Chapter 16

“How’s your girl date?”

            Minerva was a bit startled upon seeing Darwin on the dining table, drinking what smelts like coffee. He was wearing his ripped blue jean shorts, the first button was unbuttoned. Darwin was half naked, which made Minerva secretly bite her lip.

            “I saw that.” She hoisted her head to Darwin, who was now slowly walking towards her like how a predator approaches a prey. She forgot that she was actually wearing a dress, the sexy type.

            “Promise me that your lips will only belong to me,” he breathed. Minerva was oozing. If he was the ocean and she was a stone, she had long drowned into him, unto him—with him.

            Minerva felt as if the stars had exploded and had lunged into her throat. His eyes were seductive, beckoning. Sexy and smoking hot.

            ‘Gosh, my sapphire eyes could stare at his hazel-colored eyes forever. If only I am allowed to…’

            “I-” She was stuttering…again.

            “I what?” Darwin held her gaze, challenging her. She could kiss those plumpy lips for ten thousand hours if only he would allow her to.

            Minerva was about to get ‘it’ on with Darwin Dennis Gray when three loud knocks interrupted their sweet moment.

            “I’ll get that,” he volunteered, making her frown.

            She sighed, then inhaled. When Minerva saw who knocked, she almost forgot to exhale, as if the air on her lungs cowered to exit.

            She was still in her monochrome yellow attire—a miracle that the honeybees didn’t chase her until she arrived the penthouse.

            Minerva would never forget her face, cannot forget this hag’s face.

It was the woman from the milk tea shop earlier.

***

“Darwin, darling…” This bitch really emphasized the ‘darling’, making Minerva’s nose flare. “I thought that your bride is still pure?”

            Darwin chuckled, but Minerva sensed that he’s just holding his fist, controlling his manners towards this woman whom Minerva just found out was his stepmother.

            “She is, actually.” He answered, “In most aspects of being a woman, she is still pure…and naïve.”

            Minerva blushed when Darwin winked at her. The demanding woman from the tea shop earlier just narrowed her eyes.

            “I see, sweetheart…” Minerva’s ears ringed at that endearment. "I suppose that you two already have coitus, and the one she's carrying is my soon-to-be grandchild?”

            Minerva just inhaled. Darwin smiled—again. “Yes, we already feasted on each other’s bodies. But the child she’s carrying…it was from her late fiancé, Derrick Giordano.”

            “Ohh…” was all she muttered. Some sort of an emotion that Minerva couldn’t discern flashed on the face of Darwin’s stepmother. But Minerva just discarded it.

            “How long have the two of you been?” Jocelyn, a pretty unusual name to a woman who’s the evil stepmother incarnate, asked.

            The two, Minerva and Darwin, looked at each other. Silently debating through their eyes who’s gonna answer.

            “Well?” Jocelyn tilted her head to Minerva.

            “A month since her late fiancé died….” It was Darwin Dennis Gray who answered.

            The stepmother’s left brow rose. “I suppose that Ms. Minerva is so quick to move on. I’m glad that you have been taking care of her so well, Darwin dear.”

            One more endearment and Minerva could send Jocelyn falling down from the highest floor of this condominium. She’s pretty sure Darwin’s stepmother is being sarcastic as she saw a smirk on her face, not a smile.

            “Derrick is my half-brother, if you’d still remember. He left Minerva in my care. Apparently, my late half-brother and I have the same taste when it comes to women. That’s why I see Minerva here as my future Mrs. Darwin Gray.”

            He brushed a kiss on her cheeks while her eyes were focused on Jocelyn’s.

            Jocelyn’s eyes narrowed, but Minerva just held her piercing gaze.

            “Very well,” Jocelyn immediately made her voice louder. “I just came here to let you know that you—and your lovely woman—can attend my birthday party on Chateau Bellerose.”

            Jocelyn then placed a kiss on Darwin’s right cheeks, just an inch away from his lips. Minerva debated if she was really his stepmother, or a modern enhanced gold-digger.

            “I’ll expect you to be there too, Morana.”

            “Minerva,” he clarified.

            “Right. Minerva,” Jocelyn also gave her a kiss—or was it really called one—and squeezed Minerva’s arms as if to say ‘Darwin’s only mine’.

            She yielded a fake smile. Minerva is pretty good at doing that ever since the word suffering was registered in her personal dictionary.

            “I’ll escort you down, Jocelyn.”

            Minerva secretly smiled at Darwin’s words. Jocelyn kept on calling Darwin with endearments and pet names while Darwin only called her by her first name.

            Jocelyn gave her one last look—more like one last glare for the day—before disappearing at the penthouse’s main door.

            Minerva sighed, in relief and in fresh air. Just like in the store earlier, the air seems to be unpleasant when Jocelyn’s presence flooded the area. But as soon as she walked out of that door, even the air itself could now circulate properly due to that malicious woman’s aura.

            ‘There are really people like her…’ She thought as she took a bite from the French macarons that Jocelyn bought. At least, they taste expensive despite the identity of the woman who brought it.

            She finished three of those before pouring herself a glass of sparkling water.

            The water seemed to wash away all the nasty happenings that occurred today.

            And she wished the water would always be there to calm her, especially when a new villainess entered her life, their lives—her and Darwin’s life.