Taya frowned, seeing Tiana putting on short clothes with her thighs and legs exposed and even her navel.
She said sternly, "Tia, is this how you dress when you come down to eat? Haven't I always told you to dress properly?"
Tiana clicked her tongue and said with wrinkled brows, "Mom, this is how I dress always. And I am not even going outside. What's with the sudden opinion? We are eating with family, for heaven's sake."
Seeing Tiana dismiss her words with a roll of her eyes, Taya couldn't even refute since, in her perspective, everyone indeed was family here, including her 'nephew' Viktor.
Taya wished that she could tell her daughter that a very dangerous predator was present near her. But thinking that he was going to be around her from today, she couldn't help but think if she made the right choice.
But then, thinking about her daughter's safety again, she didn't feel any more second thoughts and felt that her daughter should be more prudent than she was when she was her age.
Besides, she knew that with how she had set up the roles, there was no way Tiana would look at Viktor in a romantic way, just as Viktor said. That was the only fact that reassured her.
"Good afternoon, Aunt Taya. Thank you for having me again," Viktor said with a happy smile.
Taya almost had her eyes widened, seeing how polite and modest Viktor was looking and behaving as...completely contrary to his playboy attitude.
Even Eva couldn't help but appreciate Viktor's acting skills since she had to scan him from head to toe to make sure that he was the same man. If Taya hadn't told her about Viktor, she might have really considered Viktor as a college boy.
Brad couldn't help but keep inwardly sighing, wondering if Viktor was indeed okay with acting like this.
He couldn't imagine someone as powerful and senior as Viktor pretending to be a junior. It still felt surreal to him.
Umi had already witnessed Viktor's skills and even learned from him how he acts so perfectly without giving away his true identity.
But still, that didn't stop her from sending a glance of admiration towards Viktor.
Only Tiana and Sayana felt nothing. Instead, these two were still digesting the fact that a boy was going to stay in their mansion. After all, nothing like this has happened for all these years.
So the sudden turn of events left them in quite a disbelief since they all were going to live under a common roof from today onwards and thus would be seeing and interacting with each other, especially considering the fact that he was as old as them.
The table had seven seats, with Viktor and Brad sitting on the other ends of the table while Tiana and Sayan were sitting together on the right side of the table who were facing Umi, Taya, and Eva sitting together opposite to them.
Viktor was sitting adjacent to Umi, and the two exchanged subtle glances while keeping normal expressions.
Taya was watching Viktor and Umi closely to see if anything was amiss. But she felt that there was no use in watching them since Viktor was in his role, and Umi always knew how to keep up a poker expression.
Meanwhile, Tiana was glancing at Dorian occasionally before turning her head to whisper to Sayana, "Hey, have you ever heard about any Grey Family? Like I have never come across any such branch families from our family. This is all too strange and sudden. Without my knowledge, I suddenly gained a cousin? Can this be for real?"
Sayana cautiously glanced around before whispering back, "I know, but I think he might be from a distant branch family, just like what my mother said. Maybe we just didn't get the chance to know each other before. But let's see what Aunt Taya has to say about him."
Viktor could clearly hear their whispers but only inwardly smiled as he put up a guileless expression.
Seeing that everybody had settled down, Taya spoke as she glanced at everyone, "Everyone, before we eat, as you might already know, I have a family announcement to make."
Viktor had a blinking expression as he rubbed his hands together as if in nervousness.
Taya continued as others continued to shoot a glance towards the flustered Viktor, "Today we are welcoming a new member to our family, including our house," Taya pointed towards Viktor and said, "Dorian Grey, my distant nephew who has no one else to look after him after how fate has been cruel to him. His parents had met with an accident a few years ago, and after that, his uncle and aunt had cheated him out of his inheritance, leaving him nothing behind and also treating him very poorly."
Viktor drooped his head while shrinking his body, making him appear so pitiful that even a hard-core villain might shed a tear for him after hearing his story.
Sayana's features softened as she looked at Dorian, feeling sympathy for him, while Tiana was surprised that her newfound cousin was having such a rough background.
"But those things don't matter now since he will be a part of our family from now on. Fortunately, one of his family friends was able to reach out to me, and I just couldn't bear to turn my back on him after knowing what happened to him, especially when he had studied hard to get into a good college but had no money to pay. Our family tree is quite complicated since even I hadn't really heard about a Grey family, but I guess father might have some idea."
She then looked at Tiana and Sayana as she went on, "Anyways, I hope you two treat him well and be good sisters to him and also help him out getting accustomed to the city life since he had been living most of his life in the countryside without even access to a mobile. He's the same age as you, in fact, a few months younger, so I can trust you two to take care of him, right?"
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