Helena's Plight

Chapter 6

Helena

This had to be a dream.

I walked into Gerardo’s office and the person standing in front of me had to be a figment of my imagination, because as far as I knew my dear husband was away in Switzerland, living his best life.

There was no way he could be in Switzerland and New York at the same time, my mind was spiraling but I could not let him see that.

I said the first thing that came to mind, "I didn’t know we were having guests, looking at Gerardo. I barely registered his response. I’ll join you shortly, let me get ready for dinner." I said and walked out of the room, completely ignoring Armando.

I don’t know how but my shaky legs managed to get me to my room where I collapsed on the bed in a ball of tears.

Why was I crying, I thought angrily, no I would not show any weakness, these past few years have taught me that showing any sign of weakness meant being taken advantage of. I had been taken advantage of most of my life but not anymore. It did not matter why he was back or whether he was staying or not, we would continue to live our lives as we are and nothing would change.

I quickly got out of my work clothes and changed into something different. I touched up my make up and went downstairs to the dining room, luckily I got there first and took my usual seat beside Gerardo.

The two men came in about two minutes later and Gerardo took his usual seat at the head of the table beside me, I said a quick prayer of thanks, thinking automatically Armando would seat at the opposite end, but I noticed him walk past that chair and come up beside his grandfather and sit directly opposite me.

This was not what I had in mind, but I was determined to ignore him still and so I focused on my food all through dinner. I decided to let the men carry the conversation and concentrated on my dinner. They made do with small talk until Gerardo decided to mention that I was the company’s communications director.

I had taken over from Malcom two years ago, but even before that I had filled the role, while Malcom took on reduced work due to his wife’s diagnosis.

The past two years had been the most rewarding and fulfilling for me, I got to do what I loved and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I had learned a lot over the years from Gerardo and I learned a lot from Malcom as well and so when the time came I was prepared for it.

Our most successful campaign since I took over had been the European campaign. I knew Armando was in charge of approving the whole campaign, so I had begged Gerardo not to reveal that I was in charge of the unit. I was afraid he was going to find out I had done the work and reject it just to spite me, so we pretended Malcom was still in charge and after so much back and forth, my proposal was finally approved, along with a congratulatory note telling us how impressed he was with our work. I had done a little dance in my office for the accolade.

I could feel his eyes on me as Gerardo showered me with compliments but I kept my face down staring down at my soup.

After a while Gerardo took my hands and I looked up at him with admiration and a smile to thank him, it was here I lost the battle and my head turned and I locked eyes with Armando briefly, I thought I saw a hint of admiration but I quickly ignored it and went back to staring at my dinner.

The rest of dinner went on quietly and after a while, I politely excused myself with the excuse of having an early morning, it took a lot for me not to run out of the room, but with my head held high I walked out of the dining room and ran up the stairs into my room and locked the door.

I could not believe this man was back and the way he kept looking at me, I had carefully crafted my life for the past three years minus him, I had wasted the first three, crying and hurting and hoping he would come back and tell me it was all a mistake but that was futile, the following three had been spent, getting myself together and making myself strong. I was finally over him and here he was looking more handsome than I remembered.

He was aging like fine wine and just looking at that face was doing things to my stomach that I could not quite control. This will not happen, he had to leave and it had to be soon, I decided, if he was not going back to Switzerland soon, I was going to find an apartment and move out of the house.

Armando would not make fun of me twice, I promised myself that. This was how I fell asleep.

It was still dark when I opened my eyes, when I checked the time it was 4:45am, the events of the night before came rushing back and that gave me all the momentum I needed to get out of bed. I took a quick shower, got dressed, I had sent a text to Lucas, my driver , that I would be leaving earlier today and so when I opened the front doors, he was already waiting for me.

I didn’t wait for him to open the doors for me, I opened them and slid in quickly as he drove away, I was in such a hurry to leave the house, I didn’t notice the figure looking down at me from the top floor window.

I poured myself into work all day, I was like a woman on a mission, it wasn’t until late afternoon, I had to slow down when my stomach reminded me I had missed both breakfast and lunch.

I had a late lunch in my office and continued working. I didn’t realize how dark until Jasmine walked into my office with her bag in tow, I checked the time and saw seven thirty.

"Oh my God, Jas, so sorry for keeping you late." I said.

"No worries ma'am, Jasmine replied, but is everything ok? You’ve been hyper focused on work today, not like you’re not usually focused, but today just seems different."

"Yeah, everything is fine Jas, just have a lot on my mind today. It’s alright you can call it a night, I just need to finish up a few things here and I will head home."

"I can stay back if you’d like." Jasmine responded but no there was no need for that.

I stayed back another two hours after Jasmine left before I finally closed my laptop and packed my bags. I Picked up my phone and called Lucas and stepped into the elevators.

I could not stay away forever, but I at least knew dinner would be over and everyone should be asleep by now.

We got to the house a little after ten pm. I went straight to my bedroom, I just wanted to take a shower and crawl into bed, the past two days have been draining, I opened my bedroom doors and the entire room was empty.

At first I thought my exhaustion had led me into the wrong room but I shook myself and realized I was not in the wrong room, so where are my belongings, what was going on, I walked out and as I came out, a door farther down the hall opened and out stepped Armando, with a smile on his face.

"Missing something?" I ignored him and went downstairs where Carmen had miraculously appeared out of nowhere.

"Carmen, what’s going on? My room has been cleaned out." I said impatiently.

"You should talk to your husband, he asked us to move your things back into your old bedroom next to his."

Those words deflated me immediately.

"What?" I turned and saw Gerardo come out of his study, he didn’t say anything but his eyes pleaded with me to calm down.

I stormed up the stairs and ran straight into the asshole responsible for all this mess. By this time I was livid.

"What gives you the right to touch my things?" I yelled, he did not respond but walked causally into his room, I followed and found him sitting on an armchair.

"I haven’t touched your things my darling, he replied with a smug smile. I only asked the staff to move my wife’s belongings to her proper bedroom."

"What concern of yours is what bedroom I choose to sleep in?" I yelled.

"You had no right."

All this time, and my yelling, he still sat casually on the chair not moving, barely even looking at me, and so I continued.

"You have no right, coming here and trying to control my life and I will not allow it."

It was now that he looked at me and I saw something in his eyes, I had just challenged him and he enjoyed it. I thought that was sick.

I shook my head and turned to leave the room, ready to instruct Carmen to have my things returned to my old bedroom, but just as I reached the door I felt his hands grab mine and closed the doors.

I froze. I had never been this close to Armando, since I have known him, I could feel his breathe on my ears.

"You my darling 'peterdo', are my wife and I have every right to make decisions when it comes to whatever it is that concerns us, and one of such decisions is where we sleep.

"I will not have the house staff gossiping with neighbors that we sleep on opposite sides of the house."

"Isn’t it a bit late to care what the neighbors think?" I asked with sarcasm.

"It’s never too late ‘il mio peterdo'." he said with a smile.

"Stop calling me that." I tried to push him out of the way with my elbow, but he budged only a little so I was trapped facing him.

"I realize you have enjoyed certain freedoms in my absence and I do not wish to trample on those freedoms but there are certain things that will change now that I am home. I will have no arguments on them darling wife, first on that list is where my wife sleeps.

We got into a staring contest here, I lost, it was hard to focus with him standing this close, I needed to get out of here fast. This was getting out of hand.

I nodded, he seemed satisfied with my acceptance and stepped back a little, that was the opening I needed, I ran across the room through the adjoining doors into my new bedroom and slammed the doors shut.

It had been years since I last stepped into this room, it looked the same but strangely different.

This was not how I intended the day to go but there was nothing I could do for now and this looked like it was not over.

I had spent all day at the office trying to run away from my problems, but it seemed like my problems had other plans.

I took a quick shower and collapsed on the bed, tomorrow was another day.