It was always written ✔️

Chapter 24

He looked and simply smiled at her, which Alayna reciprocated slowly.

"Ah, look who's here," he bellowed catching the attention of very male in the room, they all turned their heads in unison, their eyes narrowing when they notice Alayna.

A woman had never stepped foot in one of these dinner meetings before, everyone had their eyes on Aleksei in question.

He simply ignored them all, and signed to Alayna to take a seat at the other side of the table. At the head.

A wave of shock passed through the room, with some exasperated and others entirely irritated.

As Alayna gracefully took her seat with all prying eyes on her, Aleksei cleared his throat rather loudly.

"Consider her," he paused, "my daughter."

Immediately apologies were thrown from across the room to the direction of Alayna.

"She is about to be my adopted daughter. She will be involved amongst us from now on."

Alayna's body tensed, her mind in peril, the main thought being to pull out of what was about to happen.

A heavy hand sat on her right knee, out of the corner of her eye she saw Mikhail, acting completely normal.

She, however, was not.

He had never even attempted to touch her before today, there was always a distance between the two.

Her stomach felt like a mess, as if all her organs had begun re-arranging themselves.

And when he slowly began drag his thumb back and forth, her mind jumbled, she wasn't able to register anything happening in the room, she had a smile plastered on her face and her eyes would constantly dot around the room.

Unable to take it anymore, she pried her leg back from his grip and narrowed her eyes at him.

He simply smiled in response.

She could have sworn that there wasn't a spare seat beside her when she sat down.

Her eye finally caught onto the man that was sat beside her when she took her seat, casting evil glares towards her right side.

She smiled softly and dragged her gaze back to Aleksei.

He had his eyes already glued to her, she simply raised her eyebrow in question, he simply shook his head.

Her eyes narrowed down to her plate, her stomach unable to handle anything that had been placed on her plate.

She could hear the conversations happening with Aleksei. She could hear the scraping of cutlery along with the hushed concerns being discussed about her.

She felt his gaze on her.

She hummed in questioning way, asking what his matter was without actually asking him.

"Give me a piece of your chicken." She heard him whisper.

"What's wrong with your own food?"

"I want yours."

She pushed her plate towards him and he took her cutlery and began cutting up the chicken.

She looked up at him about to stop him, but he placed the forkful of food in his mouth with his eyes locked with hers.

She scowled in disgust.

A second later a fork was placed in front of her, he was trying to beckon her to open her mouth.

She rolled her eyes and snatched it from his hand, eating the food from the fork whilst tmittering profanities at him.

She could hear his muffled laughter, and wedged her heel on his toes making him whine in pain.