Chapter 24

Darwin’s brain is storming with Typhoon Minerva—again.

            He couldn’t stop thinking about her. She and that Lushan boy.

            ‘Who the hell is that bastard?!’His thoughts bounced within the walls of his mind. ‘Why does Minerva seem closed with him?’

            Darwin was indeed acting like a child, but he doesn’t give a damn about that. The only thing that he would gladly give his damn attention is her and her only. And Lushan Angeles, for now.

            He was walking in the hallway towards the veranda of Chateau Bellerose when he noticed something by the wall.

            It was Minerva—but in a painting.

            Darwin looked closer, walked nearer. The signature of his father was in the bottom right of it in white.

            “It’s been a long time since dad painted,” he reminisced. He closed the distance with the painting on the wall. Darwin, then, realized it wasn’t Minerva. 

It was his mother, Deanna. He blinked, wiping away the sweat on his brows. Though the weather is a bit cool, he doesn’t know why he’s perspiring this much.

            “Dad sees Minerva as mom. He really accepts her as a family then…”

            Darwin’s grin made him turn around and lean into the wall; the painting a few inches away from him. Closing his eyes, he reminisced about his and Minerva’s meeting for the first time. Her sapphire blue eyes and strawberry blonde hair. The look on her face while she worked as a cashier, the shape of her belly when she was in the early stages of pregnancy. Everything about her made Darwin smile, grin—made him happy like someone who just won a lottery.

            He recalled those words that they’ve argued and promised a night before. ‘I will eliminate anyone who comes between us, Minerva. Even if that person was a friend or a family…’

            Darwin clenched his hands into a fist and walked away from the wall. Eager to find and talk to Minerva, he walked the other way around when a familiar voice of a man rang into his ears.

            And it was coming from the veranda.

***

The sky began to darken.

            Everything seems to be black. Darwin’s throat bobbed. His blood thickens. His breathing was uneven.

            Darwin traversed nearer to the origin of the two voices. He’s in panther walk mode as he trekked closer. Closer.

            There, he can finally see it clearly without wearing any sort of eyeglasses. He was cupping her, clenching her face with his two palms.

            Darwin’s fury became more solid as it reached its boiling point.

            “I loved you, Minerva.” Those words were a nightmare, a signal for war to Darwin. A threat.

            But she smiled at Lushan’s words. Minerva fucking smiled.

            Everything happens in just a blink of an eye as Darwin found himself walking away from the scene. He was just walking away casually, as if his own feet have a life on their own. He would have protested and dragged Minerva away from him. Or he could’ve knocked Lushan Angeles down in a single blow.

            But he didn’t. He never did.

            Darwin just walked away. No, he wasn’t a coward. In fact, he was valiant enough to walk away. It was in order to protect Minerva from him, from his spiteful words that he never uttered in a million years. From his dangerous, angry side.

            Without so much of a word, even Damon asked him where he’s going and if he’s going to leave Minerva in Chateau Bellerose—the lair of Jocelyn. He didn’t give a damn about them, about what the people say.

            No. He just fucking drive away like some sort of burglar after done stealing. Darwin knew he’s a lunatic from that moment he heard those words from Lushan Angeles. But he doesn’t give a shit.

            He could’ve burned down Chateau Bellerose—with the people in it. Due to this simmering anger in his heart, he couldn’t drive properly. He could not even think clearly.

            He was blinded by rage, by anger, by treachery. By a broken promise from Minerva Miriam Miller.

            But, he is the great and terrible Darwin Dennis Gray. He would never show this side of him in front of everybody.

            That’s why he walked away, and drove away under the pouring rain of this glorious freaking place.

            Into his luscious, seaside country house.

***

The rain had made Darwin even wetter.

            He’s already soaked in tears from head to toe. “This fucking rain is such a bi—”

            “Mr. Darwin!” His maid, in which he tried to remember her name, called him from under the canopy of a lemon tree. It’s a miracle that the lemon tree that he and his mother planted years ago was still growing and facing the clear blue waters of the Turquoise Sea.

            But his mother never made it. And today was her death anniversary which made the twelve-year-old Darwin drenched in his own tears and weeping.

            “I won’t!” He protested, stomping his right foot. “I will stay in the rain. Mom once told me that the rain is a blessing from above!”

            He saw the faint smile on the maid’s face. But she walked towards him, slowly and with an umbrella on the left hand which made Darwin step back for a bit.

            “No, stay there. Don’t come for me, you’ll get wet!”

            “I already am Mr. Darwin,” the maid replied.

            “Silly you! I’m just twelve years old. Don’t call me sir!” The maid cackled as she reached out a hand. “Come, Darwin. There’s a warm almond milk inside that I prepared for you. No need to weep for your mother as I’m pretty sure she’ll scold you if she sees you this wet!”

            Sorrow dissipated in his face. “Really?” 

The maid nodded.

            “What’s your name?”

            “I’m Cyrene. I used to be a French nude model for an art class but my sister is sick and I needed a great sum of money that’s why I’m here. Your father is so generous to the working class, even for maids and housekeepers like us.”

            Darwin took Cyrene’s hand and walked with her into the country house. “Nah, my father is only generous to pretty girls like you.” Young Darwin looked at Cyrene’s smiling face, which made him feel something hardened inside him—which he never felt before.

            “What is it, Darwin?” Cyrene asked.

            “I’m…my…”

            “What?”

            “It’s hard, and it hurts a little bit.”

            Cyrene stooped, facing him. “It means your body is beginning to shift into a more adult version of yourself.”

            She touched him, and the hard one down there, and smiled. But Darwin doesn’t know what to do as it’s beginning to become harder and harder, especially when Cyrene bends her body again while facing him and he gets a clear view of her pristine round breasts.

            “Cyrene,” he muttered her name sweetly and naively. She looked down at him with a grin. “Could you teach me more on what adult men do?”

            She was utterly wet. With her white shirt despite that pink uniform she wore, he could vividly see those two bulging nipples that beckoned him to be sucked by his lips.

            Cyrene smiled, in answer and excitement.