Chapter 22 ~ Isabella ~
"I need to call Francis urgently," Carter said. He was standing in front of the closet again, slipping into his old high school sports clothes. They still fit him perfectly, and as Carter pulled the T-shirt over his head, I admired his six-pack. Even after the passionate moment we had just shared, this athletic body made me dream again. Part of me wished that Carter would forgo the phone call and stay with me. That he would cuddle up next to me on the bed, that we would exchange tenderness and laugh together...
"Too bad," Carter added, turning to me. "Otherwise we could have stayed here for a while longer." He looked at me meaningfully, smiled, and formed his lips into a kiss. My heart stumbled and I felt warm - even warmer than I already was.
"Yeah," I mumbled.
Isabella! Damn it! Is that really all you can think of to say?
"I like your room," I said now.
"Yeah?" Carter grinned.
"Yeah. It has something... well, something of you in it." Again, I cursed my clumsy choice of words. I had wanted to say that it was nice to get a glimpse into Carter's youth. To see a part of him that I hadn't known before. But Carter seemed to understand what I meant.
"Glad to hear it," he grinned now, came over and leaned over me. I was still lying naked on the bed. Carter kissed me on the mouth and I willingly opened my lips. Oh, how he tasted of more. Our tongues found each other. But just before the kiss became truly passionate, Carter pulled away from me and said regretfully, "I really do need to make this call. I'll see you downstairs later." He planted a few gentle kisses on the tip of my nose and eyelids, turned around and left the room.
I remained lying on the bed, smiling blissfully, and enjoyed the surroundings for a while longer. Today was a special day. Sure, I would be getting $50,000 from Carter for playing his fiancée here. But... it didn't feel like a game to me at all. It felt damn real. This was a real house, where a real family lived, with real conflicts, especially between Carter and his brother Cameron.
I furrowed my brow.
What could have once driven the two apart?
Had they had to compete for their mother's or grandmother's love? But neither Catherine nor Ruth seemed like that, and Carter's father didn't appear to openly favor either of his sons. I made a mental note to ask Carter about the cause of the dispute. My gut feeling was that the reason for the brothers' hostility was to be found in the private sphere, and the business competition was just another field where they could measure themselves against each other.
Maybe I would find out more at the party today.
I could chat a bit more with Grandma Ruth. She surely knew everything there was to know about the family.
I liked the idea. I quickly got up and went to the closet. There were still an old pair of running pants and a matching T-shirt of Carter's hanging there. I felt the clothes. The thought of wearing something on my skin that belonged to Carter and that he had once worn excited me.
It was so... intimate.
In addition to the great passion and attraction that had existed between us from the beginning, something else had developed in the last few days.
Intimacy?
I stared at Carter's clothes.
Intimacy.
The thought brought a contented smile to my face. Then I felt my purple dress. Except for a spot on the sleeve, it was already dry again. Of course. After all, I hadn't jumped into the pool like Carter, but had only hugged my "fiancé". So my dress hadn't gotten particularly wet.
As much as I would have liked to wear Carter's sports clothes on my skin, I didn't want to stand out uncomfortably at the wedding party or even incur the displeasure of Carter's sharp-tongued grandmother or his mother. So with slight regret, I slipped back into my dress and straightened it out. I critically examined my appearance in the mirror.
I looked like I always did. If anyone asked where I had been all this time, I would simply claim that it had taken a while for the dress to dry again. Satisfied, I nodded to my reflection and went through the house and back out into the garden.
There, people seemed to have forgotten about the incident with Johnnie. The guests were scattered across the lawn in groups of varying sizes, engaged in animated conversation. Probably only a few had even noticed what had happened by the pool earlier. I looked around searchingly. I couldn't spot Johnnie and his mother anywhere.
I skeptically looked at the sky now. The clouds that had already gathered earlier had thickened and were now slowly starting to pile up and darken. Would the weather hold long enough to celebrate the evening in the garden too? Had Cameron and Hanny even thought about what would happen in case of bad weather? The house was huge, but on my way down I hadn't seen any indication that they had prepared to move the celebration into the house if necessary.
I shrugged my shoulders.
That wasn't my problem.
I slowly crossed the lawn, looking for a familiar face. Apart from Carter's family, I hadn't spoken to anyone. Where were Carter's parents and his grandmother? My gaze wandered back and forth, but I couldn't spot anyone.
Instead, I suddenly saw Cameron. He was standing at the edge of the rows of chairs where the guests had watched the wedding ceremony. Far away from the buffet and the rest of the celebration.
Why wasn't he dancing with his wife?
He was talking to a woman, but it was clearly not Hanny. I had barely spoken to Hanny. But I had seen her. She was wearing a white dress and had dark hair that was styled in an elegant updo and adorned with pretty flowers. This description didn't fit the woman Cameron was talking to in the slightest.
The woman beside him was of medium height, plump, and had an overall pale appearance. Her hair color was indistinguishable, and the dress she wore looked, at least from a distance, as if it had been hanging in the closet for several years. Somehow, she resembled the woman I had seen coming out of Carter's office the day before yesterday.
Was it really her?
And if so, who was she?
What was she doing here?
I set off with determination. This was the opportunity to find out something about this woman. Carter and she obviously knew each other.
When I was about ten meters away from the two of them, Cameron suddenly nodded and pointed at me. The woman then nodded as well and started walking towards me.
What did this mean?
Had the two of them been talking about me?
I examined the woman as she walked unsteadily across the lawn in her high heels. Why hadn't she worn flat shoes? There were very nice ones, and she would have appeared considerably more graceful. My gaze traveled up to her face.
My impression hadn't deceived me. It was indeed the woman who had come out of Carter's office the day before yesterday.
"Hello," the stranger said to me as she stopped in front of me.
"Hello," I replied.
We stood facing each other in silence. I didn't know what to say. Should I ask her who she was? What she had wanted in Carter's office the day before yesterday?
She could ask you the same thing, Isabella. SHE approached you, so let HER start the conversation, instead of getting yourself into trouble with your curiosity. Remember, you're here as a fiancée. You're supposed to be inconspicuous and not meddle in affairs that probably don't concern you at all.
The woman cleared her throat. "We've met a few days ago. I don't know if you remember. In Carter's office."
"Yes," I replied simply.
"Cameron told me you're Carter's fiancée. Isabella, right?" the woman asked now.
"Yes," I said again. Now I was on guard. Cameron and the woman had indeed been talking about me. Why?
"I'm Abigail," the woman introduced herself and held out her hand. I took it. Abigail shook my hand. Her handshake was limp and soft, and it took a moment too long before she let go of my hand. And I still had no idea what she wanted from me.
"Cameron had invited me to his wedding. I didn't really want to come. But then my father told me that Carter would be here. With his fiancée." Abigail examined me with her pale eyes. Her gaze seemed... lurking. Could that really be? What did she want from me?
"Your father?" I asked, confused. What did her father have to do with it? And why hadn't Abigail originally wanted to come, but was now here?
"Yes, my father is a business partner of Carter's," Abigail replied.
"I see," I said. "Unfortunately, I don't know all of his business contacts."
"You could say he's the most important business contact." Abigail looked at me a bit more penetratingly than before. It was really hard to interpret the look in her pale eyes.
Damn. The most important business contact.
Should I have known that as a fiancée?
Don't get worked up, Isabella. There are men who tell their women everything, and there are men who tell their women almost nothing. How is Abigail supposed to know which kind of man Carter is?
"I was also with Carter once." Abigail's words snapped me out of my thoughts.
"Excuse me?" I thought I had misheard. Had Abigail just said she had been with Carter once?
"I was also with Carter once," Abigail repeated and added, "Until about a year ago. Then Carter left me hanging."
I stared at her in disbelief. Carter had left her hanging?
Isabella, pull yourself together now. You don't know what happened back then. Maybe Abigail cheated on Carter, and that's why he left her.
Or...
Another thought occurred to me.
Maybe they hadn't been together at all? Maybe Abigail was just imagining it because she would have liked to be with Carter? Why would Carter have been interested in such an unremarkable person?
"After our breakup, I gained ten kilos." Lost in thought, Abigail looked up at the cloudy sky and then turned back to me. "You're probably wondering why I'm telling you all this. Why I'm here."
"Yes," I nodded. The conversation was uncomfortable for me, and I wanted to end it as quickly as possible. Gossip with the ex of my own... fiancé... That was really the last thing I felt like doing.
"He dumped me. Just like he dumped all the women before and after me." Abigail looked at me wistfully.
"I'm sorry," I said now. "A breakup is always hard." It was churning inside me. Would Carter dump me the same way?
Don't be silly, Isabella. You're not even really engaged, so Carter can't dump you. Your contract will simply end. And that's all.
Today.
The contract would end today.
But in the past week, something had developed between Carter and me that somehow felt different and more real than anything I had ever known.
"I want to tell you something. Something important. That's why I came." Abigail's words startled me.
"Something important?" I repeated questioningly.
"Yes. It's about Carter. On the surface, he's a charming person whom everyone adores. Especially women. But what it looks like inside him..." Abigail looked at me mysteriously. She lowered her voice and leaned slightly towards me.
What it looked like inside Carter? Hadn't I been asking myself that over the past few days as well?
"Every time a woman believes Carter has feelings for her and that she's the only one, he disappears again." Abigail whispered. At that moment, a cool wind picked up. I shivered and at the same time felt small beads of sweat forming on my back. Abigail's words hit me like blows.
"He just can't be faithful. I don't even want to know how many times he cheated on me when we were still together. He's simply not made for anything long-term. He can barely stand to be with a woman for a week. If that. I don't think he knows what love is. For him, it's all more... more like a business. A contract."
More like a business. A contract.
The words echoed in my ears. I closed my eyes. I wanted nothing more than to run away, to hear nothing more.
"The only thing missing is him paying for it." Abigail was relentless.
He already has.
I didn't voice the thought. It was none of Abigail's business. Behind my closed eyes, $50,000 danced.
Had Carter never wanted anything more than a business arrangement? Was everything I had seen in him, all the affection I had perceived... had it all just been an act in the end? Or maybe not an act... but was it something that wouldn't have lasted beyond our week together anyway?
The thought stabbed me.
Tears formed behind my closed eyelids. I blinked and tried hard to push back the water in my eyes. Abigail shouldn't see me cry under any circumstances.
"And yet I always wanted him back. The whole time since our breakup." Abigail's voice was now quiet. Wistful. And a little loving. "That's why I went to his office the day before yesterday. I wanted him back."
Now I opened my eyes again. "Why?" I asked. "If he treated you so badly?"
Abigail shrugged. "I just can't live without him. Sure, he didn't behave properly. But without him, I was much worse off than with him. So I told myself I would try to win him back."
I stared into the pale eyes, in which I could perceive no emotion. "Are you trying to warn me?"
"And I got him back," Abigail continued, ignoring my question. "Yes. I got him back. He wanted me and so we... well, we did... in his office..." Abigail hesitated. "You know."
I stared at Abigail. Was she trying to tell me that she and Carter had sex in Carter's office the day before yesterday? Shortly before I arrived? Shortly before Carter and I had sex?
"He cheated on me," I said tonelessly.
Abigail nodded. "I'm sorry," she whispered. "I wish I were a stronger woman. Someone like you. Then I wouldn't have visited him. Then I would have told him to go to hell and lived my life. But my life was and is nothing without him. And the day before yesterday... I finally felt alive again. If you know what I mean."
I knew all too well what Abigail meant.
"I don't know what Carter will do now. He didn't say anything the day before yesterday. He's here with you today." Abigail took a deep breath. "And then I told myself... what I did was bad enough. Carter cheated on you. With me. That... I was too weak. I'm sorry." She looked at me.
I remained silent.
Was Abigail expecting forgiveness from me?
"But I'm strong enough to let you know. And then you'll be strong enough to make the right decision for yourself."
Abigail's words echoed in my ears.
In my body.
In my heart.