CHAPTER 104: MORE THAN WORDS

"I would be a little careful around Daniel if I were you. You don’t even know him that well, yet you act so clueless and so defenseless when you’re with him. Try to use that head of yours for once," Raphael warned me, but I couldn’t take him seriously. I thought that coming outside would give me the freedom I needed to feel better, but Raphael’s presence suddenly made me feel like I needed another escape.

"You don’t need to worry. Daniel is nothing like you," I snapped before I could hold my words back.

"Really? What am I like?" Raphael asked with a curious expression on his face.

The fact that my words didn’t seem to offend or hurt him at all only made me even more furious than before. It felt like he would never take me seriously. Before I knew it, my hands were clenched in tight fists at my side.

"You’re selfish, manipulative, and a liar. You’re always taking advantage of me. You wear a mask so I can’t tell what you’re really thinking or feeling, and then when it suits you, you demand I do what you want," I replied heatedly.

The words that I thought I would never say to him came flowing out of my mouth like a long string of unstoppable word vomit. Although I managed to let out what I wanted to say, I did not feel any better at the end of it. If anything, the stinging pain in my chest made me believe that I sorely regretted what I had just said.

"Maybe you’re right. Maybe I am that bad... but it doesn’t make Daniel any better. Stay where I can keep an eye on you," Raphael warned me without even bothering to defend himself.

I felt like I could no longer tolerate being in his presence. Suddenly, the boring orchestra and the crowd of people inside the venue seemed like better company than my stepbrother.

"Where are you going? Are you trying to run off again?" Raphael asked teasingly when I began walking away. Surprisingly, this time, he did not pull on my arm.

"I’m going back inside. I guess you should go back inside too before Rosabella starts turning this entire place upside down looking for you," I advised sarcastically.

In the end, Raphael practically walked by my side back into the venue, so it seemed like we had returned together.

"That was quite a long bathroom break. I was just about to go looking for you," Daniel said before his gaze shifted from me toward Raphael.

"I also took the opportunity to get some fresh air outside. I didn’t know that this event would be so popular; I didn’t expect this many people to turn up," I explained flawlessly before flashing Daniel a smile.

"You should have told me that you went looking for Abigail. I would have come with you," Rosabella said to Raphael as she began clinging quite tightly to his arm.

"I think the auction is about to start," Raphael said without looking at Rosabella.

"It seems so. Come this way, Abigail. I’m sure that there’s going to be an artwork that catches your fancy," Daniel said smoothly to me as he gently guided me by the arm to follow him.

...

Halfway through the art auction, I figured out that I knew little to nothing about what the auction was truly about. All the final bids on the artworks far exceeded my expectations. Of course, considering the crowd, I knew that the artworks were going to ultimately sell at very high prices, but the exorbitant final price tags on all the pieces blew my mind. As I watched people raise their hands to bid, I began to wonder if the pieces of art were worth quite that much.

"Has anything caught your fancy?" Daniel whispered close to my ear.

"Oh, no. I’m not that into art, honestly," I replied, trying my best to hide my irritation. I honestly wished that he would stop whispering into my ear as if we were close. The way he was sitting so close to me, with his arm literally touching mine, also made me feel uncomfortable. Just as Daniel was about to say something, a man approached us and began talking to Raphael. After exchanging some words that were inaudible to me, Raphael suddenly stood from his seat, much to our surprise.

"Where are you going?" Rosabella asked.

However, instead of answering Rosabella, Raphael directed his attention directly at me.

"Stay here and wait for my return," he instructed sternly before following the man and disappearing into the crowd.

I stared after Raphael until he disappeared completely from sight. I felt quite worried because I sensed that something was off.

"What do you think about this piece? I think the beautiful pastel colors might brighten up your bedroom," Daniel whispered directly into my ear. I turned to face him as his words snapped me out of my thoughts of Raphael.

"It looks very beautiful," I replied, though my mind was still busy with thoughts of Raphael. I couldn’t have cared less how beautiful the painting was because all I could think about was whether Raphael was facing any kind of trouble.

The loud applause of the crowd around me snapped me back and made me realize what was going on. Daniel took hold of my arm and pulled me to my feet as he beamed a wide smile at me. When congratulations rang out around us, that was when I realized that Daniel had successfully won the auction on the painting that I had casually and absent-mindedly complimented. I tried my best to smile while feeling extremely awkward inside because, truthfully, I didn’t want that painting, or any artwork at all. It was all I could do to keep Daniel from losing face.

"You don’t need to congratulate me. I got it for her," Daniel said to one of the women who were actively congratulating us.

"You’re very lucky," a middle-aged woman said to me before nodding her head enthusiastically.

–To be continued...