by Briner, Rose
I look back once at the many clothing racks that will be shipped back to New York and cringe. There’s enough clothing there to fill an entire walk-in closet and more clothing than I’d be able to wear in the next three months. I bet that was his plan too, since he said I get to keep whatever I obtain during our marriage. It’s a nice gesture on his part, but I still don’t feel right taking it. Maybe I’ll talk to him when I see him later.
That sounds like a good plan to me, only I don’t get to talk to him later.
The next few days were not as bad as my first day married, but almost as bad. I’ve been to the hair salon where I was given a hair treatment to make my hair look like that of a supermodel, an entire spa day in which I was told it was to make me look young and beautiful-I was a little offended by that comment the masseuse made- and then there was the trip to the accessory store and what I like to call the finishing school. I’ve been taught things that I thought I would never need to know. Which fork is used during what course at dinner, how to hold a wine glass properly, and even how to walk straighter. I didn’t even know there was anything wrong with the way I was walking until right now. Apparently I’ve been going through life walking and acting completely wrong. I didn’t even know that acting a certain way made it wrong, guess I was wrong.
All the while, I’m lonely. I miss my sister and the person that should be here giving me these lessons is off working somewhere or hiding from me. Who knows what he’s doing right now. I’m going to have to talk to him when we get back to New York because this isn’t working.
I eat every single meal alone and entertain myself at night with watching movies and reading books. At least I was allowed to buy some books, I think I would die of boredom at night if I didn’t have something to occupy some of my time.
By the end of the week, I realize where I stand and how the next three months will go. I should be glad that I’ll be left to myself, but like I said at some point it won’t just be me and him in the room and without him telling me about his friends and family, this is sure to fail. Perhaps this whole situation was never meant to be.
Chapter Ten
“Welcome home, Sir,” greets a man at the front door.
This place is much bigger than I thought it would be. I expected the gate and the manicured lawn, but this place is massive. The houses here are far apart due to their size and I am absolutely in love with this place. I’ve always had a life where I was left living on the edge of poverty, so to move into a place like this is a dream. I just wish that I would get to stay here.
The second we pull up front, Jayden steps out of the car and opens the front door to walk inside, leaving standing there looking up at the house before me. A Beautiful white home with rows upon rows of windows for natural light and as I look around me, I realize that this is the white picket fence life that every girl wishes she could have, this one is just on a much larger scale.
“Mrs. Leopold, are you coming?
I turn to find the same man standing by the door staring at me. His voice is pleasant enough, but I sense a level of disdain in his voice as he speaks to me. I’ll have to watch myself living here, I can tell this man is suspicious of me even though clearly Jayden had told him I was coming here. How else would he know who I am?
I expect to find Jayden inside waiting for me, but he’s nowhere to be found when the door closes behind me.
“Stay here and don’t touch anything, I’ll get Bridget to show you to your room,” the man says as he passes me and heads off further into the home. What a nice warm welcome.
I don’t dare move as I stand there in the doorway staring at the space around me. Clearly a woman doesn’t live here because everything is masculine and this place lacks a certain woman’s touch. There’s no paintings or any decorations, the furniture I can see from here is all leather and masculine. He doesn’t seem like he does a whole lot of entertaining here. I want to go into the living room and look around, but I’m afraid I’ll make an enemy if I move from this spot and the last thing I need right now is someone who is suspicious of me. I bet he thinks I’m here to wipe Jayden clean.
“Hello there,” I turn to the sound of a feminine voice and find an older woman who I would assume is Bridget. “You must be the new lady of the house, my name is Bridget.”
“Nice to meet you Bridget, my name is Mireya,” I smile shyly at her as I offer her my hand to shake. She takes it willingly and returns my smile. I think I’m going to get along with Bridget, she seems so much nicer than the man who let me in.
“What a beautiful name,” she compliments me as she lets go of my hand so she can smooth hers over her apron. I think she’s nervous because her apron doesn’t have a single crease or wrinkle on it.
“I am the housemaid, please allow me to show you to your room,” she says, walking a short distance away from me and towards the set of stairs just inside the front entrance.
I slowly follow her up, admiring the beauty of my new home as we walk. We get to the second floor and instead of continuing towards another flight of stairs that I assume leads to more bedrooms upstairs, she takes a right and leads me to a single door at the end of the hallway. She pushes the door open and stands to the side so I can enter before her.
I stand to the side so she can enter behind me and take the time to look around my new room. Much to my dismay, this room is not Jayden’s room. So then the maid must be aware that this marriage is fake or thinks we are already having issues. Don’t get me wrong, the room is beautiful with a bed raised on a platform, a desk in the corner, a settee, and my own private balcony outside. Anyone would be happy to be staying in a room like this, the issue is that I’m supposed to be Jayden’s wife, not a guest staying in the home for the weekend.
“Can I ask you something, Bridget?”
“Of course you may ask anything you would like, Mrs. Leopold,” the maid says as she comes to stand before me.
“Please call me Mireya, Mrs. Leopold is too formal for me.”
She gives me a funny look and inside I curse myself. That probably wasn’t the way I am supposed to behave.
“Okay then, Mireya, ask away.”
“Why am I not shown to Jayden’s room?” I ask her. I probably shouldn’t ask, but I have to know what reason he’s given her about why we are not sharing the same bed.
“This is just a room in case you need your space, Mireya. Jayden will show you to the master bedroom later when the time is right. I’m sure he’s just making sure everything is in order before he brings you upstairs.”
“His room isn’t down here?” I ask her as I tilt my head to the side and stare at her.
She shuffles nervously from foot to foot, clearly she knows something she’s not telling me.
“The entire third floor is his room. If you have everything you need, I’ll just be heading back downstairs to help prepare for tonight’s dinner,” she abruptly announces as she hurries to leave the room. She didn’t even ask me if I needed anything.
For some reason, Jayden has given my own room and won’t bring me up to see the master bedroom. In a way I appreciate the fact that he’s given me my own space, but I would’ve settled for having a private room that I can hide in when I don’t want to see him. Having my own room with my own bed raises too many suspicions about what’s really going on here. Suspicions lead to questions, questions lead to investigations, and investigations eventually lead to the truth.
I walk to one of the closed doors on the other side of the room and find the bathroom. Frustrated, I open the other door and find a closet, unfortunately the damn thing is empty. So my clothes aren’t here yet, what am I supposed to wear until my clothing gets here? Not to mention I don’t have my bag up here yet so I can at least look for something clean to wear.
I have no choice but to head back downstairs and look for Bridget so I can ask her where my bag is. I head down the stairs, but when I get to the bottom, I scratch my head because I have no clue where the kitchen is in this place. I smell som
ething cooking and banging of dishes against the counter, so I head in the direction of the sound. I get to the kitchen and am about to enter when I hear voices inside that stop me.
“Who is she?” I recognize the man’s voice.
“I’m not sure, all I know is that’s his wife. I didn’t even know he was dating anyone. This should be rather interesting don’t you think?” that’s Bridget he’s speaking with.
“Indeed, it should be very interesting, especially since he’s given her a separate room. Probably so he can still bring his women here. I feel bad for the poor girl, she seems like a nice person,” I didn’t know he thinks I’m a nice person. Honestly, I didn’t think he liked me very much.
I feel like a creep standing out here listening to their conversation, so I back up and stomp my feet a little bit harder than necessary so they can hear someone is coming. I make sure their conversation has stopped before I round the corner and enter the kitchen.
“Excuse me, I hope I’m not interrupting,” I tell them as I enter the kitchen.
“Not at all,” smiles Bridget as she sets down the spoon in her hand and steps closer to me. “What can I help you with?”
“I’m trying to locate my bag, I have some things inside I would like to put away.”
She turns to the man still standing with the pot in his hands, staring at the two of us, “Alfred, can you please show Mireya where her bag is?”
Alfred doesn’t look very pleased that he has to help me, but he sets the pot down anyways and proceeds to walk out of the kitchen.
“He doesn’t like me very much, does he?” I ask when I’m sure he’s gone.
“He’s just worried, that’s all. He doesn’t know you, just give him some time to get to know you,” she says as she pats me on the shoulder.
“You’d better go and get that bag before he wonders what happened to you,” she tells me, giving me a gentle shove out of the kitchen.
“Thank you,” I tell her when I turn back to look at her before I turn once more and head back out towards where I think Alfred ran off to.
I don’t have to look very long to find him, he’s standing by the front door with my bag in his hand. “Here you go Mrs. Leopold,” he says, handing me my bag.
“Thank you. Alfred, I would prefer it if you called me, Mireya.”
He gives me a horrified look, “No, I must insist that you remain Mrs. Leopold. Calling you by your first name is highly unacceptable.”
“Okay then, I guess Mrs. Leopold it is then.”
I don’t say anything else as I head back up to my room and put what little clothing I have that’s clean in the empty closet. I then grab one of the outfits and put it on. I feel so much better when I have on a pair of jogging shorts and a tank top. This wasn’t part of the clothing I bought in that store in Mexico, I went out of my way to find another store so I could purchase this. I can’t always be expected to wear such fancy clothes, that’s just not who I am.
I then stand there looking around the room wondering what I’m supposed to do now that I’ve put away what little clothing I have.
I decide to go and sit outside on the balcony for a while hoping that I can come up with something to do. I find a porch swing outside so I sit down on it and pull my feet up underneath me as I stare out at the ocean in the distance. The view out here is so beautiful, in the distance there’s just mile upon mile of ocean. I can see a very nice pool from here, but I’m not quite in the mood to get up yet and go explore the rest of the house. If this is what I’m going to spend most of my time doing, I’m going to need to take my time exploring this place.
Instead, I sit there and think about what my next move will be to try and find my sister. I still don’t have the money to hire a private eye because I don’t get the money until the three months is up so I’m going to have to see what I can do from here while I wait for that money. Who knows, maybe I’ll find Katrina before then and I won’t have to spend the money.
I finally decide that tomorrow will be the day that I start to explore the rest of the house. I bet he has an office somewhere that might have some clues into what his brother has been up to and perhaps even where he lives so I can try to pay my new brother-in-law a visit.
Wishful thinking, right? Yeah, I know that, but I don’t have a whole lot of options right now. Unfortunately, soon that becomes the least of my worries.
Chapter Eleven
“We have a party we need to attend tomorrow night at eight, please make sure you are dressed and ready to go by seven so we can arrive on time,” Jayden announces when we sit down for dinner.
This is the only time I’ve seen him since we came home earlier today. I guess he assumed I wanted some space? But right now, that’s the last thing I want. We need to spend time together so we can get to know one another, I just don’t know how to get him to sit still long enough for that to happen. If that damn phone isn’t ringing, he’s running the other way every time he sees me coming.
I take a bite of my Caesar salad and take extra long chewing it so I can take some time to think about what I want to say.
“What am I supposed to wear? My clothing still hasn’t arrived yet,” I finally ask when I swallow my bite of salad.
I look up at him, but the second I do, he looks away from me and pushes a crouton around on his plate. Almost like doing that gives him something to look at beside myself. How are we supposed to convince people we’re in love if he can’t even look at me?
“Your clothing will be here tomorrow,” he states shoving a bite of salad into his mouth. Well, I guess that conversation is over as he purposely chews his bite as slow as humanly possible.
“Jayden, can I ask you something?” I ask him. He just nods in response without looking up in my direction, “Look at me please?”
He does this, but his eyes hold a certain level of pain in them, I don’t understand what happened from the time we arrived in Mexico and now. I have yet to see the man that I saw the day we arrived in Cancun.
“Listen, Mireya, there’s something-” his phone ringing stops him mid-sentence again. I can’t help it as I throw my fork down and my hands up in the air in annoyance.
He abruptly stands from the table after he looks down at the number.
“Excuse me, I have to take this,” he announces shoving back from the table and throwing his plate to the side before exiting the room.
Well, I guess I’ll be eating alone tonight. I try to concentrate enough to eat some of my salad, but I just can’t do it, a shame too because the salad was really good. I’m just going to have to figure out how to get that damn phone away from him long enough so I can talk to him. Seems like that phone is always interrupting us when we’re trying to talk.
I wait for a while, but after an hour of sitting on the couch in the living room watching the television, I figure out he’s not coming back. I hear shouting in the distance and I think about going to see if he’s all right, but I don’t want to upset him, especially since whatever he’s yelling about is none of my business.
Instead, I go to bed that night trying to think of how I can get through to him. The party is tomorrow night and we haven’t spoken more than a few sentences to one another since we got married. He pursued me when he wanted me to marry him, but now that I’m here, he’s chosen to ignore me. He’ll quickly learn that I’m not the type of woman to take shit lying down.
***
“How do I look?” I ask Bridget when I exit the closet. I’ve selected a light green floor length gown that I personally selected from the store. It’s strapless and hugs me in all the right places, I fell in love with it the second I laid my eyes on it in the store.
“You look absolutely stunning, Mireya,” she states giving me a dazzling smile. “Come here, let me fix your hair for you.”
I sit down in front of the vanity in the corner of the room and she sets to work fixing my hair. I can see now why Jayden insisted I get all these accessories, they are going to come in handy over the next few
months. Bridget decides to leave my hair down so it flows down my back and places a silver flower tiara on the top of my head. “You have such beautiful brown hair, Mireya, it’s almost red. Has anyone ever told you that?”
“No,” I tell her sadly. I’m not used to receiving compliments. I’m usually the one that no one notices standing in the corner.
“I’m sure Jayden will be very pleased, he deserves some happiness for once,” she replies sadly. I look up at her through the mirror and see her face full of sorrow, she’s remembering something.
“Did someone hurt him?” I ask her. I know I’m prying but I have to know at least something about the man I married.
“Someone did once, he almost married the girl, but alas, she was just after his money. She had everyone fooled, even his mother, that’s why Alfred’s a little worried about the fact that he’s married you with no notice to us. He doesn’t have anything against you personally, he’s just watching out for Jayden,” she shrugs like it's nothing, but I can clearly see this didn’t just affect Jayden, everyone else was hurt by what happened to him.
“Tell me about her,” I beg, but she just sadly shakes her head no.
“I can’t do that, he needs to be the one to tell you about her. Just keep on him, eventually he’ll come around, he seems to really like you a lot.”
I snort at her and roll my eyes, “I can’t even get the man to sit and have a conversation with me for more than five minutes, believe me he doesn’t like me a lot. He tolerates me at best. I’m not sure what happened, but something sure did.”
“Just don’t give up on him, he’s worth the effort. You’d better get going or you’re going to be late,” she says, helping me to stand from my seat. “Just smile and be patient, he’ll come around soon enough. The heart has to heal eventually.”