Chapter 5 #2
“Daddy loves you very much, Diana.” Mommy hugs me from behind, and for a second, I see sadness in her blue-as-mine eyes, and her hold on me tightens.
“He loves you. He just doesn’t know how to show it.
You’re his daughter. Never forget it.” She kisses me on the cheek.
“You’ll never live my awful life. I’ll make sure of that. ”
I quickly wipe away the tear sliding down my cheek and bite the inside of my lower lip, refusing to go down that memory lane because my childhood memories leave me empty.
My mother’s only sin was falling in love with a man who hated her, and that ultimately killed her.
Focusing on the road ahead, I see alcoves and greenhouses where they must nurture even more roses, and the lights all over the perimeter allow for midnight strolls through the garden without ever getting lost.
“Angelica loved roses. They were her favorite flowers, so after her death, Orion changed the landscape. We couldn’t have grown all these bushes otherwise.
” My heart pangs painfully at this sad manifestation of the son’s love.
One might say when you have money you can buy whatever you want, but to put such a thought behind it…
the child in me who lost her mom too young connects with his pain.
“They’re so pretty and hell on my allergies.
” He chuckles and taps on his chest. “It warms my heart to see them because that was her dream.”
“She couldn’t grow them while she was alive?”
He rolls his lips and shakes his head, taking a turn to the right. That’s when I spot a three-story castle spreading horizontally over the brick structure where the roses climb up from the walls.
It must have around twenty rooms, judging by the windows with colorful glasses and the massive double doors guarded by huge marble hounds.
All in all, everything around me screams power, and I can guess, by the architecture, that it must have been designed in the nineteenth century.
You’d think Orion came from royalty or something. It’s common knowledge that his father was a broke student when he met his mother. One of the reasons they were both very young when they got married. He clearly grew his fortune from scratch, but how did he buy such a castle?
Architecture like this usually stays in the families for generations, and I can’t imagine anyone selling the family legacy. It’s a stupid decision from every angle, the business one included, since they would get way more money transforming it into a museum or whatever.
“Mr. Walker didn’t allow it.”
It takes me a second to understand he’s answering my question as he parks the car by the marble stairs leading to the house. “Who is Mr. Walker?”
“Orion’s father.”
I blink at this. “Wasn’t he Mr. Wright?”
He huffs, gripping the steering wheel, and snarls, “No. He took Angelica’s family name when he realized how much further ahead he could get with it.” A beat passes. “As if marrying the rich heiress wasn’t enough for him.”
So Rafael’s father must have been Orion’s mother’s cousin? This certainly explains their vast fortunes.
“His death could have been a celebration, if only Angelica hadn’t died first.”
I have no time to dwell on all of this rather disturbing family lore because what kind of person does one need to be for his driver to celebrate his death, as the door to the car opens just as thunder shakes the sky.
I see an elderly woman, wearing all black and with her hair tightly pulled back, standing by the front door, a grim expression on her face as she watches us.
“Welcome home, Mrs. Wright.” I do a double take at the older man greeting me, holding out an umbrella while he’s soaking from head to toe under the rain.
“Let me help you.” He extends his gloved hand to me, and that’s when I notice his butler’s suit consists of a long black jacket and gray pants with matching leather shoes.
Too stunned, I reply with, “Hello,” and place my hand in his as I get out of the car and wave at Timothy. “Thank you for bringing me.”
“At your service anytime, ma’am.”
“Please call me Diana.” The last thing I need is for all the elders to address me as ma’am. My grandma would have wrung my neck for it.
Among our family, she was the only one who valued the people who worked for us and never allowed any disrespect, even when my brother threw tantrum after tantrum, demanding that the strict ones be fired.
And he called anyone who wouldn’t let him get away with shit strict.
“My name is Leon.” The man next to me, who must be in his sixties as well, introduces himself as we move toward the house. “If you need anything, please let me know. All you have to do is ring a bell.”
“Ring a bell?” What the hell?
“Yes. Each room has a bell that you can ring in order to get us.”
“Yeah, I don’t think that would be necessary.”
Apparently, there is my family’s level of rich and the Wright family’s level of wealth.
We reach the doors, and Leon closes the umbrella, shaking off the water as we stare at one another with the woman. Matilda finally speaks up, her voice so void and grunting that it seems to come straight from the underworld. “Welcome, Mrs. Wright.”
“Hi. It’s nice to meet you. Just call me Diana, please.”
Chilliness crosses her gaze. “You are Mr. Wright’s wife, and you will be called by your title. We don’t allow familiarity.”
Okay.
“I’ll walk you to your room. Mr. Wright informed me that you’ll be taking residence in the left wing, while he’ll occupy the right one. Make sure not to go in there. He prefers his privacy, and we do not allow anyone to break the rules.”
Oh, living with this woman for a year will be an experience.
“No worries. I’m not interested in checking out his wing.” In fact, I will stay as far away as possible from it.
She ignores my statement as we enter the house. The golden marble greets me, and my heels click soundly against it as we move through the hallway with various paintings hanging on the wall toward the stairs. Matilda’s speed doesn’t allow me to study anything else.
We quickly go up the stairs to the second floor, and she turns left into a never-ending hallway with around ten rooms. When we enter the third one, she claps her hands, and the lights instantly turn on.
I gawk at the large room with a queen-size bed, a white couch, a few chairs, a wardrobe, and a small table by the balcony doors, which are wide open. The white curtains sway in different directions in the wake of the blasting wind from outside, along with the fresh air.
All in all…
It’s as bland as it might get, and freezing.
Do Wrights have something against color? Why is all their interior black and white?
“The bathroom is there.” She points at the black door several feet away. “Since all your clothes will be coming tomorrow, we took it upon ourselves to provide you with all the necessities for tonight. Dinner will be served at eight, so you have enough time to rest.”
She spins around on her heel and marches back to the door, and I finally snap out of my stupor. “I’m not hungry. I’ll just sleep and grab a bite later.”
She pauses at the threshold, and a shiver runs down my spine when she looks over her shoulder at me. “Dinner will be served at eight. We wear formal attire for it, so please choose the dress provided for you.”
It’s one thing to have rules overall and quite another to try to force me into eating when I don’t want to or follow some weird-ass etiquette that she has going on around here. “I don’t think—”
“This is nonnegotiable.” She shuts the door, but I can clearly hear what she didn’t say.
Or else.
What in the hell, once again?
Dropping on the bed with a loud huff, I wonder if maybe Orion is the sanest one around here. Isn’t that just peachy?
However, the mere thought of my husband flashes through my mind, and my breath hitches because it means we’ll have to share dinner.
An entire dinner in the company of a man who managed to confuse and awaken my body in the span of ten minutes, as pathetic as it is to admit.
“What did you get yourself into, Diana?” I mutter to myself and cover my face, exhaling a heavy breath and praying to all the gods to help me.
Because I think I just entered the cursed castle, and since I don’t intend to break any spells…
Let’s hope I can get out of here alive.
Because, for now, I feel like prey trapped in the enemy’s territory.
And what does the prey do once the hunter sets his eyes on her?
She runs.