Songbird Caged

by Lisa Edward

  He finally turned to look at me, the fury in his eyes softening.

  I smiled at him, and he attempted to smile back. “Would you mind getting me a drink from inside while I catch up with Prue?”

  He glanced at her quickly, then turned back to me and nodded before planting a soft kiss on my forehead, and heading inside.

  Now it was just us girls outside. Time for a not-so-friendly chat.

  “Do you love Cole?” I asked her pointedly.

  She shrugged. “I love what he can give me: the lifestyle, the money the status. With the inheritance he’ll get from his grandfather as soon as the old codger dies, he’ll be the wealthiest man of our generation. What’s not to love about that?”

  I crossed my arms over my chest, absolutely fuming about her lack of respect for Pops. But that would have to wait. I needed to get to the bottom of her feelings for Cole.

  “But do you love him? Do you even care about him, at all?”

  “I really don’t think that’s important. There are many power couples who don’t love each other, but, once he stops this silly band business and conforms to how I want him to be, I’m sure I’ll be able to tolerate him. He is rather good looking.” She smirked at me. “I’m sure the sex will be amazing.”

  I couldn’t understand her thinking. Why would you want to marry someone you had no feelings for? She had some money of her own; it wasn’t like she was living in a cardboard box, and needed his wealth to survive. But what really made me furious was that she was so smug about it. If we weren’t at some fancy ball, I swear the bitch would have gone down right there on the balcony.

  “But don’t you want to be happy? You should marry someone you are so in love with you can’t live without them. Someone who gives you butterflies in your stomach just from thinking about them. Someone who you would be willing to do anything for, just to make them happy.”

  She was looking at me blankly, like she had no idea what I was talking about.

  “Oh, I see,” she sneered. “You think you should be with him.” She laughed mockingly. “Do you really think he cares about you? You’re just another plaything for him, along with his silly band, sports car, and the pointless businesses that he dabbles in. But all that will change when we’re married. Victor will be who I tell him he can be, and will see who I tell him he can see.” She leaned forward, poking her pointy talon into my chest. “And that doesn’t include you.”

  I always knew she was a bitch, but her spite took me by surprise. Surely Cole knew what she was like. How could he marry that?!

  “Even for the money, Prue, how could you spend the rest of your life with someone you don’t care about?” I shook my head, baffled.

  “Cole should be the first person you think of when you wake up in the morning. Is he?” I asked her.

  She scoffed. “Of course not.”

  My own words rang in my ears. What or who did I think of when I first woke in the morning? I was just contemplating my own answer when Cole appeared on the balcony beside me with two glasses, and handed one to me.

  As he passed me the glass, he leaned in. “Who do you think of when you wake up, babe?”

  I smiled at Cole as he tucked a flyaway hair behind my ear. As much as I had tried to deny my feelings, the first person I thought of was always Cole.

  I blushed, and he sighed. “So beautiful,” he whispered.

  Prue glared at us. “You shouldn’t have brought her here, Victor, tonight is a big night for us.”

  Cole had taken my hand in his. He lifted it to his lips, and planted soft kisses across the knuckles.

  “Victor, are you listening to me?” she whined.

  “No,” he responded bluntly, never taking his eyes from mine. He pulled me in to an embrace, and I willingly wrapped my arms around his waist, pressing my cheek to his broad chest.

  “I’m sorry, Prue, I didn’t mean to spoil your evening by coming here.” I looked up at Cole. “We can go if you want.”

  “Oh, don’t worry, you haven’t spoilt my evening, but I’m going to spoil yours,” she threatened, then stormed off.

  “Well, that went well,” Cole joked as he pulled me in tighter.

  Closing my eyes, I inhaled his unique masculine scent. He always smelt so good, but for some reason, tonight, everything was heightened. His scent seemed stronger, his eyes greener, his voice deeper. He was just sexier than usual, and I couldn’t squeeze him tight enough.

  “Victor, we need to talk immediately,” a snooty little voice demanded.

  Oh God, now what? It was his mother’s turn to give us a hard time.

  I stayed huddled up to Cole with one arm as I sipped my champagne. I wasn’t planning on going anywhere.

  “This,” she said indicating between the two of us, “has to stop this instant. Poor Prue is in tears after Tara was so vicious towards her. You should never have brought her here.”

  I waited for Cole to rush to my defence, but he hung his head like he was a little boy being dressed down by his mummy.

  “Cole,” I said softly, trying to get him to look at me. “Do you want me to go?”

  He shook his head, but I could tell from his demeanour that his mother still scared the crap out of him, even though he was twice her size.

  “And you,” she seethed at me, “his name is Victor, and you will address him accordingly.”

  “But … but he prefers being called Cole,” I stammered.

  I was looking for some support, but there wasn’t any coming my way from chicken-shit Cole. So I pinched his butt—hard.

  He jumped, and looked at me, startled.

  “Well, you told me that was the signal,” I fumed at him.

  A small smile crept over his lips. “I know, but maybe Mum’s right. These people know me as Victor. They wouldn’t even know who you were talking about if you mentioned Cole. It’s a whole other life.”

  I could see I wasn’t going to win this battle, not with his ball-buster mother, and him being minus a pair right now, so I conceded.

  But I wasn’t happy.

  I wasn’t happy with her being an A-grade bitch towards me, and I was especially not happy with him taking her side and letting her talk to me the way she had.

  “Fine,” I said, holding my hands up. “I get it now. I always thought that Cole was who you really were, and Victor was just who you had to be on certain occasions under sufferance, but I was wrong. This is who you are, and Cole is who you pretend to be when you’re slumming it.”

  “Oh, come on, Tara.” He grabbed my hand, foiling my dramatic exit from the balcony. “You know me better than anyone.”

  I shook my hand free. “No, I don’t know you at all—Victor.”

  OH LORD, what fresh hell was this?

  I was just trying to make an inconspicuous exit when my mother blindsided me. She informed me that, seeing as I was single, she had put my name down for the single-girl auction. It was a humiliating auction where girls were paraded like cattle for the wealthy, ill-mannered men to bid on for a date.

  There was absolutely no way I was having anything to do with it.

  I went to push past my mother when I heard Jay’s voice. He was calling up all the girls who were on his list as ‘prizes’. The smile in his voice was unmistakable as he read my name. Now this made it more difficult to leave, as the people around me were smiling, and encouraging me to go up on stage.

  Catching Cole’s eye, I read his expression. The clench of his jaw told me he was not happy with me being auctioned, either, which gave me an idea. If he truly was there for me, would he go against his mother and rescue me from this embarrassment?

  To my surprise, Prue was already up on stage, but there was something seriously wrong. She looked happy to be there, and was pulling faces and winking at Cole’s—sorry, Victor’s mother.

  Jay was acting as auctioneer, and laughed when he saw me climb the steps to the stage. I rolled my eyes at him. I wanted to drag him to one side and tell him what an ass Cole was, but it would have to
wait. He was deep in emcee duties, calling up the last of the girls, and placing them in order from his running sheet.

  First up was Prue. She stepped out in front of the microphone to tell us all a little bit about herself. Let’s see. She informed us in the most put-on sugary sweet voice, that she liked shopping, and enjoyed afternoon tea and lunches with friends. I was surprised she didn’t include puppies and fluffy bunnies. She was currently living with her parents, but only for another year because, she told us excitedly as she bounced up and down, she was getting engaged!

  “This is the last year I’ll be available to bid on at the auction,” she told everyone, swinging from side to side like a three year-old. “Because Victor and I are getting engaged.”

  She called Victor up onto the stage. He shook his head, and dropped his eyes, but she was persistent, and with a not-so-subtle nudge from his mother, he came, still minus his balls. He looked out the corner of his eye at me as Prue draped herself over him, and planted a big wet kiss on his lips.

  He pulled away, and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, but no one seemed to notice. They were all too busy clapping, and calling out congratulations to the happy couple.

  I felt really awkward standing only a few feet away from them, so I did the only thing I could. I walked over and congratulated them. I kissed Victor on the cheek. He tried to hold my hand, and pull me back towards him but I shook myself loose. I then leaned in and air-kissed Prue.

  “Thanks Tara,” she said loudly enough for everyone to hear, before whispering, “I can’t wait for the wedding night.”

  “Argh,” Victor groaned and put his hand over his face, before peeking through his fingers at me apologetically.

  But he stayed silent. I was still not happy.

  “No problem, Prue,” I whispered back, a fake grin plastered on my face. “If you need any tips, I know the numbers of over five hundred girls who can tell you what gets him off.”

  Cole looked at me, mouth agape. I raised my eyebrows at him questioningly. “Oh, sorry, should that have been one thousand, not five hundred? I don’t want to undercut all the hard yards you’ve put in.”

  Cole’s mother took to the stage and decided that, seeing as Prue was all but wearing a rock on her finger already, she should just go stand by her beloved and not take part in the proceedings.

  So that was the plan. There was no way now that Cole could bid on me, even if he wanted to, and really, I didn’t know if I wanted him to, anyway. He had his newly-announced fiancée standing beside him, all sugary-sweet and loved up.

  What a fraud!

  I was next. I stepped up to the microphone and looked down at Cole, as people approached him to shake his hand and congratulate him.

  Jay prompted me to tell everyone a little bit about myself. Sure, why not.

  I looked back down to see Spencer Worthington and his group of hangers-on nearing the stage. My palms immediately started to sweat, and I could feel a flush rising in my cheeks.

  I hated Prue Harrington with a passion. But if there was anyone who I could possibly hate more, it was Spencer Worthington.

  I searched the room for Cole/Victor. He had promised to rescue me if I needed it, and I had a feeling I was going to need it. But he was being led around the grand ballroom by his mother with Prue latched to his arm as people wished them well.

  Looked like I was on my own up here after all.

  “My name is Tara O’Connell. I’m twenty-five years old. I speak five languages, French, Italian, Japanese, Mandarin, and of course, English. I occasionally travel to various regions of Asia with my father for business, so the Japanese and Mandarin come in useful. I play the piano, and sing at a bar that I co-own with a friend of mine. We are also opening a restaurant at the end of the year.”

  I could hear Spencer talking to his friends and them laughing, but I couldn’t quite make out what he was saying. I strained a little more.

  “I’ll give her a go. If Victor’s with her she must have learnt a few tricks,” Spencer insinuated. His posse laughed, always ready to please him.

  “But you’ve already done her, right?” Some lowlife asked excitedly.

  “Yes, I was her first.” He looked up, and actually winked at me. “But I’m willing to give her another try.”

  I looked for Cole again. He was ignoring Prue and everyone else around him, totally captivated by what I was saying. So I made my feelings perfectly clear.

  “I’ve been living at a friend’s apartment for the past few months, but I think it’s time I move back to my own place.”

  Cole’s shoulders noticeably slumped and he mouthed no at me.

  I looked down at my ring. “And I’m engaged, too.” I held up my hand to show everyone. “To a soldier who’s currently serving in Afghanistan, so I guess I shouldn’t be up here, either.”

  I went to step down from the stage when my mother came forward. “Oh, for heaven’s sake, Tara, that soldier person’s missing, probably dead. I don’t see the harm in meeting someone more suitable.”

  “Fuck, that was harsh.” I heard Jay whisper beside me.

  My jaw dropped open. Even for my mother, that was the most heartless thing she had ever said to me, and it was in front of a room full of people. I couldn’t speak. I couldn’t breathe. I knew he could be dead, of course I did, but for her to blurt it out like that without any consideration just knocked the wind out of me.

  “Riley is missing, Mrs O’Connell.”

  I looked up to see Cole striding over to my mother.

  “We don’t know what has happened to him, but the least you could do is be supportive of Tara.”

  My mother looked around, not quite sure what to do. She’d never made a scene before, and didn’t feel comfortable being the focus of what would surely be luncheon gossip for a few weeks to come.

  I looked down at Cole appreciatively, but he wasn’t finished.

  “Tara is waiting for news on Riley. She made him a promise to wait for the duration of his posting, and she’s going to keep that promise. Then, if he doesn’t return and when she feels the time is right, she will move on.” He looked up at me, finally getting it. “But only when the time is right.”

  Spencer and his gang were sniggering in a huddle.

  Cole wheeled around on them, finding Spencer in the middle of the pack. “If you so much as raise your finger to bid on Tara, I will snap it off,” he threatened.

  Prue came dashing over, pulling on Cole’s arm. This was no doubt the most excitement that had happened at one of these functions in about thirty years.

  I looked around at all the people below me: my mother, Cole, Prue, Cole’s mum, and Spencer. I despised or was disappointed with every single one of them for varying reasons.

  I turned to Jay, the only friend I had in the place. “I’m outta here.”

  I started to walk calmly and gracefully from the stage, across the waxed parquetry floor to the doors, then thought, stuff it. I ran as fast as my Jimmy Choos could carry me.

  I GAVE the taxi driver my home address before realising I didn’t have keys on me, so would have to go to Cole’s.

  Frantically I started throwing clothes and toiletries into my bags. I needed to get out of there before Cole came home—not that I was expecting him any time soon. He would still be swanning around with his new fiancée on his arm, and his balls in his mother’s purse.

  I stopped what I was doing, plonked down hard on the edge of the bed and hung my head in my hands. I was so disappointed in Cole tonight, so much so that I began questioning everything I had previously thought about him. He had been spineless when it came to his mother, and I pitied him, because if he didn’t change his ways, he would be bullied into marrying the biggest bitch on the face of the earth.

  “Tara.”

  Oh, crap!

  “Tara, are you here?”

  I heard footsteps come running up the hallway, and I braced myself. I really had taken too long to pack my bags.

  Cole burst into the
room, a wild look in his eyes.

  “Thank God,” he exclaimed, bridging the gap between us.

  He pulled me up and I let him, I wanted to be at his level when we spoke. “I’m so sorry, babe.” He hugged me to him, but I didn’t hug back. “Babe, please forgive me,” he pleaded.

  I was having none of it.

  “I didn’t know they were going to announce anything tonight. I would never have taken you …” He paused. “I mean, I wouldn’t have gone either, but I wouldn’t have put you through that. And your mum, what a bitch!”

  I saw red. Yes my mother was an A-grade bitch, but she was a saint compared to his mother.

  I scoffed. “My mother’s a bitch? What about yours? You let her talk to me like I was garbage, and you let her walk all over you. For fuck’s sake, Cole, that was the most pathetic display of manhood I’ve ever seen.”

  He stepped back, totally affronted by my criticism of him.

  “You don’t understand,” he said running his hand through his hair. “My mum—she’s fucking scary.”

  I raised my eyebrow at him, then turned away to continue packing.

  He grabbed my arm. “No, really, you’ve only seen her being nice.”

  Shaking my head disappointedly, I continued folding my clothes. “Seriously. When she’s mean, she’s …” He couldn’t find the words. “… she’s terrifying. So far, you’ve seen the nice side. Trust me, you don’t want to piss her off.”

  Turning to face him, I crossed my arms over my chest defiantly. “So you were happy to play along, even if it meant pissing me off instead.”

  Cole started pacing. “What did you want me to do? Did you want me to tell Prue to fuck off in front of everyone? Geez, Tara, I couldn’t make a scene in front of my parents’ friends, in front of our entire social circle.” He ran his hand through his hair repeatedly. “You don’t get it, this engagement thing is bigger than just me. I’m trapped here. Trying to do what’s right for my family, but wanting to do what’s right for me, and for you.”

  “But you should have stood up for me, at least against your mum when we were outside. That’s what a good boyfr …” I stopped myself before I could finish the word. He wasn’t my boyfriend, so he really didn’t have to leap to my defence, did he?