Deceiving Love

The Dinner

My excitement from earlier is long gone once I arrive at the dinner and see him. Today is a hell of a birthday.

Earlier in the evening.

I am finishing getting ready by doing my eye-cat eyeliner--yeah I did listen to my best friend and let me tell you I loved the suggestion for the makeup. And I know what you are thinking, I'm not dressing up for this guy or anyone for that matter. I enjoy dressing up for myself, it makes me happy to know I am pretty and strong, I tell myself that every day. It is not narcissistic. It is simply my way to stay strong and confident. I had to do it since the incident, otherwise, I wouldn't be standing here tonight being my own role model. You should try it: look at the mirror and tell yourself who you are. Sometimes you have to take upon yourself the responsibility to be reminded every single day who you are. Standing up in front of the mirror and telling myself:

I am Anna Blackwood, daughter of--

Ring...Ring

My alarm goes off to remind me I have to leave, luckily I am ready. Looking for the last time check in the mirror to see if I was forgetting something and realize I forgot to put on shoes. So much for the strong and confident Anna, I bet she would love walking barefoot on lava to prove herself who she truly is. Seriously, Anna. I put on my high ankle black boots that I bought last year with Clara and leave.

My excitement from earlier is long gone once I arrive at the dinner and see him. Today is a hell of a birthday. I was not expecting that I would encounter prince ever again, but man was I wrong.

"Anna you came," my aunt stood from her chair and walks over to hug me and introduce me to Mark.

"Quite late as always" she whispered in my ear and then the pulled away from the hug and tagged me along with her arm.

"Gentleman, this is my niece Anna. Anna this is my boss Mark and his son--"

"Jack. It is a pleasure to meet you," he takes my right hand and kisses the top of my hands. It brings me shiver and I already start to feel my face getting hot. I pull away quickly and look away. From my peripheral vision, I could see him smirking. All of this must be amusing to him, I can tell.

I take a moment to take in the appearance of Mark, he looks quite different from Jack. I wouldn't have guessed for them to be related at all since Mark has light brown eyes, a small scar under his left thick brow, thin lined lips, buzzcut hair, and shaved off beard. He looks nothing like his son. This man is the definition of scary and dangerous, from appearance alone I would have never thought of him to be the sweet type like Aunt Allena says. But I understand why she may like him, apart from his intimidating appearance; he is a handsome man for his age, his physique is of someone who looks after himself but his eyes, are completely different, they give off a sweet look to him almost as if this intimidating image is just a facade, a mask, he wants to put out to others.

"It is a pleasure to finally meet you, Anna, your aunt talks a lot about you," he offers his right hand to be shaken, and as I look down I notice that he is wearing a ring on his ring finger. The ring has the same moon-like symbol that Jack has on his keychain.

"Ah really, I could say the same about you," I take his hand and shake it. He squeezes it tightly but not putting too much force into it, no he is careful. 

Allena nudges me on the side in attempts to shush me up. I take the hint and smile in return.

"Well let's not make the dinner cold, take a seat ladies," Mark gesture towards the table and I take my seat next to Aunt Allena, having to face Jack.

The dinner appears expensive, with a small portion of raw meat in the middle of the plate, mint leaf on top and decorated chocolate topping around the plate. Who puts chocolate with raw meat? Don't even understand how a cold meal could get colder. My appetite starts to die down, at least there was white wine, which I took the liberty of taking a sip to ingest the feeling of throwing up.

"Anna, your aunt tells me that you have recently graduated from high school, have you thought about banking and finance? We are having a couple of interns come over and observe our work for two weeks, perhaps you could join us. Jack will be taking over the intern welcoming week, he may show you around."

I almost choke while drinking the wine "ah uhm... I am not really interested in finance. But thank you for the opportunity." I look down to my napkin resting on my lap, I seriously feel intimidated by this man, and just by refusing to take this internship feels like I was asking for my death sentence. Aunt Allena looks at me in disbelief and apologizes in my place.

"I see. Well, the offer still stands," he takes his wine and drinks all the wine in the glass while looking at me intensively. His death glare kills me and makes me mute for the rest of the dinner leaving room for Aunt Allena to make conversation with her sweet boss.

"Careful princess, no one says no to my father, it doesn't end well when they do." Luckily Mark and Aunt Allena are too caught up in their conversation to listen to us.

"After the end, there is always a beginning."

"Perhaps we should rush and get to the climax then."

"No need, the resolution is certain," I reply nonchalantly and give him my sarcastic smile.

"Is this your habit in doing things? You are always rushing, trying to get to the end of things, no wonder you declined the offer."

"What do you mean?"

He looks away. It makes me wonder what he meant by that, he barely knows me yet knows that I am not patient in waiting for things to be done. I usually take the initiative to do things quickly and to finish them. This is one reason as to why I haven't given up in finding clues to my father's whereabouts and possible culprit.

It is not too long after, Aunt Allena and I start saying our goodbye to Mark and Jack that I realize how long we have been there, 4 hours to be exact. 

Arriving home never felt so good, I am exhausted and just want to go to sleep. I quickly change into my pajamas, remove my make up, and call in for Snow to sleep with me. He has slept by my side since I was 7 years old. I can never sleep without his company, he has been there since I moved with Aunt Allena to live in San Diego. My fathers' last present, I got Snow when I turned 7 which happened to be the day of the incident. On January 21th of 2006, I both gained and lost someone dear to me.

Today is January 21, 2017.