“Why did you spell, children, Grandmama?” Sadie asks.
Cyprian fights himself not to laugh I see, as he holds his mouth shut. Then he gets up and goes to the little table where the kids are playing with a coloring book and colors. “My, my, how smart you are. Can you read, Sadie?” he asks her, diverting her attention.
My sister looks at me as I smile with his efforts. Her shoulder touches mine as she whispers, “I can see you think he’s hung the moon, little sister. Believe me, men are incapable of keeping up their act of being good. Because it’s just an act. Once they have you trapped, or so they think, in a marriage with children you share, then they go right back to who they were before you came along. So, beware, Camilla.”
I don’t say a word in response. She’s obviously unhappy with her marriage right now, that’s all. She’s always been happy with her husband. I have no idea what’s happened but I have no doubts she’ll be bending my ear with the details before the night’s over. She’s not one to keep her problems to herself, totally opposite of me.
I can’t help but watch Cyprian color with the kids as he perches on a tiny chair. Sadie, who was shy, is getting bolder with him as she reads to him from one of her children’s books. He seems impressed and she seems proud of herself.
Sax is looking at Cyprian from under his thick dark lashes. I can see his curiosity is getting the better of him as Cyprian is talking to his big sister. Before Cyprian realizes what’s happened, Sax has moved off his chair and is leaning on Cyprian’s leg, listening to his sister read and helping Cyprian color his picture.
Cyprian looks over his shoulder at me and gives me a grin that tells me he’s quite happy. “Looks like you’ve made a couple of new friends,” I say as I wipe my hands on a dish towel and make my way to him.
He nods and I see pink stain his cheeks. Then I recall how he’s told me he never made any real friends. Thanks to his father promoting school was for learning, not building friendships. Then work started and he told him the same thing. My poor Cyprian was held back from so many things.
I run my hands over his broad shoulders and stand behind him. Then find my sister looking at us and sighing just before she leaves the kitchen. My mother shakes her head as she turns the stove off and moves the pot to let the contents thicken. “She needs your help, Camilla. She’s not herself and she’s not telling us everything. Could you go see if you can get anything out of her? I’ll entertain your young man if you’d do that for me.”
I kiss the top of Cyprian’s head and give her a nod then go to find my sister who’s not quite herself. Into the living room I go and find her walking out on the front porch, so I go out there too and see her lighting a cigarette., “What the hell are you doing, Catarina?” I ask as I close the door behind me. “Mama and Papa will kill you if they see you doing that. You know that.”
“I have to do something to ease my stress. You have no idea.” She takes a long drag then I take the thing away from her, toss it on the ground, and stomp on it until it’s out.
“Killing yourself, slowly, isn’t the answer.” I pull her with me to sit on the rockers on the porch. “Talk to me.”
Her hands are knotting as she holds them in her lap. “Peter has taken on a mistress and expects me to accept that.”
“Whoa!” I say then let out a whistle. “Man, I have to tell you, it’s not completely unexpected, with his religion and all. Mama and Papa warned you, it could happen. But you said mistress, not wife. Is there a chance he won’t marry her too?”
“I suppose he’s testing the waters with her. I hate it. I hate all of it,” she says then I see the tears starting.
“Look,” I say as I run my hand over her leg to try to comfort her. “Maybe we could talk to him. Maybe we could get him to see reason.”
Shaking her head, she cries,” He won’t even answer my calls. I begged him to come with me and he told me this would be the perfect opportunity for him to get to be alone with this other woman, who he’s refused to allow me to even meet yet. So, here I am in New Orleans, knowing my husband is having sex with another woman in our bed.”
My gut turns on itself as I think about how she must feel. “Leave him, Rina. Don’t stay in that kind of a marriage.”
She shakes her head. “It’s not that easy. He’ll be able to keep the kids away from me if I do that. They are citizens of South Africa, after all.”
“You’ve dug yourself a real whole. You will have to come to terms with things. You married a man who can take more than one wife at a time. You knew this could happen. So, take that for what it’s worth. You took a risk and lost. Life goes on. It’s just sex, right?” I say, quoting Cyprian.
“If that’s all it is then why does it hurt so damn much?” she asks me as she tries to suck it up.
“I wish I knew.”
We both turn to see who’s coming outside as the screen squeals on them, we see it’s Cyprian. “Catarina, your son has a diaper that’s in need of your attention. Your mother sent me to tell you that. I’m sorry to be the bearer of bad news.” She gets up and rushes past him wiping her eyes. He takes her by the arm, stopping her. “You’re crying.”
She nods and tries to pull away. “It’s nothing.”
He lets her go and she hurries inside then he comes and sits in her empty chair. “Care to tell me about it?”
“I most likely shouldn’t but this might be an area you can actually be of help with. You see, her husband practices a religion that allows him to have more than one wife and he’s looking into taking another, as we speak.”
“Oh,” he says as he looks down then he looks back at me. “She had to know this might happen.”
“I told her that too but it’s hitting her hard.”
“When that’s practiced as a religion, it’s more about making more children than anything else, from what I’ve read. So, it’s just sex, really.” He looks at me as if I can understand the concept.
“She and I come from a family who believes there is not a thing, as just having sex. I have no idea why she married a man who could legally do such a thing as add another wife to his plate. She did, though. Everyone cautioned her but she did it anyway. Peter promised her he’d never do such a thing. Seems he lied.”
Cyprian nods. “Men lie to get what they want.”
I stifle a gasp as he speaks so openly with me. “You are also a man.”
“That I am,” he says then places his hand on my arm. “But I am a man who has spent over half his life having meaningless sex with more women than most. And I have found the one woman who brings out more in me than I knew was inside of this mind and body. I have no want for any other.”
“But someday I might not be enough. You have to admit that.” I watch his brow furrow.
“Please don’t think like that. I can’t predict the future. For all I know, it will be you who tires of me. You could be the one who cheats or lies. No one knows what will happen. All I can promise you is right now.”
I don’t say a word as I recall how much Peter was in love with my sister. He treated her like a princess. He gave her tons of jewelry and took her to Cape Town and bought them a huge, lovely home. And now he wants to add a woman into his life. And the same could happen to me, I suppose. Cyprian has been honest with me about being fine with two or more women.
“Cyprian, if I told you it would be okay, would you want to add another woman into our lives or our bedroom life?”
“Don’t, Cami. Don’t do that. This is a thing between your sister and her husband. A man she knew could take more wives if he wanted to. You and I don’t have that. We will have a traditional marriage. Leave us out of them, okay?”
“This is just a, what if, thing,” I say. “What if you were a man who was part of a religion that allowed you to have more than one wife? Would you want one?”
He moves off the chair and gets on his knees in front of me, taking my hands. “Camilla Petit, you are the only woman I have ever seen a future with. Don’t take paths that
might be or could’ve been. We are on one path. That’s to marry and become a family of our very own. Don’t think any other way.”
As I look at him, I know he’s right not to let my mind stray into places that might be dangerous to our relationship. I see he has faith in us and that gives me some faith too.
So what, if my sister was foolish enough to marry a man she took his word he’d never take another wife, even though he would be able to if he wanted. I’m not her and Cyprian and I can’t be compared to what she entered into with the man she married.
She was warned. She shouldn’t have married him. She should’ve never trusted the man.
I look at Cyprian with his good looks, money, and charm. I should be wary of them. A woman can easily fall victim to all of that. A man like Cyprian could make a woman believe anything he told her to.
A man like him could break me into more pieces than anyone else ever has. He could take my heart and pull it apart.
But would he do that to me…?
Chapter 4
CYPRIAN
Though Cami has stopped trying to bait me with what if questions that pertain to her sister, I find her still being a bit on the standoffish side. Which is making it harder for me to do what I had planned to do on our visit to her parents’ home.
The dinner went smoothly enough. Her father seems to like me as does her mother. When Cami told them about me coming for her the night of the hurricane, they both looked at me with adoring eyes.
Her sister, on the other hand, looked at me with accusing eyes. She seems to be looking through the man I am becoming and seeing the man I am trying to leave behind.
The backyard is large and Cami and I are sitting outside, enjoying the night air as we sip on some white wine. The screen on the back door squeaks open then slams shut. It has us looking to see who’s joining us, rather than star gazing.
When her sister pulls up a chair, with a bottle of beer in her hand, I feel a definite chill. “Catarina,” Cami says. “Did you get the kids to sleep already?”
“I did. I want to get some advice from your man, Camilla.” She takes a long drink of her beer, while she waits to see if Cami will approve her request.
Without looking at me to see what I have to say about it, she gives her older sister a nod of approval and I feel prickles of heat run down my spine. What has she gotten me into?
Catarina looks at me as she lowers the tall brown bottle off her full lips. “Am I pretty to you, Cyprian?”
Oh, shit!
“That’s not a loaded question at all, is it?” I ask with a chuckle.
Cami nudges me. “It’s okay to answer truthfully.”
I weigh my answer, carefully before I speak, “You are very pretty, as is your mother and your sister. In fact, the whole family looks like something out of a movie.”
Cami smiles and leans in close to me as we sit on a large swing that’s hanging from an ancient oak tree. “Good way to say it, babe.”
Her sister eyes me. “You are good with your words. I knew a man like that once.”
Cami cautions her, “He isn’t Peter, Rina. Don’t go hostile on him.”
“If you had me, would you want anyone else?” Catarina asks me.
“Another loaded question,” I say. “I don’t know you. If you’re asking me, by your looks alone, would I ever want anyone other than you, I have to say I have been with many beautiful women and did want more. It wasn’t until I met this little beauty beside me that I found myself only wanting her.”
Cami looks at me with a frown on her face. “That’s not exactly true.”
“Okay, at first, it wasn’t. But then it became true. You know that,” I say then kiss the side of her head.
“Have you hurt my sister?” Catarina asks me then takes another drink.
“I have,” I admit. “I have hurt her deeply and I have to tell you that I am ashamed of the pain I’ve caused her and have made a vow to her and myself never to do that again.”
“Huh,” she says as she puts the bottle on the ground next to her chair. “How have you hurt her, Cyprian?”
“Never mind about that,” Cami tells her as she takes my hand. “That’s our business and that’s behind us. It’s taken a lot of work to get that behind us and I won’t be bringing it back out to banter about with anyone. Okay?”
The conviction in Cami’s voice makes my heart swell. It’s the first time I’ve heard her say anything like that. I kind of feared what I did would haunt us forever. But it sounds like she really means it’s behind us.
I give her hand a squeeze. “I love you, Cami.”
She smiles and bats her long lashes at me. “I love you too.”
Her sister, clearing her throat, has us turning our attention back to her. “I assume my little sister has let you in on my predicament.”
I nod. “She has.”
“Any advice on how to handle sharing my husband with another woman?” Her eyes glisten in the moonlight as she holds back her tears.
“You knew who he was and what he was capable of doing when you married him. Cami told me you two dated for two years, were engaged for one year then married and immediately started your family. Tell me, has he spoken to you about the number of children he wants?”
“As many as he can have,” she says then picks up her beer and drinks the rest of it.
“And you were okay with that?” I ask her as she doesn’t look to be fine with it.
The way her head shakes tells me she jumped into something without thinking it through. “No, I wasn’t. You see, I have committed what he called a crime against our marriage. While visiting my parents, when Sax was two months old, I went to a doctor here and got a birth control shot that lasts three months. I’ve visited them every three months to keep the shots up. I did this without telling him about doing it.”
“Oh, shit!” Cami says. “Why did you do that?”
“Obviously, I wanted a break between babies. I did the same thing after I had Sadie. Only now that I haven’t gotten pregnant again, Peter’s found me out,” Catarina says as she looks up at the sky. “I just wanted a small break between having babies, that’s all.”
“His religion doesn’t allow that,” I tell her. “I know you’re aware of that. I know me saying it doesn’t help a damn thing. But you made a commitment, knowing these things. Is the woman he’s thinking about adding as a wife in the same religion he is?”
She nods and Cami mumbles, “You’re fucked.”
I give her a look that tells her to have a bit more compassion. “Look, Catarina, there’s not much you can do but to accept this. Unless you want to give up any life with your kids in it.”
“I’ll never do that,” she says as I see her tears glistening in the moonlight.
“Then accept your fate. You went into that marriage with your head on straight. You looked at the odds and thought you could handle them. But I would offer you this bit of advice. Consider getting off that birth control and giving your husband what you promised him you would. Before making such a drastic commitment, though. I’d ask him if he’d consider not taking another wife if you’d do that for him and your marriage.”
“I don’t want to do that. I want to stay on birth control and when my children are grown, I’ll leave him then.” She looks at me as if to ask me if that’s even possible.
“He can divorce you and keep the kids anyway if you go with that plan. You must realize that,” I tell her and watch her melt into a puddle of tears.
Cami gets up and goes to hug her sister, shushing her and telling her things will be okay. It doesn’t sound as if they’ll be okay but who am I to point that out at this moment?
Cami looks at me and her eyes go bright as she does. “Catarina, let me talk to Cyprian in private. If he agrees then I’ll tell you my plan in the morning.”
Her sister nods and sniffles as she tries to pull herself together and I give Cami a look that says, I have nothing I can do about the man or their marriage.
; Cami comes and takes me by the hand, leading me back into the house and all the way into her old bedroom. “Cami, there’s not a thing I can do.”
“What if I told you there is something you can do?” she asks as she begins to change into her night clothes.
I start ditching my clothes and make it into the bed first. She eyes me as I do. “I’m not going to even attempt to sleep in pajamas, baby. It’s humid as hell here.”
She nods in agreement and finds a thin nightgown out of a dresser where she has left some of her clothes. I sigh as she pulls it over her head. How I wish the one month mark was here already.
I pull the blanket back and she slips into the little bed with me and leans up on her elbow, looking down at me. “Okay, hear me out before you say a thing, please.”
I nod but know there’s no plan that could possibly work out for her sister. I wish there was but there just isn’t a thing anyone can do. Her sister made her bed, now she has to lie in it.
And maybe with another woman too…?
Chapter 5
CAMILLA
“So, you see it might work. Peter’s not a bad man. I think what my sister pulled, left him thinking he had no other choice but to take another wife. If he was around us more, I think he’d find it in his heart to allow her a few years between children. I think it’s being in his home country that has him wanting to save face.”
Cyprian looks away then back at me. “He’ll only be allowed a work visa. That means he’ll have to leave the country at least once a year.”
“And that’s when you’ll have him take a month in France to give that manager a vacation. He can take Catarina and the kids with him for that month. It will work, I know it will!” I am over the top excited that I came up with such a great plan.
“You do realize this requires me buying two hotels. Plus, hiring another manager for the France hotel. And I’m not even in that business. I’m in investments,” he says as he looks doubtful.
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