by Linda Verji
“Thank you,” they returned.
“If I may trouble you for your names.” He drew their attention to the book he held in his hands.
“Damián Colter plus one,” Damián returned coolly.
Mr. Door Monitor swept his gaze over the book and a moment later he smiled and inclined his head in a short bow. “Very good. Welcome, Mr. Colter. Ms.”
One of the other two guards ushered them politely towards the entrance after their fellow guests. A tide of body heat met them at the door. A crush of people milled in the museum’s grand foyer, spilling into the various galleries. Like Damián and Aiko, the guests were dressed to kill; tuxedos that looked tailor-made, designer evening dresses, sparkling jewels and accessories. Heck, Aiko was sure that the combined costs of all their clothes and accessories were enough to buy a new country.
“Damián Colter, is that you?” A man near them drew their attention.
“James.” Damián met the rotund, tanned man with a smile. “I didn’t know you were going to be here.”
“Like I’d miss the mayor’s party.” James gestured to the petite, slender woman beside him. “You remember my wife, Lillian.”
“Of course. How could I not remember such a lovely lady?” Damián complimented the woman earning himself a coy smile. He set his palm on Aiko’s lower back as he introduced, “This is my fiancée, Aiko.”
“Your fiancée? Oh.” Both James and his wife appeared mildly shocked as their eyes flashed to her. James said, “I heard you were engaged but I didn’t know-” He colored as if he was embarrassed about whatever he was afraid to say. He recovered enough to say, “Congratulations.”
“Thank you.”
James and his wife beat a hasty retreat then, but it wasn’t fast enough because Aiko caught Lillian’s whispered, “Did you see her scar?”
At least it was her scar that had them whispering not her skin color, Aiko mentally consoled herself. She could deal with that – she’d been dealing with it for the last five years.
Damián, who wasn’t oblivious to the whispers and seemed to have gotten over his spurt of anger, wound his arm around her waist protectively. “I think we should start walking around with a placard telling them you were in the military.”
“That will only make the questions more awkward,” Aiko said. “I don’t want to start talking explosives, guns and warzones.”
“It would certainly make for more interesting conversation.” He smiled as he gave her a lingering once-over. “Have I told you how beautiful you look tonight?”
“Thank you.” Glad that they were talking again, she smiled. “You don’t look so bad yourself, Mister. You should wear tuxedos more-”
“Embarrassing.” Josiah cut into her words, as he came up beside them. He was accompanied by his wife, Caroline. He added, “Don’t you two know that bedroom eyes are for the bedroom?”
“You’re just jealous,” Damián retorted, before turning to the tall, willowy blonde beside his best friend. “Caroline, you’re looking good.”
“Thank you,” she offered serenely as she leaned in for a brief hug. Caroline and Josiah couldn’t have been more different. He was black, she was white. She was slender, he was muscular. He was the life of the party, she was reserved. They were the perfect poster-couple for love crossing boundaries. Unfortunately, they weren’t in love and had never been.
According to Damián, Caroline had only married Josiah to piss off her old-school, conservative Southern parents, and Josiah had only married her to get ahead in business. But apparently the sham-marriage worked for them because they were looking especially affectionate tonight as they held hands.
Caroline turned her attention to Aiko. “Aiko, it’s good to see you.”
Aiko was surprised that the woman even remembered her name. Though their husbands were best-friends, they rarely interacted except during school events, and that was only because the couple’s daughter Keira was also at Lowell School. Smiling, she said, “Thank you for inviting us. It’s a lovely party.”
“My father does know how to throw a good party.” Caroline smiled as her eyes briefly roved over the partygoers.
The two couples chatted for a couple of minutes more before they were joined by Carmen and her date, Archie. Damián and Aiko shot each other shocked looks.
“Your father offered to accompany me.” Carmen clung to her ex-husband’s arm like he was going to run away if she let him go. “How could I refuse?”
“You know how much of a gentleman I am.” Archie grinned like a Cheshire cat.
“I need a drink,” Damián proclaimed as he reached for a flute filled with sparkling liquid from a passing waiter’s tray. He tossed its contents down in one gulp then pointed at his parents. “And you two need to see a therapist.” After setting the glass on another waiter’s tray, he turned to Aiko, “Darling, you want to go get some fresh air?”
“How can I refuse when you asked so nicely?” Aiko chuckled as she set her hand in his.
“I told you it was a bad idea to get involved with those two,” Damián said once they were out of his parents’ earshot.
“Your mother is something else.” Aiko pressed her body closer to his and set her head on his upper arm. “Can you believe just this afternoon she tried to get me to set her up with someone else?”
“It’s all a game for them.” He shook his head. “Watch. By this time next week one of them will have cheated on the other and my mom will be at your office again.”
“Take that back.” Aiko pinched him. “Stop jinxing me.”
Damián laughed. “I’m just telling you the truth.”
They weren’t the only guests who’d thought of going out to the museum’s gardens for some fresh air and they soon found themselves surrounded by friendly faces. Most of the intruders were Damián’s acquaintances, but Aiko was surprised to be approached by some of her former clients.
An hour or so later, Aiko excused herself to go and freshen up. Except for one lady who was primping by the mirrors, the ladies’ room was deserted. Aiko had just entered one of the stalls to do her business when she heard the door open and a gaggle of ladies enter the room.
“You should have told us,” a woman said.
“Seriously, I had to practically pick my jaw from the floor,” another woman chimed in. “That’s how ugly she was.”
“Bitsie, you’re so bad.” Some other woman laughed.
Bitsie. Bitsie. Bitsie. Where had Aiko heard that name?
“But you know I’m not lying,” Bitsie said. For a woman with such a sweet name, she had quite a cruel tongue on her. She added, “Seriously, Carmen, where in God’s good earth did your son find such an ugly woman?”
Carmen? All the air rushed from Aiko’s lungs as she realized that they were talking about her. Her mother-in-law laughed. “I don’t think she’s that ugly.”
That ugly? Aiko felt like she’d been stabbed in the back with a very, very long knife.
“You don’t think she’s that ugly. Ha.” Bitsie scoffed. “She looks like she came in wearing a Halloween mask for a face.”
“You poor dear,” another woman intoned, real sympathy in her voice. “Can you imagine the children they’ll to produce?”
“Maybe they won’t reproduce.”
“Ha. Are you kidding us?” Someone tittered. “Her people don’t know the meaning of birth-control.”
“Well, at least he already has Zoe. She’s good-looking,” someone else said.
“But still, those children will be Carmen’s grand-children.” Bitsie asked, “Carmen, are you sure you can’t convince Damián to look elsewhere? There are so many good southern girls around. I’m sure we could find him someone more… appropriate.”
“Damián would never agree to that,” Carmen murmured. Her words were enough to send a stab of pain through Aiko. Despite her mother-in-law’s faults, Aiko had thought that they were on good terms. If she couldn’t defend her, the least she could do was not participate in such conversations.
“You’re his mother,” Bitsie said. “He’ll listen to you.”
“You obviously don’t know my son,” Carmen said. “He’s always been very independent-minded.”
Bitsie scoffed. “I didn’t know that being independent-minded meant trying to put lipstick on a pig. My mama always said-”
That was it for Aiko. She flushed the toilet cutting off the woman’s next words. Anger circling inside her, she exited the stall. The flushing of the toilet must’ve drawn the attention of the women outside the stall because when Aiko walked out she found them looking in her direction. It gave her no small amount of satisfaction to see identical looks of shock flashing through their faces. But no one looked more shocked than her mother-in-law.
Carmen’s shock was accompanied by a healthy dose of embarrassment evident by the healthy red tint that flushed up her cheeks. She gasped. “Aiko, I didn’t know you were here.”
“No, you certainly didn’t.” Aiko turned her gaze from her mother-in-law to the other women present and nodded to them coolly. “Hello.”
No one responded. Shocking.
Aiko strolled to the sink and turned the faucet. The silent tension that loomed over the room as she washed her hands was so heavy, it could’ve crushed a rock. She wanted to say so much to them; like beauty was only skin deep and in her eyes they were the ugly ones. She could get plastic surgery to get rid of her scar, but there was no surgery in the world that could fix an ugly personality. She wanted to tell them that whatever babies she and Damián produced would be the most beautiful babies on the planet just because they were created out of love. But she kept silent because life had taught her that some people were just a waste of breath.
Acutely aware of them watching her, she casually dried her hands before starting for the door. The four women immediately shuffled to the side as if afraid she might hit them or something. As she exited the bathroom, Aiko threw a sarcastic, “It was good to see you, ladies,” over her shoulder.
CHAPTER 12
As soon as Aiko came back to the gardens, Damián noticed that something was off about her. There was a cold, hard look in her eyes, her lips were pulled in a straight line and her posture was stiff-backed as if she was trying to keep from erupting.
“What’s wrong?”
“Nothing,” she said shortly.
Her reply only reinforced his worry. “There’s something wrong. Did someone say something to you?”
“No. Your moth -” She paused and dragged in deep breath before saying, “It doesn’t even matter. Can we just go home?”
“Of course,” he replied quickly. Maybe once they were alone, she would open up. Their exit out of the museum was marked by various stopovers to say goodbye to the guests they knew but eventually they managed to extricate themselves completely from the masses.
Once they were outside, he shrugged out of his jacket and slung it across her shoulders. “You must be cold. Here.”
“Thank you,” she said putting her hands through the sleeves. Her movements were jerky and sharp, and her mouth was set in a straight as if she was trying to keep from crying.
“You wanna talk about it?” he whispered as set his arm across her shoulder and drew her closer to him.
She shook her head but burrowed into him.
“Okay.” He placed a light kiss on her temple then held her close as they waited for the valet to bring his car around. Moments later, his car came to a smooth standstill in front of them. Damián opened the door for Aiko and waited for her to settle in before he circled to the driver’s seat.
The ride home could’ve been quiet but Aiko’s phone kept ringing. The first time she checked the screen then kissed her teeth as if she was annoyed at whoever was calling.
“Who is it?” Damián asked.
“No one.” She tossed the phone back into her clutch purse. A few minutes later, it rang again. This time she switched the gadget to silent mode.
“Someone you don’t want to talk to?” he asked.
“Yup,” she said but didn’t explain further but he could see that she was irritated. Unlike him, Aiko’s temper usually cooled once she discussed whatever was bothering her. Maybe if they started talking, she’d eventually tell him what was wrong.
A brief glance her way revealed that she was staring out the window. He reached across their seats for her hand. “I’m sorry for sniping at you earlier in the evening. I know you didn’t mean to be late.”
Her voice was so soft he barely caught her words. “It was my fault.”
“No, I overreacted.” He squeezed her fingers. “I was mad about a stupid party when I should’ve been asking you how the doctor’s appointment went.”
She shrugged. “It’s okay. Besides, it’s not like the doctor had much to tell us.”
His eyes on the road, Damián asked, “What did they say was going on with Lincoln?”
“They don’t know,” she said. “Despite the extensive physical injuries to his body, Linc-”
“Extensive physical injuries?” he cut her off. “I thought it was just the two fingers and the limp.”
“No, there’s more.” Aiko shifted in her seat. “The physical exam showed more stuff he was hiding. Baby, I’m telling you you should’ve seen his body. The whip marks, the burns, the cuts… It looked like someone had just gone to town on his body.”
“Damn!” Damián’s grip on the steering wheel tightened. This new revelation only made it more urgent for him to find out exactly where Lincoln had been and if he’d brought that past with him.
Aiko continued, “Anyway, apart from those physical injuries, the doctor said there was nothing wrong with him as far as she could tell.”
“What about the amnesia?”
“She says that they didn’t find any neurological damage so Lincoln’s amnesia might just be psychosomatic,” she said. “She says he might’ve blocked out those last five years to keep himself from reliving the trauma of whatever happened to him.”
Or maybe he’s just faking it, Damián thought but didn’t say.
“Either way,” she continued. “The doctor says that his memory might come back once he’s had time to readjust to civilian life. She even suggested a couple of therapists that he could see.”
“Lincoln doesn’t seem like a therapist kind of guy.”
“That’s what he said.” She chuckled. “But his mother wasn’t having any of it. Brenda has already booked him an appointment for Monday. You should’ve seen how she went in on him when he refused to go to the hospital…”
The mood was decidedly lighter the rest of the way home. Aiko regaled him with stories of her day, making him laugh with her impressions of Brenda’s shenanigans at the hospital. By the time they got home, they’d made up and were back to their old selves.
The weekend was uneventful except for Damián’s continued banishment from church. This week it was because Brenda was in town and Aiko didn’t want him placed on the red carpet and grilled, which the older woman was, apparently, quite capable of doing. Dinner with Lincoln was also postponed until his mother left to avoid drama.
All the delays were annoying. Damián wanted – no, needed to meet the man and decide for himself what he was dealing with. But since that wasn’t going to happen any time soon, Damián was going to have to use other means to find out what Lincoln had really been involved in.
On Monday morning, Damián finally swallowed his pride and went to see his father. The moment he arrived at the estate, he saw his mother’s car parked in the driveway next to his father’s. If it were any other man’s house, he would’ve assumed that his mother was only visiting. But Damián knew his parents all too well. Shaking his head, he strode towards the front door.
Jonas, his father’s butler, ushered him welcomed him politely into the house. “Good morning, Damián.”
“Morning.” Damián surveyed the tall slender man. “Where’s my father?”
“He’s in his study.”
“Is my mother with
him.”
“No.” The butler shook his head. Confirming Damián’s fears, he added, “She’s still asleep.”
“Okay, thank you.” He strode through the house, turning left into the hallway. He knocked briefly on the first door and without waiting for a response pushed the door open.
Archie was engrossed in some kind of paperwork. He lifted his head at Damián’s entrance and a smile lifted his lips. “I didn’t know you were coming in.”
“You need to stop whatever’s going in with Mamá.” Damián launched in without preliminaries. “You and I both know it won’t last anyway and you’ll end up hurting her again.”
“And here I was thinking you were here to finally apologize.” Archie replaced the cap on his pen as he watched his son keenly. “Is that how you greet people these days?”
Damián folded his arms over his chest. “You know very well you’re not going to stick with her long-term. So why are you wasting her time?”
“Your mother knows exactly what she’s gotten herself into. And our business is our business. Not yours,” the older man shot back. “Now, is that all you came to tell me? Because I have a golf game to get to.”
“No, that’s not what I came for.” Damián took the last few steps to the desk and took a seat opposite his father. “I need a favor.”
“The balls on you! You ignore me for close to three months, come to my house and berate me, then you still have the balls to ask me for a favor. Hmm.” Archie snorted and shook his head. “Well, no one can say you’re not my son.”
Damian offered his father a narrow-eyed stare. “Are you going to help me or not?”
“On one condition.” Archie tapped the pen on the desk’s mahogany top. “No more of this sulking business.” Damián opened his mouth to speak, but his father cut in with an, “No more. We’re family. We’re not supposed to be fighting, much less over a woman.”
“Not just any woman.” Damián leaned in, speaking low and forcefully enough to make himself understood. “My fiancée.”
Archie watched him for a moment before inclining his head as if in defeat. “Fine, your fiancée. I’m sorry for trying to pick her up, and it won’t happen again. Now, can we go back to being father and son?”