Chapter 5
Zephyr
She’dbrokenthenews about her breakup with Alec to her parents when it had happened while visiting them for their weekend brunch. Her mother still didn’t believe it after weeks, despite Zephyr telling them she was seeing someone else. Mama thought it was a lover’s tiff rather than a clean break.
As Zephyr kneaded the dough for a special dessert at her parent's home, she wondered how to break the news about the wedding thing. It had been a week since she’d gone down on her knees with her proposal, and she was yet to hear back from him.
Her father sat reading the finance section in the newspaper, his gold-rimmed glasses on the end of his nose. Her mother chatted with some friends as she typed on her phone, her coffee untouched on the table in front of her. Zen sat on the kitchen counter beside Zephyr, swinging her legs as she whisked the batter in a bowl. It was like any other weekend brunch.
And her birthday was in two days.
She took a deep breath, punching the dough with her hands. “I’m getting married on my birthday,” she announced, her back to the table.
“Alec proposed?” her mother asked, her voice excited with glee.
“We’re not together, mama,” she reminded her mother. “I’m in love with someone else.”
Even though he didn’t know it.
She’d sent him two texts over the week and he hadn’t replied or called her back. While her proposal had been unconventional, she’d been almost certain he would accept. She was pretty enough, she made him smile, and she’d rock his world in bed. What more did a man want? Ugh. She’d also loved him for a long time but he didn’t know that so she didn’t hold that against him.
“What do you mean?” Esmeralda de la Vega put her hand down on the table. “He was about to propose to you!”
Zephyr sighed. She loved her mother, she truly did, but her mama had her flaws. One of them was caring about what people said, which she couldn’t entirely blame her for because people could be nasty with the backtalk. And she knew her mama only wanted a good life with all the comforts for her daughters, which was why she could get swayed by material stuff sometimes.
“He cheated on me, mama,” Zephyr reminded her for the hundredth time. “And even if he hadn’t, I would have left him. I love someone else.”
Her mother’s voice flared. “He doted on you!”
“When he wasn’t trying to tell her not to eat,” Zen murmured from the side, having her back as always.
Her mother waved that off. “That’s a part of relationships. I tell your father not to eat something because it’s bad for his health. Alec was just looking out for you.”
Zephyr looked to her father, who was watching her quietly, his eyes behind the spectacles. If someone had told her that thirty years ago that Esmeralda, one of the most beautiful girls in town who had a line of eligible bachelors lining her door, would fall in love with a slight, sweet accountant who genuinely loved numbers and was always calculating something or the other, Zephyr wouldn’t have believed it. But she’d witnessed the love her parents had for each other—two polar opposite personalities, her mother loud and her father quiet—and she’d wanted that for herself. She’d wanted the romantic tale that she could tell her kids and make them believe in love, the story of two lovers who loved so deep they couldn’t be without another, flaws and all. Perhaps that was why as a little girl, she’d subconsciously seen that capacity of love in the pained, violent outburst of a boy, and claimed him for herself that day forward.
“It’s happening, mama. I’m not asking,” Zephyr stated firmly and the table went quiet.
Her mother dropped her head in her hands, mumbling something too quietly for Zephyr to hear.
“Who is he?” her papa asked, folding his newspaper and speaking for the first time.
“Alpha Villanova,” she told him and saw recognition flare in his eyes.
“The owner of Trident?” he asked, just to confirm.
She nodded. “I knew him a few years ago, but we lost touch and just reconnected recently. It felt like no time had passed. It was magical, papa.”
Her mother looked up. “Alpha? He owns Trident? The towers? What’s his family like? How did you meet him?”
“Mama—”
“No, no!” her mother stood up. “This is too much. This Alpha has corrupted your mind against Alec. Alec is a good man, his family has accepted us as their own!”
It was like hitting a wall sometimes.
Zen piped up from the side. “Mama, did you miss the part where she told you, twice, that he cheated on her?”
“Mind your tone, Zenith de la Vega,” her mama pointed at Zen with her death stare, before turning on her heel and walking out of the room.