Sometimes it felt like something in the air was calling me back to that spot. Maybe if I found a way to sneak off there again, that stranger would be waiting for me. It could happen all over again; only this time I would toss my ring into the rushing water and beg him to take me away.
The following weeks passed in a hazy, lustful blur. I was only ever half-present...if even that much. My brain was suspended in the movie reel of what I experienced while the rest of my life carried on around me. My sisters were teasing me about it one day as I spaced out over dinner. I burned a pan of sauteed vegetables and filled the whole house with smoke, all while I stood over it, staring off at nothing.
“What has gotten into you!?” Lucia shrieked as she rushed to get the black goop off the stove.
Elaina helped her clean up while eyeing me suspiciously. “You haven’t been sneaking off with Paul, have you? Getting in an early taste of what’s supposed to come after the wedding?”
“No,” I huffed, pretending to wipe down the counters to avoid her gaze. “What does it matter anyway? It’s not like either of you waited until after you were married.”
I swallowed hard and kept avoiding eye contact. I was still terrified that Paul would know I wasn’t a virgin and had been trying to think of ways that I might hide it from him. I was hoping he was too inexperienced to know that difference, though that wasn’t much of a comforting thought either. A lifetime of dull sex with a dull husband wasn’t appealing to me in the least.
“You’re all spacey,” Elaina continued. “You can’t focus. You look all dewy-eyed. All you ever do now is lie around and daydream.”
Lucia chimed in, poking my stomach. “And somehow you’re cooking less, but gaining more weight. At this rate, your wedding dress won’t fit when the time comes.”
I buckled over and moved away from her, not feeling the least bit interested in being playful with them.
“If I didn’t know any better, I’d say you’re pregnant,” said Elaina. “But I know Paul is too traditional for that.”
Everything inside of me turned iced cold from the chill that went up my spine. I didn’t know what to say, I only knew I had to get out of there. I needed to be alone.
Lucia was too busy scrubbing the pan to notice the change in me. “Well, whatever is going on with you...try not to let it mess up any more dinners, eh? It’s wasteful to be burning stuff left and right from not paying attention. You don’t have the security of Paul’s fortune just yet.”
I threw the rag in my hand down to the counter. “Then why don’t one of you take care of the cooking and cleaning around here for once?”
My voice caught with emotion as I filled up with equal parts rage and panic. I felt like I was going to cry and needed to get away from them. I stormed out of the room before I could fully take in the stunned expressions they both met me with.
It served them right to think of me for a change. I knew what I was so jealous of now, or rather understood it in a way I couldn’t have before. What I experienced with that mystery man at the party was what they felt for their men. It was wrong and scandalous and all the more delightful because of it. The only difference was, they were free to chase after it while I was chained to this damn arrangement. And now they had the nerve to chastise me for not cooking up to their standards like the good little housewife they expected me to be...even though they were far from it themselves.
I slammed my door shut and collapsed across my bed. I expected to burst into tears, but I was too frozen with fear about what Elaina said. My period didn’t start on time, but I was too wrapped up in my fantasies to care. Part of me thought maybe if I just didn’t think about it or acknowledge it, my period would come and the whole thing would just disappear.
But now that Elaina had said it out loud, I couldn’t ignore it anymore. I sat up and tried to calm my breathing, but I was caught up in the rhythm of sharp, unsteady breaths - one right after the other. Too much for me to keep up with. The walls felt like they were closing in. I thought back to the creekside again. I wished the earth had opened me up and swallowed me whole right then and there. Nothing had been right since.
There was a gentle tap on my door. Both Elaina and Lucia were asking to come inside. I wanted to scream at them to leave me alone and try to clear my thoughts enough to figure out what to do next, but I couldn’t say or do anything. They let themselves in any way.
I was only able to withstand my sisters’ prying eyes and pleas to talk to them for about five minutes before I started sobbing and letting it all spill out. I thought the whole thing could have stayed my dirty little secret forever, but if I was pregnant, I’d have to find a test. I couldn’t do that in secrecy without their help.
I told them everything —about the strange man and how we somehow ended up having sex. I emphasized how much I loved it and hadn’t stopped thinking about it since. Then how I dutifully returned to Paul and accepted his proposal, even though I didn’t want to. I was desperately hoping they would tell me there was some way out. That I could find that man and be with him instead. Maybe he was a sign...saving me from the life I didn’t want with Paul.
Not long after I got to the part about my period being late, Lucia left to go buy a test. Elaina stayed behind to comfort me.
“What did he look like?” she asked when I had finally stopped rambling.
I described him in great detail, which I knew well since I revisited his face in my mind daily. Elaina grew concerned as I kept going and started asking a lot of questions. Finally, she stormed out and started digging through a stack of old newspapers that Mama kept in storage. She flung them around in a frenzy until she found the page she was looking for and returned to hold up a black and white picture of a man.
“That’s him!” I cried, snatching the paper from her hands.
I was so caught up in my happiness to see him so vividly again. As well as I thought I remembered him, my mind still hadn’t done him justice. To think a picture of him had been in our house the whole time and I never even knew it. I didn’t even think to read the text surrounding his photo.
“Nicholas Santiago,” she said grimly.
“Who’s that?”
She sat down beside me on the bed and told me the news that would shatter everything. Not long after that, Lucia returned with a test. Everything kept closing in around me as I took it and saw it was positive. In such a short amount of time, it all unraveled. I was pregnant with Nicholas Santiago’s baby, and I now knew that he was a dangerous criminal. I couldn’t be with him. I would have to forget about everything that happened.
My sisters did their best to calm me down and keep our nosy mother at bay. No one could know about this, not even Paul. It had been four weeks since he proposed, and they insisted if we rushed the wedding as quickly as possible, I could fool him into thinking the baby was his. It would be born early according to his math, but if I played my cards right - no one would be the wiser.
I thought marrying Paul would be hard, no matter how it happened. But I didn’t realize just how much harder it would become when there was officially no way out. I couldn’t break off the engagement and raise the baby on my own. Our family name would be ruined. Everyone would know what I had done.
Elaina and Lucia promised me that one day I would forget about all of it. Some day a few years from then, I would struggle remembering that the baby wasn’t Paul’s. I’d be a happy mother and wife. Everything would be as it should be, and I wouldn’t have to live with daily reminders of how I slept with a dangerous criminal that everyone hated. They told me I had to bury it deep down until it eventually vanished.
But on my wedding day, as I stood and studied my reflection in the mirror, my heart broke all over again. As wrong as it was, even though I knew who Nicholas really was, I still couldn’t stop thinking about him. I was carrying his baby, and I didn’t think I would ever forget that. Not even for a second.
Everyone left me alone to make sure everything was in its place. Soon I would be walking
down the aisle and committing to a lifelong lie. I mumbled prayers under my breath, wishing for something...anything that would save me from the inevitable.
“It’s time,” Elaina’s voice appeared suddenly from behind.
I nodded grimly as if I was accepting my fate from an executioner. My sisters led me out into the hall with my mother following behind, sobbing and blotting her eyes with a tissue. Mama walked over and put both of her hands on my shoulders and stared at me with watery eyes full of so much pride and happiness that it broke my heart.
As much as I wanted to run, I imagined the alternative. I couldn’t tell her that I was pregnant with another man’s baby...Nicholas Santiago’s baby at that. I couldn’t give up the arrangement they had made for me for the sake of our family’s security and wealth and tell them that I was going to raise a gangster’s baby on my own. It would destroy her. I had to do this for her.
I focused on taking deep, calm, steady breaths as my mother walked down the aisle of the church and took her seat in the front row. Elaina and Lucia walked out one by one after her, smiling at everyone in the audience. I kept wishing they’d walk slower, though I didn’t know why. They could have taken all day to walk down that aisle but by the end of it, it’d still be my turn to go.
Everyone was in position, and all heads were turned towards me. I watched Paul as I emerged from the front foyer. His eyes got misty, and he beamed with a big proud smile as I slowly began the march forward. He looked so pure and innocent, and I was filled with guilt. I didn’t want to be there, and poor Paul had no idea that I wasn’t a virgin. He didn’t know I was carrying another man’s baby.
My body was so stiff it was like my muscles were trying to go into paralysis to keep me from walking to Paul and the priest waiting at the end of the aisle. But somehow I managed to keep putting one foot in front of the other until the carpet ran out and I was spat out right in front of Paul. He looked happy, the way my mother did and took my hands into his as we waited for the priest to begin his spiel.
I felt like I was floating out of my body as the priest read his scripted passages and guided us through the first part of the vows. Everything he said and all that I repeated sounded like it was happening at the end of a long, dark tunnel, but I kept a big fake smile plastered on my face and went through the motions, as I was expected to do.
It was almost time to seal our fate when the priest turned to the audience and said, “If anyone can show just cause why this couple cannot lawfully be joined together in matrimony, let them speak now or forever hold their peace.”
There was the obligatory pause that no one expected to be interrupted. The only person present who did not want to see this happen was me, and while I was screaming inside, I would have never said a word out loud. I smiled even wider with my teeth clenched tight to keep myself from uttering even the faintest sound.
Suddenly, the doors to the room swung up with a loud bang. Several masked men filed into the room like ninjas. Several of them hung back by the doors to keep anyone from running out, while the others spread out and guarded our guests - demanding that they stay in their seats and not say a single word. One tall masked figure, dressed in all black, marched right up to me.
Paul stood between us to protect me, but it was almost laughable as the man towered above both of us by at least a foot. With one swoop of his arm, he sent Paul tumbling into the priest. Everyone gasped and screamed as the man wrapped his big arms around me and turned back toward Paul. I felt something cold and sharp against my neck, followed by more frightened shrieks from everyone in the room. I couldn’t see it, but I knew there was a knife pressing into my throat.
Paul lunged forward again to try and save me, and the man pressed the sharp point even deeper against my skin. “I’m taking your bride, Paul Garcia,” he announced with a confident determination. “If you try anything to stop me, I will slit her throat right here in this church in front of everyone.”
Paul stood up from the front row to protest, but the man started forcing me down the aisle, tightening his grip to show how serious he was. Paul realized the severity of his threat and stood there in silence, his mouth gaping. My sisters and mother cried as I was carted off towards the exit of the church. The moment we reached the foyer, with the doors closing behind us once again, I felt a pull at my arms. Rope twisted and burned into them as fabric fell around my face, covering everything. It all turned black and I felt big arms wrapping around me once again, lifting me into the air. Then I felt the rush of the outside air along my arms and exposed legs.
I started to accept that whatever was happening, be it an answer to my prayers or maybe a punishment, I was being taken away from the church.
Chapter 7
Nicholas
I may not have done what I was supposed to do when I first found Jada alone by the creek, but I wouldn’t make the same mistake again. I waited patiently for the right moment, and it had finally come —her wedding day. I would get my revenge on the Garcias by holding their precious son’s beautiful bride hostage. That was all I cared about, though I couldn’t deny getting a secret joy out of keeping anyone else from having Jada...at least for a little while.
My guys and I pulled up to the side of the church and parked next to the window, where I knew Jada would be inside getting ready. I told the others to hang back while I checked to make sure the coast was clear. I looked inside the church dressing room and saw her standing there in her white dress, studying her reflection.
Her caramel brown skin was glistening against the snow-white silk and lace, and I got a sick satisfaction out of knowing that white dress was a lie. I had already taken what Paul thought was his a month ago at the party where he proposed. I wondered if I would ever have a chance to throw that in his face because it almost made me happier than the ransom money would.
I looked at her face in the reflection - her lips painted a deep peachy brown, and her cheeks blushed to match. It was nothing like the reds and pinks that flush across her face and chest as I pleasured her. Her dark brown eyes glistened with something...Not quite joy. Was she nervous? Afraid? If she was, it was only about to get worse. That was what she got for accepting that spoiled brat’s proposal.
It was a shame that she had to pay for the Garcias’ mistakes. She wasn’t like them, and I knew it. But she obviously wanted to be. She could have run away after we met. Something made her lie down with me out in the woods. She was desperate for something...anything to escape from the mediocre privileged life she was signing up for. But she didn’t have the guts to accept it. She walked right back to that party like a good little girl. A sheep, more like it. And when Paul got down on one knee, she didn’t hesitate to slide that rock onto her finger.
My blood was boiling just thinking about it. Not to mention everything the Garcias had done to bring me to that point in the first place. I watched as Jada’s family came in and led her out of the room. The guys and I stayed hidden alongside the church while the organ music swelled and faded. We moved towards the front door as the priest began to talk until finally, I heard my cue.
The priest asked for objections, and we burst in. The room erupted in screams and gasps as we poured into the room. The others guarded the door while I marched up to her. My face was covered, but it didn’t stop her from searching where the features should be - trying to figure out who I was and what we were doing there.
Time seemed to slow for a moment as I took in the scent of her hair and perfume. It was missing the mixture of wildflowers that surrounded us when she was laid out underneath me before. I couldn’t help but think that she was incomplete without that wildness around her. The pristine church and expensive perfume on its own were unbefitting of her. I relished in it as long as I could, though - towering above her as she started to piece together what was happening. The beautiful wedding day she had pictured was ruined. Men in masks didn’t barge in like this and then just leave you there the way they found you.
I let Paul and his father know that she
would be leaving with me. They made their manly shows of protest, but I knew they were empty. Those men were too proper and inexperienced to really fight me for her, especially when I had a knife twisting against the veins of her neck. I meant it, too. I had come so far, and at that point, I would have rather spilled Jada’s blood out onto the church carpet than to have them ruin my plan.
Once we made it out into the foyer, the guys closed in behind her and tied up her arms and feet as another one threw a black hood over her face, tying that at the bottom too. As the knots around her ankles tightened, she fell forward against my chest. I swept her up into my arms and threw her over my shoulder. My surreal moments of coming face to face with her again may have seemed slowed down to me, but the reality of it all happened in a matter of minutes, just as we rehearsed. In no time, she was thrown into the back of the van, and we were speeding away.
I made a point to shuffle the others to the opposite side of the van, leaving me as a guard between them and her. This was a team effort, but I wanted it to be clear - she was mine. No one was going to lay a hand on her but me. She struggled to curl up into a seated position, despite being restrained at her wrists and ankles. The fabric of the hood moved in and out with her panicked breaths.
“What’s happening?” she asked through a dry, cracked voice. “Where are you taking me?”
No one answered. I wanted to see what she would say as the desperation in her grew. But this was not my first rodeo with this kind of thing. I knew how people would start pleading to nothing and no one, growing more urgent in their helplessness. Her voice was steady and stern for now, but I knew it wouldn’t be long until she cracked and started begging for answers.
Stolen Pregnant Bride (Olive Skin Devils Book 3) Page 5
