Chapter 266

Elena “Will this be all?” The male behind the counter asked. He frowned at the saw, ax, and planks of woods before his eyes landed back onto me.

“That’s all…for now.” I smiled with trembling lips. I knew I looked suspicious and that it didn’t look good, but what else could you expect me to do?

Tomorrow would finally be the day that I would meet Marvin, and I had to be prepared. Yes, I was silly enough to be in love with him, but I wasn’t foolish. I had to be ready in case our meeting went wrong.

The altercation at the club gave me the wake-up call I needed. What if Marvin was nothing like the emails? What if he was a stuck-up prick who hadn’t changed a bit?

I paid for the materials and smiled at the guy. “Thank you, have a nice day!” I told him before I rushed out and made my way over to my car. I was so nervous and excited at the same time.

Marvin could possibly end up being the man of my dreams or the worst nightmare of my life. I had yet to find out.

Luckily enough, I had all the time to worry about tomorrow because I was done with the cocktail menu. Rona and I had been working on it for the past few days, and everything for the wedding had been taken care of. The wedding was in two days.

I had no idea what to wear, so I met up with Victoria, who was kind enough to ‘fund’ me a dress, as she liked to call it. She was terrified of the idea of me not having anything pretty to wear to the wedding and forced me to meet her at some dress shop.

“There you are. I thought you were going to bail on me.” Victoria held up her hands as I stepped out of the car. “I know, I know-I’m so sorry!”

Victoria would’ve probably made fun of me if I would mention the ax. “It’s hot outside, and you’ve decided to wear a hoodie. Are you okay?” Victoria frowned. “Do you even own color?”

I looked down at my black hoodie with a pout on my face. All of my clothes were black, but I couldn’

it. Each time I went out to buy something with color, I would end up buying something black.

“No worries, it’s a good thing I’m here now.” Victoria slammed her arm around my shoulder. “If it w to you, you would’ve gone to the wedding in your funeral outfit?”

“What?”

“Exactly!” Victoria spoke. She led me inside the shop, where a woman was waiting for us with a tray in her hands. There were two glasses of champagne. “Miss Schmidt.” The woman smiled.

Victoria gave her a nod and grabbed the two glasses of champagne from the tray. “Here you go, Lena.”

“T-thanks,” I mumbled as my eyes scanned the boutique. These dresses probably costed more than a fortune, which could be seen as the perks of being rich. I would love to be Victoria for a day.

“Did you prepare the dress as I told you?” Victoria asked the woman. I took a sip from the champagne and pulled a disgusted face. “The fancy taste was not for me.”

“Of course, just a second.” The woman smiled at Victoria. She walked off to get the dress while Victoria pulled me to the sofa. “Do you already know what you’re going to wear tomorrow?” She asked as her eyes lit up.

I had thought about it, and I decided to go like myself. I didn’t want to lie to Marvin, and I wanted him to accept me as Elena. The plain jane in my denim jeans and black T-shirt. “I’ll probably wear this outfit,” 1 spoke.

“No, absolutely not-not on my watch!” Victoria shook her head. “Natasha, bring out both outfits, please!” She yelled out. It seemed as if Victoria was more prepared than I could ever be.

“When did you have the time to do all of this?” I wondered. Victoria released an exhausted breath. “I don’t even know, especially since work has been crazy lately.”

“Crazy how?”

“We have to defend this guy who’s been wrongfully accused of murder amongst many things, but he’s the son of this important man-so the whole thing is kind of sketchy.” Victoria rolled her eyes. “I don’t even know why dad got himself involved in the first place, but he apparently owes this man a favor.”

“Ouch, sorry.” I apologized. Perhaps working at the cocktail bar was the perfect job for me. I couldn’t even imagine myself defending someone who was clearly guilty. “Don’t be. Blame my dad.”

“Oh, look, there she is!” Victoria stood up. I placed the glass of champagne on the table and followed Tori’s routine. “Here is outfit number one, and here is outfit number two!” The woman spoke.

Victoria almost pulled them from her hands and pushed them into my grip. “The fitting room is there, change!” She demanded. Going against Victoria was like going against the devil, so I followed her request and rushed towards the dressing room.

Getting into the first outfit for the wedding felt like a disaster. The dress was so tight that my boobs and ass were begging for freedom. If this was Tori’s idea of a wedding outfit, I had to say she had a funny mind.

I walked out with my head lowered and waited for Victoria’s reaction. “Oh my god!” Victoria squealed. “Please spin so that I can take a proper look at you.”

I did as Victoria told me to, while she had a satisfied smirk on her face. Her hand moved to my butt and before I knew it she smacked it without a warning. “Ow!” I yelped out in pain, but Victoria didn’t seem to mind. “Who knew that fat ass was hiding beneath all those sweatpants!”

“Really funny.” I rolled my eyes. I had decided it was enough for now and turned to go back into the fitting room. “And you’re wearing that dress, by the way!” Victoria cheered.

It took me some time, but after much effort, I had finally managed to get myself into the second outfit. This one was for my first meeting with Marvin. This outfit was a bit more comfortable as it was a pink jumpsuit, but the ruffles were a bit too much for me.

“Are you sure I don’t look like a flamingo?” I complained as I walked out of the fitting room. I had to say I was not shocked by Victoria’s over-the-top reaction because that was the kind of person she was. “Oooh, won’t you look at that cleavage!” Victoria clapped her hands.

I grew a shy smile on my face and pulled up the top part of the jumpsuit. “The idea is for him to look at my face. “That’s the idea.” Victoria winked. “But your ideas are boring, and yes-we’ll also be taking this outfit.”

“I’m paying for it, and I don’t want to hear your mouth,” Tori warned me. Arguing with Tori was a lost cause, so I wasn’t even going to do it. I twirled my finger around the $2000 price tag and thought about the $3000 dress in the fitting room.

Tori was absolutely insane, but nothing could stop her. I knew the money was like a penny to her, but it didn’t change the fact that it made me feel uncomfortable. I didn’t want her to think that I befriended her for the wrong reasons.

Victoria kept her word and bought both of the dresses. An early birthday gift, that’s how she liked to call it. We all knew that she would go full out for my birthday, as she had always done, so that was a total lie.

After listening to Victoria’s endless advice of what I should and shouldn’t do, I was finally back home. It was no surprise, of course, to see Alex’s car in the driveway. Other than work, that man had no life, and it was all my father’s fault. I hid the bags of clothes in the trunk and made my way inside.

“Dad, Alex!”

“Here in the kitchen, come quick!”

I dropped my empty bag of junk food and ran over to the kitchen, only to see my dad and Alex seated at the kitchen table. By the way he was calling out my name, I would’ve thought someone died.

“Do I even want to know what you guys are up to?” I chuckled at the sight of the papers on the kitchen table. Alex shrugged his shoulders while I could read the embarrassment from his face. He had every the right to be embarrassed.

“Elena, sweetie-remember that guy who I told you about?” My dad spoke as he looked through the countless papers. “Yes, how could I forget?” I rolled my eyes.

It was apparently the son of a cartel boss who was being framed for Maddens murder if I had to believe my dad. He had interrogated me to the point I didn’t even want to hear about it anymore.

“Elena, you said your friend said some guy stopped by and warned her, right?” Alex questioned. I didn’t want them to bother one of the few friends I had, so I let out some information, such as the fact that the person was apparently the brother of one of our clients.

“Yes and no-I don’t know what he looks like,” I spoke. “And neither does Rona. I asked her to look at the security footage, but there is none because the CCTV is broken.”

It was all a big lie, but what could I do? I wasn’t interested in any of these dangerous games which Alex and my dad were playing, and I wanted to stay the hell away from it, as far as possible.

“So I guess we’re back at square one.” My dad released a defeated sigh. “Do you think it could’ve been him, Alex?”

“Yes, do you-Alex?” I spoke sarcastically as I made my way to the fridge. I had no idea who they meant by ‘him,’ but whoever they meant couldn’t be any good if they were treating ‘him’ like Voldemort. “Hahah, really funny-Elena.” Alex rolled his eyes. There was only one funny thing, and that was that he hadn’t seen his daughter in days.

“I know one thing, and that’s that he wasn’t alone.” Alex shared his theory with my dad. “He’s always with Panther-those two are inseparable.”

“Panther.” I snickered before I covered my mouth with my hand. My dad and Alex shot me a glare.

“You guys, the name is ridiculous-you can’t take this seriously, right?”

My dad took a deep breath and reached out to hold my hand. “Elena, come here.”

I walked over to my dad and grabbed his hand while I tried to hold back my laughter. “Elena, he got this nickname because he works fast, and he catches his prey as if it’s nothing.” He spoke with big eyes. “This is not a game, Elena.”

“Well, in that case-I’m sorry, dad.” I smiled to calm his nerves. This man was so uptight that I couldn’t take him seriously. I felt terrible about his friend dying, but he had bills to pay, and they weren’t going to do it themselves.

I released myself from my dad’s grip and walked back to the fridge to get myself a drink.

“I heard they have a wedding in two days, and my source told me that the Hernandez’ are going to get revenge for Danny,” Alex said. “I say we spy on this wedding and see if we can find out something-

“See, now you’re going too far!” I lost it. At this point, there weren’t only bringing their own lives in danger, but also mine. “You can’t just show up at a cartel wedding to spy on a situation that has nothing to do with us.”

“Elena, relax.” Alex attempted to calm me down. “No, no, I won’t relax. If the two of you want to be “Panther’s prey, then you can do that in another life, but not as long as I live here.”

“Well, then maybe you shouldn’t be living here!” Alex argued. He had a point. It wasn’t as if I didn’t have the money. I was only here to take care of my dad, and I was obviously failing at it.

“Well, maybe I should!”

“No, Elena-don’t be ridiculous!” My dad stood up from his chair. “Alex, stop it!” He scolded my brother.

“Elena isn’t going anywhere, and we are not going to that wedding.