Page 24 of Neptune

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CASSIE

A fter sending Aiden to school, I step back into the house, still wondering about him.

How will he play with his friends today? What subjects is he taking later? Will he enjoy his day?

A soft smile touches my lips. He has really stolen my heart.

I'm walking along the hallway when a room catches my attention. It's usually closed, but now, the door is opened. Curious, I step closer to it. It doesn't look like a bedroom—no one else in the family lives here anyway—so I slide the door open even further.

A gasp escapes from my mouth as I stare at a room filled with paintings. Judging by the look of them, the paintings were not done by a seven-year-old, aka Aiden. It seems like they were made by a true professional artist.

The paintings, most of which are of scenery and people, are breathtaking. I see mountains, romantic cities, people of different ethnicities and cultures.

While my eyes still travel around the room, a voice snaps me out of my daze.

"Those are Victor's works."

I snap my body around, only to find Ms. Langston standing before me, a smile on her face. "Luke's elder brother."

I'm stunned for a while before I shift my attention back to the paintings. "Aiden's father?" I echo.

Ms. Langston doesn't give me the answer right away, but as I walk further into the room to inspect his masterpieces, she says, " Yes."

I feel her following behind me as I go through the paintings.

"Aiden likes to come here to spend his free time," she says. "Sometimes, he paints here too."

I see. So that's where he got his talent from. Like father, like son.

One particular painting draws me in. My eyes just can't stop looking at a painting of a beautiful woman sitting on a bench, reading a book. She has long, straight auburn hair that reaches her shoulder and a pair of green eyes.

"It's his wife. Emily," I hear Ms. Langston say behind me.

I gaze at her. She's so pretty, even in painting.

A smile forms on my lips as I look at the woman who gave birth to Aiden. "So, she's Aiden's mother."

Again, Ms. Langston goes silent. It's not a question, though, so she doesn't need to answer anything.

However, after a while, she confirms, "She is."

I sigh and turn to Ms. Langston. My heart sinks as I see the sadness in her eyes. She must be remembering the tragedy that happened to Aiden's parents.

"You've been here since forever, have you not?" I ask.

Ms. Langston nods with a soft smile. "I’ve known Luke and Victor since they were toddlers."

"How did the accident happen?" My voice is small.

It's heartbreaking that Aiden had to go through the pain of losing his parents at such a young age, and Luke too for losing his brother.

Ms. Langston lets out a long sigh.

She looks pressured to answer my question, but then she opens her mouth. "It happened seven years ago. They had a car crash. Emily was in the third trimester of her pregnancy, close to labour. Both she and Victor didn't make it alive, but fortunately, the doctor managed to save her baby."

My mouth drops open. Suddenly, I feel a lump in my throat from hearing about that tragic incident. So, Aiden never met his parents? At all? My heart breaks for him even more.

Ms. Langston takes a deep breath before she resumes the story. "Everyone in the family was devastated when it happened, especially Luke," she says. "He was destroyed. At the time, we almost thought that no one could help him. What made it worse was that he blamed everything on their parents."

This information startles me.

"What?" I blurt out. "How come?"

Ms. Langston stares at me, still with the same sad eyes. "Victor was betrothed to another woman, Josephine. Their marriage was planned by both of their parents. It's the kind of arranged marriage between two powerful families. But Victor loved Emily. He never loved Josephine."

I don't say anything, waiting for her to spill more.

"But of course, his parents never approved of his relationship with Emily," Ms. Langston says.

"She was just a commoner, a librarian who met Victor in college, but their love was unavoidable.

Even though she was lovely, smart and kindhearted, his parents still didn't approve of her.

Sadly, they still judged her from her background, which wasn't from a well-bred family. "

My heart clenches for them. It must have been horrible to experience such hardship, not being able to be with the one you love.

"Regardless of his parents' disapproval, Victor and Emily were still together, building their relationship behind his parents' backs," Ms. Langston says.

"Eventually, his parents found out, and they were furious.

The fact that Klein Enterprise was on the verge of bankruptcy made it worse.

At that time, an arranged marriage between Victor and Josephine was the only thing that could save the company. "

I feel my breath catch in my throat. "What happened?" The question leaves my lips even though I'm starting to figure out where the story is going .

"Victor still refused to marry Josephine," Ms. Langston says. "He and Emily were planning to flee, to escape his parents' wrath. They did, but then the car accident happened."

Ms. Langston chokes at the end of her sentence and closes her eyes, covering her mouth with her hand. "I'm sorry," she rasps. "It's just...too painful to remember this tragedy." Her voice is hoarse.

I swallow. I can feel the pain from the story too. "And then Aiden was born," I whisper.

Ms. Langston nods, still closing her eyes. When she opens them, they are glistening with tears.

Now I know why Luke hates his parents so much. He thinks that they're the cause of Victor's death.

I feel sorry for judging him before, telling him how crazy and ruthless he was. It turns out there are so many things about him that I didn't know.

I know that Ms. Langston is almost crying, but I just can't help but ask the next question, "What did Luke do after that?"

Ms. Langston lets out another sigh, composing herself.

"After that accident, everything was in chaos.

The family's business kept crumbling down.

Josephine was the most horrible woman that I've ever met.

She's obsessed with the Klein brothers. Once she knew that she couldn't get Victor, she aimed for Luke.

She told Luke that he had to marry her if he wanted to save his family, just like she told Victor before, over and over again.

She even threatened Luke that she would brainwash her parents—who owned a powerful business that could be classified as Klein Enterprise's competitor—to ruin Klein Enterprise if he didn't marry her. "

I gasp. So Luke's ex-fiancée was his own brother's ex-fiancée? I've never heard of any woman this crazy—the only thing I knew about her before was that she's hot, based on her magazine cover shoot.

"But Luke would never do that," Ms. Langston says.

"He was disgusted by that cunning woman.

Luke is an intelligent and hardworking young man, and he's gifted with such an outstanding capability to solve business problems. It still amazes me that he has turned the tables and has made Klein Enterprise one of the most influential companies today. "

I must admit that Luke deserves all of those compliments. Hearing this story makes me respect him. I feel like my struggles are nothing compared to his.

"But it wasn't easy for him," Ms. Langston adds. "He had to go through many obstacles first before achieving his success. It was like hell for him—I know it so well."

So, Luke was in that kind of hell. How clueless I was. I thought that it was only me who was stuck in hell. How wrong I was.

I suddenly remember the words he said to me.

"You're such a weakling that people can't help but use you."

While I'm drowning in my agony of not feeling wanted and loved, letting people use me to gain that kind of love, Luke gets rid of people who destroy him.

How ironic. We are so different.

I heave a deep sigh, and that's when another painting catches my eye. Beside the painting of Emily stands a painting of a hypnotizing scenery. It's a painting of a small town next to a beautiful lake during winter, a snowy mountain in the background—it looks like somewhere in Europe.

There's something about this art that pulls me in and takes my breath away. Walking closer to it, I notice small handwriting at the bottom right corner of the canvas.

Hallstatt, Austria.

Isn't that where Luke's parents stay now? But why have I not heard anything about them, even after our wedding took place?

Are they not mad at us right now? Why didn't they unleash their wrath against us?

And where is Josephine? Wouldn't she want to confront me? Hell, she might even want to kill me after I stole her fiancé.

While I'm deep in thought, I realize that there's still so much more about this family that remains a mystery to me .

My eyes can't seem to stop staring at the painting of Hallstatt. A sudden sense of longing fills my heart—it even brings slight pain. I wonder how that's even possible because I've never been there. As far as I can remember, it's not one of the cities I've visited during my tours.

So, why does it feel so familiar?