by S. S. Sahoo
A chill ran down my body when all of them turned towards me. Zachary pointed a finger towards me as if he was talking about me and the boys nodded in unison.
“What is going on?” I wondered.
“Is he commanding them to find me when no one is around me and kill me?” I thought and instantly felt as the blood flowed down from my face.
The boys looked at me one more time before walking towards the exit. Probably their work was done and they were leaving.
“Let’s make the announcement,” dad said once Zachary walked towards us.
He took a glass and clinked it using a spoon. Mom held a mike before him and everyone turned towards us and the music stopped playing for everyone’s eye were now fixed on us.
“Ladies and gentlemen, so the time has come for which you have been waiting for so long. The newly married couple. My son Zachary Udolf Sullivan and my daughter-in-law Mrs. Juliette Udolf Sullivan” he said and cheered his glass towards our direction.
Zachary wrapped an arm around me and I put on a fake smile when people began to clap and congratulate us.
Photos were clicked and I had to smile at each and every photo to the point where my cheeks started to hurt.
“Mr. Sullivan can we ask what was the reason for the sudden marriage?” a reporter from the crowd asked.
Zachary tensed up from my side and I saw as he looked towards dad and glared at him.
“What are the reporters doing here?” he asked through gritted teeth. Dad just shrugged his shoulder while mom shook her head at them.
“That’s because we had a long distance relationship and at some point, Juliette thought that our relationship wouldn’t last so I had to take the decision. While I went to New York for this meeting, I made up my mind to bring her back to my home forever and hence the wedding” Zachary answered his question which made me clench my fists in anger.
“Liar!” I yelled at him in my mind.
“But it still doesn’t make sense Mr. Sullivan. Why would you marry in such a hurry and in just a simple wedding when we all know that you are the most or should I say you ‘were’ the most eligible bachelor in Romania who became a Billionaire Businessman on his own? You could have married in a grand wedding celebration and how come we never heard of your girlfriend? As far as we know you were always single and you were rarely seen with the opposite gender. So how come?” Another one asked.
“Zachary never had a girlfriend?” I thought surprised after knowing this.
“And he is a Businessman who became a Billionaire by his own? Are you kidding me? What nonsense?” I thought.
“Well, that’s because I like to keep my business and personal affairs to myself. And for the wedding, it was Juliette’s idea. She wanted a simple wedding which we did” he answered and I looked here and there not knowing what to do.
“What about you ma’am? What do-” the reporter was cut off by Zachary.
“That’s enough. As you all know we are having our wedding reception in here not some press conference so please allow us to enjoy the day. I would appreciate if you all join us for dinner. That would be great” Zachary said which made some of the reporters groaning but some looked pleased because they could have dinner.
“Okay. Sir please One last photo together” one of them asked and Zachary nodded reluctantly.
“Please hold her more close to you,” he said and I felt his arm wrapping around my waist more tightly before he pulled me closer towards him. From my peripheral vision, I could see Mom smiling at us and looking at us dreamingly.
“Lovely photo,” the reporter’s cameraman said as he was done.
Zachary let me go and we walked towards other guests to meet them. The more time passed the more nauseous I was growing to feel.
“What are you doing?” I heard Zachary when I was holding my forehead.
“I am not feeling fell. My head is spinning” I said closing my eyes.
“What?” He asked and the next moment I felt his cold hand touching my forehead.
“Your body is warm. You have a fever. What were you doing not telling me or at least mom about it?” He whispered yelled at me.
“Will you please quit yelling? I am not feeling well and I don’t have enough energy left to fight back with you” I said and heard him sighing.
“You are done. We are going back inside the house” he said and reached out towards me when a man interfered with a British accent.
“Mr. Sullivan,” he said which made Zachary put on a professional smile and both of them shook their hands.
“It’s great to know that you are married now,” he said and reached his hand out for me to shake. I gave him my hand and instead of shaking he took it to his mouth and placed a kiss on it.
“Pleasure to meet you, Mrs. Sullivan,” he said and I gave him an odd smile before removing my hand.
“Uh, just a minute” Zachary interrupted him. He bent down towards mine ear and whispered “Just go back to the room. Take the medicine that is in the drawer next to the bed and sleep. I am coming in five minutes after I talk to him. And take the bed. Can you do it?” He asked and I nodded.
“Go now,” he said and nodding at the Man I walked towards the house.
It was the only thing that I wanted to do right now. And that was to sleep.
The most surprising thing was out of all the people present in the party only Zachary was the one who noticed my pain. But the question is why was he so worried and how did he notice my uneasiness when I was trying so hard to act being perfectly fine?
Why?
15
Zachary
“Yeah that will be good” I said and he gave me his card.
“If you like the proposal, contact me in this number” Mr. Cameron said and went away to meet some other people.
I kept the card in my wallet and walked back towards my house.
Never had I imagined Juliette to be so careless. If she would have been stayed a little longer, definitely she would have passed out. Earlier, when my eyes fell on her shockingly I found myself praising the fact that indeed she looked beautiful in that dress of hers in the party. That color looked good on her.
Then I jerked out my thoughts thinking what in the world was I doing praising her when she was nothing but a headache for me. But no matter how much I tried to avoid her my eyes would automatically try to search her among the people. But I did noticed her pale face and her closing her eyes in every minute as if she was trying to control her own body.
Finally when she closed her eyes and held her forehead I couldn’t resist the need to ask what her problem was. Then she answered she was not feeling well. Her temperature was undoubtedly very high that it even shocked me how in the world did she last that long without passing out.
I rubbed my forehead and took long strides to reach her. I just hoped her to take those medicines and asleep by now. I am not very good in assisting people when they are sick or consoling people when they cry.
Turning the knob, I opened the door only to come before a sight which somehow blew my consciousness away.
There in my bed slept two figures. One was undoubtedly Juliette, as she slept soundly with the quilt covering her up to her chin while next to her slept a man whom I was sure that I had no clue on who he was. The quilt covered up to his bare chest as he slept with one hand under his head and another on his chest.
I took a step back and closed the door silently. I rubbed my forehead in aggravation and took a long deep breath to control myself not to murder in my own house.
I opened the door again and walked towards them. Silently I threw the quilt off from the man which immediately made him jerk up from his sleeping position. He stood up before me and looked at me in shock.
“Its not what you are thinking. Seriously, we weren’t doing anything in your room” he said and turned around to leave but I stopped him by keeping a hand on his shoulder and immediately he tensed up under my touch.
I looked back at Juliette to see her stirr
ing in her sleep but not wanting to wake her up, I took the quilt and covered her properly before gesturing the man silently walk out of the room and without uttering any word he walked out with me following him. I closed the door silently and turned towards the man.
“It was Juliette who called me here. I swear I didn’t want to do anything but your wife is a golddig-” he shut his mouth when he saw me pulling my gun out from my back.
“This is mine favorite revolver you know but do you know the saddest part?“I asked as I looked into his eyes which were now widened at the sight of my revolver.
“I haven’t got a chance to use it since I bought it but now” I smirked looking at him up and down “I think I will get a chance to inaugurate this. How ironic?” I said and pointed the gun directly on one of his eyes.
“But now I think I shouldn’t just kill you in one click. It will be no fun. The best part of killing is torturing, I would start it by shooting your black orbs first. Then may be your leg, so that you yelp and hop in one leg till I satisfy with your pain. Then your hand, then your other leg. Oh! it will be a sight to see you crawling on the dusty ground. Or maybe” I looked up thinking “in the water”.
“My bad! How will you swim when both of your legs are shot? You will drown. Oh my God. That means you will die? You are going to die?” I asked and chuckled seeing his pale face. Then I pointed the gun directly on his forehead.
“Or maybe I should just give you an easy death with no suffering” I said and pulled the slide back of the revolver.
“Wait! What are you doing? You can’t kill me. You are not suppose to kill a-anyone” he stuttered looking frightened.
“Don’t worry I don’t care about killing people. I am mad now. I am mad because not only you got into my place, you had the audacity to lie on my face and even had the nerve to lie to me looking straight into my eyes. At one point I would have even considered to let you go but do you know what sin you did? You slept next to my wife on my bed and had the nerve to call her using filthy words. You have invited your own death” I said and pointed the gun on his direction.
“Wait! No please no. Okay! Okay! I agree that I made a mistake. I lied! I lied. Nothing happened between us. Your wife was sleeping when I came here and she had no clue about me when I sneaked up inside the bed. I was told to do all this. I am just an actor. I was going to be paid for this. I don’t have any enmity with your wife or you. Please don’t kill me” he begged and literally he looked as if he was in the brink of passing out.
“I already know that. Do you think I’m stupid?” I smirked and rotated the revolver between my finger from its trigger guard.
“Who do you think I am?” I gave him a crooked smile and gestured behind him.
He looked confused but soon his expression turned into a shocked one when both Marc and Jeffery, took hold of him from behind.
“Take him. Where you know” I said and kept the revolver back.
“Wait! Take me where? I did nothing. Wait! Believe me. I was just doing my work. Please” he struggled against them while I rolled my eyes at him as if I cared.
Marc and Jeffery dragged him out of the house where they could take care of him.
“Well it was not needed, you know” I heard him from behind me and sighing I turned around.
“Well well! Look who is here. The culprit himself” I gritted out and walked out from the shadows and stood before me.
“Oh so you knew?” He asked looking surprised but I knew he wasn’t.
“Of course! Who has the audacity to go that extent testing my patience? One and only Mr. Gale Sullivan” I said sarcastically and crossed my arms across my chest.
“Don’t talk to me like that. I am your father” he said looking pissed.
“You are not my father. You are just my mother’s husband and my father’s twin brother who married my mother after his death. And you know what? You proved that you are not my father with this little stunt of yours today” I said and glared at him which made him look to the side.
“Did you really think you can win with all this cheap acts of yours?” I spat out.
“And do you really believe that I would believe that you married a woman just because you I mean ‘you’ fell in love? You are risking my whole mafia business just because of this stupid-” I cut him off.
“Its not your business but mine. It was my father’s business which was temporarily handed over to you and now its mine. So don’t ever forget that. And you don’t need to think what is right and what’s wrong. I knew that you would pull such a trick on me. You made a mistake by pulling Juliette into this Gale, and mind it that man whom you allotted for all this is going to pay with his life only because of you” I promised.
“I’m sure Juliette will not like this, if she gets to know what you did with that ma-” I cut him off “Don’t involve Juliette into this. This is your last warning. If you weren’t my mother’s husband, I would have killed you for sure for such an act and be happy that I’m not telling anything about what you did to mom. Its only because she loves you and I don’t want to see her sad. But next time you pull such a stunt, I will erase every single strand of you from this world and that my promise not a warning to you” I said and with one last glance towards him with hatred I went back into my bedroom.
I went near to where Juliette was sleeping and checked her temperature. I removed the quilt from her to find her sleeping in that same dress and with her shoes on. Reluctantly, I pulled her sandal off her feet and tucked her back using the quilt.
Sighing, I went to the couch and sat on it looking towards her way.
“You are lucky that you have no idea about my family” I paused a bit and then continued “and also about your own family too.”
16
Juliette
I looked around at my surrounding. What I could only see was sand and only sand. I was sweating and the only thing which I wanted was to drink a glass no a gallon of water. I was that thirsty.
A moan escaped my mouth and groaning my eyes fluttered open. I tried to sit and leaned against the headboard. Last night events rushing into my mind. All I could remember was coming back into the room and taking medicines before passing out on the bed.
I looked towards the nightstand to find a glass filled with water. Feeling blessed, I took the glass and gulped down the water immediately getting relief from the burning sensation and thirst.
“Thank God,” I said and kept the glass back on the nightstand.
“Juliette?” I heard the door knock and mom poked her head asking me if she could come in.
“How are you feeling sweetie?” She asked as she sat next to me on the bed.
“I am feeling good now,” I told her and she kept her cold hand on my forehead checking my temperature.
“The temperature seems to be down,” she said and brushed the strands of hair out of my face.
“Juliette you should have told me that you were not feeling well. I would have never kept the party at the first place. You got sick probably because of lack of rest after your long travel from Egypt. It’s all my fault. I should have been careful” she said which made me shook my head no.
“No! It’s not your fault. It’s me actually. I was sick because of the climate probably. That’s all. You don’t need to blame yourself for such a small thing” I said and she gave me a weak smile before getting up.