Page 132 of XOXO

“I didn’t expect anything less,” Matteo said, throwing his arm over my shoulder as a tear escaped. “They’ll probably love her more than us.”

I laughed, wiping my face, leaning on Matteo as we watched them comfort our girl.

“I’m sorry; I don’t know where that came from.” Violeta took a napkin from Yoona. “I was fine with⁠—”

“You shouldn’t be fine with this; get mad. We sure as hell are mad for you,” my dad said, and damn, I loved him so much for that.

“We will make it right,” Matteo said, and they all looked at us.

“Thank god you two figured it out,” my dad said, getting up and sitting in another chair.

“We thought you would never figure it out,” Maya said, sitting across from my dad.

“What?” I looked around the table as I walked to the seat next to Violeta.

“I thought we might have to get one of those airplanes to fly with a banner that said, it's ok to love your best friend,” Yoona said, sitting next to Ru.

Ru laughed. “It took them a minute, but they figured it out. Just took Violeta to bring them together.”

“Of course. Violeta is a bright girl,” my dad said, loading up a plate with food and handing it to me as I sat down.

I scoffed and Matteo chuckled. “I should have known you would know.”

“Excuse me?” I looked at Matteo. “Am I the only one who is shocked that everyone knew except us?”

“It’s ok, Sweetheart, it’s the hair,” Violeta chuckled, kissing my cheek.

“Blondes have more fun,” I huffed.

“Yeah, we do,” my dad said, siding with me.

I smirked as Vi kissed my shoulder, looking up with so much adoration I felt my stomach swoop. I was so damn lucky that she had chosen us.

“What are you going to do about Minsoo?” Yoona asked. “I think it’s been a long time coming that we do something about him.”

“You're right, mama,” I said, serving Vi a little of everything she’d like. “I took it upon myself to send his boss an email this morning about what he did to Ru. It turns out he has a separate account that he’s been funneling money into. I haven’t found where the money is coming from, but it is an offshore account. It’s also made some large payments to some personal accounts that I’ve been tracking to several women. I think Minsoo has been handing out some hush money.”

“There was that scandal last year with his client,” Matteo said, taking a sip of his coffee. “Two girls came out saying Hoong had sexually assaulted them and then the accusations disappeared.”

“Minsoo said the girls just wanted money and when they were contacted by police, they backed out,” Ru said. “My makeup artist said she knew the girls. I’m going to reach out and see what they say.”

“Perfect, great start,” Yonna said leaning back against her chair. “Minsoo will royally regret what he did. I will also talk to my friend so see how we go about taking down the photos.”

“I’ll send out cease and desist letters to all the major sites,” Matteo said, cleaning his mouth.

“Once one site gets the letter, the rest should follow,” Ru said, looking at Vi. “And if they don’t, we can sue them. Matteo is a great lawyer and I have him on a retainer so we won’t have to pay him.”

Vi chuckled, covering her mouth.

“I can figure out ways you can pay me.” Matteo waggled his brows suggestively.

“Matteo!” Vi gasped, her cheeks getting red.

He kissed her nose and her forehead, then looked over at me, winking. I shook my head as my dad suggested on what we should do for dinner. The rest of the morning we stayed in the main house watching movies and eating everything our parents cooked up for us. Vi fit in perfectly, our parents took care of her and I hoped in the years to come, she would consider them family too. I wanted to give her everything she'd ever wanted and more.

“Why is she taking so long?” Matteo asked as we watched Vi walking outside between the big house and the back house.

“Her brother was freaking out that he hadn’t heard from her,” Ru said, drinking his beer on the sofa that was facing the window she was walking in front of. The sun was setting behind her.