Only Mine

Chapter 10

Dedicated to laurellove: Thank you for your support. I hope you enjoy my new edits.

Jean slammed the car door as he got out and made his stride straight into the mansion. I slowly followed in after him and Lorenzo. The car ride was painfully silent which was intermittently broken when Lorenzo and Jean would converse in French. I had a plethora of questions in my head that I wanted answers to, but I was still in shock after the events that had transpired during the past two hours.

I entered the house to complete chaos. Anna was busy fretting over Jean while Lorenzo and Alessandro were making various calls and barking in rapid French. Vincent was updating Jean on some "business dealing" in stern tones and another distinguished man, quite possibly in his late 30's, was also trying to grab Jean's attention. The lobby of the house was buzzing with activity and I seemed completely at a loss.

"Ella!" Anna yelled when she noticed me standing at the main door. She came rushing towards me and engulfed me in a tight embrace. "I was so worried when I received your text!" She let go of me and looked at me with concern shining in her eyes. "Are you alright?"

"I'm okay, I guess," I replied, still in a stupor.

"How did this happen?" Anna asked me. When she was met with nothing but silence, she turned towards Jean and asked him the same question. "Why was Ella dragged to the police station? You don't think that they found out about India right?" Anna looked at her brother with worrisome eyes.

"It has nothing to do with India," Jean replied to her. He and Vincent exchanged a subtle glance that went unnoticed by Anna as she prodded Jean for more about his visit to the police station. Anna had no idea about Alexa Durham yet.

"If it wasn't about India, then what was it about?" Anna asked in frustration. "Ella hasn't done anything wrong." Anna then looked at me with dubious eyes just to make sure that I was, in fact, legally "clean". I nodded back to her and she seemed relieved. "What's going on?" Anna nudged Jean again.

"Anna, stay out of it," Jean's powerful voice boomed through the lobby. "This has nothing to do with you."

His command thundered in the lobby and caused everyone to halt. His powerful voice reverberated within my body. It was laced with authority and unfettering confidence that brooked no disagreements. Alessandro and Lorenzo quietly walked out of the room to take their calls and Vincent and the other gentleman simply looked at the ground to avoid any form of contact with the other occupants of the room. Anna simmered in anger and humiliation at being admonished so publicly.

"I suggest you go back to your normal life," he told Anna and went back to having a terse conversation with the other gentleman.

Anna huffed in annoyance and breezed her way past all the men. She was storming up the stairs while I slowly followed after her. I started climbing the stairs when Jean's voice permeated the tense air, "Ella, stay back."