I took a deep breath and forced myself to carry on, not feeding into her trying to start an argument just so she could toy with my emotions even more and use them against me. I continued, keeping my voice as calm and steady as possible.
“The fact is...since there has never been a fence there before, we can’t be sure how accurate the property lines are. You can do whatever you want as a symbol of how much you hate me and my family. Erect a whole monument in dedication to that very thing for all I care. But I’m not going to give up a single inch of land that rightfully belongs to me. That’s not against you. That’s just good business. Not that I’d expect you to understand…”
“Don’t talk down to me!” she sneered. “I understand plenty. But the construction on the fence has already begun. I’m not going to have the whole thing taken down and started over again now.”
“You will if not doing so means you have divided the properties incorrectly and the lawsuit that followed meant you and your family would lose every penny of the inheritance you have.”
She glared at me again, this time with the kind of anger that comes from embarrassment. I may not have been able to touch her in the way that I wanted, but the least I could do was remind her of her place.
“I feel bad for you,” I explained. “I realize, and perhaps you do now too, that in your haste to prove a point you didn’t act carefully or intelligently...and now you’ve put your family’s financial and social status in jeopardy. Don’t be too hard on yourself. I wouldn’t expect anything different from a woman in your position.”
“In my position!?”
“You weren’t raised to know how to concern yourself with these matters, and you act on emotion rather than your logic,” I shrugged.
“That’s funny coming from you,” she bit back, grasping for straws at any argument against me.
“I’m going to hire a lawyer to see to the delimitation of the property lines and you should do the same.”
“This is just your way of trying to exert your control,” she huffed.
“And what if they determine the fence is too far back and that you have in fact cheated yourself out of some of the property? I’m only trying to help both of us here.”
She squirmed in her seat with rage, but she knew I was right. I tried to reach out for her hand, in a friendly gesture, but of course, she jerked it away.
“I think we both know it is best for your family for this feud between us to be settled,” I added.
“What’s best for us is getting revenge for the ways you treated me before I rose to this position,” she argued with a fuming resolve. I could see that she had been dreaming of her plot against us since the day I tossed her into the shed after the incident with Don German, or maybe even since the day she first came to our estate.
“Oh, and being raped by Jorge is part of your revenge?” I stabbed at her, pouring salt in her wounds. Her rage was reaching almost uncontainable proportions by then. “Look, about everything that happened with Don German...and all that transpired when you were employed with us...It’s like the property lines. You’ve never managed staff before, so I don’t expect you to understand…”
She flew her hand in the air to silence me and began pulling at the handle of the door. “Just stop talking! And let me out of this fucking car! I can’t stand to be near you, listening to you babble on like this…”
But the door didn’t budge. “It only opens from the outside,” I told her, making no effort to go around and let her out. Not yet. “I’m only trying to say that I do feel bad for what you went through. And seeing how rash it has made you behave ever since.”
“But you take no responsibility for your part in any of it!? You’re not man enough to ever apologize for anything.”
“Maybe that’s just as well,” I grinned. “You don’t want a man, remember? Not even Jorge or Dario. You don’t want any of us.”
The more she fidgeted and fussed with the door, hopelessly, the more I started to feel guilt creeping in. It was a fairly new emotion for me, but one that seemed to rear its head a lot around Lucia.
“I wanted to see you after Dario told us you were innocent,” I confessed. “But it was too late. You were long gone, and I didn’t have another chance to talk to you until you flaunted yourself around at that landowner’s party.”
“I’m not falling for your bull shit again,” she replied. “You just feign regret and feeling sorry enough to break me down...so you can take advantage of me or spew off all of your real feelings. I’ll never be equal in your eyes, and that’s why I will hire a lawyer and see to it that the fence is finished. If my family’s land has to line up with yours, I at least want to make sure that there’s a barrier between us.”
“So then you’ll stop whatever ridiculous plots for revenge you think you have figured out? And leave my family alone? I don’t think I need to tell you that a harassment lawsuit would be every bit as costly and damaging to you as the fence proceedings would be.”
“Will you please just let me out of this car!?” she shrieked, pulling at the handle so hard I thought she might break it.
Finally, I got out and walked around the truck to let her out. She breezed right past me without saying a word. I watched to make sure she made it inside okay. She could hate me all she wanted, but I was glad she was home safe, at least.
As I drove home, I felt proud of everything I was able to get over on her in our little talk. I felt that I proved once and for all that she had no business trying to play this game she had thrown herself into. A woman of her upbringing had no real place in our world. And she deserved every ounce of the remainder after the way she toyed with my cousins and me.
But my small victory did nothing to stop my sleepless nights. If anything, I hated myself more for not giving into her kiss in the shed. I knew it was the right thing to do to deny her advances, but it didn’t make it sting any less.
I hired a lawyer the following day, as promised. They informed me that Lucia had done the same and that they would be working together to confirm the proper lines between our property. It would cost Lucia a small fortune if she had to pay the legal fees in addition to tearing down the fence and starting over again, but that would teach her to not make such rash, bold displays against us ever again.
Jorge and I never spoke about that night again. He was in such rough shape the next day, I wondered how much of it he even remembered. But he recalled enough to know I was not playing around when it came to Lucia. Neither he nor Dario mentioned her to me again. If she was still toying around with either of them, everyone was smart enough to keep it well hidden from me.
Everything seemed to go back to normal, aside from me still being haunted by Lucia’s ghost on a nightly basis. At least I had the kiss in the shed to cling to. That had been all her doing, which left good reason to believe that late at night...while I was lying in my bed, aching for her naked body to be next to mine, that she might be lying in her own bed thinking the same about me. She wouldn’t want to after the way I lectured and patronized her, but somehow the idea of her not wanting to and just not being able to help herself was only more satisfying.
A few weeks later, as we gathered around the breakfast table, it seemed I was not the only one who could not stop thinking about her. Only my mother didn’t have the good sense to not bring it up around me.
“That Chavez girl and her sisters have been awfully quiet lately,” she puzzled out loud. “They didn’t even make an appearance at the ladies’ tea last week. Not a smart move for them really if they ever wish to have any kind of real acceptance in our society. But really, it’s for the best. They can sit over there on top of their land and pretend...but it’s better for them to know they’re not really one of us.”
Jorge and Dario shifted uncomfortably, darting their eyes over to me. They knew it was a soft spot - one that they dared not to touch. I leaned back in my chair and sipped my coffee. I wanted to think what my mother said was just another reminder that I had won.
But like everything else with Lucia - it still just didn’t feel right. No matter how well I played my cards, I just could never get any firm grip on any sort of victory with her. The only comfort I had was that maybe time would do the trick. If time could have also strangled away the visions of her body that came to me each night - that would have also been great.
14
Lucia
The hacienda was looking particularly lovely one afternoon as I filled it with big bouquets of fresh flowers I had gathered from around the property. Jada was preparing everything for plates of Bandeja Paisa complete with grilled steak, fried pork rind, chorizo sausage, white rice, beans, and fried eggs. I had gathered avocados and plantains for us to serve on the side. It was the kind of luxurious meal we never could have afforded before.
We had been working hard to turn our newly acquired house into a home. We painted the walls in deep reds, blues, and golden yellows - accented with painted flowers. We filled every corner with terracotta vases overflowing with luscious plants. Most days, we left the doors and windows open so all the fresh Columbian air could flow through freely.
Sometimes when I took a moment to step back and take it all in, I felt a pang of guilt about my fence project. I hadn’t told Jada or Mama about the problems with it...at least not in full honesty. I claimed that hiring the lawyers to confirm the property lines was my idea. I would never admit that Leonardo Valencia had been right. I felt so bad for the unexpected lawyer’s fees that I went to Dario in secrecy and asked him to pay me back the money I had earned during my time working for them. I wouldn’t let my errors cost us any of the money we had inherited. I was determined to ensure that our fortune stayed intact.
Though I knew it would have brought Leo great joy to see us torn back down to what we came from all because of my vendetta against them. I may have been too drunk and upset to formulate much of a defense with him in his truck the last time we saw each other, but I was not as hopeless as he would like to think.
The sun was shining bright on that day as we prepared for Elaina’s visit. She tried to come at least once a week, and each time we made sure it was a big affair. When we were all together, it was not just a celebration of our family, but a way of us basking in just how far we had come. I put on one of my best dresses and made my way into the kitchen to see if Jada needed any help.
“You wouldn’t know what to do even if I did need your help,” she teased.
“I don’t know why you all pretend that I’m so lost in the kitchen. I did just as much as you before we came here.”
“That was before you had these lands to explore and fences to build and Valencia cousins to destroy,” she laughed. “Now you’ve forgotten everything.”
Mama sat in the corner knitting, but I could see the lines on her face deepen. She was not amused by anything that reminded her of how unfit for marriage I was.
Once again, I was saved by the door opening. I whisked away to greet Elaina and show her in. Even she could see how particularly beautiful everything looked that day with the fresh air, luscious plants and flowers, and beams of sunlight shining across everything.
“And you!” she marveled affectionately. “You’re a vision!”
I was wearing a spring green dress that complimented my skin tone and eyes, and I had braided flowers from the field into my long dark hair. I couldn’t disagree with her or pretend to be modest. I did look like a vision, but then again, I thought both of my sisters did too.
I took my niece from Elaina’s arms and fixed the blanket wrapped around her, but of course, Mama immediately held out her arms and demanded to take her from me. Her favorite thing in the world was to listen to us chatter while she held her grandbaby and rocked her to sleep or counted all of her fingers and toes.
Elaina turned to me with a mischievous grin. “I’ve brought gifts. Just some perfumes and other things. You and Jada should show me to your bedroom so I can give them to you.”
It was her code for giving us a chance to escape and gossip out of our mother’s earshot. Jada quickly finished what she was working on in the kitchen and we all rushed off, giggling. Once we were inside my room, Elaina did always have a bundle of goods for us wrapped up in silk scarves. She would lay them out on the bed for us to look through so we wouldn’t be entirely lying. But the real reason for us gathering off had nothing to do with her gifts.
“Tell me everything,” Elaina demanded as she laid out across the bed next to the loot. “How is your revenge plot coming along?”
“Well enough,” I lied. “Truthfully, I’ve been a little distracted from it lately. The lawyers are still mitigating over the property lines for the fence, and I’ve been…”
Jada took her chance to finish my sentence. “...frolicking through the fields daydreaming about the Valencia cousins.”
“Hardly,” I scoffed.
But Elaina wasn’t so convinced. “Not even one of them has caught your fancy?”
“Of course not! What’s wrong with you two? I told you how they treated me!”
She was still unmoved. “Maybe it’s not just one of them,” she suggested. “But two of them. Or maybe all three.”
Jada and I both glared at her. It’d be a strange thing to request if we didn’t have our suspicions that she was conquering both of the Perez brothers on a nightly basis. We took our chance to grill her about it, and I was relieved for the change of subject. Elaina told us all about their strange arrangement between the three of them, but I could see she was still holding back. There was something about what happened between them that she didn’t want Jada to know. I could tell by the way she glinted her eyes at me that it was perhaps something she thought I would understand...if we ever had a moment alone together.
“Well, I don’t think Lucia has feelings for all of the cousins,” Jada concluded, of course bringing everything back around to me. “Jorge is too much of a snake and Dario is too naive.”
“So then that only leaves Leonardo,” Elaina replied.
“Could you two not talk about me like I’m not here!? I hate the Valencia cousins with a burning passion.”
“Burning passion!” they chortled and mocked me in unison.
“You two are intolerable,” I huffed, heading for the door. “We should get back out there to Mama before she starts eavesdropping. I don’t think she could handle hearing your tales of your threesomes with the brothers.”
They groaned and followed me back into the open area of the house obediently. We gathered around the table and enjoyed Jada’s decadent meal, laughing and telling stories the whole time. It was the perfect afternoon. But once we had finished eating and the baby was laid down for her nap, Elaina made it clear that she had something important to tell us while she was here. Something that Mama was apparently in on.
“And what of your news?” Mother asked her after a while, referring to something Jada and I were in the dark about.
A faint smile curled on the edges of Elaina’s lips, but I could tell there was a catch to whatever it was she was about to tell us. She took on an air of delivering good, but potentially ill-received news.
“Yes, I believe I have found someone who is perfect,” she answered, darkening her eyes at Jada.
“Someone who is perfect for what?” she asked with wide eyes.
Elaina reached across the table and squeezed Jada’s hands. “Baby sister, you know we have been talking about how important it is for us to secure our new place. It’s not enough that we have the inheritance. Even my unity with the Perez brothers doesn’t give us the footing we need to uphold through future generations. And we do want to ensure that our children and grandchildren never have to struggle the way we once did.”
“Yeah…,” Jada said slowly, looking afraid of what she might say next.
“So, Mama asked me to see about setting up an arrangement for you.”
“An arrangement for what?”
“Marriage, of course.”
Jada flew into what can only
be described as an overstated, dramatic, hysterical fit. Her arms flailed. She moaned out in sorrow. Being the baby of us sisters, she always had a talent for theatrics, but this scene was almost too comedic. However, her portrayal of it might have been...I did feel for the true heartache and fear that she was going through.
“I refuse!” Jada screamed after she had calmed down, only a little. “I don’t want to be married off to some stranger! I don’t want to be married at all! At least not any time soon! What about Lucia!? She’s older than me! Why can’t she do it?”
“Oh, Jada, you’re twenty-four years old,” Elaina said dryly. “It’s not like you’re a child bride. And as for Lucia…” she cut her eyes over to me in a strangely secretive way. “I see another potential for her. Anyway, these arrangements work best for someone under twenty-five. There are more options that way, and you do want to be married off to someone who’s smart and attractive, don’t you?”
Jada and Elaina continued bickering over the arrangement for a while. But what it finally came down to was that Jada had never been to an auction, so she could never understand what Elaina and I had been through for our family. It was her turn to step up and do her part to ensure that our children never had to subject themselves to such cruelties just to get by.
Eventually, it was time for Elaina and the baby to return home. Jada wasn’t too thrilled about leaving their argument up in the air, but as far as Mama and Elaina were concerned - it was settled. I felt sick in the pit of my stomach for Jada. I wouldn’t want to be in her position either.
But more so, I was curious about all the weird looks Elaina had been flashing me throughout the afternoon. First, in the bedroom when we were talking about her arrangement with the Perez brothers. And again over the table as she tried to explain to Jada why she didn’t see me fit for an arrangement instead. I offered to walk Elaina out to her car, taking my only chance to figure out what she was being so coy about.
Bullied Cinderella (Olive Skin Devils Book 2) Page 10
