Lost Gem

Chapter 18

Anastasia hesitantly steps inside the packed dining room. Arabella's glare burns through her soul but Anastasia tries hard to not to glance in her direction.

Anastasia notices that Anastasio with a look of eagerness on his face, takes the unoccupied chair beside her while Stefano uninterestedly takes the chair on her other side, completely engrossed in his phone.

A little while later, Ermanno arrives in the room. First, all he does secretly glare at Stefano and then takes a seat across him after taking a look at Anastasia.

Within the same moment, Adriano and Giovanni enters. Giovanni have a laptop in his hand and he is telling Adriano something while pointing at the screen.

Anastasia, scared and a little shy peeks up at them through the curtain of her hair. Adriano seems emotionless as usual but Giovanni is showing his frustration and anger today.

It does nothing but manage to make her straighten up even more. Paul's anger and frustration never promised anything good.

"Where is dad?" Ermanno suddenly questions while curiously glancing in the direction of door.

Anastasia does not look up but she is a little curious too.

"He left last night due to some urgent meeting with Gray and Crimson's family. Anastasio and Stefano, you both will be coming with me. We are joining them later today." Adriano is the one to say these words. His eyes merely flicker at his siblings faces.

Arabella looks as usually uninterested but today she has this strange air of gloominess around her. He glances at Giovanni who seems to catch the wind of his thoughts. Giovanni nods a little. It was barely seen and no-one else but Anastasia had noticed it.

Adriano looks at Anastasia who immediately ducks her head down slightly to avoid making any eye-contact with him.

Adriano silently observes her. As usually, she is silent and fidgety, avoiding eye-contact at any cost. She is not even eating her breakfast and more like ignoring it. It makes him feel a little annoyed but he understands completely that she needs time and a gentle direction to adjust to these sudden changes.

From this, he gets reminded of Paul. Giovanni had told him earlier that no matter what kind of torture he put him through, he never budged and refused to say a single word. It looks like to Adriano that he would need to pay him a little visit himself.

"Atleast drink this, Anastasia." He is cut off from his thoughts at the voice of Anastasio. He looks at them to see Anastasio with a glass of juice in his hand. He has been telling Anastasia to drink the full of it if she does not want to eat more than 5 bites of her breakfast.

Absolutely no-one can win arguing against Anastasio on this matter. Anastasio knows this and well proud of it. And, if he is aware that his opponent is someone like Anastasia-- meek, shy, polite and cute-- then there is not even a single chance of losing it.

After the breakfast, Adriano and older twins left. Ermanno left after telling Giovanni that he is going to meet up with his friends while Arabella stomps upstairs, muttering something about not feeling well.

Giovanni finally turns his attention at Anastasia. She is silently staring back at him but upon getting caught, with a speed of lightening she looks down.

She is full of hesitant to get up from the chair and too afraid to ask his permission to leave to her room.

"Some of our family's personal designers will be here within few minutes. They are here to take your measurements."

Anastasia slowly looks up at him with a pure look of 'lost' and 'confusion' on her face.

"I'm sure Ermanno won't mind to lend you his clothes again but you need your own clothes too." He discreetly glances at her hoodie that actually rightfully belongs to Ermanno and his pair of old jeans. But due to her small frame, she is practically swimming in them.

Judging a look of worry that appeared on her face suddenly, Giovanni feels strange when he finds a sudden urge to reassure her.

"Don't worry. I will be there with you."

Her worrisome expression did not completely change but he manages to notice a small shine of relief in her eyes.

Within another minute, one of the maid arrives to inform Giovanni that the designers are here and they have already finished setting up.

After taking a small glance at his phone screen, he stands up and then looks down at Anastasia.

"Come on."

Anastasia silently follows his lead and walks behind him towards the staircase.

Out of nowhere, Anastasia almost trips in the middle of stairs due to her screaming nerves but Giovanni's sharp reflexes were put on action quickly. He grabs her arm to stop her from falling backwards and getting seriously hurt.

"Be careful."

With these two words, he releases her arm only to engulf her small hand in his.

Anastasia stares down at their adjoined hands with wide eyes.

He gives her no other glance but begins to ascend the stairs. Anastasia with no other option is tugged softly behind him.

He heads into the direction of ball-room. Anastasia's eyes widens again after seeing this huge hall. A enormous beautiful chandelier is hanging down from ceiling and it gains her awed attention immediately.

There are about six individuals present in the room and they have set up a huge collection of clothes in the room, filling up half of the place. They all give Giovanni and her immediate attention with a small bow and huge smiles. Giovanni does not share their enthusiasm though.

"Just get down to work."

Hey guys..  If you guys are one of my old readers, I would like to tell you that I have made some few changes in my 'His Little Rosa'. They are not much but if you remember the story, you will find some differences in plot. If you like, you can read that book again....!