HIS CLAIM

38

Elsa

“Elicat, remember that one time where we took mom’s car and we accidentally dented it in a parking lot?” Tessa  laughed, making me smile at the memory.

“Don’t you mean you dented it? You were the one who drove the car yet I was the one who got spanked with the wooden spoon.” I said, now frowning at the memory.

“Wait, your mom hit you with a wooden spoon?” Arianna looked at me both surprised and amused.

“Yup. My mom is not shy with the wooden spoon and would pull it out whenever we misbehaved. However, Tessa  being the favorite child, got out of it almost every time. By the way, how does it to be the favorite child?” I gave her a fake sweet smile.

“Amazing! You should try to be one.” She winked while grinning and I flipped her off.

“It was always me and Asher  who got in trouble. Actually, Asher got spanked the most.” I chuckled. The three of us were known to be a bit wild when we were younger.

I already felt Nicholas’s gaze on me as soon as I talked about Asher, and I purposely kept my eyes down as I bagged the last dress.

“Who’s Asher?” Arianna asked.

“Just a friend we grew up with.” I said dismissively so we wouldn’t keep talking about him with Nicholas present. I didn’t want Tessa  to accidentally reveal that I had a huge crush on Asher when we were kids. And maybe a little bit before I got involved with Damiano. He would not be happy to learn about that.

“Here you go!” I handed them their bags which were quite heavy with the number of dresses they had bought. Arianna took her bags and practically shoved them into Nicholas’s arms for him to carry.

“You’re too spoiled.” Nicholas frowned but still carried them.

“I’m your baby sister, I deserve to be spoiled!” She dramatically flipped her hair back, making me laugh at her.

“See, this is what happens when you spoil them too much.” I gave a knowing look to nicholas, hinting at the conversation where he said he was going to make sure to spoil our baby. He gave me a half-smirk with a wink, making me roll my eyes with a smile.

“With the shit I had to go through, this is the least they can do for me. I deserve to be spoiled for life with the long hours of them beating my ass in training.” Arianna scoffed and handed me dante’s black card.

“I bet he regrets giving you his card now.” I chuckled. They had chosen some pretty expensive dresses and even with a discount, the total was still at the high end. I felt sorry for Dante.

“Please, this isn’t even going to make a small dent in his bank account. While you’re at it, you should give yourself a hundred percent tip.”

“You are seriously enjoying spending someone else’s money, huh?”

“It’s fine.” Dante said, not caring about the amount Arianna was spending. Sometimes I did forget what kind of people I was involved with.

I guess it was not a too shabby career path.

“No, thank you. You bought half of the boutique and that is more than  Just as we were done, the sound of the door opening made us all turn to see who it was. My mother, who was distracted with rummaging through her purse while walking further into the shop, didn’t notice the rest of the company present as she was focused on getting something.

“Hi, mom.” I greeted her, trying to get her attention.

“Hi, honey.” She said while still distracted with whatever she was trying to get from her purse.