“You want me to cook for you like some common maid?” Leonie hisses, “Don’t push it!”
“So you don’t want to?” Aver asks innocently, “I guess that’s fine. I’ll just go the next few days without eating, I suppose.”
As intended, Leilani’s words make Mrs. Florence Bamford quite anxious.
“Leonie, I haven’t tasted your fish soup,” she says in a conciliatory tone, “How about you make some for me?”
Leonie wants nothing more than to stab Leilani with one of the silver forks. She doesn’t know if the pregnancy is genuine or pretense. If Leilani’s faking it, it’s okay—the truth will come out soon enough.
“But if she’s truly pregnant, that’s bad,” Leonie thinks, “Waylen’s grandfather will send Diana back if Leilani’s pregnant. If Waylen and Leilani are finally divorcing, Diana can’t come back because she stands to gain the most from the divorce. Leonie knows she can’t allow Diana to come back until she’s secured her position and married Waylen, but she also doesn’t want Leilani to have Waylen’s baby.”
In the kitchen, the chef guts and skins the fish and gives it to Leonie. Leonie hearts oil in a pot before throwing the fish in. The hot oil splashes onto her bare skin, and she jumps back and screams in shock.
Leilani leans back in her chair and smiles. After Leonie screams, Leilani can hear pots and ladles banging against each other. Between the screams and the clanging metal, the kitchen sounds like a battlefield. Mrs. Florence Bamford frowns, and the wrinkles around her eyes deepen.
The milky fish soup is ready soon and the maid places a small bowl of it in front of Leilani. Mrs. Florence Bamford glances at the liquid and frowns with distaste. The soup smells too fishy and Leilani feels her stomach churn. She looks away with a small frown.
“I lost my appetite,” Leilani announces.
Leonie is enraged. Though she’s just sat down, she stands up and waves her arms at Leilani.
“First you want to drink it and then you don’t want to drink it,” Leonie snarls, “Make up your mind, lady!”
“Interesting,” Leilani says, smiling sarcastically, “I didn’t know you had to be a hothead to become Waylen’s wife.”
Leonie flushes with shame and embarrassment, frustrated that she allowed Leilani to get a rise out of her.
“What the hell do you want to eat then?” Mrs. Florence Bamford snaps.
Mrs. Florence Bamford doesn’t like to see Leilani upsetting Leonie and she hates Leilani’s arrogance. She feels that Leilani has completely spoiled her appetite. She wants to tell Leilani that she doesn’t care if she eats or not, but she knows she can’t. Leilani is already weak and half-starved—if she continues to avoid food, she may miscarry and Mrs. Florence Bamford doesn’t want to be held responsible for that.
“I’ll tell them to make chicken soup,” Florence says in a nicer tone, “Pregnant women have to eat something nutritious.”
“I heard that the kitchen staff all went up to the mountains to hunt game,” Leilani says, “And they say wild animals are more nutritious.”
“You can’t have that,” Leonie argues, “That’s for my birthday party tomorrow.”
“Fine, then I won’t eat,” Leilani snaps, “Where’s my phone? I want to check Google to see if starvation can cause a miscarriage.”
Mrs. Florence Bamford can’t believe Leilani’s boldness. Starvation will cause a miscarriage.
“Go tell them to cook whatever she wants” Mrs. Florence Bamford growls.
With a satisfied smile, Leilani stretches and rises from her chair.
“My whole body is a little sore, and I think I should rest for a bit,” Leilani says, “I hope the delicacy is ready when I get back.”
Leonie is furious, but she knows she’s powerless to do anything. Until she can prove that Leilani is faking the pregnancy, she has to cater to her every whim. Leilani raises her eyebrows mockingly at Leonie and then slowly leaves the room. She returns to the main building and calls Robert from a landline. Robert answers the phone with a speed that surprises her.
“Mrs. Bamford?” he asks.
“Robert, is Waylen awake?” Leilani asks, “How is he? Is he okay? Is his grandfather giving him a hard time?”
Robert remains quiet. Her voice sounds panicked and slightly unhinged, and he wonders if she realizes how bad she sounds.
“Mr. Bamford is fine,” Robert answers after a long pause.
“Then can you put him on the phone?” Leilani asks.
“It’s not a good time right now,” Robert says.
Leilani senses that something is wrong. Robert’s tone seems strange and she wonders what information he’s withholding from her.
“Is he with you?” Leilani asks.
Robert is Waylen’s butler, and he’s rarely far from Waylen’s side.
“I’m sorry, he isn’t,” Robert says.
“Will he come back tomorrow?” Leilani asks, the panic coating her throat.
“I don’t know,” Robert responds.
Leilani sighs. She wants to ask more questions, but she realizes it’s pointless. For whatever reason, Robert is insisting on withholding information. She hangs up, feeling depressed and weak. When she remembers that it’s her birthday tomorrow too, she feels worse.
As a child, she was treated like a groveling bastard. No one on the Peters family acknowledged her birthday, though they threw numerous parties for Janetta and Vanessa’s birthdays. In the Bamford household, she was just as despised. No one has ever celebrated her birthday before. She recalls Waylen making her promise to make and give him a gift on her birthday and she wants to cry.
“I’d give him anything, if I could just know he’s okay,” she thinks.
She walks to her room and enters her dressing room. There are closets embedded in walls holding designer purses, expensive jewelry, and neatly-organized designer watches. Leilani unlocks a drawer and stares at the three gift bags inside. Each gift bag contains a birthday present she carefully selected for Waylen—one for each year they were married.
The first bag contains a man’s wallet. Waylen threw it into the bin without so much as looking inside the bag. The second contains a tie clip which she also had to dredge out of the trash. The third contains a silk tie that he also threw away. Leilani stares at the gifts and tries to think of something Waylen doesn’t already have.
“Is there anything in the world he can’t just buy for himself?” she wonders.
The bright moon shines through the stained glass windows, casting colorful light onto her pale skin. She looks out the window and beyond the gate to the Bamford estate. A small child gives the guard at the gate a paper box and says something to him.
Beyond that, a group of young girls and boys float flowery lanterns in the river. Fireworks burst across the night sky and the girls gasped and shouted in surprise and admiration. In the distance, Leilani can vaguely hear Lucky barking. She curls up in the window seat and looks down at the grounds. Unlike the noisy scene outside, the house feels as quiet as a mausoleum. A warm breeze enters through the window and Leilani sigh. Time passes and a maid knocks at the door.
“Mrs. Bamford, security said one of the kids left this for you,” the maid says.
Leilani turns around, and the maid sees her silhouetted against the window. The full moon shines behind her like a silver aura. From where the maid stands, Leilani looks looks like a goddess sitting on the moon. The maid feels transfixed by Leilani’s beauty and almost forgets to give her the package.
Leilani examines the white paper bag, sealed with white tape. It looks ordinary and humble.
“They’ve checked it, of course,” the maid assures her,” It’s nothing dangerous.”
Leilani nods. Nothing enters the Bamfords’ home without careful inspection. Every food item, package and vehicle is examined by the security team. Leilani nods and the maid leaves. After the door shuts behind her, Leilani opens the package and sees a white phone. She turns the device on. The image on the screen terrifies her so badly, she almost throws the phone out the window.
In the picture, snakes squirm on the floor sticking and stick their tongues out at the camera. Bile rises in Leilani’s stomach and she wonders if she’s going to be sick. She looks more closely at the phone and realizes the file is a video. Suddenly, she hears screaming. The scream is unmistakably Gabby’s.
The camera pans to the side, revealing Gabby tied up tightly in the corner. The snakes move slowly toward Gabrielle and the snakes slide over her arms and legs and chest. She’s so scared that her face turns livid. She wants to scream but she’s scared to move near the snakes. She bites her lip and her eyes water.
Leilani shuts down the video. She can’t watch anymore. All she knows is she wants to cut Andrew into pieces for torturing her sister in this way.
New Book: Back Home to Marry Off Myself
Loredana’s father left the family for his mistress, leaving them to fend for themselves abroad. When life was at its toughest, her father showed up with “good news” after 8 years of absence: To marry off Loredana to a paralyzed son of the wealthy Mendelsohn family.
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