Creed of the Leviathan I

39 | E

Emmanuelle

"What are you still doing here? It's almost six thirty." Marco looked at me with a confused expression.

"Huh?" I pretended to be shocked that it was already that late as I looked up at the clock. "I've been so busy working on this," I motioned towards the different dossiers on my desk. "I lost track of time." I lied.

"It seems like you have been struggling with that quite a lot in the last week." He mentioned, his eyebrows pinned together.

I flashed him a small smile that quickly disappeared from my face. "Work has been a lot. So, yeah." I sighed as I pushed my hair back.

"I know, but try not to kill yourself, yeah?" He smiled back. This was a genuine smile, one I had not seen in such a long time.

"I won't."

"Good. Now, pack up. It's Friday and the others are having home made Tacos as we speak. So, go ahead. Go join them."

"I—"

"Are you ready?" Rosie's head popped up in the door opening.

Marco turned around to face her. "Yeah, I'll be right there." He pulled out his keys from his pocket and let it dangle from his finger.

"Okay, I'm going to the bathroom and then head down." She announced before her eyes found me. "Have a good weekend, Nuelle. See you on Monday."

She waved her hand at me and I waved back with a smile on my face.

"What were you going to say?" Marco asked when Rosie left us.

I shook my head, "I'll call Christoph to pick me up. I won't be staying for long."

"Good." He nodded before he took his leave.

I lied. I was not planning on leaving any time soon. Gia's presence had a major impact on the atmosphere in our home which is why I started to spent more time at work.

I preferred it rather than to be in the company of someone that constantly felt the need to make me feel bad about myself.

Gia had done her utter best to form a bond with Tia, because she knew that Tia was important to me. Being close to her meant that she would easily be able to tell her about Dimitri and I. I suspected that this was her motive for trying to be on Tia's good side, but I could be wrong.

Every time Tia and I were together she would find a way to include herself. She was purposely infiltrating every relationship I had with my different family members.

She was even rekindling her friendship with Marissa. At first Marissa was skeptical about Gia's motive but after seeing the positive change in Dimitri's attitude since her arrival, she did not think twice about giving her a second chance.

The beautiful, expensive gifts and free food from the restaurant were just the cherry on top.

Dimitri seemed to be doing a lot better. A few days after she came to stay with us, he joined us for dinner. This absolutely made Tia's day.

As much as it hurt me to see them be together, I was happy that he was willing to join us. It felt good to see him out of his room and spending more time with the family.

But, of course this was just one of her many ways of rubbing their relationship in my face. She would either have a full on make out session with him or do other gross intimate stuff in my presence, especially if the three of us were alone by any bad luck.

After days of stressing and having to deal with this new kind of pain I decided that it was best to avoid them both. Since Dimitri was not stopping her and played his part in her cruel actions, my resentment towards him grew stronger.