Chapter 4

• Should she reconsider the marriage?!
• She tried her best to get out of Raven’s hold, but his iron grip didn't let her move. Sweat dribbled down her forehead as it spoke of her anxiety.
• "Let go, Raven!" She banged her free fist on his hard chest, attempting to free herself.
• “Kiara, calm down, he will not hurt you. He has changed now. Girard is not a Bully any more.” Raven said as he rubbed her back while pulling her more and more into his arms.
• But once a heart is put at unease, it takes longer than expected to calm down again.
• There was no way her nerves would go down for it was her bully, Girard Carter.
• Though he was Raven's elder brother, he never showed any mercy to Kiara. Sometimes with rotten eggs or dead lizards, then sometimes with mice released in her locker, Girard bullied her in different ways.
• “I want to go, let me go, Raven. I am not marrying you with this bully becoming an eye witness. I hate him. I hate him so much.” She said between her heavy breaths.
• The eyes that were staring at her keenly without a word blinked in amazement. Girard's mouth stretched up with a chaste smile and was intrigued reading her behavior. She’s not changed at all. Three years but still her behavior, nervousness, fears… everything was just the same as it was in the old times.
• She was still cowering away and trying to hide in Raven's arms.
• He felt a sense of pride, though. It was funny as hell but he suppressed his laughs and stretched his arms in order to scare her.
• As expected Kiara flinched away, "He never liked me. How's it that he suddenly agreed with this marriage, Raven Carter?"
• "I know my brother was a jerk during college. But I can assure you he's a changed man now. He won't hurt you." Raven tentatively grasped her shoulders to keep her in place.
• “I don’t trust him, nor do you. Now let me go.” Kiara announced.
• Her eyes streamed with tears as she controlled her sobs. She hated this vulnerable side of her– the emotional side. But Girard Carter was evil personified. Kiara forgot he was the elder brother to her husband-to-be. She did endure him and his bullying in college, she was not stupid to serve herself as a toy and get bullied again.
• "I don't want to marry you." She blurted, making Raven's eyes set ajar.
• He chewed his lips as he controlled a bubble of combining emotions from bursting, "Listen Kiara,"
• The advocate who was supposed to get their contract papers signed and get Raven through with this procedure, sat curiously in his seat. He looked at the businessman who went by the name ICE PRINCE trying to handle his going to be wife with patience. It seemed the toughest job for him as for now.
• The advocate, Mr. Laurance Hayes, was in his mid forties, with wrinkled round shaped face, bald thin man with black eyes. His lips were thick and of pale color. The black suit seemed as though a dress hanging on a skeleton however one could clearly see the professionalism his face entertained.
• He observed Raven handle her with care. His one arm was locked around her waist and the other one caressing her hair and protecting himself from her back to back punches.
• "Kiara!" He glared at her hard, his tone icy. "Enough of your tantrums."
• She froze in her posture with her growing pupils fixing on his face that was red as tomato. Time stopped. Silence filled the air— awkward silence that made both Girard and the advocate pass glances to each other awkwardly.
• "When I said he won't hurt you.. Means he won't hurt you. Why do you have to be so dramatic?" He shouted across from her mouth, freezing her in her spot as her eyes widened and pooled up.
• Then she diminished her gaze to the undone buttons of his shirt as she quivered in fear. The saline tear drops she was trying to hold back came sliding down her cheeks, turning her beautiful face pale and colorless.
• 'Shit!' Realizing his mistake again, Raven closed his eyes and loosened his hold on her arms.
• He sighed looking at Kiara with a ‘What should I do with you!’ type look.
• Turning to his brother, the reason behind his sudden outburst and her anxiety, he threw spears of anger through his eyes at him. Had Girard not come to her sight Kiara would have been okay.
• In turn Girard shrugged his shoulders as if saying– I had been quiet all the time. It's you who freaked her out, little brother.
• He had been the biggest fear of her life. Her bully who would bother her every fucking second in college.
• And intriguingly, it would happen in Raven’s absence. When she would tell him about the happenings, he would just shove it away with a bored look for it was nothing new to listen.
• Half of his college life or say dating life went in listening to her complaints where she would badmouth his elder brother, ask Raven to thrash him, and ask him to promise to never stay in the same house as Girard after they got married.
• But it looked like what she had dreaded was going to be true. She was to stay in the same house as Girard.
• “I didn’t do anything. You know she’s got a bad habit of accusing me.” Girard unwrapped the chewing gum that he removed from his jeans pocket and tossed it inside of his mouth.
• “What else can I expect you to say?” Raven hissed silently but it still reached his brother who laughed at his words whilst chewing his gum.
• Girard Carter, seven years elder to Raven, was as charming as his brother. His eyes were the scariest green that he inherited from their father.
• The current situation made him feel as though they were in the college premises where she was hiding herself in her boyfriend’s arms with moist eyes and puffy Pikachu kinda cheeks turning red like a kid while Raven was standing in front of her bully, his elder brother, to inquire whether he bullied her again?
• To which Girard would reply the same old thing, “I didn’t do anything. You know she’s got a bad habit of accusing me.”
• And like every time Raven would end up shouting at her for either his brother would clearly fool him or she would speak something out of anger that would make Girard lose his shut. And as always to handle the situation, Raven would scream at her.
• This time the situation was different. This time indeed Girard was innocent, and Kiara was accusing him by crying hysterically like how she would cry after being bullied back in college.
• But she was weeping because of the bitter memories and not him bullying her again. Girard enjoyed her tears. He fed on her fears and treated her like a toy. Those memories were enough to jelly her knees away.
• "You are a d*ck, Girard." Raven grumbled. "I told you not to come here and that I would arrange witnesses myself. But no, you wanted to see her shake and cry under your eyes."
• While Girard rolled his eyes, Raven gently pulled at Kiara's wrist and led her out of Mr. Hayes' cabin.
• He brought her to the left corridor with a huge window. Cool winds brushed his face as they stopped near the wooden bench by the wall, placed under the window. She was still crying with her face staring downward.
• Raven made her sit on the bench as he himself kneeled across from her. With his eyes softly settling on her red face, he took her hands and kissed them.
• "I am sorry, Kiara. We're already late and your behaviour… your behaviour," he couldn't find a less negative and less hurtful word to describe how her behaviour pissed him.
• "My behaviour embarrassed you?" Her suggestion made his heart skip a beat.
• "No, no," It came out instantly. "I may be pissed but I am not embarrassed."
• "Lie… it's a lie. You've always been embarrassed of me. It's one of the reasons why we fell apart." Her words hit him right through his heart.
• An awkward heaviness settled in his stomach. He looked away while nibbling his lips. 'Breaking up with you was my biggest mistake.' He thought.
• "I now wonder what makes you marry me all of a sudden?" Taken by surprise Raven stared in her eyes.
• He brushed her tears away not before taking a deep breath. Her swollen wet lashes reminded him of their last meeting before their break up from three years ago. She was still emotional and childish.
• With everything going on in his life, being with someone like her was the last thing he wanted. But she was his last hope. He couldn’t just let her cry when he knew she was important. Only she had the ability to turn the impossible in his life into possible. Kiara Diaz, his ever so innocent and gentle girlfriend was his last hope.
• "Errr, I know my brother had been a Bully. He's freaked you out alot but we are not staying together in one house. Girard has his own apartment, so do I. He's just here as a witness. I promise there won't be any problem caused by him for you." He tried to make her understand.
• He hoped she would buy his words even though he ignored the main question regarding their marriage agreement. Kiara, chuckled sarcastically though never mentioning it in words.
• “I know like the early times you won’t say anything to him even if he bullied your wife. No matter what he does or says to me, you will turn deaf ears. I have never been important to you and I will never be now." She suddenly spoke, making him feel hollow inside.
• She was only scared of his brother who scares her like a creepy ghost with no legs floating in the air and sharp pointed teeth, and handless creature that you see in a movie. Otherwise, she was a brave and confident woman.
• "He won't hurt you, I swe—"
• “You are a diplomat, Raven, and mean. I truly think I should reconsider my decision of this marriage with yo—" Her eyes popped out in bewilderment, heart fluttered crazily, fingers tightened around the fabric of his collar and her breasts pressed against his hard torso as he smacked his lips on her supple ones before she could complete that statement.
• Tbc…