Roses Are Red (Edith's Fatal Love Trilogy Book 1)

by Alexis Murrell

  “Yes,” he says abruptly.

  I can tell he doesn’t want to talk about this, and I would usually let things go if someone clearly wants to talk about something else. However, I want to know everything about him. He didn’t tell me on the island that he has or had a brother. I’m just now finding this out. I only know about his mother and father. I don’t even know who that other woman is in the painting with the little boy. It could possibly be his brother’s mother, but I’m not sure.

  “Why haven’t you told me about him? I didn’t know that you had a brother. I assumed you were the only child when you told me about your parents.”

  “You don’t know about him because I don’t like to talk about him or his mother. That is one topic I won’t discuss with anyone,” he says nonchalantly. He puts his hands in his pockets and shifts away from me, looking up at the painting.

  I move in front of him, touching his arm. “I thought we tell each other everything. I get it. You don’t want to talk about him. But can I at least know something, please?”

  “Fine,” he huffs. He walks up closer to the painting and points at the woman. “My brother’s name is Ignacio, and that’s his mother, Melissa. After my father started running the family business, and before he met my mother, he began to date Melissa. He was head over heels in love with her, to the point where he married her after only knowing her for a couple of months, and they had my brother.”

  “What happened between them?” I asked.

  “They had a falling out, and she ran away with my brother. My dad looked everywhere for them. There was no trace of them anywhere for a while. Eventually, he found them, and he asked her why she left. She told him that she didn’t want to be married anymore. By then, my father had moved on to my mother.” Aiden gently pats my back and guides me away from the paintings. “Come on; it’s time for breakfast.”

  I follow behind him, but not before turning around one more time to look at the paintings again. I want to know more about why Melissa felt like she needed to run away and take her son with her. It doesn’t make sense that when Aiden’s father found her and asked why she left, all she said was that she didn’t want to be married anymore. Something isn’t adding up. There has to be more to the story.

  I turn back around and follow close behind Aiden to a dining room that’s big enough to sit at least twenty people.

  Who needs this much space?

  He pulls out my chair for me and takes a seat beside me. The woman I met earlier, Grace, comes out of the kitchen carrying two glasses.

  “Oh, Grace.”

  She freezes in the middle of placing Aiden’s drink down. Aiden takes his drink from her, placing it in front of him. She whispers sorry to him and comes over to me. She puts my glass down in front of me, and I grab her elbow, stopping her before she leaves. “Are you okay? You look so scared.”

  She sneaks a peek over at Aiden, then looks down at her shoes. “Miss, I’m fine.” She turns to leave, going back into the kitchen.

  I stare at the door for a while, trying to figure out what’s wrong with her. Why is she reacting this way, it’s not normal?

  The sound of a chair being pushed back snaps me out of my thoughts. I peer over at Aiden and catch him watching the door that Grace just went through.

  “Aiden, are you okay? Now you’re acting weird, like Grace.” I shake his arm, bringing him back to me.

  He rubs a hand down his face. “I’m fine.” He touches my hand on his arm.

  I point in the direction of the door Grace went through. “Is she going to be okay? She seems scared of something or someone. I was going to tell you when I saw you this morning so you could check up on her. I don’t know if she’s scared of me or if something happened to her, but I’m concerned for her.”

  “Don’t worry; I’ll speak to her later today.”

  Relief washes over me, knowing he’s going to check on her. Maybe she will confide in him rather than me, since she doesn’t know me yet.

  Grace comes back in with our plates of food, and this time she doesn’t waste any time. She places our food down in front of us and leaves in a hurry. I watch Aiden watching her as she goes, and when he meets my eyes, I look down, starting on my food. I can feel him staring at me, but I try to pay it no mind.

  “Would you like to go out today to get some new clothes? I know that most of your stuff is gone, from the look of the fire last night.” He sips his juice and eats some of his eggs.

  I squeeze my eyes shut. I forgot all about yesterday, distracted by what happened this morning. I have some money in my savings, but that won’t be enough to help me buy everything again.

  “I forgot all about that,” I reply, moving my hair behind my ear. “Thanks for the shirt and shorts. You don’t need to buy me anything. I have some money saved up. I’ll use that to buy something.”

  “Edith, I said I would take care of you. You don’t need to use your money to buy anything; I have it. Don’t fight me on this.”

  “But I can’t have you doing all this for me. I just feel bad, like I’m using you, and I don’t want you to think that.”

  He stops eating and reaches over to lift my chin. “There’s no need to feel bad. You don’t have to pay me back. Just do what I’ve asked, and there won’t be any problems.” He gets up from his seat and kisses me on the lips, taking his sweet time before pulling back. “Now, are we good?”

  I grin, nodding. “Yes, we’re good.”

  “Good.”

  “Now that you’ve opened your home to me, you may never get rid of me,” I say, trying not to laugh.

  He smiles at me, causing me to bite the inside of my mouth to help me keep a straight face.

  “That’s my plan to keep you forever,” he says, getting up. He tells me that he’ll be right back. When he comes back, he hands me some roses.

  “I was hoping this would make your day,” he says, handing them to me.

  This man is going to be the death of me.

  He knows just what to do to put a smile on my face. If this moment hasn’t revealed his true feelings to me, then I don’t know what will. He makes me feel like I’m the only woman in the world that he has eyes for and wants me to be happy.

  “Aw, Aiden, you didn’t have to.”

  He shrugs his shoulders. “I wanted to make you smile.”

  It did more than make me smile. It makes me realize that if he keeps this up, I’m going to end up falling in love with him. I know that I could end up with a broken heart again, but I think that something beautiful will come out of this relationship this time around.

  I just know it.

  Aiden leaves me his card, telling me that I can buy whatever I want. There’s no limit. Then takes off to take care of work. But I don’t have to go in; I can work from home while I am trying to get my life together.

  I take this moment to go back to his room and call my mother. I told her that I would contact her today, and I haven’t done it yet. I already know that she has probably been blowing up my phone.

  Dialing her number, she picks up on the first ring. “Oh my gosh, Edith. I’ve been calling you all morning, and you haven’t returned my calls.”

  “I know, I’m sorry, Mom. I was having breakfast with Aiden this morning.”

  “Aiden?”

  “Yeah, he’s the guy I talked to you about before you went away on your trip.”

  “Ah, yes, I remember him. How come when I’m gone, everything in your life starts changing. You need to keep me in the loop, I didn’t know he contacted you, and now you guys are hanging more.”

  I should have seen this coming. My mother and I are so close, and I do my best to keep her updated on everything happening in my life. I’ve just been so busy lately, and things are moving so fast. I haven’t had the chance to call her since she’s left for her trip.

  “Mom, I’m really sorry. I’ve been so busy at work and with Aiden.” I have to fix this, so she doesn’t start getting idea’s in her head that now I’m pushing her
away. “But that’s no excuse; I should have called you, and I promise from now on to do that.”

  “No, there aren’t any excuses, and you know I’ve been waiting a long time for you to start dating. I’m glad he ended up calling you. I told you he would contact you.”

  I throw myself on the bed. I should have just called her and told her everything sooner. I know she will want to know about my house burning down. However, I think I will wait until she comes back from traveling to tell her. I don’t need her cutting her trip short to come home because of me. She’s been looking forward to this trip for a while.

  “Mom, I will answer all of your questions once you come home. I want you to enjoy your trip; nothing big is happening here,” I lie.

  “Okay, baby. But I want to meet this Aiden when I come back to town. I need to make sure that he’s good enough for my baby girl, and I want to know everything that has been going on with you, you hear me?”

  Hopefully, she’s not coming back home anytime soon. I would rather wait until I have some things sorted out with my home and have moved out before I tell her that I lost my house and that I was living with Aiden, not Nancy.

  That will push her over the edge; my mother can handle a lot of things. But me not telling her about my house burning down and that I’ve kind of moved in with my boyfriend, that she hasn’t met.

  She will flip.

  “Yes, I want you to meet him. Just tell me when you’re coming home, and I’ll set something up for all of us to have dinner. What do you say?

  She starts to speak to someone who’s calling her name, letting them know she’s coming. “Okay, that sounds good. I have to go, baby, but I’ll call you and let you know when I will be back home. Love you.”

  “Love you too, Mom.”

  WEEKS HAVE FLOWN BY, AND I still haven’t used Aiden’s card to go shopping and buy all the things I need. He keeps encouraging me to go out and replace anything that was lost in the fire. But I’ve just been so caught up in work and finding out what caused my house to catch on fire that I haven’t had the time or the desire to go, until today.

  Nancy’s been calling me to check-in and make sure that I’m doing okay. The last time she called, I asked her to go out shopping with me. It would help give me a break having some fun without worrying about my house or workload.

  She pulls up in Aiden’s driveway with her mouth hanging open.

  “This is his house?” She leans over the passenger’s side, trying to inspect the outside of the house.

  “Yes, and you can see it later. Now let’s go.” Buckling my seat belt, I pat the steering wheel, telling her to get a move on. We don’t have all day.

  She glances over to me and rolls her eyes, but she starts up the car and gets a move on.

  “I was only looking at the house; it’s so big, and it looks amazing. I mean, I knew that he was loaded, but you didn’t tell me that he was that loaded.”

  I shrug my shoulders. “I didn’t think that I needed to tell you,” I tease.

  “Whatever.” She laughs while turning on the radio. “Okay, so tell me what’s been going on? I feel like I haven’t seen my best friend in forever.”

  “I’ve been working like crazy and trying to get everything together, since my house is gone. It’s been stressful lately, but Aiden has been great with helping me with everything.”

  “Yeah, I know. I still can’t believe it caught on fire like that; I mean, I was over at your house every single day checking on it. I don’t know how it caught on fire like that.”

  That’s what I’ve been trying to figure out this whole time, too. While I was away with Aiden, I made sure Nancy watched over my house for me, that’s just something we do for each other. If one goes out of town, the other house sits. Every day I was gone, Nancy would text me, telling me that everything was all good at home. Even the day that my house caught on fire, she went over to my house earlier that morning and told me that my house was still the same. I don’t understand how my house could have caught on fire.

  Nothing makes sense.

  “I agree with you. I’m still trying to figure it out myself; nothing in my house was out-of-date, and there was nothing else that could cause a fire.”

  She turns into the mall’s parking lot and parks the car. “Well, have you talked to the police? What have they said about it?”

  “You want to know something weird? I’ve tried calling them to ask, yet each time I’ve called, it goes straight to voicemail, and they don’t return my call.” I think about the few times I’ve called this week and the weeks before, and still no answer. “Weird, isn’t it?

  “Yeah, it is. Give it some more time and see if they call you.” She hands over my bag, then grabs hers. “Now, let’s go. I need a new purse and outfit.”

  Tugging Aiden’s card out of my pocket, I wave it in her face as I begin walking. Before I left the house, I told him that I would be going shopping with Nancy, and he told me that I could use his card to buy not only my things, but hers as well. I knew that would make her happy when I told her.

  “Yes, let’s. Aiden said I could buy things for you too.”

  She jumps up and down, then grabs my arms, pulling me towards the front entrance of the mall. “You don’t have to tell me twice. I hope his card doesn’t have a limit.”

  I laugh as she continues to pull me as we head to our first store. He told me there wasn’t any limit on the card, but I’m not telling her that, because she will definitely take advantage. We hit up a couple of stores for the next three hours to buy things I need and a couple of things for her. I’m ready to go, but Nancy tells me that she has one more thing that she needs to get, so we step into another store.

  “So, have you told your mother about your house burning down?”

  We’re walking through a lingerie store, and Nancy goes to the back where their panties and bra are displayed. Walking passed a cute red set with a robe attached, I pick it up and examine it.

  I wonder if Aiden would love to see me in this.

  “Edith? Did you hear me?” Nancy looks over at me, then back at the bras, she was looking at.

  “Yes, I talked to her, but I didn’t tell her that my house burned down.” Guilt grips me, just thinking about my conversation with my mother. I already know she’s going to be upset that I didn’t tell her about my house burning down. But I didn’t want her to worry and ask questions.

  “Edith! You didn’t tell your mother about your house?” She walks over to me, throwing her hands in the air.

  “No, but I plan on telling her when she comes back. We’re going to have dinner together, and this will be her first time meeting Aiden now that we are dating officially.”

  She rolls her eyes and shakes her head. “Man, I must be rubbing off on you. This is something I usually do, not you.” She laughs, throwing her arm around me. “I can’t wait for you to tell me how she took finding out you live with him, since you both haven’t been together that long.”

  Just another thing to add on. Can things get any worse?

  “I’ll just worry about that once the time comes. I’m not going to do that now.” We walk up to the cashier to check out. Nancy looks at the stuff I selected and lifts a brow at me.

  “Oooh, now what’s this? Are you trying to look sexy for mister Delfino?”

  I snatch the items from her and give them to the checkout lady so we can hurry out of here, keeping my face down as I search for the card and pay for the items. I was hoping that she wouldn’t find out what I was buying.

  “So, you’re not going to comment?” she teases me while following close on my heels.

  “Nope.”

  “Seems like you’re planning something from where I’m standing,” she says loudly.

  Grabbing her arm, I look around, checking to see if people are staring at us. “Shh, not so loud.” I look around again and continue to pull her towards the car. “Also, it’s none of your business.”

  We get into the car, and I look forward, tryi
ng to keep a straight face and not give anything away.

  She turns towards me with the biggest smile on her face. I’ve never seen her this happy before, and I’ve seen all sides of her.

  “Oooo, Edith, are you planning what I think you’re planning?” She pokes me in my shoulders, trying to get my attention. “I think I know what it is.”

  Laughing, I hit her finger. “Stop it. Don’t worry about what I’m planning. Just drive.”

  “Oh, come on. Now you know I have to tease you just a little.” She starts up the car putting it in reverse. “It’s funny watching you try and be so secret with your plans.”

  “No, it’s not. Now let’s go.”

  Aiden’s been so sweet with me, helping me out with everything and even taking things slow with us. After that day, when we slept in his bed together. I’ve continued to sleep in his bed with him, and it’s been nice waking up to each other every day. We haven’t done anything but kiss and cuddle together. But tonight, I’m ready. I’m prepared to go all-in with him, and I don’t want to look back.

  She listens to me and starts backing up. “Well, just so you know, make sure you give me all the details on how everything went. I want to know.”

  “Don’t worry; I will.” I smile, turning my head to look out the window.

  Tonight’s the night there’s no turning back now.

  “It’s time,” I tell myself.

  Staring in the mirror, I check to make sure everything looks good. Since I’ve been home from shopping with Nancy, I’ve been getting ready so that I can go downstairs and surprise Aiden of what I have planned for us tonight. This isn’t my first-time having sex, but it is my first time doing something like this.

  Rubbing my hands down my body, I readjust my bra. I feel so exposed wearing this lingerie set. I have never put something like this on before, not even for the last guy I was with. Dressing up to look sexy was the last thing on my mind and his. But for Aiden, I wanted to do something different. Show him that I’m serious about us, and we don’t have to take things slow anymore. Assuming that I can gather the confidence and walk down to see him. I look over at the bouquet of roses sitting on my nightstand and smile. He had these sitting here waiting for me when I came home. Taking a single rose, I break off the stem and place the rose in my hair.