by R. G. Angel
“What are you saying?”
“That she’s got well-connected people in her corner.” He let out a breath, looking at his watch again, and I realized by looking at the clock on the wall that our hour was almost up.
“Anyway, let me know if your friend can do it,” Antoine said. “I’ll get everything ready, and I’ll keep on looking into the librarian.”
I nodded, standing up to exit the room.
“And for what it’s worth, I do love her,” he added as I reached the door.
I turned around, arching an eyebrow.
He sighed, closing the book. “I do. Maybe not in a Romeo-and-Juliet kind of way, not with that kind of destructive passion, but I love her in a Freddie-and-Mary way, the real way. The way that counts.”
“I just don't want her to get hurt.”
“She won’t. Well, not because of me at least.”
I understood the message. Archie was the arrow in Taylor’s chest.
I texted Ben to tell him I needed to talk to him, then ended up skipping lunch when he texted right back to say he was available now.
I went to my car and dialed his number, shaking a little with apprehension. I was apprehensive because I was about to ask him something that could be dangerous. Something that he didn’t owe me. Something that could backfire greatly.
“So how is life back in Snob Town?” he asked with humor in his voice as he picked up the phone.
The last time I'd seen him in person, it hadn’t ended well, but things had gotten better with time. He’d helped before, and when I’d called him from California, I’d told him a lot of things.
“Interesting, to say the least,” I replied. After everything Antoine had said about tapping phones, I didn’t want to say too much. “Tell me, when are you getting your bike again? I liked the black one you had last time. What’s the make again?”
“The bike?” He was clearly confused.
I bit my bottom lip. Please get the message. “You know the black one you rode when you visited?”
“Oh… oh! That one? It’s a Yamaha R1.”
“How nice…” Is it? I thought, sitting in my over-the-top Bugatti.
“I– hmmm.” He stopped, probably trying to piece everything together. I couldn’t blame him. “I will probably get it back soon.”
I sighed with relief; he’d gotten the message. “Text me when you get it?”
“Of course. How is life treating you?”
“Not bad, all things considered… I’m long overdue for a trip to Port Harbor. I’ll go soon with my brother on a shopping trip. There is a little store there I like.”
“Ah, it’s nice that you’re settling in.”
“Yeah,” I knew he understand where I wanted to meet him. There we would discuss everything I couldn't say over the phone. “How come you can talk now? Aren’t you supposed to be in class?”
“It’s teacher training day and the football season is over for us.”
“I’m sorry.” Luke leaving had hurt the team and I felt a little responsible.
“Yeah, well, when two players get injured and we lose our coach, we’re lucky to even hit the playoffs.”
I winced. Luke had informed me of the rumors swirling around about the drama unfolding between him, William and me. He had wanted to start afresh and had left for a job in Maryland. I suspected he’d taken any job just to be closer to me.
“I miss you,” Ben whispered on a sigh.
“I miss you too.” My heart constricted, but not for the same reasons it had before. This life had changed me, but a part of me was still longing for what I had back then. It seemed like a lifetime ago, but wasn’t more than six months... Six months. The realization hit me like a ton of bricks. How could such a brief period change someone so intrinsically? I wasn’t completely certain it was him I missed so much or what he represented. A simpler time, a simpler life, when the worries were, in retrospect, so mundane… There’d been no murder, no betrayal, no lies, nor hidden agendas.
Ben and I talked a bit longer about everything and anything. It was good to feel like I was back in Missouri.
The rest of the day was quite uneventful, but as the day progressed, so did my stress level at the thought of being around Caleb’s mother tonight. She had never made a secret of how much she disliked me. It would be a true nightmare; I would feel even more in prison now.
****************
“Benjamin, could you please tell me where the swimming pool is?” I asked as soon as I walked into the Astor mansion, leaving my bag by the console at the entrance. I always left it there and always found it in my bedroom when I decided to do my homework. It was the little house fairies, I was sure.
I had loved swimming since I was a little girl, and the public pool had pretty much been all my father could offer me in the summer. I’d not swum here yet because I didn't feel comfortable and because I had no swimsuit, but I was now tense and apprehensive. When the Astors came back, I’d never dare swim again. I wouldn’t put it past my future mother-in-law to put piranhas in the pool…. Or maybe even my future husband.
Benjamin stepped behind me to grab my jacket. “It is one level down, Miss. Turn to your left and just follow the corridor. You can't miss it.”
“Thank you. Do you know where I could find a swimsuit?”
He nodded. “Yes, there are changing rooms at the pool and I believe there are a few items for you to choose from. Would you like me to show you?”
Lord, no. I shook my head. “No, it’ll be alright. Thank you.”
He bowed slightly before retreating… God knows where.
I went downstairs and looked around, somewhat intrigued. I didn’t even know there was more to the house. I took the left turn and the smell of chlorine guided me from then on. I couldn’t help but gasp as I passed through the door. The swimming pool here was even more majestic than the one at the Forbes mansion. It was seriously ridiculous! The pool was longer than the Olympic pool they had back home, and it was modeled to look tropical with fake trees, chairs, and a bar made out of bamboo. The changing rooms at the back looked like huts with palm roofs. The ceiling was made concave and cut to look like a cave, and at the end, there was an actual waterfall!
I shook my head, still in a daze. They’d hidden a flipping secret oasis in a Connecticut mansion.
“Who does that?” I whispered, taking it all in, trying to memorize the details that were appearing around me the more I looked. The citrus and coconut smell mixing with the chlorine. The grainy tiles which I presumed were designed to mimic sand.
I ogled at the ostentation of the room, but I was way too tempted to swim to stand marveling at it for long. I opened the bamboo chest by the huts and looked through the bathing suits. All the women’s suits were skimpy bikinis, each smaller than the one before.
I picked up a red one which seemed to be the least suggestive and changed into it.
“Oh, this is not going to work,” I whispered, detailing myself in the changing room mirror. The pieces of fabric barely covered me. I grimaced. I knew I had curves and sizeable breasts, but I was not big at all. Either these suits were made for the stick-thin models you saw on the runway or they were purchased like that on purpose so the lascivious men of this house could get a good look.
I grimaced, reconsidering the idea of a swim. Maybe I should just go buy my own swimsuit first?
I sighed, rolling my neck. I was alone here. I could swim a few lengths and then change back before going upstairs. Nobody needed to know, and I could buy a swimsuit another time, not that I’d swim here again anytime soon unless Jacklyn and James Astor were gone.
I looked out of the changing room. No way would I let others see me dressed like this. The room was empty though, and there was no sound except for the waterfall.
I sighed in relief. Stepping out of the hut, I adjusted the tiny triangles of fabric barely containing my heavy breasts. I rolled my eyes. I was prone to a flashing incident for sure.
“Oh, what the hell.
It’s just a few lengths,” I muttered, hurrying to the pool. My worries quickly faded as my foot slid into the warm water.
I sighed with contentment once fully immersed, then started my lengths. The more I swam, the more I could feel the tension in my muscles fade. I pushed harder, enjoying the feel, the slight burn of exertion. I wanted to swim until I was too tired to think, too tired to get mad, just too tired…
When I felt my leg muscles starting to quiver and my arms feeling like dead weight, I decided to stop. I felt strangely better as I swam to the pool ladder, but froze as soon as I stepped out. Caleb was leaning against the bamboo bar with his arms crossed over his chest.
He detailed me from head to toe, making me shiver under the heat of his eyes. “Are you planning on taking a page from your mother’s playbook, huh? Hook the father and the son? Don’t bother.” He took a step toward me, shaking his head. “The son can see right through you and the father can’t give you as much as you want him to.” He threw me the bath towel. “Cover yourself; it’s pathetic.”
Anger spiked over the jab at my mother. It was enough to overtake the self-consciousness of my semi-nudity. “Stop soiling my mother's memory!” I pointed an accusing finger at him. “You know as well as I do she wasn’t like that!”
“And how would I know?” He asked challengingly.
The journal extracts I’d left him were so clear. I’d even sent him the pages where my mother had said that James had come in the middle of the night after one of the horrible fights she’d had with my father, that he had offered to take her and Archie and leave his wife and Caleb to start a new life. She’d told him then that it would never happen, that she might have been attracted to him at first, but it had been a lifetime ago and that this attraction was long dead, never to be rekindled.
“The journal pages say it all!” I shouted.
He frowned with obvious confusion. “What pages?”
I scowled, wrapping the towel around me. “The journal–” I repeated.
He rolled his eyes. “What journal?” He sighed, throwing his hands up as if it didn’t matter, and maybe it didn’t. “I’ve got to get ready. Just stop being so pathetic,” he added before walking away, leaving me still reeling about the revelation he’d just made.
He’d never gotten my letter. It had been intercepted, and now I knew for a fact that someone in this house knew more than they were letting on. I just needed to figure out if it was his mother or his father…
I needed to tell Archie and Antoine about this. It was not much. I knew Archie would be angry that I’d tried to share the pages with Caleb, but I’d just wanted him to hate us less. Now that those pages were out...someone knew I knew more than they wanted me to. It was a potential added liability, but I’d thought I’d done something good, something that would help him gain some peace. But he was never going to cut me any slack, was he? How dare he talk to me like that anyway?
I was getting angrier the more I thought about it and even the steaming hot shower didn’t help calm my rage. I’d never done anything to warrant this, except claim back freedom I more than deserved.
I changed into my pajamas and opened my bedroom door, glaring at his end of the corridor, considering if challenging him was even worth it.
“It’s enough,” I muttered, walking to his room. I had nothing left to lose with him. Our pseudo-relationship had been annihilated and he wouldn't try to make it better. Archie’s advice had been utter crap. This fly would not be caught with honey but with flipping cyanide!
I opened his bedroom door without knocking just as he was putting on his dress shirt. I frowned at the hint of the tattoo peeking out at the top of his spine as he did.
I was taken aback for a second. I, for some reason, hadn’t expected Caleb Astor to be the tattoo type, and I was now dying to see what was under his shirt.
“Esmeralda,” he enunciated, keeping his back to me as he buttoned his shirt. He turned around as his shirt was closed. “We’re not respecting each other's privacy, I see. Good to know.”
I didn't miss the underlying threat in his voice.
I shook my head. That was a discussion for another time. I followed him with my eyes as he scanned a box of cufflinks. He was taking a lot of time to figure out which ones he wanted to wear.
“How dare you disrespect me like that?” I said, my words dripping with anger. The shame and pain I’d felt at his words before had unleashed my tongue. I didn’t think anything I could say or not say would be able to salvage our relationship at this point. I had broken the little trust, or faith, or whatever he’d felt for me when I’d left. I just had to learn to live with the consequences.
He glanced my way and detailed my pajamas. “I see you've put some clothes on. Good call. It would have been a wasted effort as my parents are actually not coming back until the end of the week.”
That stopped the tirade I was about to give him. “Then why are you dressing up?” I asked as he tucked his shirt into his dress pants.
“Because I have a date with Aleks and I need to pretend to make an effort.” He gestured for me to move out of the doorway.
I took a couple of steps back as he walked toward me. He passed by so close that I could feel the heat of his body on mine.
“Please don’t go,” I begged as he started down the corridor. I wasn’t sure why it distressed me so much. I tried to convince myself that it was because it was Aleksandra and I knew that she would gloat tomorrow, even if I knew deep down it was more, that even if we were together in appearances only, it was more... At least for me.
“Why?”
“Because it’s her, because I told you I won’t stand being disrespected like that. I won't be made a joke of, Caleb.”
I noticed his expression darken and I knew my answer had been wrong. He straightened. “Ah well, it’s a good thing then that I don't care about what you think, isn’t it? You belong to me and I do what I want. I don't think there is anything to add.”
You belong to me...not with me. The difference spoke volumes and once again reminded me about how angry he’d made me and how frustrating he really was.
I shook my head. Begging was not worth it. He would not give in and was enjoying my downfall way too much.
“Fine, just go.” I threw my hands up in surrender. “You actually deserve each other. You’re both cold-hearted bastards.”
His face morphed into a hard, soulless grin. “Yes, we are, and you’d better remember that, no matter what.” He straightened his jacket. “The little part of humanity you think you’d witnessed, never existed, and even if it did, it died with Theo.”
“I won’t forget.” Even if I didn't entirely believe that, I let it go. I was too hurt and angry to fight him.
“Good!” He turned around briskly and I followed him with my eyes. A small and yet exceedingly naïve part of me wished he would not go through with it. Yet, within a few minutes I heard the main door close. I walked back to my bedroom just in time to see his Aston Martin speed down the driveway.
I sighed, shaking my head. I knew better, didn’t I? And yet... I turned around, letting out another sigh. I’d just won another reprieve. I wasn't sure when Caleb’s parents would be back now, but I knew my window to explore the place undetected was closing. I decided to look around tonight, if only to keep my mind occupied with something other than what Caleb would be doing in the next few minutes with that girl.
I growled, rolling my eyes. He made no promises to you, Esme. Quite the contrary, I repeated to myself, somehow hoping that this statement would finally sink in, that I would finally forget the Caleb I’d seen before I’d left, that I would finally let my heart go back to the way it was before I’d set foot in this town.
I padded barefoot around the huge, impersonal house, my steps silent on the cold, tiled floor. The house seemed so empty even though I knew old Benjamin and a couple of staff were around. They were so good at being invisible, only appearing when you needed them. It was still so creepy to me. It felt l
ike they appeared out of nowhere, like ghosts. I shivered, rubbing down my arms over my red Henley. It seemed that this house was haunted anyway and not only by staff with ninja skills, but by all the secrets, lies, and animosity seeping from every wall.
Walking into the kitchen, I found a bottle of white wine and a small card resting against it. ‘A little present to take the edge off,’ it read.
I glared at the offending bottle before closing my hand around the card, crushing it as I wished I could crush Caleb right now.
This was beyond taunting. This was cruel. He knew how I felt about alcohol due to my uncle Luke's history, and yet... I threw the card in the trash and grabbed the bottle, reading the label as if it mattered.
I grimaced, not even able to pronounce the name in my mind. What did it even mean? Gewurztraminer… I shrugged. “Ah, you want me to drink? I’ll drink and then I’ll vomit all over your bed, you cold-hearted bastard. Wait until you come back to the stringent smell all over your carpet,” I chuckled, rummaging through the kitchen for a corkscrew. “We’ll see who’ll laugh then.”
I opened the bottle and didn’t even bother with a glass. I might as well be the classless girl he was always accusing me of being.
After only a couple of sips, warmth started to spread across my chest. I looked at the bottle again. Was it because I’d never really had a drink before or was wine really that potent?
I shrugged, taking another sip. At least now I didn't care that much. I chuckled to myself. Cheese! My eyes widened at the realization as I slapped my hand against the countertop. I needed cheese… I needed cheese more than my next breath.
“Cheese is life.” I nodded, agreeing with myself.
I opened the fridge, grabbed what I presumed was Brie, and took a big bite of it before taking another sip of wine.
Yep, best decision ever! I pulled at my shirt. Why was it so hot in here? I huffed, blowing some hair out of my face.
I took another sip of wine and glared at the bottle. Was this a normal reaction after only a quarter bottle? No wonder Luke enjoyed it. “Oh, it’s too hot!”
