Toys For The Big Boys ✓

(24) Pained

     The door of my private jet finally opens. I looked at Julien and grabbed him by the hand, "Let's go."

     I went down the stairs. Julien walked beside me while Mat walked behind us.

     There was a red carpet on the floor, and there were guards on both sides; their hands on their chest to show respect for my arrival.

     "Welcome Sir Romeo Valentino", all said in unison.

     We continued to walk down the carpet, and at the end was my grandmother, sitting on the wheelchair while her assistant stood behind her.

     We stopped right in front of her.

     She might be an 88-year-old woman now, but she still has an aura of a strong family head.

     "Good Evening, Doña Victoria", I say as I looked at her.

     My grandmother doesn't say anything. But then suddenly, she slowly stands up from her wheelchair. Her legs were shaking but she ignores it just so he could stand in front of me.

    "Madam", her assistant says, as she was about to help her. But my grandmother pushes her hand away and angrily says, "Let me be! Can't you see that I have to show my respect to the real head of the Valentino family?"

     "Grandmother, you do not have to do this", I say, but she ignores me and stands up properly.

     "Welcome Romeo to the Russo household. It is my greatest honor to welcome you here", grandma says as she bows her head. She then looks at Julien and says, "And you must be Julien Choi, the real head of the Dark Saints."

     "Actually I-"

     I quickly squeezed Julien's hand to make him stop. It's best if the guards hear about his position now so they wouldn't try to do anything bad to him.

     "And Matthew Luca. The last time I saw you was at the Valentino Household, and you were covered in mud too", my grandmother says as she looks at Mat next.

     Mat laughs and scratched his head, "Y-Yeah...garden duties."

     My grandmother chuckles and looks back at me "And Johnson? Is he not with you?"

     And with that one question, the three of us quickly changed our expressions.

     My grandmother looked at us confusingly, but after a few seconds, her expression changed as well.

     "Oh no, not Johnson", grandmother says as she closes her eyes to take a deep breath.

     She then opens her eyes back and looks at me pitifully, "You must be all exhausted. We should go now so you could rest", my grandmother says as she sits back down on her wheelchair.

     Her assistant pushes the wheelchair on a car that's parked on the side. I was supposed to follow them when someone suddenly blocks my way, "Sir, this will be your car", the guard says as he gestured his hand on the car that's parked just behind my grandmother's car.

     "Oh, okay", I say as I walked towards it, my hands still intertwined with Julien.

     I was very uneasy as I stared at the car. I was literally just in a car accident a few hours ago so I didn't feel like it was okay for me to get inside a car again.

    "Rome", Julien says as he squeezed my hand.

    "I'm here, you'll be fine", he tells me with a reassuring look.

     I take a deep breath and nodded my head.

     A guard opens the door for us as I got inside the back with Julien; Mat sitting at the front.