Chapter 162 - Pictures From Past

"Latte is a regular term for milk there," Santiago informed. "American culture hasn't reached there yet. So, while placing the order of Latte coffee, one must tell the barista specifically. This was the mistake that Emmanuel had been doing all this while. So, he had to learn to make Latte himself in the end." 

"Poor baby," Valencia could sympathize with the boy. He looked a couple of years older than Cameron. "How old are you?"

"I'm nineteen," Emmanuel replied in a bland voice. He felt that only Valencia could connect with him over this matter but since she was on his enemy list, he didn't enthusiastically reply to her. This was to let everyone know that his loyalty lies with Persephone. 

Santiago gave him a look but didn't say anything. 

Valencia nodded in response as if his indifference had nothing to do with her. "My younger brother is seventeen. You remind me of him." 

"Did you inform Cameron?" Persephone immediately inquired. "And my little Santiago? Wouldn't he be worrying about you?" 

Big Santiago, who was now looking at Persephone as if he was looking at a criminal, just realized one thing. Red's little Santiago. And Little Santiago's Big Red? He had always been near the truth. 

"Don't tell me you are that brat's Red?" Santiago asked her as if she had betrayed him. 

"Who are you calling brat?" Persephone glared at him. "Little Santiago is better than this Big Santiago!!"

"Persephone, are you collecting figurines by the name of Santiago? Do you perhaps have an obsession with this name?!" Santiago asked her in a cold voice. 

Persephone blinked her eyes at him. "What do you mean?" Yes, she agreed that she was particularly vulnerable to this name. But it didn't mean she liked collecting all the men by this name. 

"I wouldn't be surprised if you start naming your children all versions of Santiago," Santiago snickered at her. 

"Santiago Vitello! You know nothing!" 

If he was the father of her sons, she might start naming them Santiago One, Santiago Two and so on. 

Only if he was… 

And only if Persephone knew… 

…. 

After the doctor sent all of them back as they all were not allowed to stay the night accompanying the patient for they were not the patient's immediate family members. 

Valencia returned home as Santiago dropped her on his way. He had been headed to an important place. 

Persephone was sent with Romeo and Emmanuel to their home. Santiago wasn't coming home once again and no one of them was surprised. So they just returned without him. 

Since Persephone had made up her mind to tell Santiago the truth, she wasn't going to wait anymore. She would clear all the unnecessary complications first before having a long and hard talk with him. 

However, to achieve her goal she had to communicate with someone else first. But to contact that person, she needed her laptop. And her laptop was still at Marino's residence. 

And that person was a lawyer suggested by Valencia. 

"Emmanuel, can I use your laptop?"Persephone asked him. 

Hearing Persephone's question, he was reminded of the erotic content that he had stashed. His face paled and seeing such an extreme expression on his face, she shook her head as realizing the problem with this boy. 

"It's okay," She told him while returning to her room. 

She was still walking with a slight limp. The bump on her head was aching now. Thankfully, she didn't fall on her stomach or else she didn't know what she might have done. She thought of having a hot bath as she had just come from the hospital, still smelling disinfectants. 

As Persephone was taking out her nightgown from the wardrobe, she saw that Santiago's side of the wardrobe was unlocked. Curiosity got the best of her and she couldn't stop herself from snooping his things. She saw his clothes neatly arranged, watches, ties, cufflinks, everything properly lined. She was about to lock it back when her gaze fell on a black rectangular gadget. 

Taking it out she found that it was a laptop. Its model looked pretty old but it would do. Now she was running around the house looking for a charger. In the end, she found it in a drawer by Santiago's cabinet. 

Once the laptop was switched on, she found that it was password protected. 

She scoffed at her idiocy. "Who leaves their gadgets unlocked?! How stupid, Percy?!"

"What could be his password?!" Persephone thought to herself. 

"His birthday?" She tried it. 

Now don't ask how she knew his birthdate. She just knew it. 

Wrong password. 

"My birthday?" She tried it again. Who knew that this man might have some weird fetish of setting his wife's birth date as a password?

Wrong password. 

"Jerk," she mumbled. 

"Wedding anniversary?" She tried this one too. 

The laptop rang. 

"Holy fuck," She cursed out aloud. "It is the correct password. What kind of man is Santiago Vitello?!" 

Now she just hoped that she wouldn't hurt that man with her truth. Still, bitter truth was way better than a sweeter lie.

It wasn't true that Santiago had set his wedding date as his password. He had set the date he met young Persephone from his memories for the first time. It was the eleventh of may. (It is written as 11/5 pretty much all over the world except for America.) And they got married on the Fifth of November (11/5 in America). 

Call it a coincidence but the laptop had been unlocked now. 

After unlocking the laptop, her gaze fell on the wallpaper set on the screen. It was a picture taken of a calm ocean from a distance. She could see an extremely beautiful view of the ocean and several dolphins jumping in the water. It didn't look like a photo clicked by a professional photographer. At most, it looked like a picture clicked by the camera. 

If she had seen the wallpaper early, she could see a short feminine shadow hiding behind the icons on the screen. 

"This place is really beautiful," Persphone was just mesmerized by a single picture. She had heard that the country Santiago was from, it was an island country. It must be a picture clicked by him. Tempting to see more pictures of the place where Santiago grew up in, she started raiding his gallery. She knew that it was bad of her. She couldn't just sneak through someone's personal stuff but had someone ever been able to defeat curiosity? 

However, the feeling after seeing that picture, she couldn't describe it in words. She felt as if this place in the picture was hiding a different kind of heaven and peace behind the screen. She felt connected with that place. It was hard to describe the feeling surging inside her heart. 

But who would have thought that this moment was going to change her life? People didn't lie when they say that excess information and unnecessary curiosity could be deadly. Excessive information disturbs the quality of decision making at the cost of one's mental health and unnecessary curiosity. And curiosity? It simply killed the cat. 

And that's what happened in Persephone's case.

As she opened the gallery app, several different pictures flashed before her eyes. 

There was only one thing similar in all the pictures. 

Her. 

Long silky raven hair and a beautiful and delicate face. 

It was her captured in all different poses. 

The first photograph was inside a very lavish museum or that's what she believed. She was wearing a white dress and standing in the hallway, studying the expensive items projected on the walls. From the angle the picture was taken, it could be seen that her expression in the picture was that of sheer curiosity, no fear, anger or other emotion. 

Her fingers moved on their own and in a few seconds, another picture was before her eyes. In this picture, her back was facing the cameraman, her gaze was fixed on the magnificent blue ocean. What caught her eyes wasn't the blue ocean but the swimming pool that seemed to meet at one point with the ocean. 

Just like that she went through several pictures all taken in a similar setting that seemed like a patio of a very gorgeous sea villa. 

She went through hundreds of photos captured in a place that seemed like an island. She could seem angry, frustrated, infuriated, annoyed, and most of all jubilant. 

The pictures just didn't end here she found herself captured in a different setting too. It appeared like she was captured in a night party or similar event. In some pictures, she was found drunk with a wine bottle in her hand, and a silly smile tugged on her lips. 

And lastly, she found several of her videos laughing and giggling playing in the water, someone with dolphins, yes real super cute dolphins. As if it was not enough, she found one last video in a different folder.

... 

Author Note: What do you think Persephone's reaction will be?