ARIA spent her first day at the mansion by sleeping all day. As she said before, the long ass stairs and hallways took all of her month's worth of energy so in order to replenish her strength, not to forget that encounter with her jerk older brothers at the library that pissed her off.
Do those three think that she'll just stay at the corner and will weep like a child who got her candy stolen? Never in their dreams that she'll do that. If they want to start a war with her, they better have a plan because Aria already has an idea on how to whoop their ass the moment that she was insulted in that library—especially by that dickwad named Kiel.
Anyway, she's bored. She's not used to not doing anything. When she was still a loan shark, she had tons of work. She used to have this huge pile of paper works to review and sign and then she often visited some of her clients. Most of her clients are close to her, especially the grandma's on the wet market and the students who have micro loans for their studies. Aria is a little bit different from the usual loan sharks because she's liked by her clients but of course there are some who became her enemy, some are just angry because she's a woman.
She shook her head and went off from the bed. Aria began to do some basic stretching starting from her wimpy arms. She sighed after realizing how weak her body is, her arms are already aching just by stretching it a little bit. Same goes for her legs that's still wobbling from walking the stairs earlier.
"How come this body is so weak?" Aria did some leg stretching and winced. "This is bad."
Her situation doesn't even matter to her anymore. She's Aria Valiente now and she's gonna live a different life, far from being a loan shark in her past life.
Aria doesn't have any plans, she's gonna go with the flow with the situation but she needs to fix herself first to make sure she can study peacefully next week.
***
UNFORTUNATELY, she learned nothing from Aria's belongings even though she spent most of her time inside for the past week. No diaries, no suicide notes or anything that could give her some hint about Aria's life. The only obvious thing that she could derive from this room is that the original Aria Valiente loves pink and cute things.
She can't even open her laptop or tablet, and she doesn't even know where Aria's phone is. It's not that she's getting bored since she's been consistently busy on building up strength on her body, but she needs to at least know something from the previous owner of this body, right?
Aria stopped from doing light push ups when she heard some footsteps coming towards her room.
"Aria, it's already lunch time. Let's go. Everyone is waiting downstairs."
Her shoulders relaxed. She already memorized everyone's footsteps so she knew whoever was coming to her. This time, it's Janice.
"Okay, I'm coming. You can come down first."
"No, no, no. I'll stay and wait for you so that we can come down together."
Aria nodded to Janice as she wiped her sweaty face and changed her shirt before walking with her nanny. As of now, Janice is the only person that she can trust. She's still weighing whether Aria has a good relationship with her parents or just putting on a show since she doesn't remember anything. She needs to be careful.
As usual, there's plenty of delicious food on the table that's waiting on her. Her mother flashed the sweetest smile that Aria ever saw as her mother pulled her to sit beside her. Their father began to ask how everyone's day was and just like the other days, Aria just remained silent and focused on eating.
"How was the food?" Her father asked suddenly.
Everyone's eyes are on her, waiting for her response. Aria had to swallow the lump of meat that she's chewing before she can even answer in an awkward tone.
"It's delicious."
Her parents clapped as if her answer was something that needed a celebration, while her brothers made a weird expression except for the eldest who just kept on observing her.
"I'm glad you liked it, dear!" Aria's mother hugged her. "You've always been a vegetarian before, you never eat meat and other foods aside from fruits and vegetables so your father and I we're so glad that you're eating very well!"
'I see. That's why this body is fucking weak.' She said in her head while enduring her mother's tight hug.
"Maybe hitting her head is a good thing after all." The second son snickered.
Aria learned within just a week that Kiel is the rudest and the most foul mouthed among her three brothers. He's outright disrespectful towards everyone.
Levi is the youngest, he's smart but uses it the wrong way. He's a bully too. He's always with Kiel, they're like partners in crime.
And of course, Josiah, their eldest brother. He's a man of few words. His eyes are always glaring at Aria for no reason at all, not that she give a fuck about it but most of the time it's bothersome.
"Kiel! How dare you say that to your sister?!" His father exclaimed in anger.
"Sister?" He glanced at Aria who's still eating and minding her business. "I don't have a sister."
"Kiel!"
"What? Am I wrong, Dad? She's not my sister. She's stiff and does nothing but annoy us but after the accident, she's suddenly doing strange stuff. She's an attention seeking crybaby."
"It's not like you hate it, Dad." Levi added with a grin. "Both of you obviously like her more now that she's acting like a normal girl should be."
"Yeah, no. Normal girl...? Pffft..."
Their parents exchange glances out of worry, but Aria didn't bother to say anything. She just finished eating her food in silence.
Aria wiped her mouth with the napkin before standing up. All eyes are on her when she walked away towards the kitchen.
Their father glared at his sons as he clenched his fist out of anger.
"I can't believe that you're really gonna disrespect me at my own house, Kiel! All three of you, you disappoint me!"
Kiel let out a sarcastic laugh. "Disappoint you? You disappointed us first when you brought that wench a year right after our mother died—"
Everyone gasped when a whole pitcher of ice cold juice was poured into Kiel's head. Levi grimaced when the juice got on his shoulders as well. Their parents' mouths were left hanging while their gazes darted on her. On the other hand, Josiah just silently stared at her.
Kiel angrily wiped his wet face before standing up, trying to intimidate Aria using his tall and slightly bulky body.
"You little bitch."
He's expecting Aria to cry and run towards their father and step mother, but confusion clouded his mind when his eyes met his sister's icy glare.
"Your rudeness really knows no bounds." Aria clicked her tongue as she put back the pitcher on the table. "Did you kiss your mother goodbye using that dirty mouth of yours, Kiel?"
Kiel was stunned at Aria's last words to the point that he couldn't answer her back and just remained silent. He's clenching his fist so hard that it trembles, it's like he's trying to stop himself from reaching and slapping the girl in front of him.
Levi also froze in his seat while switching glances from Kiel to Aria who's now staring at each other. Their father and Aria's step mother don't know what to do, they're too speechless to break the fight between their children.
Their gazes turned to Josiah who just got up from his seat and held Kiel's shoulder, secretly squeezing his brother as if he's telling him to stop.
"Kiel must have woken up on the wrong side of the bed, that's why he's acting up." Josiah tap his brother's shoulder. "Is there something that you want to say to them, Kiel?'
Kiel gritted his teeth, still glaring at Aria who's not even batting an eyelash.
"I'm... sorry." He apologized as he faced his father.
After giving his forced apology, he turned around to walk away but a soft hand held the hemn of his shirt. Eyes widened, he glanced to the owner of the hand only to meet Aria's darkened gaze once again.
"You forgot to apologize to my mother."
Kiel smirked. "And why would I apologize to that wen—"
A slap cut him off.
"Hey! That's too much!" Levi intervened after Aria slapped his brother.
He stood up as well but Josiah stopped him. Aria crossed her arms on her chest and grinned, trying to tease her eldest brother who's just staring at her with his usual blank face.
"Apologize." She commanded Kiel. "Neither your father nor my mother deserve this disrespect."
"And what if I don't want to?"
Aria's lips curved into a wide, sinister smile that almost reached the corner of her eyes. She tilted her head and slightly leaned her face closer to Kiel's ear that made him frozen in his place.
"A fire might have broken out from your room in the middle of the night, so make sure to sleep with your one eye open, brother."