Chapter 5-Dear Wife
1055 Words
Elora’s POV
Immediately I heard Damien scream, I took off the way I went.
Shit!
What had I gotten myself into? Exploring? What was I even thinking? I run back down the long, lonely passageway, hoping desperately that none of them will see me as I turn down a bend.
My heart is pounding within me and my eyes are burning.
Please, God.
I run through all the confusing pathways until I spot a maid going in a direction I recognize.
I try to compose myself immediately and follow her closely behind.
At the end, there's no need to go to the living room as I reach my room by following her. I shakily close my bedroom door and begin to cry.
I'm not sure why I'm crying; the feeling of almost getting caught or the fact that someone was getting tortured so badly.
I never fared well with that kind of stuff back at the Matheo mansion.
My hands are over my face as I cry silently. These people were monsters.
I do not come out of my room until dinner. By this time, I'd regained my bearings. I mean, this was the most dangerous family in Spain and probably the entire Europe.
No one crossed the Alejandros and lived to tell the tale.
Today, I doubt any formalities will be needed. So I put on a simple green dress with thin straps.
There's no time to look in the mirror; I puff my hair and walk out of my room.
I was going to hold myself properly today. No one; not even Mr. Vampire would fluster me. I hope.
The dinner table is scanty because it's only 5:30PM. I sit next to my head just like yesterday and begin to scroll through my phone.
I get so lost in watching videos that I don't realize when dinner begins.
Everything went a little okay at first, with a few snide comments here and there. I take it all without saying a word, zoning out at a point.
All through the dinner— in between swallowing food that tastes like ash and drinking more water— I feel the dead stare of someone.
I know he's looking; I don't know why he's staring, but I know he is.
I rise before anyone else, right after Madam Alejandro makes a rude remark at me. I actually thought I could stay through the entire thing.
But from Damien's cousin's laughter about my skin, or how fat I am to his aunts, uncles and stepbrothers making rough remarks about how dumb I am…
I couldn't bear it.
My heart is pounding; I need thicker skin.
I don't make it too far, just after I climb the stairs— the very person I'm avoiding for no reason catches me.
“Elora,” he whispers. My name sounds like a prayer in his mouth. I turn around, met his hollow eyes.
There's no emotion in them as usual.
Somehow, he could do that— smile without a single emotion.
“What do you want?” I hiss, hiding the subtle effect he has on me. Salvatore blinks slowly and his lips twitch just a little.
“Nothing, Señora. Just came to deliver a warning.”
My heart stills. I remember the torture room; how could I have forgotten?
I take a step back and the man in front of me sighs.
“Don't make that mistake again. You're lucky I was the one who saw you. Damien will not be so merciful…”
With this, he turns away, going back the way he came.
I stand there for a long time, clenching my dress until I leave sweat prints on it.
***
I'm sitting in my room now, smoothing my orange nightgown over my skin and preparing to sleep.
What a day…
I pray as I put my hair in a bun; that by morning, I find out that this was all a dream.
Even though my family maltreated me for being a w***e’s daughter, at least it meant I was back home.
Here, I am maltreated for no exact reason. Maybe the Alejandros were just butter people.
Not all of them.
I remember a pair of cold reptilian green eyes and my heart skips.
He saw me earlier but said nothing to Damien…
Even at the last dinner, he totally diverted the conversation from me. He looked at me extremely strangely— as if he had ulterior motives.
My thighs cling tightly together as I think of this.
You're married to his stepbrother!
I have to remind myself that whatever at all I am imagining is absolutely wrong. A taboo in fact.
Sighing, I land on my bed, wanting nothing more but to sleep.
A knock interrupts me though; I groan loudly and stand up.
“Yes?” I ask harshly.
It's Isabelle.
I soften my voice when she flinches and asks her again what she wants. “The boss has asked for you, ma'am.”
I stop breathing at once.
“M-me?”
Isabelle nods. f**k.
Did he know? Had Salvatore actually told him then?
“He says you should hurry, ma’am.”
I tell her I'll be right out and go back in to wash my face. Don't look suspicious…
My heart is racing, and my fingers have started to tremble. I opened the door and followed Isabelle shakily to a familiar passageway.
My eyes fell to the spot where I had spent the night two days ago.
Isabelle nods at me and walks away, leaving me slightly shivering from fear outside Damien's room.
It takes all my courage to knock.
“Come in.”
My legs desperately want to give out, but I force myself to push the door open.
The lights are dim.
Damien is standing by his balcony windows, shirtless. His brown hair dances over his shoulder in the slight breeze.
“Elora, is it?” he whispers.
I wonder if it's the softness I hear in his voice.
“Yes.”
He nods, looks back at me and, for the first time, a smile grows on his face in my direction.
“I'm not a monster, dear wife of mine.”
Wife.
“Come here. Come let me kiss you— properly, this time.”
I feel my legs actually give out.
- Writer
