Chapter 24: A Silly Problem in the Stars House

  After breakfast, while Clara, Eva, and Isabella were loudly arguing about whose turn it was to wash the dishes, I pulled Kairo aside onto the balcony.

  "So?" I said, looking at him. "What happened with Eva?"

  Kairo sighed, and all the sarcasm faded from his face, replaced by a look of genuine sadness. "She rejected me, Deo." He said in a quiet voice. "She looked at me... and said she could only see a child in me. 'Never mind. You'll find someone else.'"

  "Fool! She is my only love! I won't love anyone else!" Kairo said sadly.

  Time passed. One night, after everyone had fallen asleep, Clara and I were alone. The rain was lashing the glass windows of our mansion, creating a warm, comfortable isolation from the outside world. The sound of the raindrops was the only rhythm in the silence of our bedroom.

  We finished, and I was lying beside her, listening to the sound of her breathing settling down. It was a perfect night. But suddenly, I felt it.

  A strange, cold, and empty feeling. As if something had escaped from me with my lust. As if a small, vital part of my soul had leaked out and disappeared into the darkness. It wasn't a bad feeling, nor was it good. It was... a void. A feeling of cold emptiness at the core of my being, an echo of the cutting that haunts my dreams.

  "Deo?" Clara whispered. "Is everything alright? Your face... is pale."

  I looked at her in the darkness, at her barely visible face. "Yes," I lied. "Everything is perfect." Is this what real love means? To give a part of yourself to the other? Or am I... broken? Am I transferring my darkness to her?

  The next day, the quiet was broken.

  We heard a massive explosion at the main gate, as if lightning had struck the mansion. In an instant, we were all in fighting stance. We ran to the entrance and found the huge wrought-iron gates shattered, and in the middle stood a massive man with fiery red hair. Gaspar Rifemont.

  "Where is Isabella?!" he bellowed, his voice like the rattling of thunder.

  Isabella coolly descended the stairs and stood before him. "Father. Get lost."

  "My daughter! Do you know the meaning of those words?! I only refused your independence! How can I leave my only daughter thousands of miles away forever, to live in this foolish capital?!"

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  Isabella yelled: "So what do you want me to do?! I don't want to become the Head of the Family!"

  "How many times have I told you you are the heir! Who else do you want to inherit the family?!"

  "Get a second son!"

  "I will not marry a woman other than your mother even if a thousand years pass after her death!"

  "Come on for your father's sake, come! You are in a stranger's house!"

  Isabella looked at Kairo, who was standing in the back eating potato chips and watching with vindication. "It's not a stranger's house."

  She ran to him and hugged him tightly. "It's my boyfriend's friend's house."

  Kairo froze, potato chips falling from his mouth in shock. He felt genuine pain in his heart as he saw Eva look at them with shock and disappointment.

  Gaspar looked at Kairo, his eyes blazing. "This son of a bitch..." He lunged at him.

  I grabbed him. "Calm down, sir."

  "Let go of me! It's a duel to the death!"

  Alessandro yelled: "Run! Kairo!"

  I said, trying to hold Gaspar: "Run to the edge of the world! I can't hold this raging bull for long!"

  At that moment, Kairo took off for the edge of the world.

  "Did you see?!" Isabella yelled into the air. "I'm not your child anymore! I've grown up and have a boyfriend! Leave me alone!"

  "You want to leave me like she left me?! Fine! Leave me! But you are no longer my daughter!" And he vanished.

  [Gaspar's Perspective]

  I vanished. I appeared on a rainy street outside the mansion. I leaned against a wall, feeling exhaustion overwhelming me. I looked at the lit window of their room.

  "My love..." I whispered to the woman who was no longer there. "You left me... and now she leaves me too. What do I do alone?"

  And he vanished into the rain.

  After confirming Gaspar's departure, Kairo returned, panting.

  "Where is that damned girl? I'm her boyfriend?! I don't believe this!" He was going to confront her, but I grabbed him.

  "Her father abandoned her. Don't be too angry with her."

  Kairo sighed. "I don't believe this. Am I a babysitter or what?" And he went to his room.

  I went up to Isabella's room. I knocked on the door. "It's Deo. Can I come in?"

  "No."

  I entered anyway. She was crying bitterly in her bed. I sat beside her and said, "Do you know that you are always..."

  "You are welcome here. It's true you hate me, but I truly consider you family. Like the sister I never had."

  She looked at me.

  "But if my sister makes a mistake, I have to tell her. Please don't be angry with your father. He truly loves you. The love was clear in his eyes."

  She cried more. "But he said I'm not his daughter."

  "He was just angry. Go talk to him. Reconcile with him. He's just sad because his daughter is moving away from him." I patted her head.

  "How many times have I told you not to pat me!"

  "Come on," I said with a smile. "This is not the Isabella I know. Go talk to him... and hit him too so he submits. Crying is not the way of the Isabella I know. Hit him, and make him your father again."

  She smiled through her tears and hit me on the shoulder. "Shut up, you weakling."

  Later that night, there was a light knock on Isabella's door. It was Kairo.

  "What do you want?" she said coldly.

  "I just... I just wanted to check on you."

  She was silent for a moment. "I'm fine. Don't worry."

  "Are... are you angry with me?"

  "Why would I be angry with you? You didn't do anything."

  "Because I... I didn't help you. I was just a prop."

  She sighed. "No. You were a fool. That's all. Now go. I want to sleep."

  Kairo closed the door, leaned against it for a moment, and thought that even monsters have feelings.