"Other things may change us, but we start and end with the family."
-Anthony Brandt-
***
Celine Desroches had been enjoying her alone time in the patio of her house with a glass of cold lemonade with soda and a pair of huge dark purple sunglasses beside the pool. If there was one thing she loved in life, it had to be the sun and the subtle smell of chlorine mixed with salt. Only the air was not exactly salty because there were barely any beaches in Paris.
She had been working all weekdays long, and being a luxury interior designer, she had traveled back and forth between places just to find the right item for the customers, it had been a long week and dealing with people who had no idea about the difference between vanilla and marshmallow white was tough. She would definitely say she deserved that moment.
She just wanted to flip herself on her back to even out her tan when she heard loud crying sounds heading her way, it was a familiar voice which she had been trying to avoid all day long but at the end of the day, the disaster was merely inevitable. With a small sigh, she whispered to herself. Oh God.
"Mommy, mommy, Oliver broke my teddy bear, look, now it's missing an arm!" The little girl showed her one armed teddy bear to her mother, her hair was bouncing in the air as she whined about the brutal condition of her stuffed toy. Behind her, the bigger who had been chasing her stopped as well. A frown was visible on his face as he was ready to defend himself.
"She played in my room, mama, I was just trying to pull it back to her room, but she would not let it go, It's Juliette's fault, mom!" he defended. Celine had no idea what to do, her eldest son was a stubborn head like her husband while her youngest daughter was a crybaby, thanks to her father who refused to enforce more discipline on her, but he loved his daughter so much, at that point, it was ridiculous. She knew it was their fault, they should have taught them better. Then perhaps the would end to be better behaved.
Oh well, there's no use in regretting it.
She spun her head trying to find a middle ground. Fortunately, despite her rather relaxed and laid back nature, Celine was still a brilliant woman in almost everything, including in parenting, it did not take her to long to figure something out.
"Juliette, I will get you another one okay, now stop crying, now Oliver, you should apologize to her for breaking her toy, I know you had good intention but you still broke it, now the two of you, reconcile with each other" The two kids stared at each other with a huge pout on their face, but they could not disobey their mother, Oliver put his arms behind his back and mouthed a small sorry, Juliette who was still crying looked away for a brief second but then nodded her head with a sad pouted lips on.
"Now, go find your nanny and get some ice cream, okay? Your father will be home soon. He would not appreciate seeing you two fighting like this." The two kids nodded and rushed back inside the house. Celine let out a sigh of relief and laid herself back, but soon found it too uncomfortable, causing her to stand up and walked over to the round cushion sofa they had near the pool to relax. She was so busy doing nothing she had no clue that her husband was already home. The man saw his beautiful wife on the patio and thought of a cunning idea.
Eduardo Chevalier sneaked right behind her and managed to steal a kiss from above, resting his arms on the cushion, his hands were on her cheek. Celine did not expect the kiss and she nearly screamed because she thought a stranger had entered her house, but when he broke the kiss she realized it was just Eduard and removed her hand from her chest.
"Gosh, Ed, you surprised me!" she hit his arms with light force and he groaned, pretending to be hurt. She stood and gave her husband a proper hug and kiss, dragging him to the couch while asking about his day.
"Everything went smoothly, I managed to close the deal on the cruise sale. And to celebrate, I'm thinking of taking my beautiful wife out for dinner tonight, just the two of us, without the kids, how does that sound?" Celine could not be happier. She nodded eagerly as she kissed him softly on the lips. It had been a while since the two of them had a dinner date without the kids. She loved her kids, that was for sure, but being alone with Eduard would not hurt either. In the meantime, her husband had diverted the conversation topic to his brother in law.
"Ah, Celine, I heard your brother went to visit a wine house in Bordeaux yesterday. That's odd, Raphael never liked drinking wine, you are the wine maniac, not him, and I also heard that he is not there for any specific business purpose."
"It's a place he once visited with my parents when he was younger, perhaps he had a memory there, but why are you curious about it?" Eduard shrugged.
"No reason, just curious." Eduard Chevalier had been married to Celine for eight years, he made his connections to the Desroches through his work as a property and real estate agent. He had made himself familiar with the Desroches family and much to his delight he was able to blend in properly with them. He knew what their mother's favorite celebrity or their father's favorite steak house and as for his brother in law, he had never heard Raphael visiting a place he was not interested in other than for business purpose.
Raphael and Eduard had been on good terms since day one and they treated each other like real brothers. He would say he knew Raphael pretty well. There must have been something important in there that he willingly visited the place despite his busy schedule, not to mention he would spend weeks there where one would see nothing but vineyards and wine everywhere he looked, but perhaps there was something more interesting that captured his eyes.
He did remember one time when they were spending some time together drinking in a bar, he asked Raphael a question about his love life, because his brother in law had never been seen dating anyone although his circumstances had allowed him to meet many beautiful women from different fields and status. Raphael answered that he had been waiting for someone, a woman from the past. He had not had any time to meet her again but he was planning on doing it soon.
In his heart, Eduard laughed, maybe his brother finally became a real man (In his love life) He was speculating what he would bring back after his trip.
In his mind Eduard has been wondering if Raphael would come back with some wine souvenir for them. It would be nice if he could taste the wine fresh from where they were produced.
Or perhaps he would bring back something much more delightful. Yes, either something or...
Someone.
"The first time you fall in love, it changes you forever and no matter how hard you try, that feeling just never goes away." -Nicholas Sparks- *** The black car arrived in front of Bellavance's residence. The driver exited the car and opened up the backseat door, to revealthe now twenty-six years old heir of Desroches family. He walked out with confidence and charisma, mixed with excitement, hope and nervousness at the same time. It was none other than Raphael Desroches. The man had grown a lot since the last time he visited the place. He was taller and his shoulder was broader, he hadchanged his hairstyle and personal style, wearing a white t-shirt and jeans, he took off his round edged square sunglasses and turned his attention to the house. A small smile escaped his lips
"Only actions give life strength, only moderation gives it charm." -Jean Paul- *** The sun had set and the sky turned into a dark twilight shade. When the town was about to reach its peaking hour of beauty, Raphael had just freshly come out of the shower when he was invited by one of the housekeeper for dinner. Once he was done changing his clothes, he walked down to the dining room which still remained pretty much the same as he had remembered it, only then everything felt slightly different. It was far less crowded without his family around and other people, whoever they were that were present in the room at the time, instead, he found Dennis sitting there with a glass of wine in his hand. For a brief moment the man looked like he was on the verge of being an alcoholic, due to the sorrow pre
"Remember tonight, for it is the beginning of always." -Dante Alighieri- *** Her daughter sudden request had troubled him, he was not worried about money or any of those because he knew she was financially capable of providing for herself, and he himself had more than enough to spare for his daughter, he was more worried about his daughter's gentle nature. The last time she was away from her family was when she went to college in the city region of Bordeaux, but it was not too far away from them and she still went to visit every weekend. But Paris was different, she would meet many people with different intents toward her, so far he had raised her to be a righteous woman and he knew she would not stray from her principles, but would other people accept her there? Perhaps from a strange
"To love is to return to a home we never left, to remember who we are." -Sam Keen- *** The plane had departed from the airport for a while, while all the passenger had settled themselves, it was not the case with Raphael who was still making an attempt to calm his own heartbeat. No, it was not from the flight. Raphael had flown with plane too many times, the only reason why his heart was beating like crazy was thanks to the beauty beside him. Once in a while during he would steal glances at her just to ensure she was fine. Clara was seated next to the window, there were mixtures of emotions present in her eyes. She had been staring outside for a while since they were seated. Resting her arms on the side of the plane, she pondered upon the pos
"Modeling isn't all that tough." -Josie Maran- *** "A little bit more on the left, That's right, last shot! And... done. Thank you everyone!" The staff on theset began to help the models to remove their heavy accessories. Editorial campaign shots are always some of the most challenging one models have to do. Jovanna Devergie moved away from the photo shoot area and headed to her personal changing room. Her manager Maeva Traver has been there beforehand with a box of her essentials, she handed a bottle of ionized water to her and she gulped it down to half in one shot. "Good job. That was your last shoot session today, you are free until tomorrow, do whatever you want now, but I suggest you go home and take a rest. You have an ad campaign with YSL for their latestproduct launch tomorrowand you have a golf playing session with yourfather in the afternoon, You don't want to miss that one." Jovanna p
"He who contemplates the depths of Paris is seized with vertigo. Nothing is more fantastic. Nothing is more tragic. Nothing is more sublime." -Victor Hugo- *** It took a few hours until they eventually arrived back in Paris. The sky had turned a soft shade of light and medium blue mixed with some purple and white, enhancing the romantic atmosphere of the city of love which at the moment they could only enjoy from the plane's window. Clara placed several of her fingers on the window surface, pretending she was touching the sky. She could see the famous Eiffel Tower from above, she had always heard about the beauty of Paris, and oddly enough, although she had traveled abroad to countries like Spain and Italy, she had never gone to the capital city of France. She had seen it before in mo
"A lot of men are very possessive and they want to control you. But as you grow older, you attract people who are on your wavelength and who understand who you are." -Marisa Berenson- *** She put down her luggage and sat down on the bed. Touching it for the first time, the cotton had felt soft against her skin. It really tempted her to lay down and just sleep away all of her exhaustion, but Clara knew she needed to unpack her belongings first. She laid everything on the floor and as Raphael had suggested her, she did not bring that much with her, it was probably enough for a week. The rest of her belongings would take several days to arrive and she had to deal with what she had. Or so she thought, When Clara opened the closet to put down her clothes, she quickly realized there have been several pieces of clothes inside along with a few pairs of shoes in her size and handbags, some were high street but most were design
"It's a father's duty to give his sons a fine chance." -George Eliot- *** A cup of tea was placed on the sturdy mahogany desk in Archard Desroches' in house office. The old house servant had asked him if he needed anything else. On a normal occasion, he would gladly ask for something else, but that day he thought he had enough of service. He raised his hand to dismiss her and she left the room without uttering any other words. The Desroches mansion was full of silent that day. Everyone was outside on the weekend except for Archard Desroches. The old man had gone through papers after papers and it had only been lately which he explored different methods using his computers. Back in the day whenever he wanted to buy the latest profitable stocks in the market he had to go through several procedures, but thanks to the advancement of technology, he was able to expand his empire at a touch of his fingertip. Literall