Playing the perfect Wife
1233 Words
Mia
“See how beautiful you look”, that lady that had the gown on me said as she's at me through the mirror.
I just smiled, she literally had no idea that all this was a facade.
Guess Ethan wasn't really a hard nut to crack, in the space of 3 weeks I was able to make sure I broke him and the fool fell in love with me crazily.
We're set to be married in a week, and I can't just imagine how things are going smoothly.
“Guess, I'm way better with this than I thought”, I said with a smile.
Suddenly my phone rang. It was my Mom.
“Mom, I'm kinda busy right now”, I said to her immediately.
“I know you went for your fitting,baby, Just wanted to tell you that Victor said you should come.over for tea today.”
“Mum, you know I'm _” I was saying before she caught me off.
“My love, do it for your Mum”, she said with those pitiful voices..
She was the last person I wanted to please right now, but she's the only family I have, so I have to.
“Okay..Okay, I will be there Mum” I said and cut the call even as she was just saying ‘Thank you'd gain and again.
Later in the day I went to the mansion, there were already at the dining having a good time.
Seeing how happy my mum was, almost gave me a little touch of doubt if who really Victor was but I brushed it off my mind.
“The Bride of the Season has decided to grace us with her presence”, Victor said as he was told up and pulled a seat out for me.
Pretense… Pure pretense
I just smiled and sat down as I poured myself tea,and started drinking.
"Do you remember," she said, as she faced me "the summer your father taught you to swim?"
I looked up from my cup. "I was eight. I was terrified.", trying to stay in the conversation so I don't like weird.
"You cried for an hour at the side of the pool and then swam twelve lengths." She smiled — her real one, not the bright performance she wore around Victor. "He called you stubborn. I called you determined. We argued about the difference the whole drive home."
For a moment we were just the two of us, the way we had been before everything broke.
"Mom," I said. "Are you happy? Genuinely?"
She looked at her cup. "I'm not going to pretend the last five years were easy. I missed your father every day. I still do. Victor doesn't replace that. He's just —" She searched for the word. "Presence. He fills a room again. I had forgotten what that felt like."
I thought about what I knew and what she didn't. About the files on my laptop. About the plan already in motion. About what I was preparing to do to the peace she had finally found.
"I want you to be happy," I said, and meant it entirely. And hated that it could be completely true and still not be enough to stop me.
She squeezed my hand across the table and I squeezed it back.
We finished our coffee and I drove home and did not let myself think about that conversation again.
*****
I married Ethan Hale on a Saturday morning in the garden of the mansion.
Ethan's face when I walked down the aisle was completely open. He hadn't learned yet to guard himself around me. Whatever he felt was right there, unfiltered and what he felt when he saw me in that dress was joy. Uncomplicated, undeserved joy.
"You look stunning," he whispered when I reached him.
I smiled and could not quite meet his eyes.
The ceremony was brief and elegant. Victor sat at the front beside my mother, impeccably composed, and I felt his attention on me throughout — steady, assessing, that same quality of a man mid-decision.
Alex watched the proceedings with his jaw working slightly, as if chewing on a thought he hadn't resolved. Ryan looked at the garden. Then, once, he looked at me — just briefly — and gave a small nod, as if confirming something to himself.
When Ethan kissed me — gently, carefully, as if I might change my mind — I felt something I had not budgeted for: the smallest flicker of comfort and warmth. Something with no agenda in it at all.
I buried it immediately. But for one second it had been entirely real, and that frightened me more than anything Victor had made me feel.
***
Dinner that evening was the full family at the long table: Victor at the head like a king, my mother luminous beside him, Alex with that restless energy he wore everywhere, Ryan quiet, and Ethan holding my hand under the table the way people hold the hands of people they have loved for years.
Alex raised his glass. "To the newlyweds. May your marriage be as interesting as the rest of us."
Victor's voice was quiet. "Alex."
Alex sat back, unrepentant, and caught my eye with a private smile I did not return.
Ryan spoke once, addressing me directly across the table. "I hope you'll be comfortable here. It takes a while to learn the rhythms of this house. But you will."
Small thing to say. Ordinary, on the surface. But there was something in it, deliberate kindness, or perhaps a quiet warning that I noted.
Ryan Hale was paying attention to more than he showed.
After dinner, Ethan took a call in the study. I stayed in the sitting room with a glass of wine and let myself observe the house.
Victor then suddenly walked in.
He poured himself a drink at the sideboard without appearing to notice me, then turned and appeared entirely unsurprised to find me there.
"How are you finding it?" He settled into the chair across from mine. A normal distance. A normal question — which, with Victor, was itself a signal to pay attention.
"It's a beautiful house," I said.
"You said that at the engagement party.", he said with a smile.
"It was true then too.", I said back to him.
A corner of his mouth moved. "You're careful with what you reveal."
"Most people are.", I said with a grin.
"No," he said. "Most people aren't." He looked at me over his glass. "You're careful in a specific way. Like someone who decided ahead of time exactly what they're willing to give."
The house was quiet around us. In the hallway, a distant door. The ordinary sounds of a large house settling for the night.
"Victor," I said, keeping my voice level, "I think you're reading jet lag and nerves."
He smiled properly then the first genuine one I had seen from him, brief and sharp. "Maybe," he said. "Get some rest, Mia."
He stood and left the room without hurry. I sat with my wine and my too-fast pulse and the very clear understanding that Victor Hale was not going to be manageable.
I had miscalculated the difficulty of the obstacle inside the plan.
I needed to adjust and find a way to get closer to him..
- Writer
