章節 2: Chapter 1 (Four Years Later)

I look at Kosi and say, "The only thing that makes what I'm about to face slightly unbearable is the fact that you're coming with me." She smiles a bit, "I didn't have much of a choice, plus I have an opportunity to finally get my mini company."

"That building is anything but mini love."

She smirks, "I'm trying to be modest." I roll my eyes, and we get into our first-class tickets courtesy of my parents after they ordered me to come back home saying I've been away from home for years.

I wonder why

The moment our airplane lands, my heart starts beating, and I guess it must have been obvious because Kosi held my hand. "It's going to be alright," she says. I give her hand a little squeeze then I start perusing people's faces trying to find Nico. He did offer to pick me up even though who could've told a driver. It doesn't take me long to locate a 6'4 man who stepped in whilst wearing a suit. Immediately, Kosi says, "Jesus." "What?" I ask. She swallows, "That is your brother? The pictures didn't do him enough justice." I roll my eyes, "I guess he's okay looking." She laughs, "Okay looking? Babe you look like him, and you're definitely not okay looking meaning he's hot." I scoff, "You never emphasize much on a guy's looks." She hisses, "I'm a virgin, not blind." My brother finally looks up from his phone and smiles slightly, and I run into his arms, "Welcome back Li li." Kosi chuckles at the name, and my brother drops me down to look at her, "Hi… you must be Kosi." I sigh in relief because he pronounced it correctly. I spent a few minutes making sure my brothers knew how to pronounce her name correctly.

Her eyes widen a bit, and she gives a slight smile, "hey Nicolas. It's nice to finally meet you." My brother gives a side smile, "you too. It's a pity my mannerless sister didn't bring you earlier to come see us." I am baffled at the fact that Nico didn't frown or tell her you can call me Nico. I don't blame him though, Kosi is gorgeous. "Well, it is a relief to me. You all would've seen teenage me." They both continue looking at each other until I clear my throat, "Can we go now?" Nico puts his phone in his pocket and with a little red on his cheeks he says yes, while Kosi whispers, "Thank God for melanin." Nico and I talk throughout the ride while Kosi listens or talks a bit.

When we reach home, Kosi says, "This place is really beautiful." Once we drive into our compound, I swallow, remembering how my grandparents and parents ordered me to come back home. I hope that I won't see Alessandro, but luck won't be on my side for long, I'm sure. He purposefully avoided me after he tried to talk to me to apologize, but there was nothing to apologize for. He had already said his true thoughts. Was we walk into my home; I am swarmed with hugs from my family. I sigh in relief at the warm welcome. I know this is just excitement, and I'll be scolded. Kosi greets them, and my mum hugs her saying, "Thank you for being with our lili baby." Kosi smiles kindly, "She was also with me, so I thank you too for having such an amazing daughter."

Damn. I should've recorded that now, there's no evidence asides words of the mouth. Noel and Nozel finally come in front of me, and I look up and notice them trying to hide their smiles. We hug each other. When all the excitement has died down, I sigh at the thoughts of meeting my best friends and their brother.

After three hours, I decide to check in Kosi. I knock carefully, and I hear, "come in." I walk in and sit on her bed watching her work on whatever app or website she's creating. She removes her glasses and sets her laptop down. She says, "You're nervous about meeting your best friends and their piece of shit brother, right?"

I lay my back on the bed, "I feel so dumb. I am excited to see Amber and Alessia, but the thought of seeing Alessandro is messing with my brain." She tilts her head and says, "That doesn't make you dumb though. It has been a while since you've seen the piece of shit, and I know you're overthinking about why your parents asked you to come back home. You feel it's not just because they missed you." I nod. She comes to my side, "Well, we can never know until tonight. You did say that they will be coming over, and your grandparents as well. It is the day we find out."

"That's what is freaking me out the most. My brothers don't even know. If they knew, they would've told me, but we are all clueless. My problem though is the fact that they decided to break it immediately instead of letting me relax after my flight." We both continue talking, and we hear a light knock on the door. "Yeah?"

"Ladies, mum said I should tell you all that dinner is in two hours. She said you all should get ready that the Rossi's are coming over," Noel says. Kosi and I look at each other, and she asks, "Isn't it just dinner? Don't tell me you all get fully dressed for dinner. Abeg." I smile, "Okay, I won't tell you, but what did you expect from people whose house is this huge? Plus remember that my parents were fond of hosting a lot of businessmen and women, so we usually dressed up. Although, these are the Rossi's, and we are like family, so we don't really do too much." She sighs, "What exactly do you think I should wear for this?" I shrug, "Just be casual." She groans, "This is exactly why I'm a hermit." I laugh.

What exactly does one wear to meet the family of the guy who took her virginity and said it was a mistake? I sigh. First, I'll have to face my best friends after trying everything in the book to not come back home, and I'll still have to face their foolish brother, and my grandparents. I sit on my bed dreaming about running away. Ugh. I really hate this right now. I am over him, but I'm really scared of how I'll react in front of him. It's bad enough that I have a lot of pent-up anger and frustration, but I also have to face his entire family. I rummage through my clothing, and settle on a green sundress gown. It's cute and not doing too much. Perfect for dinner. After dressing, I sit down thinking. I would've gone to Kosi's, but knowing her, she's still rummaging through her clothes. I'm scrolling through my phone when my door swings open. Only a few people can open my door without an ounce of fear in the world.

I run to hug Alessia and Amber immediately. We hug each other tightly, and amber says, "What did we ever do to deserve such treatment from you?!" With tears in my eyes, I hug them tighter, "I missed you both so much. I'm so sorry I've not been coming back home much." "We missed you too," Alessia says. We finally let go of each other and talk for a bit, then I hear a knock on my door. Kosi opens the door and sees us, then says, "Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't know Nalia had company. I'll come back later." Amber then comes forward, and hugs her, and says, "Heyyyyyy, you must be Kosi. I'm so happy we get to finally meet you. We know you had to travel back home during holiday so, we never got to see each other in person."

I notice how Kosi is taken aback by the hug because she's not really the most affectionate person, but she smiles slightly, "Hi, it's nice to meet you guys too. You both look so much alike." Alessia grins, "I mean we are twins. By the way, you are breathtaking." She really is. She packed her ginger red goddess braids up and left a few strands then she wore a simple beige gown with cute sandals. She smiles, "Thank you so much. So do you all." After we chat a bit, Kosi leaves us so that we can catch up. I know she wants me to tell them what happened, but I think if they were in my type of situation with any of my brothers, they'll understand where I am coming from. After like thirty minutes, one of our house workers knocks on my door to tell me that mum is expecting us all downstairs. It's finally time for me to come face to face with Alexander. We have avoided each other for years. He even went to Italy to take care of the family company there. He did make my work easier to be honest. There were times I got to see my family members because he was unavailable. Now, he'll definitely be around because the girls said their parents told them it was a mandatory meeting. At least the meeting is not too serious for Kosi not to attend because I'll need her there. I see Kosi outside my door, and I know she's feeling weird, and feels out of place because she's not related to any of us, but she's my sister as far as I'm concerned. She stays behind of all us, and whispers, "Damn this feels like we are a relegation team for real." We all giggle even though we are nervous as fuck.

As we descend the stairs, I feel his eyes on me. I close my eyes to try and control my anger. I look ahead and greet his parents. When I see him coming closer to me, I want to crawl back, but I look up and see the discomfort in his eyes. He rubs his hands on his pockets, clears his throat and says, "Hi Nalia, it has been a while. It's nice to see you again." I notice that all eyes are on us, but I try to ignore them and also try to not ignore his hand that is stretched forth for me to shake. I look him up and down, and he does look good. I swallow, look at his brown eyes, and I shake his hands, and say, "Hello Alexander." Then I whisper, "I wish I could lie and say it's nice to see you again, but it's not. I wasn't even supposed to be standing here to be fair." I then remove my hand when I realize he wants to keep on shaking my hand like a fool. Kosi who was near the both of us, laughs under her breath, then disguises it as a cough when she notices that the attention switched to her. After I introduce Kosi to everyone, she stylishly leaves my side so she won't have to shake Alexander's hand. Although she doesn't like attention on her, it's kinda hard for it not to be on her because she's gorgeous, and she can not disguise her facial expressions no matter what. She always says it's the Nigerian in her. We all go to the dining table to eat, and as we are eating, we make small talk. My grandmother then clears her throat, "As you all know, we asked you all to be here because we special order." At that, we all sit up. I notice that our parents are also formal. My father then says, "Don't we think it's time for a wedding to happen in this family? You're all in your twenties, and we've not heard any news from you all. So, your grandmothers decided to take matters into their own hands."

Alexander's grandmother then said, "It's time for this family to be joined together. On the Rossi side, we have a son and two daughters, and on the Amato side, we have three boys and a girl. So, we have decided that Alexander and Nalia will be getting married in a few months."