Against Her Will

Episode 10

Leilani went to bed that night feeling a bit lighter than before, she didn’t know what to make of the completely different man she had seen tonight, he seemed to have had a complete personality transplant in the span of a few days. She didn’t know whether to trust it or not, she really wasn’t a very trusting person but she did know that what he had said about him being drugged was the truth, the call had been enough proof of that, she had heard the rage in his voice when he shouted at the other man who had been the cause of what happened that night so she didn’t want to be more paranoid and think about the recording being fake, she refused to assumptions about someone she barely knew, and yes, he had seemed sincere now but she knew not to judge a book by its cover. She would just see how it goes tomorrow she thought before she finally fell asleep.

The next morning they all sat at the table for breakfast for the first time since that night, it was always Leilani either leaving when he entered or Ricardo going to work early to not see her but today they both sat together with Daniel to eat, they very occasionally had lunch together but it only lasted a few minutes in utter silence and it was always completely awkward but today it wasn’t entirely like that. Though even now Ricardo noticed how stiff and uncomfortable Leilani was considering how close he was sitting to her so he began to get up to move when she stopped him with a hand on his arm which she immediately retracted, he felt a slight tingle at the soft touch of her graceful fingers on his bare arm but he ignored it as he looked at her curiously.

“You don’t need to move,” Leilani said softly, she had noticed the way he had been looking at her and when he was about to get up, she held his arm to stop him despite how uncomfortable she felt touching him.

“You’re uncomfortable,” Ricardo said as he looked at her confused, why would she stop him from moving when it was clear sitting next to him was the last thing she wanted.

“I am, but I’ve noticed how the servants have been talking these past few days and when I told you I care for your parents reputation I meant it so I promised to act as your wife and moving away from me is not going to prove that so sit down,” Leilani said firmly and he obeyed as he sat down with a slight smile at her.

“Why do you care so much for my parents' reputation?” Ricardo asked her curiously as she encouraged Daniel to eat his food.

Leilani turned to him as she said, “Because they’re good people and I’ve come to respect them a lot so the last thing I want is for their reputation to be ruined because of me.” She had met them a total of two times before the wedding and they treated her like she was their own daughter, they were such sweet parents and kind people, completely different to what she had envisioned about them beforehand so she didn’t want to ruin their image in the eyes of the public just because she didn’t want to act as his wife, especially now that she knew the truth about what had happened that night, she just had to get over it and come to terms with it.

“Well, thank you,” Ricardo said happy that she got along with his parents enough to at least agree to that. “About that though…”

“No, I know exactly what you’re going to ask but I’m not ready yet, just give me a bit more time and I’ll think about it,” Leilani said knowing what his question would be but she wasn’t ready to go in that room, the memories were only a week fresh after all.

“Ok, take as much time as you need, I won’t pressure you, I just wanted to let you know,” Ricardo said as he began to eat the breakfast his cook had created, it wasn’t as good as Leilani’s but Marco was too adamant to agree to let her cook and he actually agreed, she wasn’t a servant here, she shouldn’t have to do that but he really did like her food.

“Thank you,” Leilani said softly and a while later they had finally finished breakfast, and it was time for Daniel’s tutoring session, it was going to last a few hours so that was enough time for them to go and grab the gifts.

Ricardo took her to his garage where his many cars were located, her eyes widened as she looked at the numerous cars inside, and when he opened the car he was going to use, she actually gasped in astonishment with her eyes the size of saucers.

“OMG! Is that the limited edition Bugatti Veyron Linea Vivere Mansory modified by West Coast Customs with the most famous and desirable colour Nardo Grey worth 3.4 million dollars. The one that has a 8.0 liter W16 engine that can produce 1200 horsepower and 1,106 pound feet of torque!” Leilani squealed excitedly forgetting about all her worries as she stared at the car in complete adoration. (I’m not really sure if the description of the car is right, if it isn’t, do comment and tell me so I can change it)

“Uh…yeah, I guess. I had no idea you knew so much about cars.” Ricardo said as he went around and opened the door for her since she seemed to be a little bit too engrossed in the car.

“My dad was a car mechanic so I sort of became a car fanatic,” Leilani explained as she side stepped him and got in the car realizing what she had just did as she blushed a little embarrassed.

“Huh. You are full of mysteries Miss Nightingale.” Ricardo said as he shook his head at her, how many things was he going to add to the list, she could sing, bake, cook, fight and now she knew more about cars than he did. He had to admit that she had looked adorable when she had squealed like a kid on Christmas who got exactly what they wanted.

“Hardly.” Leilani snorted as she took out her phone to text her friends to busy herself and get her mind off what she was doing right now sitting next to the guy who had r***d her, buying a birthday gift for his kid. She immediately told herself that it wasn’t his fault as she told her friends what she was doing right now. Despite her uncle threatening her not to tell anyone the truth about her marriage, she refused to keep this from her friends, it was another reason for Bella’s words in her speech, when she had said that she had chosen Ricardo so as not to let her uncle know that they knew.

“No, it’s true, just when I find out another thing about you and think that has to be it, you go and do something else to surprise me.” Ricardo complimented as he started the car looking at her with a slight smile on his mostly stone-cold face.

“Oh, thank you, I guess.” Leilani said a little uncomfortable at his stare which he noticed for he looked away from her.

“By the way, where did you learn those moves you pulled on me the other night?” Ricardo asked out of curiosity.

“Oh, sorry about that,” Leilani said feeling a little guilty now that she knew he wasn’t at fault, which meant he wouldn’t have done what she had thought he was going to do so clearly he had wanted to tell her something else and she had gone and hurt him.

“Don’t be, I kind of deserved it,” Ricardo said shaking his head at her with a slight laugh in his tone.

“Not if it wasn’t your fault.” Leilani mumbled before she answered his question, “It was my dad and brother who taught me how to fight.”

“Your brother?” Ricardo asked confused, no one besides her friends and her uncle had shown up at the wedding so besides knowing that her father was dead, he didn’t really know much about her family.

“Uh, yeah, my brother. His name was Adrian.” Leilani said softly as she looked out the window holding the locket once again, it was the only thing that brought her solace when she talked or thought about her family considering what had become of it.

“Was?” Ricardo asked gently before regretting it as he saw a single tear trickle down her cheek before she hastily wiped it away as she twirled that locket around her neck, he realised she never took off that locket, even that night, she had managed to stop him from pulling that necklace off of her, it clearly meant a lot to her.

“We should go.” Leilani said refusing to answer his question, she didn’t want to even think about it to be honest.

“Right, um where do you want to go?” Ricardo asked as he tapped his fingers on the steering wheel. She was the only one who needed to get Daniel a gift after all.

“Where do you normally go, I don’t really know this place remember?” Leilani said and he nodded with realization on his face.

“Oh right, I forgot, ok I’ll take you to the mall, the shop I go to is there and there are a lot of other shops that you can look in to find something for him,” Ricardo said as he drove the car out of there.

The car ride was spent in silence mostly, except for the few places he pointed out to her just in case she wanted to go somewhere, which she was grateful for, it was actually a really nice place to be honest. It took a few minutes before they finally pulled up in front of the mall, they both got out, surprisingly he had done the gentleman thing and opened the door before she could even lay a hand on it.

“We’re in public, we have to act accordingly, I’m going to hold your hand, is that alright?” Ricardo asked just to make sure as she got out the car.

“Uh…yeah, it’s fine,” Leilani said a little unsure before he gently held her hand in his, his larger one literally encompassing her smaller one.

“Your hand is tiny,” Ricardo said laughing as he locked the car and walked inside with her hand in hand, he didn’t know he’d like holding her hand this much, it was so soft, small and delicate compared to his.

“It’s not tiny, yours is just huge,” Leilani grumbled feeling uncomfortable with her hand in his but she reminded herself that it was only whilst they were outside, it would be fine.

“Whatever you say. Ok, here’s the shop I go to.” Ricardo said proudly presenting the shop whilst she looked slightly horrified.

“You buy your 5-year-old kid a book for his birthday, seriously?” Leilani asked with a shocked face as she looked at the bookshop in front of her.

“Our kid…” Ricardo immediately corrected before he carried on, “…and yeah, what’s so wrong with that? He’s a very smart kid and he likes the stuff, well at least I think he does.” Ricardo mumbled the last bit as he looked at her shocked face before she exasperatedly rolled her eyes at him.

“You are hopeless, we are definitely not going to get your kid a book for his birthday, honestly, what goes on in that brain of yours, I’ll never know. I mean have you never been a kid before, what would a kid want? Books? No! Obviously not. Toys? Yes siree. He’s a five-year-old kid, not a fifty-year-old man with nothing else in his life besides a rocking chair and a s**t ton of books to keep him company. I am married to an i***t, wonderful, just wonderful.” Leilani ranted to herself as she dragged him around the mall to find the perfect shop. Ricardo just looked at her amused with a smile on his face, she was adorable when she was rambling on with an annoyed look on her face but when she pulled him in front of a shop with a bright smile on her face, it was his turn to be slightly horrified.

“Uh…this is a kid’s toy shop,” Ricardo mumbled a little faintly.

“No s**t Sherlock,” Leilani said brightly.

“Yeah, no, this is not going to happen, you hand that kid any of these and he’s going to make our lives a living hell.” Ricardo said shaking his head as he walked away.

“Well I’m the one who’s getting him a gift, not you, so suck it up, cause this is my choice, you got a problem with that?” Leilani said rounding on him with a glare in her eyes that clearly warned him not to challenge her.

“No of course not,” Ricardo said quickly as he shook his head.

“Good.” Leilani’s whole countenance changed as she smiled at him sweetly before walking into the many isles filled with toys dragging him beside her as he followed with a slight pout on his face.

“This is it,” Leilani said as she stood in front of the gift.

“No! Absolutely not! He’s going to destroy the house.” Ricardo said as he stared at the gift in horror.

“Don’t be dramatic, he’s five and this is not Home Alone, where the kid is eerily smart and can easily do something like destroying a house with a bloody water gun, I mean it hasn’t happened in the movies but I’m pretty sure there is a way, if you flood the entire house and accidentally pour in kerosene and then accidentally light a match but that’s not going to happen, I promise,” Leilani assured him when the colour drained from his face.

“Don’t underestimate him, believe me,” Ricardo said shaking his head at her, he knew first-hand the mischief his son got up to. He remembered the day that he had first shouted at Daniel when he had made such a mess, that night he had felt really bad so when Daniel had come in his room asking to sleep with him he had obviously agreed, not knowing the complete devil that was his child. He had had a shower the next morning before he got out and looked in the mirror only to nearly shout out in utter shock, his hair was yellow. Yellow! And there was ink on his face, the water hadn’t washed it off because he realised it was permanent marker! There was a drawing of glasses around his eyes, he had a coloured nose, a drawing of what looked like horns on his forehead and in a childish scrawl it said on his face after he had made sense of it that “I am a mean daddy.’ The kid hadn’t come in his room for comfort he had come to take revenge and that was the first of many instances.

“What do you mean? He’s a sweet kid, mischievous yes, but still sweet and I’m going to get him this whether you like it or not.” Leilani said firmly as she picked the big package up but he grabbed a hold of it before she could take it to the till.

“You have no idea what you’re doing, this is a bad idea,” Ricardo said firmly.

“Let your kid have fun for once,” Leilani said as she tried to pull the gift back.

“He has enough fun,” Ricardo said rolling his eyes.

“Oh please I doubt you know the meaning of fun considering you were going to buy him a book for his birthday.” Leilani snapped as she carried on pulling but he didn’t let go.

“There is no need to snap at me, I am warning you that buying this for him is a horrible idea, we are going to wake up in the morning soaking wet or the entire house will be flooded,” Ricardo said trying to make her see sense.

“You are being overly dramatic just give me the damn gift or we are going to be standing here playing tug of war with it forever and then we are going to completely miss his birthday cause I’m not leaving here without it,” Leilani said as she pulled again and he abruptly let go causing her to fall backwards, she expected to fall on her ass but she did not expect to be caught by someone behind her.

“Are you okay?” The guy asked from behind her and she got a little flustered considering she was still in a random guy’s arms before she pulled away from him quickly and turned to thank him for catching her. She looked up into azure blue eyes that belonged to a rather handsome face.

“Thank you uh…” Leilani said as an invitation for him to give her his name.

“Adrian and no problem.” He said with a slight smile at the gorgeous girl before him though he knew she was off limits. He had heard the entire conversation, well the entire store had to be honest, so it was pretty obvious she was married to the Billionaire every girl wanted, guess she got lucky.

Leilani’s breath caught in her throat the moment he had said his name and she immediately dropped the gift as tears filled her eyes before she ran out of there leaving everyone confused except Ricardo who had realised what had happened, she had said that was her brother’s name so he assumed that something had happened to him too.

“Uh…Did I do something?” The guy asked perplexed.

“No, it’s fine,” Ricardo said before he went and bought the gift, he picked something else on the way from his side too, he guessed the book he had brought wouldn’t be up to par with hers.

Leilani went outside the mall and sat on the benches, she opened the locket in her hand and looked at the picture of her family, her mother, father and her brother. They were all gone, she stroked the picture of her brother as a tear fell down her face on the locket.

“Hey miss…uh…are you okay? I hope I didn’t say anything to offend you.” The guy from before said, he had went out the mall only to see her sitting on the nearby bench looking at a locket around her throat. She opened it and he immediately became concerned when a tear fell down her cheek so he went over to her.

Leilani looked up slightly startled before she quickly wiped the tears from her eyes as she said, “No, no you didn’t. I just…I guess you deserve an explanation for me running out like that. I didn’t mean to offend you or anything…I just…your name…it was my brother’s name, Adrian.” Leilani said softly as she looked ahead with tears in her eyes. The guy sat down on the bench next to her making sure to keep a bit of distance between them, he didn’t want to cross any boundaries after all.

“I’m sorry.” He said sadly as he realized what she meant, and she looked at him a little confused so he clarified, “You said was so I assumed that…” He trailed off when she looked away.

“It was a car accident. I didn’t see it coming, none of us did. My parents died on impact, my brother and I survived but the difference was he was in a coma and I… well I wasn’t. I used to stay by his bedside every time I could, I still had hope that he would wake up one day, but the doctors didn’t, they said there was no hope for him. I was working day and night, trying to make money to pay for his hospital bills, emptied my savings, every single penny I had, but it wasn’t enough. One day I came to see him, only to find out that they had pulled the plug, I had missed too many payments apparently, nothing I did was enough and he’s dead now because of me.” She said monotonously. She didn’t even know why she was saying all this but it felt nice to tell someone, her friends weren’t here for her to talk to or hug or just let everything out. Whenever she felt suffocated or these familiar feelings erupted inside her, she used to go to them but now she didn’t have that luxury so she guessed a random kind stranger would do, even if he didn’t care.

“It wasn’t your fault, the doctors shouldn’t have done that, it’s their job to make sure their patient remains alive, if they willingly did that just for money then that’s their fault, don’t put the blame on yourself especially for someone else’s mistakes.” He advised, he wanted to pull her into a hug but that would be inappropriate so he settled for just rubbing her shoulder slightly in comfort before he got up thinking that she needed some time alone but she grabbed the sleeve of his jacket gently.

“Stay, please, just for a little while,” Leilani said feeling stupid as she said this as she quickly let go of him, but he was the first feeling of true comfort she’s had since she came here, yes Danny made her feel happy, but that house was suffocating for her, but out here, she felt freer.

“Sure, if you want,” He said before sitting back down.

“Um…I don’t want this to be awkward for you, we can talk or you can just go if you want, I don’t mean to make you stay here, especially if it’s out of pity, actually you know what, this was stupid, I’m sure you’ve got more important things to do, like I don’t know, eating, going home, walking your bloody dog or something….I’m rambling aren’t I? I’ll just shut up now.” Leilani said blushing in embarrassment.

“It’s ok, it’s cute actually.” He couldn’t help but say but he winced as soon as said it so he quickly said, “I’m so sorry, I know you have a husband. That was really inappropriate of me.”

“Don’t trouble yourself, it’s fine,” Leilani said with a smile at him, he was adorable to be honest.

“You sure? I can go if you’re feeling uncomfortable.” He said a little unsure.

“No, it’s honestly fine,” Leilani said reassuringly.

“What’s your name by the way? I forgot to ask.” He said a little sheepish at having forgotten to ask that.

“I’m Leilani, Leilani Nightingale.” She informed him.

“Beautiful name for a beautiful girl. Um…sorry, again.” He said wincing a bit, it was really hard not to flirt with her when she was looking like that to be honest but he was really trying to be a gentleman here, thankfully she just laughed at him so he said, “My last name's Grey. You can call me that…Leilani.” Leilani smiled at that as she realized why he had said to use his second name, she felt touched that he thought of that.

“You can call me Lani.” Leilani offered, he reminded her a lot of her brother, he used to be a natural flirt too, he couldn’t control himself. The amount of times she used to provide him an ice pack for his red cheek was beyond him, that must have been why she hadn’t completely written off Leonard for her best friend, because she knew that despite what a womanizer her brother was, he was a great guy inside. It was why a little after the wedding reception, when everyone was saying goodbye, she had secretly given Leonard her best friend’s phone number, she was going to get quite the surprise soon.

“What about Ley? It rhymes with Grey.” He said instead and she laughed again at that, he smiled, she truly had a beautiful laugh.

“Sure,” Leilani said smiling at him before they both began talking about anything that came to mind enjoying each other’s company as Leilani waited for Ricardo to leave the mall. She had no idea that he already had, he had brought the presents and come outside only to see her laughing with another man, anger and something he couldn’t quite describe filled him at the sight, especially when his hand touched her shoulder, but when she had grabbed his arm as the guy was about to leave, it was more than enough for him and he got in his car and drove off in his rage.