Astrid

29

We've been skating for two hours. My legs hurt.

"I'll just go sit over there," I said pointing to the chairs outside the rink.

"No no no. Don't go, we're having so much fun."

"Please I'm really tired."

Soren looked at his phone and sighed. "Fine come on, let's go upstairs."

"Thank you." I ran up the stairs as fast as I could with my aching legs and bumped into something hard.

"Woah there little lady, what's the hurry," uncle Julian said stabilizing me on my feet.

"Sorry, I just want to go and lie down on my bed."

Uncle Julian nodded and started coming after me. "So tell me about your studies. How're they going? I heard you were being homeschooled."

"It's going great. Mrs. Gibbs is a great teacher, though, don't tell anyone -" I lowered my voice before continuing - "she's very afraid of papa and Daemon. I'm not sure why, they're such sweethearts."

"Really?" Uncle Julian gasped dramatically. "How did you know she's afraid of them?"

"It's quite obvious. She's so sweet and nice and chatty with me but whenever Daemon or papa or Adrian or basically anyone else comes she's goes stiff."

Uncle Julian hummed. He patted my head before telling me to come down as soon as I freshen up. There goes my plan of resting my feet.

______________________________________

I was discussing the current situation with my brothers and Daemon when someone knocked on the door.

"Come in."

Julian walked in looking concerned.

"What's wrong?" Dad asked.

"Nothing." Julian shrugged. "But uh- Astrid's teacher, Mrs. Gibbs, how trustworthy is she?"

"Very."

"Why the sudden question," I was curious to know the reason behind him asking about Astrid's tutor.

"It's just, she said that whenever you guys are nearby she gets tense so I thought she might also be in this whole fiasco."

Daemon shook his head. "Not possible. She gets tense cause she's scared of us. We kinda threatened her into tutoring. She initially refused saying she's retired but she's the best at her job so we had to threaten her."

"Or you could have offered her more money."

"We did but she wouldn't take it so-"

"So we're sure that she's not in this."

Daemon and I nodded. Even if her behavior is suspicious she's just scared. Besides anyone that interacts with Astrid is kept under close watch.

"So what's the situation with Esmeralda, what are we going to do about her?"

Daemon ran a hand through his hair. "We're going to explain the situation to Mr. Guzmán."

"Why'd he go against his daughter?"

"Pride. He's a prideful man, he'd never accept his daughter grovelling at for someone's attention. As much as I used to hate his ways of parenting, right now, we can use it," I answered.

"How?"

"Mr. Guzmán would kill his daughter if he knew what she's doing."

Everyone nodded but our attention was diverted when the door opened and Astrid came in.

I got up to her and asked, "do you need something, love."

She shook her head. "Uncle Julian told me to come downstairs after shower and I did but he wasn't there so I came looking for him."

"Sorry, sweety. Let's go." Julian got up from his seat beside father.

"Where are you going," dad asked raising an eyebrow.

Julian shrugged. "I don't know." Then he turned to Astrid and asked her where she wanted to go. She thought for a moment before her eyes lit up.

"Can we please go to that doughnut shop," she answered with a blush.

Julian nodded with a chuckle and went out with her.

______________________________________

We were currently in a meeting with Mr. Guzmán.

"Are you sure it's my daughter?" He asked in his gruff voice.

Daemon nodded.

"Stupid girl," Guzmán muttered. "Never listens to me. Now she's going to loose her life. Estúpida."

"Mr. Guzmán." Daemon tried to calm the man. "There's no need to stress yourself. We'll handle it, we just wanted to keep you informed so that you don't think that we broke the contract."

Guzmán nodded and got up. He looked much older in the span of about thirty minutes.

"I'll take my leave now. Keep me updated and -" he trailed off as if not knowing if should say it or not - "good luck."