate at which we were going, it was either we died from frustration or a car crash.