by Mia Ford
“I haven’t got a clue which one’s my room.”
I walk in front of her and open the door, “This one.”
She smiles, “Thanks.”
“Okay, so I’ll go down and start the car while you get ready.”
“I won’t be long.”
I know that she won’t, and I want to kiss and comfort her and tell her that everything will be okay. She’s scared, but then I don't know how to comfort her even if I did try. We’re still strangers, and we don’t know anything about each other apart from how to make her come.
I turn around and head down the stairs; it’ll give us both time to cool down. I can’t believe that the old lady’s dead. She’s too much of a fighter, but then falling the stairs is serious business especially for someone of her age.
Scarlett must have flown into the bedroom and come down the stairs because, by the time I get in the car and start the ignition, I can see her leaving the house in front of the car. As she opens the door, I say, “That was quick.”
She turns to me, “My aunt’s in the hospital, I need to get there.”
That’s her way of telling me to speed up. I was going to ask Scarlett if she would stay longer. I have a few meetings this week, but not so much work that it'll take up all my time. I could spend time with her, if she's still in town for that long.
She’d made me do what no woman’s ever been able to do, I've never been able to sleep in the same bed with another. I’ve tried it a couple of times, and I always felt uncomfortable having another body by my side.
“How long till we get there?” she asks after I stop at the second set of lights.
I forgot that she was in the car because I feel like a teenager thinking about asking a girl to the Prom. We’re on our way to the hospital. Maybe now I should tell her the truth. She’s going to find out that there was more at stake than just a charity ball. The whole thing was set-up from the start, but I want to tell her that this is how it started and I want it to end on a different note.
If she spends more time with me, then we can get to know each other better, in a different way.
“Can you drive faster?”
I nod my head.
“Just that I’m so damn scared. If I lose her, then I don’t know what I’ll do.”
“I understand.”
“Shoot, sorry that was insensitive of me. You must know what I’m going through.”
Then she puts her hand on the wheel, but then I move mine. Not because I need to while I’m driving, but because I don’t want her to get attached and think that something can happen between us. Maybe asking her to spend more time here is not a good idea after all.
“Anyway, I wasn’t thinking. It’s just that my dad’s a bit of a control freak. Well, not exactly a bit. Very controlling and as much as I love my mom. Well, she’s like a puppet on a string and does everything that he tells her to do.”
“Has he ever abused her?”
I dart my eyes towards her for a second, when she doesn’t answer, and I don’t like the tone of the conversation. I can sense that my feelings were right and it doesn’t make me feel better guessing that her mom is an abusive relationship, but then something about it doesn’t seem right.
“Maybe.”
I’m about to say something else.
“That’s a lie. I knew a few times when I was a kid, and she said that she fell down the stairs and other things that they weren’t true. This is part of the reason I never went home after my break-up and why I avoid going there like the plague.”
“Why doesn’t your aunt or anyone do something about it? More to the point why does your mom stay with him?”
She sighs, “For the same reason that I stayed with Sam for so long. Insecurity. Maybe she feels that if she left him she would be alone and she couldn’t bear that.”
“So, being beaten up is a better solution?”
She winces, “You don’t have to be so crude. I just told you a big thing. Something that I’ve never shared with anyone else. I didn’t expect you to mock me.”
Then as I stop the car and we arrive at the hospital. I regret my words. She’s right. It must have been hard for her to witness that growing up. Maybe that's the reason she came to spend time with her aunt?
I hate families and their secrets. She’s already in the hospital by the time I get out of the car and start heading inside. There’s a woman that I saw sitting at their table during the auction, she’s walking with Scarlett, and I follow suit.
I don’t say a word because I’m tired. I tend to sleep a few hours every night. Just to rest my mind, but since Scarlett’s been with me. I haven’t slept. Friday we didn’t finish in the playroom until the early hours of this morning, and as I held her in my arms tonight, I kept thinking about tomorrow and having to say goodbye. I can’t keep her in my life.
No fucking way.
I don't believe in love, either love at first sight, but there’s a connection between us that’s so intense that I need to keep her at bay and as we start to head to her aunt’s room. I know exactly how to do it.
Scarlett rushes to her bedside, “Aunt Betty you scared me.”
Her aunt’s laughing, “I don’t know who called you, but I told them that I’m fine. They shouldn’t have bothered you.”
Scarlett starts to cry and says, “Don’t be silly. If anything happened to you, then I don’t know what I’ll do,” she hugs her one more time, and I imagined Ms. Young to look her age without make-up. If she did go into surgery, then she must have had a stylist on stand-by, because her hair is perfectly shaped in her short bob.
Ms. Young’s in her room and as the nurse smiles and reassures Scarlett that her aunt’s just bruised her leg. I walk closer to Ms. Young, “So what happened?”
I was abrupt and could have started with the niceties the same way that Scarlett did when she entered the room, but there was just one thing. I had an idea to end all of this, and I intended to use it right now.
It was the best thing for Scarlett, and most of it was the best thing for me.
Scarlett was too sensitive and nice to deal with a man like me. One of darkness, she would be hanging pictures on my walls if she had her chance. The idea of it annoyed me. I’d hardly had anyone in my house. They knew where it was, but I didn’t entertain unless it was fucking women in my playroom. I never even gave them a tour or let them spend the night. If we hadn’t been woken up, then Scarlett would have spent two nights in my house. She wouldn’t come back after my plan’s carried out. That part I knew for sure.
“Oh, and you brought Mr. Moore with you. Oh no, I’ve ruined your weekend. It’s not even over yet.”
She sighs, and Scarlett and I ignore her comment patiently waiting for her to explain why she’s in the hospital in the first place.
“Well Daniel’s away, and I decided that when he gets back from spending time with his family, I’m going to ask him to marry me.”
Scarlett shrieks, “About time. Congratulations.”
“I know it’s silly to pretend that he’s my driver. That he doesn’t mean so much to me. He does, and when he gets back, I’m going to show him.”
Wendy comes into the room and then it dawns on me that she was talking erratically on the phone. I had assumed that it was because she was worried about Ms. Young. But as she sighs and flops on the chair, I can tell that she’s clearly drunk.
“Anyway, so Wendy decided to make a cocktail and then we decided to play truth or dare.”
“Aunt Betty, how old are you? Truth or dare!”
She laughs, “Never you mind about my age. You're only as old as you feel.”
I must admit that there’s something we agree on, the fact that they were both intoxicated and played a teenage game says it all.
“Anyway, so Wendy dared me to go down the stair rail.”
“How?”
I’m intrigued now because I may be a lot younger than Ms. Young but I never imagined her to have so much fun especially with her strict business regime. She’
s a shrewd business woman like me, but listening to her story, I can tell that not only does she have time for love, but fun too.
“Down the rail. I could either go face down or on my butt?”
“Which way did you choose Aunt Betty?”
Wendy seems to have woken up as she joins in the conversation laughing, “Butt down. It was so funny until the end when she fell.”
I address my question to Wendy, “And you brought her in?”
Wendy sighs, “Yes, but then I got in the car and realized that I couldn't drive because I was drunk.”
Scarlett asks, “So what did you do?”
They both look at each other, “She called the ambulance to pick us up because at that point I was wailing in agony. I thought that at my age. I must have broken something.”
“I’m the one who nearly broke my back carrying you from the staircase.”
I sigh as I think that this is funny, but I need to put things into perspective, this will be the first and last time that I see Scarlett.
She’s laughing as well as everyone else in the room. But I know that it will come to a dramatic end.
“Well, seeing as the contract was for taking Scarlett for the weekend, but with the hospital phone call it’s been put to an end. I take it that you’ll still be able to keep to your side of the bargain?”
I’m looking at Ms. Young, but I can feel Scarlett’s eyes on me. I know that soon they’ll be filled with tears, but this was the agreement. I don’t want her back in my house. Or anywhere near me right now.
Wendy asks, “What contract?”
“The land on Westfield, Ms. Young said that if I took her niece to my house for the weekend and showed her a good time she would sign it over to me.”
Scarlett’s standing up, her eyes are moving from her aunt to me as if she’s watching a tennis match. I don’t say a word as the tears start to flood from her eyes.
“Scarlett dear, just know that I did this for you. Gretchen told me that you'd been down since that rat threw you out. I did it for you…”
Ms. Young calls after her as she runs out of the room.
I stand frozen thinking that I should be pleased with myself. The result was exactly what I wanted, but as I turn to leave the room and Ms. Young tells me to take the land. I wonder why I don’t feel proud?
After all I’ve achieved exactly what I wanted to do.
I walk out knowing that the best woman that I’ve ever been with has just left the room, because not only did I end up breaking her heart, but mine too.
Chapter Twelve
Scarlett
I decide to go to the house and wait for Daniel to come back. I could get a taxi or even on a train, but after what happened last night. I feel even worse than I did when Sam broke up with me. I don’t know if it was because I connected with Joshua? Or the idea that he’d only slept with me because he was going to get something out of it.
Either way, I knew one thing for sure. I wouldn’t see him again. That’s what he was after, he wanted to end it and he did that in the worse possible way. I hope that he's proud of himself.
The hospital told me that Aunt Betty wouldn’t be out for at least a couple of days while they observed her. She may look as if she has a body of a teenager, but at her age, they said that they couldn’t be too sure. Also, both her and Wendy were vague about what part of the stairs she fell, because they were both intoxicated.
I knew that Daniel could take me and I wouldn’t have to face her either. The crazy part was I woke up this morning and I didn’t feel like eating Ben & Jerry. No longer did I feel the desire just to binge out.
I went up to the attic, the place that I used to find comfort when I was a kid and did the one thing that I loved to do.
Paint.
I’ve spent all day up there; I didn’t even know what the time was or even care. My phone was off, and the house phone was being picked up by the staff. Aunt Betty had kept all of my paints. I even think that there are some new ones. It’s as if she kept the room for me, whenever I felt the need to come back.
Maybe her surprise wasn’t only for me to spend it fucking Joshua, but for the room too. If she knew about my break-up with Sam, then she must have known everything else. That I had nowhere to stay and this was her way of making it better.
I didn’t even hear her enter the room as my mind starts to wander and I think about Joshua. I shouldn’t have expected anything different from a man like him. He’s probably playing with some other woman in his playroom.
Good for him!
I’m fed up of being used, and from this moment onwards I vow to never have another man in my life again.
I can’t believe something that I haven’t done for so long has flowed so naturally today. I knew my subject from the moment I sat on the stool. I have the natural sunlight and everything I need to do the one thing that I love to do, and that’s to paint.
“Good, you’re still here!” Aunt Betty hobbles into the kitchen with her walking sticks.
“What are you doing here? I thought that you needed to stay there for a couple more days.”
She nods, “This is my home. Besides if you left here feeling the way that you do, then I don’t know what I’ll do.”
“I’m waiting for Daniel to come back.”
She shakes her head, “He’s here. When I told him about what I’d done. He told me that I was wrong and I needed to apologize.”
“Okay, so you can do that and go back to the hospital.”
I turn around; I know that I'm cold and she doesn’t deserve it, but to say that I’m hurt is an understatement.
“You’ve been to the attic?”
I nod, but then I grab my drink and start to move in that same direction once again. Maybe I’ll just clean out my account and get a last minute ticket? Anything to get out of here. I didn’t think that she would be out now. And now she’s in front of me. I don’t know what to do. Well, I have a clue, I want to do one thing, and that's left.
“Scarlett don’t go. I can’t move that fast, and I need you to hear me out. Please?”
I stop for a minute; I take my time as I face her. I think about Joshua for a moment and the man that he is. The type that doesn’t have photos in his house and he probably has no friends. I scolded him when I discover that he’s alone and I realize that I’m not acting any differently to him if I don’t at least hear her out.
“Can I sit down?”
She asks as she’s clearly out of breath and it wouldn’t seem right if I didn’t hear her out. She’s been more of a mom to me than my mother, but then for different reasons and I should at least hear her out.
I nod, "After all it's your house."
She sighs, “Phew! If you said no, I think that I would hurt myself and probably end up spending a lot more time in the hospital.”
She’s laughing, but by herself and I want to say something, that she should hurry up. I’m working on a piece. Something dear from the heart and one that I don’t feel the need to stop right now.
“I knew about Sam’s stealing for a while. Before you lost your job.”
She’s nodding and looking directly at me. I feel numb because now I feel like a fool. She knew, and I lived with the man, and I didn’t have a clue.
“I look out for you. Maybe a bit too much. To cut a long story short. I overheard him one time when you were here.”
“At your annual barbecue?”
She nods, “Yes, how did you know?”
“Well, after that time Sam said that he didn’t want to come back. He said that you didn’t like him.”
“I wish it was that simple. You see I knew that he was cheating on you. He had made advances to a couple of the girls and that upset me. But I didn’t think that he was stealing from you too. I don’t want to tell you the exact details, but when I saw the remains of your trust fund from your granddad, I knew that it had something to do with him.”
“There’s hardly anything left,” I start to sob. “The million do
llar's that was sitting in my account. Sam helped me spend it, but then most of it was spent on him. Then when the second amount was released when I was twenty-five. It was gone so fast, maybe by the end of my twenty-fifth birthday. I was a fool in love. I thought that we were going to get married, what’s mine was his and all that.”
“You don’t need to explain to me. I know that he manipulated you, pretty much like your dad does with your mom.”
There’s something that I need to tell her.
“Anyway, I’ve been a submissive in my younger day, and I knew through the grapevine that Joshua Moore is a heavy practitioner.”
“Really?” I choke thinking about Aunt Betty being a sub.
“I’m eccentric for a reason.”
“If at all,” I point to her. We look at each other for a second, and I think about Sam and Aunt Betty trying to protect me from him.
“But that doesn’t mean that I forgive you or want to stay here any longer.”
“Did you feel a big connection with him?”
I nod.
She smiles, “It’s natural. Being a sub is not an easy thing. Well, it wasn’t for me. I ended up marrying my dom.”
I gasp, “You and Granddad.”
I shake my head, because I don’t want to know if the pair of them had their playroom or any detail of their relationship, but I do know one thing. I love her. Even if her methods were not the best and she interfered a little too much. At least I know that she’s got my back.
I stand up, and I hug her, “I love you, Aunt Betty.”
“So, you’ll stay?”
I wink at her and say, “I’ll think about it.”
She smiles, “That’s all I can ask you to do. I know that I don’t deserve any more than that.”
She does, but I’ll make her suffer a little while longer. Make her think that there’s a possibility that I may leave. I had one man who controlled me and left me penniless and with a broken heart. It’s about time I grow up and it starts and ends with when I finish the painting, the one that I’m painting with all my heart.
Chapter Thirteen
Scarlett
Two weeks later…
