Chapter 40: Brothers
The plush interior of the private jet exuded an air of luxury, the soft leather seats cocooning the occupants in opulence. While the employees who sat further away were engrossed in their own conversations, Ian sat there observing his brother who sat opposite him and Arabelle, who had surprisingly taken up a seat not next to Demetri but somewhat further.
Of course, he could guess what was going through her mind. Arabelle had single-mindedly been devoted to Demetri, her heart set on him since she was a young teenager. All of the brothers had of course recognized this, but they had simply assumed that the girl was going through puppy love.
However, Arabelle had not only not grown out of her puppy love but even somehow convinced their grandfather to pressure Demetri to marry her. That had been her biggest foolishness. Maybe if she had been devoted to Demetri, his brother would have taken note of her someday. However, by choosing underhanded means, Arabelle had cut off her own path.
She’d been so delusional that she had even started to believe that Demetri had stayed away from women because he was waiting for her to grow up. This presumption came from the fact that Demetri had never had any scandals with anyone in the past.
Ian had always looked at Arabelle as his little sister and it was why he was sometimes tempted to hold her by the shoulders and shake her. His brother was a man in his prime, dealing with a stressful job, not a monk! The only reason there were never any scandals was because Demetri was extremely discreet.
All his close employees who had access to his personal life were carefully and personally vetted by Demetri himself. Other than using a chauffeur for official purposes, Demetri drove around himself. This way no one would know where he went in his personal time. And there was also the fixed work leave every Saturday. All of them had long assumed that Demetri visited his mistress during that day.
The only reason he had not tried to burst Arabelle’s bubble yet was that she would not believe him even if he used a megaphone. However, seeing Demetri kissing someone passionately, without a care for his image, must have shaken her. She’d escaped from there as if she was being chased by demons from hell. But Ian had stood there, watching.
This person with his brother was definitely not a regular mistress. Demetri had not been discreet about her but other than that, when he had let go of her, there had been something soft in his gaze as he looked down on her. Even Ian who stood further away could feel the difference in his brother’s stance. He’d watched as Demetri had opened the door of the cab for the woman, helping her into the cab and watching the cab leave.
If somebody had told Ian that Demetri could be like this, he would have sent them to the psychiatric ward for a checkup. But as he thought more and more, Ian remembered that Demetri had not always been like this. Even though he had never been very talkative, Demetri had usually smiled a lot. He used to even play pranks on them, instigating his younger brothers into mischief before pretending to be the innocent party. It had been so long that they’d forgotten their older brother whom they idolized as the best prankster.
And every change in Demetri circled back to that one time, ten years ago... Ian sighed and glanced at his brother. Whatever it was that had caused the rift between Demetri and their grandfather had changed their brother. And unfortunately, no one knew because they had all been in the boarding school at that time...
Ian’s sharp eyes flicked over to his elder brother, once again, who was engrossed in studying a stack of documents, his brow furrowed, and his jaw clenched. Ian could practically sense the tension radiating from him.