“What are you doing down here?”
I turn around, and Aiden is standing right behind me. With his hands rolled up into fits, and his eyes looking into mine.
I say the first thing that comes to my mind. “You’re home early.”
“I wanted to surprise you, but it seems like you have a surprise for me.” He’s not looking at me anymore when he talks; he’s looking at Grace. I look over at her and see that the new Grace is gone, and the old one has returned. But this time, the old one is staying permanently.
“Aiden, my man, you’re back just in time to see Grace beat Edith in a pool game,” Nancy says. Nancy must’ve had more than three glasses of wine, because she’s not aware of what’s going on. She’s too busy in her own little world to notice the tension in the room.
“Hello, Nancy,” he says calmly.
“Are you okay?”
He nods, kissing me on my head. “Yup, you guys finish your game. You all look like you’re having a lot of fun.” He leaves out the door, and I stand there, not knowing if we should continue the game or call it a night.
“I’m tired. I think I’ll just turn in now.” Grace puts up everything and hugs Nancy and me before leaving.
“Then there were two,” Nancy laughs.
Ignoring her, I stare at the door. I have a terrible feeling that things are about to get really, really, ugly.
AIDEN STILL HASN’T TALKED ABOUT the night he surprised me by coming home early. He hasn’t hit me either, which makes me afraid that he’s going to do something when I least expect it. He’s making it seem like everything is all good, when I know it isn’t true, and I haven’t seen Grace since that night, which worries me. Aiden looked really upset when he saw us downstairs having fun. But he looked more upset when he saw that Grace was hanging out with us.
I want to look for her, but Aiden has been asking for me more lately, and I’m afraid to get caught. Except I have a bad feeling that something has happened to her, and I really need to go see her. So, tonight I’m going to go search for her. Usually, at night Aiden has all the guards roaming around the house, but they are all in a meeting with him, which is the perfect time for me to go find Grace.
I check the time. I only have an hour before the meeting is over; I have to find her fast. I go to all the locations that she usually cleans or fixes up, and I don’t find her. I asked some of the staff members if they have seen her, but most of them say no, saying that they haven’t seen her since Aiden came home.
That was four days ago.
There is only one other place that she could be, the section of the house that’s always heavily guarded now. I peek down the hallway to the door that leads to Grace’s part of the house, and I see no guards walking up and down the hall. I quickly run, looking behind and in front of me, checking that no guards have arrived, and I go through the door.
I go to Grace’s door and knock. The door that I came through to get to this side of the house opens, and a guard comes in. I move behind a wall and peek out, watching to see what the guard does. He looks up and down and opens some doors, checking inside before radioing in that the hall is all clear. I stay there, watching and waiting for him to go back through the door so I can get to Grace. When I see him go back through, I move from behind the wall and knock on Graces’ door again. I don’t get an answer, so I turn the doorknob, and it opens, allowing me to slip in before another guard comes.
“Grace, it’s me, Edith,” I whisper into the darkroom. I can see the outline of her on her bed, and I rush over.
“Grace, it’s me.” I sit on the side of her bed and touch her shoulder. She groans, turning slowly to face me, hissing when she gets on her back.
“Edith, what are you doing here?” she snaps. She tries to sit up, and I push her to lie back down.
“I came to check on you.”
She tells me to turn on the lamp on her nightstand. When I turn it on, my hand flies to my mouth when I see her face. My heart breaks, and I want to cry as I look at her. I lay my hand on the side of her face and examine the bruising. I know who did this to her, but I want her to say it.
“Who did this to you?”
“It’s not as bad as you think; it’s usually worse than this.”
I can’t believe what I am hearing. She is telling me that this is mild compared to what he usually does to her. From where I am sitting, this is bad enough, how much worse can it get?
She grabs my hand, moving it from her face. I don’t care what she says, it looks bad. Her lip is busted, there are bruises on her neck like he might have been choking her. There are even bite marks on her arms. When she tries to sit up straight, she winces, grabbing her side while trying to get into a sitting position.
“Who did this to you?”
“You shouldn’t be here, go before someone finds you here with me.” She ignores my question again and keeps pushing me to leave. Except I’m not going anywhere, it’s time I get some answers, and it seems like she is the only one I’m going to get them from.
“Tell me,” I stress.
She stares at the wall as I’m on the verge of tears, sitting here waiting for her to speak.
“You know who did this to me,” she answers, playing with her hands.
I let my head fall to my chest in defeat.
“Aiden. But why?” I whisper.
“He didn’t want me around you,” she says in a small voice.
I suspected that was the reason. If I had known that he was going to do this to her for spending time with me, I would have never suggested that she come and hang out with us.
“Oh, Grace, I am so sorry. Had I known he would do this—”
She grabs my hand. “You couldn’t have known he would do something like this. Don’t beat yourself up.”
I shake my head; there is no way she can convince me that I couldn’t have stopped this from happening. I could have listened to her when she was trying to tell me that she didn’t think this would be a good idea. I was so focused on wanting to enjoy this break from Aiden before I would have to go back to figuring out how I would get out, that I didn’t think about how I might get her in trouble because of me.
She shakes my shoulder, trying to get me out of my head so that I could listen to her. “Just get out. That’s all I ask. Don’t be like me and get trapped here. I can’t ever leave this place, but you can. Save yourself while you still can.”
“Tell me what’s going on. What do you mean, you can’t ever leave here?” I ask. Fear starts to claw its way into my mind as I start to come up with a list of things that I may not know.
She shakes her head. “I can’t tell you.”
“Yes, you can,” I cry. If I have to beg her to tell me, I will. But I need to know what I have gotten myself into so that I can try and get out. “Please, I need to know what’s going on here.”
She sighs, pulling her hand out of mine. “He is going to kill me for this,” she whispers to herself. When I hear her say that, I jump. “I used to date Aiden’s father, Marco.”
“Wait, what? What do you mean?”
She sighs, pulling her hand out of mine. “Let me start at the beginning. My father used to get drugs from Aiden’s father, Marco.”
“Wait, drugs? Aiden’s father used to sell drugs?”
She looks over at me. “Used to? No, they still do sell drugs, and they do much more. It’s why they are so wealthy and have so much power.”
“I don’t understand. Aiden told me he owns a security company, many restaurants, and clubs.”
“Edith, do you really believe that he’ll tell you what he’s doing behind the scenes if he’s trying to keep it from you? You really don’t understand how serious your situation is, and why I tried to warn you about him and his family.” Grace pauses, telling the story to shift into a better position; she winces in pain, pointing to a pill bottle. “Can you hand that to me, please?”
I reach over and hand her the pill bottle, noticing that she doesn’t have any water, I take t
he cup sitting beside her, walking into her bathroom to fill it up with water. I hand it to her.
“Thank you.” She takes the pill with the water. Then she hands it back to me to place on her nightstand. “So, yes, I used to date Aiden’s father. At the time, I didn’t know he was married. But that was just Marco always unfaithful to Aiden’s mother, Emily. We met through my father who, died of an overdose using Marco’s products; I didn’t find that out until later. I was grieving the loss of my father, and Marco came over, sending his condolences. Once he saw what I looked like, he kept coming over every week to check up on me. Eventually, we went on a date, and that turned into more dates. Over time, I ended up falling in love with him. I missed all the signs that were right in front of me, telling me that he wasn’t right for me. I thought that Marco was the one, the love of my life. But boy, was I wrong about that.”
Hearing her story makes me think of me, in how I used to look at Aiden like he was my soulmate. The one who was going to give me my happily ever after. Just like she was wrong, I was wrong too.
She tries to continue the story, but her voice cracks a couple of times, and she has to drink more water to help clear her throat. “Sorry, my voice goes in and out because of—,” she trails off, letting me know that it’s because of Aiden choking her that her voice messes up sometimes. I nod my head, so she knows that it is okay. “Alright, well, as I continued to fall head over heels in love with him. I ended up becoming pregnant.” She reaches behind her pillow and pulls out an ultrasound picture. “We were both excited about the pregnancy. Getting everything ready for the baby, we found out it was a boy, and he went crazy. He was going to have a son to pass down the Delfino name and legacy.”
I had a feeling that Grace’s story wasn’t a happy one, but hearing her tell me all of this, I’m finding that I wish I hadn’t asked her to tell me what’s going on.
“His wife found out about us and came to my house.” She hands over the ultrasound picture so that I could look. “Marco was there to control her so that she didn’t hurt the baby, but I was devastated, and she was angry. I didn’t understand how he could have a whole wife and be with me. We were having a baby together, and I didn’t know he was married. I broke things off with him, but of course, he wasn’t having that. He threatened me using our son as leverage, telling me that he had the power to take our son away from me if I tried to leave. So, I stayed out of fear of losing my son. He eventually moved me in with him and Emily, and that’s when the real hell began. I saw sides of Marco that I never noticed before. He would hit his wife all the time in front of me, which is where Aiden gets it from. His father was also controlling and had a temper, just like Aiden. It’s like father, like son.”
“I didn’t know any of this,” I say, shocked.
“Of course, you wouldn’t, he wouldn’t have told you this. Men like the Delfino’s go after what they want, when they want, and will do anything to get it, anything!” she emphasizes. “And once they have you, they let their other side slip away, showing you who they really are underneath over time.”
I hand back the photo and stay lost in my thoughts. I don’t know what to think. I have really gotten myself in a mess. These are one of those times I wish I would have listened to my mother.
Grace grabs my hand and pulls me closer to her. “Our baby didn’t make it. I was only a couple weeks away from going into labor when I slipped and fell down some stairs, killing our baby. Marco was so mad at me that he beat me to death, almost killing me as he did, Aiden’s mother.”
“What do you mean, as he did to Aiden’s mother?” My voice shakes as I ask her this question.
“Meaning, Aiden’s mother didn’t die from a heart attack. That’s what people think,” she replied. “But that’s all a lie, Marco killed Emily. He wasn’t going to have another woman slip through his fingers like Melissa did, and end up taking their son with her. No, Marco smothered Aiden’s mother to death with a pillow because she was going to leave him and take Aiden with her. He was really smart, so he made it look like she died of a heart attack.”
I break away from her and get up, grabbing my hair, pulling on it. I don’t want to believe what she’s saying. There is no way that Aiden is a killer or that their family deals in illegal things. I couldn’t have ended up dating someone who does things like this.
How did I miss all this? How could I have gotten myself into this?
“Edith, calm down, you’re panicking.”
I know I need to calm down, but I can’t. My mother was right all along that I needed to take things slow, and I didn’t. I just went along with Aiden because I was in love.
“I can’t; I feel so stupid. I wish I had known all of this,” I cry.
“We all make stupid mistakes, its life. It’s what you do after you’ve made the mistake that’s important,” she says.
“What do you mean?” She pats the bed, telling me to come back and sit down, and I do.
“Meaning, you see now that you made a mistake in being with Aiden, and now you have a chance to try and get out before things get worse for you.”
“It’s already worse.” I show her my arm and lift up my shirt.
“Hey, now you listen to me.” She snaps her fingers at me. “You have to try, be strong and fight. I didn’t get out and look at me; I’m still here. I tried, but I allowed my fear to control me. Don’t let your fear control you. Find a way out of this before it’s too late.”
My heart is breaking, listening to her. “I’m so sorry.”
“It’s okay. But that’s why you have to be strong and get out. Aiden is worse than his father, Edith, and the way he looks at you . . . He’ll never let you go, and if you ever have a baby with him, your fate will be sealed here. I don’t want that for you.” She touches the side of my face, tears falling down her cheeks. “Run, and never come back.”
I grab onto her hand. “Come with me.”
“I can’t, I’m hurt, I’ll only slow you down. Also, I know too much about this family, they will only kill me.” She nods her head to the door. “Run, save yourself from him, or he’s going to destroy you from the inside out.”
I’m not going to leave her here; there has to be a way I can take her with me. She doesn’t deserve to stay here and continue to endure this kind of torture. I will not let this happen.
The door to Grace’s bedroom opens, and Aiden walks in with his hands in his pockets. Grace grabs my hand, squeezing it tight, and my body begins to shake from fear.
I stayed here too long, and now my time is up.
“I see you found Grace.” He leans against the door, staring at us.
Neither one of us comments, and he just stands there, waiting patiently.
I clear my throat to speak. “Yes, I just came to check up on her.”
“I see. I even heard her telling you about us,” he says. I can see the anger in his eyes as I look into them.
“Why did you lie to me?” I ask.
“I never lied to you.”
“Yes, you did,” I shout.
Grace squeezes my hand twice, trying to get my attention. She leans into me close to my ear. “Don’t do that; you’re only going to piss him off.”
“He lied to me; he started this first,” I say to her.
He walks over to me and grabs my arm, pulling me to him. “I think it’s time for you to go, and I’ll talk to Grace later.”
I yank my arm from his hand. “Yeah, I think it is time for me to leave—to leave you, for good.”
I race out of the room.
THIS IS IT.
I’m going to leave him, for real.
Slamming the door shut, I race to our room. After finding out all this information, I can’t stay here any longer, and neither can Grace. If what she said is all true, then I have to get away from here. It hurts me to know that the man I used to love isn’t who he says he is, which makes me wonder—why me?
What could Aiden possibly want from me when he could have any other woman?
&n
bsp; Why do I have to be another victim of his emotional, physical, and mental abuse?
I run up the stairs quickly. I can hear Aiden shouting out orders to his men. Some of them spot me when I make it to our room, and I hurry inside. I know that I only have maybe a couple of seconds to get whatever I need before he’s up here.
Quickly walking into my closet, I pull out a bag and stuff whatever I see in it. I can hear the guards outside the door shouting, the doorknob begins to turn, and I run over to lock it before continuing to pack.
Checking to make sure I have everything from our closet and bathroom, I rush over to the door. Before I even touch the knob, it unlocks and turns on its own, and he walks in.
He moves towards me, getting in my space.
“What did you say?” he asks calmly. I feel his breath blowing in my face as his chest touches mine.
Alarms should’ve gone off in my head from how calmly he’s speaking. But I’m so clouded with anger that I don’t even see what’s coming next. Pushing him out of the way, I walk towards the door going down the hall.
Grabbing my wrist, he turns me around and drags me back into our room. I kick and scream, trying to get him to let me go, but his grip never loosens as he continues to drag me. I trip over my shoes as my bag slips from my hand. It flies across the room as I fall. I hear the door close behind me, and the lock clicking into place. Turning around quickly, he walks over to me and crouches before me.
“Now, what did you say?”
Rolling my eyes, I push him back so he can get out of my face. “Did you not hear what the hell I said? Is my English not clear enough for you?” I say sarcastically. “I said I’m done! I can’t do this anymore!”
Angry tears threaten to fall.
“I’m leaving you. Can you understand that?” I snarl. “I won’t be with someone like you. Your family is sick; you are sick. Now move, we’re over!”
When he sees that I’m serious, he gets up, walks over to his dresser, and takes off his suit coat. He lays the coat on top, then pulls off his tie, adding it to the pile. He takes his time unbuttoning his shirt, so I use that moment to crawl over to my bag, grabbing it and running for the door again. I’m right at the doorknob when he yanks me by my hair and punches me square in the face.
Roses Are Red (Edith's Fatal Love Trilogy Book 1) Page 16