For the sake of easing my cousin Kevin Dasom’s anger, on the day arranged for our engagement, Yvonne Fitzwilliam failed to arrive at the set time.
She merely had her aide come over to pass a message. “Last time you grabbed the vintage watch Kevin wanted, making him lose pride at that gathering. Today is meant to teach you a lesson. When you say sorry to Kevin, we’ll choose another engagement date.”
Across one night, I turned into the joke of all Huntsville.
My older sister commented, “Kevin is stubborn. Let him let out this temper, and it’ll settle. Anyway, Yvonne Fitzwilliam is your fiancée. Pushing the engagement back a few days doesn’t matter.”
Was it really so? It didn’t matter?
The reputation of the Dasom family was not something others could casually smack. I turned around and accepted the offer to join the Wurtzbach family. “Dad, about the cooperation with the Wurtzbach family, I accept it.”
——
At the engagement ceremony, the scheduled moment had already slipped by, and not one member of the Fitzwilliam family showed up. There was not even a trace of Yvonne.
The guests murmured among themselves, and even the Dasom family elders could no longer stay calm.
The butler asked me, “Sir, shall we send someone to the Fitzwilliam family to check?”
I shook my head. The hour had already gone; Yvonne was not coming.
The butler led a man to the entrance, Yvonne’s personal assistant, Kelvin Sandoval.
With his chin lifted, he said, “Our President Fitzwilliam says that today is meant to give Kirk a lesson. When you say sorry to Kevin and his mood settles, President Fitzwilliam will pick a day to arrange the engagement again.”
“And also, the vintage watch you grabbed from Kevin, you should return it to him quickly. You belong to a notable family. How could you take another person’s treasured item?”
After he said that, he rushed off quickly. Before he stepped through the doorway, we heard him saying to the butler, “President Fitzwilliam instructed me to bring this box of pastries for Kevin. She specially queued to buy these crispy cakes.”
As his words faded farther away, my best man’s face turned stormy with anger. “Yvonne has gone too far! All because of Kevin, she dares to make you look bad like this.”
The old maid in our house drew her brows together. “What should we do? Mr. and Mrs. Dasom haven’t come back yet, and no one is here to decide for Sir Kirk. Are we supposed to let Sir Kirk be treated this way?”
Just then, Lorraine Dasom stepped in from outside. Following right behind her was someone carrying a pastry box, my dear cousin, Kevin.
With his eyes turning red, he set the pastries on the table beside me and dropped to his knees with a loud thud. “Krik, I didn’t know Yvonne would skip the engagement banquet just to stand up for me. It’s all my fault.”
Right away, Lorraine pulled him up. “Kevin, what are you doing? This all happened because Kirk wouldn’t hand you that vintage watch. Yvonne only wants to help you let out your anger and keep your temper in check. Otherwise, who knows what trouble he’ll stir up later?”
Kevin shook his head; his face ran with tears. “Kirk, it’s my fault. I shouldn’t have wanted that vintage watch. How could someone like me deserve it? It was just my own wishful thinking. Cousin had his reasons for not giving it to me.”
“I’m only an orphan staying under the Dasom family’s roof.”
Lorraine spoke in a rushed voice, “Nonsense! I’ve always seen you as my own younger brother. What orphan? You are also a young master of the Dasom family. Who dares say anything about you?”
She faced me with anger. “Kirk, do you have to stay this cold? Can’t you see how upset Kevin is? What’s so wrong with handing the vintage watch to him? Turning this into a huge issue helps no one.”
“People will only say that the Kirk of the Dasom family made his fiancée skip the engagement because he wouldn’t give up a vintage watch. What reputation do you still have?”
Hearing my elder sister, Lorraine, speak to me as this left me completely disheartened.
Once, she cared about me the most. But after Kevin came into the Dasom family, she favored the quiet and gentle Kevin instead.
As long as Kevin cried, she believed it meant I, the childish younger brother, must have picked on him. I, the spoiled young son, must have been the one acting out.
