Chapter 16: Iris: Between the bloodline

TWO FUCKIN’ weeks of running away from Lucas and his dad at the company, only to see Mr.Andrews sitting cozily on the couch at my house by the end of the second week, sipping tea and laughing at my grandfather’s dad jokes.

I’m calling Mary, bombarding her with texts, asking her to come to pick me up from my house—but my silly friend has decided to gray-tick me for the night. To think she’s the one who told me to run away from both father and son every chance I got one fortnight ago.

After denying Lucas’ offer to drive me back home because I was afraid my nosy grandparents would see him, I finally settled for Paul—which was a surprisingly good ride because we ended up bonding over the novels I edited since they are his favorites.

I told him to drop me off at the sibling’s house so that I could make a clean entrance home as if coming from a sleepover next door—but Mary was taking out the trash by then, and she saw me coming out of the car.

Being the nosy bitch she is, she immediately recognized the vehicle and put two and two together, before shamelessly asking me questions immediately—in front of my new buddy, Paul at that! In the end, I told her I had slept over at Lucas’, which led to an embarrassing early morning confession episode in her room a few moments later.

"Oh my god he’s a beast, look at this hickey," she said wrinkling her nose whilst applying makeup right behind her neck. If she had known that I had even bigger ones between my thighs, I’m pretty sure she’d have lost it that day. "When was the last time he had some? He was literally eating you alive."

"In a sense, he was."

Mary scoffed, rolling her eyes. "I can see that Missy, thanks for nothing," she hissed, subtly jabbing my neck with the makeup sponge. "It’s a good thing his dad came first thing in the morning, otherwise I’m pretty sure he’d have ravaged you a second time today."

"You have no idea how embarrassing that was," I replied shuddering at the memory. Thank goodness Mr.Andrews was kind enough to leave immediately after opening the door on us. I was so close to fake fainting if he kept staring and things got out of hand. "I’ll be abstaining from sex for a while now, thanks to the trauma."

Laughing heartily at my misfortune, Mary stopped applying the makeup and sat on her bed, turning the chair around until our eyes were level. Looking at me directly in the eyes like the eye contact girlie she is, she immediately got down to business. "What are you going to do now?"

"About what?"

"About his dad. He’s our boss, remember?"

How could I forget? That was the first thing that popped into my mind when he saw me half-naked with his son’s hands resting on my waist.

"I don’t know. I’ll apologize to him properly on Monday."

Gasping, Mary pulled the chair closer to her. "You’ve got to be kidding me. What the fuck are you going to say. Uhhh, Good morning sir, I’m sorry for fucking your son and letting you see us half-naked? You’ll sound ridiculous, and don’t get me started on the chances of you losing your job."

"I can’t lose my job! I made my grandparents pull a lot of strings for me to get there."

"That’s what I’m talking about," Mary asserted, grabbing both my hands into hers. "You can’t be near him or Lucas at that if you to keep your job."

"Why Lucas too?" I mumbled disappointedly. I only wanted my body to abstain, not my eyes.

"Umm, because that’ll show you haven’t reflected in yourselves?"

Right.

"Then what do you propose I do smarty? I can’t just ignore him when we accidentally meet in the office."

"Simple. Don’t accidentally meet him," Mary suggested, shrugging like she just said something only idiots can’t do.

"And how am I supposed to do that, genius?"

"Keep your eyes around you at all times, and if you see anyone that looks just like them—run."

I scoffed at her, doing final touches to cover up my hickeys and leaving her room after telling her she was the worst advisor ever. But following her advice I did, and it was pretty effective.

Whenever I saw anyone who looked like Mr. Andrews, I’d turn the other way. If he came to our office, I’d rush to the water dispenser by Dion’s corner—pretending to ask questions like an enthusiastic newbie and getting on Dion’s good side.

As for Lucas, I always had an excuse to be away from him, and I guess he didn’t want to make me mad because he never tried to create instances where we had to meet by force. It was good for my plan, but it annoyed me for some reason—especially since Lynn kept showing up at our office regularly.

When Mary drove us back home from work today, the last thing I expected to see was a black G-wagon parked outside the garage. I wasn’t surprised by it though, I’ve lived with my grandparents long enough to know they have filthy rich friends.

What I hadn’t set my probabilities on was the rich friend being the very person I’d been desperately trying to avoid for an entire week now—Marcus Andrews—in the flesh.

My grandparents oblivious to the awkward atmosphere between us immediately went into a frenzy of introducing us to each other and praising me so much, it was embarrassing.

I was holding my heart in my trembling sweaty hands the entire time, waiting for Lucas’ dad to tell them he already knew me before explaining how we met. But nothing of the sort has happened to date.

"How is the magazine doing lately now that it has our master’s degree holder as its editor? She’s the finest, and it hurts to say this but she might be even better than my late friend," Grandma blurts out with a huge grin on her face, oblivious to my internal groaning.

Clasping his hands together, Marcus gives me a quick glance, turning to my grandparents with a smile. "It is doing well. We just hit number three this month on the bestsellers chart."

"Oh my goodness, that’s very commendable," both my grandparents blurt out.

"That’s one spot down last month’s position," I mumble before I can stop myself.

Marcus gives me his full attention now, something I can’t risk having at the moment. "Looks like you’re well updated about this than I’d given you credit for."

My stomach churns and I let out a small laugh that comes out more strained than I want it to.

"She always wanted to work for Adder ever since falling in love with editing in high school. That’s why she kept herself updated with the company just in case vacancies came up," Grandma chips in.

"Oh, really?" Marcus smirks at me. I can’t tell if he’s surprised or annoyed by the sudden news he just received. "You must have been very happy when you got your dream job then?"

"You have no idea," Grandpa adds to his wife’s commentaries, laughing smugly. "She woke up at around four AM because she didn’t want to be late for her first day."

Oh my god, the exaggeration! It’s making me stand out in this conversation for no reason even though I just want to be invisible—or dead. Marcus turns back to me, the genuineness in his smile more evident now.

"If I may ask, what caused your love for editing?"

His question is unexpected, random even, but surprisingly, I welcome it. "My love for reading," I reply. "When I was little, my mom would leave me with a fairytale book and go to work. I used to hate reading it, but after my friends from school started talking about fairytales, the peer pressure got to me and I decided to try it. Turns out that was the beginning of my origin story."

I don’t realize Grandma is crying until she lets out a sniff. "She had a rough childhood, but look at her powering all of it up and growing so fast."

"I know right," Grandpa asserts, "I wouldn’t be surprised if she brought a boy home anytime soon."

Great way to fuck up my speech and remind Marcus of his son and me, you old couple.

Don’t get me wrong, I love my grandparents. But sometimes their extreme dramatic display of love comes out in all the wrong ways possible—like how it’s doing right now.

My eyes keep glancing at Marcus, waiting for him to finally betray me and tell my grandparents I’m dating his son, but he pulls a number scarier than I’m expecting him to.

"I would love to have a strong daughter-in-law like you one day."

That’s all it takes for my dramatic grandparents to let out low grunts of approval, nodding at their friend and asking if his son has a girlfriend as of late. The questions and answers keep flowing back and forth, and I stand on edge, waiting to tip over every time one of them opens their mouth to speak about Lucas or me.

We end up eating dinner with Mr. Andrews, and the conversations carry on for about an hour until my boss decides it’s time to go back home.

I’m in the middle of silently giving thanks that nothing out of the ordinary happened throughout the bittersweet ordeal when Mr. Andrews decides that opening his mouth for the last time after already saying goodbyes to my grandparents is a good idea.

"Iris dear, can you help me carry this to my car?" He asks, gesturing at the plastic bag full of fruits my grandmother got from their farm earlier today.

All eyes are on me, waiting for my answer. Denying him would make me the bad guy, and yet, accepting to help him would fuck up the plan I had been perfectly executing for two weeks now.

"Yes, sir," I blurt out, taking the plastic in one hand whilst the other rubs the back of my neck.

Where’s Voldemort when you need him? If only I could Avada Kedavra myself to death right now, that would be really helpful.

★★★★★

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by Aunomay Read