Chapter Ten
Liza’s POV
Eventually, I got bored with everything.
There were times I’d take a stroll around the mansion as though I didn’t care about a thing.
The constant staring at the ceiling made me feel like my life lacked purpose, not to mention how I looked blankly at the television screen.
I tried to watch some shows, but I couldn’t pay attention.
I remember Love Island used to be a hell of a show; now it looked like a chaotic piece of reality TV.
Moments weaved seconds, minutes, days, and weeks into a perfect knot, to the point where I didn’t notice the time passing like a stranger on the roadside.
All I did was sit and play along with my loneliness.
Roman still kept his distance. I feared, at some point, that my presence began to fade out in his head.
He ignored me most of the time, yet I stayed resilient in my longing.
I don’t know why I thought of him much. I found myself yearning for his voice and silly wit.
I longed to take my time to watch the way he looked at me.
His green eyes set my mind at ease. I missed his reaction each time I did things contrary to the way he intended.
I don't know what made me miss him, but I did. His decision to distance himself from me made me slightly desperate. His silence towards me, on the other hand, was romantic but disturbing. Roman hadn’t said a thing about marriage in the previous weeks, which made me panic.
Little by little, I despised being pushed out into nothing.
I was left to wonder what his true intentions were towards me. I needed to find out.
At this moment, I sat in the lounge alone.
I felt a little moisture in the air, although my lips were dry.
I heard the sound of footsteps, so I turned towards the door and saw Isabella walk quickly towards me.
Her entrance was a storm of expensive perfume dancing around her silk gown.
I stood up to receive her, and her arms flung wide open to embrace me.
“I miss you, my dear,” she said while she pressed my body tight to hers.
“I miss you too, Bella.”
“I would have come earlier, but I had to stay back and do some work with Mikhail. I’m sorry.”
“It’s fine. I understand.” I replied and rubbed her hands in a subtle massage. I was slightly overwhelmed by her presence, and the joy I thought I had lost began to encompass me.
“Hey, Liza,” I opened my eyes to see who spoke.
Immediately, I broke the embrace with Isabella and hugged Emilia.
I hadn’t noticed the moment she walked in.
I must have been carried away by Isabella’s hug.
My ladies were here, and in this moment, that was all that mattered.
The bad energy was gone, and life took on a different meaning. I was happy.
“How have you been, my love?” Emilia asked, her hair smelled of vanilla, exploding with a touch of cinnamon.
“I guess I’m fine now,” I said.
“Don’t worry, we’re here to make you feel better,” Isabella said.
I could tell how happy they both were to see me, as though I’d been missing for years.
The flicker in their eyes was hopeful, their smile seemed a bit pitying yet loving, and it filled my heart with so much emotion.
I felt the tears cloud my eyes, and I tried my best to hold them back.
“So…What’s new?” Emilia asked the second we all sat on the sofa.
“Nothing,” I answered. “It’s all the same here.”
“Is Roman hard on you?” Isabella asked.
“No,” I shook my head, negating her thought.
If I were to judge, I’d say that Roman was a sweetheart trapped in a mysterious body that I needed to unravel.
Life with Roman so far has been confusing.
And to answer her question in all honesty, I continued, “Quite the contrary. We live together under the same roof as engaged lovers, but really, we’re fucking strangers.
It’s crazy. And whenever I notice how he doesn’t smile when our eyes collide, it makes me wonder what his thoughts towards me are.
I mean, I get the collateral part, you guys know.
But, sometimes, I just…wonder…what’s really going on between us. The man wouldn’t just…talk.”
“Hmm…men,” Emilia said. “They’re all full of themselves sometimes. I think space is what he thinks he needs for the moment.”
“You think?”
“Yeah. Viktor acts that way sometimes.”
Isabella added, “Baby girl, just relax. You have nothing to worry about. Everything is going to work out. It’s almost like a phase every man goes through.
They keep their distance for a while, and we miss them.
They almost never notice how much we miss them, but they come running back to us the second they miss us.
And I’ll tell you again, you bagged the calmest brother. ”
“And that’s the best part,” Emilia said, and my heart jumped with gladness. The accuracy with which she described the whole situation made it seem brighter. “I hope you haven’t been a hard ass to him, though?”
“I’m not a badass,” I answered, chuckling mischievously. “Or am I? Isabella?”
“Uh, you’re asking me?” she joked, pursing her lips in mock innocence as Emilia and I burst into laughter. “I know you’re a darling.”
“Speaking of bad people,” Emilia coughed out after she sipped a tiny portion of her tea. “Please tell me you’ve heard about the latest couples in town.”
At this point, I kept my eyes narrowed at both of them. Isabella’s smile exposed her knowledge of the information, and I sat there being the only one confused.
“You mean Erik and Yolanda’s marriage?” Isabella replied with enthusiasm that meant she had lots of comments about it.
If it wasn’t about the wedding, then it was about the person, and I was down to hear it all.
I hadn’t fully immersed myself in their wedding, though I’d seen a headline or two.
And although I felt I had bigger things to worry about than some wedding, it kind of piqued my interest.
“No, I don’t think I’ve heard anything much about the wedding,” I said.
“At least, tell me you know Yolanda,” Isabella uttered. Her eyes were steady on mine.
“What about her?”
Isabella raised her eyebrows. “Oh, honey. Everything.”
Emilia smiled after knowingly sighing. “Isabella’s been waiting to talk about this all week. Let her get it out of her system.”
I knew it.
“Thank you,” Isabella said. Then she turned back to me. “Yolanda got married two weeks ago to Erik Keane.”
I even sat up. Erik Keane wasn’t a small name in the whole of America. He was the kind of humble merchant who had wealth that turned most people polite.
“Seriously?” I asked.
“Yes, Liza, and I’m dead serious,” Isabella said. “The wedding lasted three days. Three whole days, and the lady couldn’t take her time to embrace her newly found status, she looked like she was auditioning for the role of Empress of the Universe or something.”
Emilia giggled at Isabella’s description. “She always looks like that.”
“Her gown looked drenched in diamonds,” Isabella continued. “The cake was taller than I am.”
“Really?” Emilia said, pouring tea. “I thought you liked the cake.”
“I loved it, but why would a cake be taller than me?”
I leaned back onto the sofa. I enjoyed being around them because they brought a calm that was soothing.
“So why do you sound so dramatic?” I asked. “People get married all the time.”
“Oh, darling,” Isabella said, “because the woman has the personality of Maleficent.”
I snorted at her description. I couldn't help it.
She grinned at me right before she added. “Don’t pretend you don’t know what I’m talking about, Liza. Yolanda has always been obsessed with wealth. She treats money like it’s her god. Erik is in for a wild time with that one.”
Emilia set down the teapot gently. “I still say she was pregnant. That’s the only thing that makes sense.”
Isabella tilted her head toward her. “Don’t steal my theory.”
“It was my theory first,” Emilia said calmly. “You can’t steal something I already believed.”
I raised an eyebrow. “Pregnant?”
“Of course,” Emilia said. “If only you followed the wedding or at least attended, you’d see for yourself how it all adds up.”
“Or,” Isabella cut in, “it might also be that he just loves her. Some people do stupid things on purpose.”
“Love is not stupid,” Emilia said. “Loving the wrong person is.”
“Okay,” Isabella said in surrender, which was odd. She wasn’t the type to surrender quickly in conversations. “That part is true.”
They stared at each other for a long while.
I wrapped my hands around my warm cup and stared into the tea in wonder at how much I know about love.
It turns out that I don’t know much. And by that, I don’t mean the kind of love that people could ruin their whole lives for.
But I know what it feels like to be trapped in someone else’s decisions, especially mine.
Maybe that’s close enough.
“You think he really loves her?” I asked Isabella, and she nodded.
“That man has been hooked for years. Remember the story about how he offered her his grandmother’s only necklace, which was made from centuries-old topaz?”
“That was a wild gesture,” Emilia said. “Romantic, but wild.”
“Sometimes romance is wild.”
“And sometimes wildness ends with a chaotic feeling,” Emilia said, and I wondered what made her think that way.
Isabella shrugged at her and crossed her legs. “I still think he loves her.”
I didn’t say anything. The conversation simmered for a while, and it gradually died down to silence.
That was when the thought began to crawl in.
The kind of thoughts that made me wonder if perhaps Roman and I were ever going to have such a wedding that would have the whole of Russia and America shaken.
I gently shrugged off the thought. Nonetheless, it’s been weeks since he said anything about it, so I preferred to stay silent.
Stepan walked in with a sealed document. I arranged myself on the couch and looked at his face, unsmiling, while he sighed.
“Do you have any clue as to where Roman is?”
“I have no idea,” I said in all honesty.
Surprisingly, the door of Roman’s study opened, and he walked out without a care in the world.
He didn’t look at any of us. I wished he would just look at me so I could turn my head away.
I wanted him to see that I wasn’t happy with his attitude, but he didn’t even give a damn.
Regardless, he opened the envelope after receiving it from Stepan, who walked out. It was a piece of paper. Roman’s jaws tightened while he read through, and I became flushed with concern.
“What’s wrong?” I managed to ask, and he turned to me.
“It’s another bad report. Another Markov account has been exposed, millions of dollars are gone, and the rival oligarchs are marching close,” he said in one of the saddest tones I’ve heard.
I really wish I knew how my father kept doing all the things he does. It’s depressing to be the face of embarrassment and disgrace. He’s the one who made the mistakes, yet I felt the guilt.
Roman looked at me, and for the first time in a long while, I saw his eyes. His charming green eyes made me weak.
“Won’t you say something?” He asked. His voice was almost pitched high, and the way he said it made me scared for a moment.
“That was harsh,” Isabella said.
“It would be nice if you’d tone it down a little,” Emilia added, and Roman sighed.
“I’m sorry if I raised my voice at you, Liza. But if you don’t give me the details, there’ll be consequences.”
The moment he left, I felt nauseous. I ran to the restroom and threw up. My head ached, and my throat felt clogged at the same time. I washed my mouth, rinsed my face, and breathed before I walked back to them. Their eyes were flooded with concern before I sat.
“You look pale.” I just smiled at Isabella’s comment.
“And honestly, I think you’ve lost some weight,” Emilia said almost immediately.
“It’s nothing to worry about,” I said, trying to get their minds off me, but I doubted it was possible.
***********
They both left, promising to return soon.
I sat at my dressing table brushing my sleek bob, which grew longer each day.
I checked my calendar, and the only thing that kept crossing my mind was my missed period.
The more I thought about it, the more my stomach churned and twisted from the possibility of the unthinkable happening.
It means a lot to be pregnant, I thought. I didn’t want to dread it, but I couldn’t help feeling a little scared. I looked at my body in the mirror. My hands were sliding up and down my belly while I fantasized about having a baby bump.
“Liza, what the hell have you done?” I whispered out loud.
Just then, the door opened, and Roman walked in. I released my hands and prayed he didn’t see anything. He looked calm, reserved in the best possible way, and then he looked at me, sighed, and opened his mouth.
“We’re getting married in two weeks,” he said, and I raised my eyebrows. My mind melted a little, not because I was confused, but because I never saw it coming.