Though his answer is vague, he means that he’s not interested sensually.
“And what about Leilani?” Leonie challenges.
“Don’t speak to me about Leilani,” he says, his voice becoming dangerous.
“Why shouldn’t I? There’s a persistent rumor that they were childhood sweethearts,” Leonie says, “You never made any effort to correct it so I thought maybe—”
“I don’t have time to correct every single silly rumor, do I?” Waylen asks.
Wounded, Leonie decides to play her final card.
“Are you using me to protect Diana?” she asks.
She has seen Waylen interact with her sister Diana, and he seems like a different man. He’s not impatient as he is with her or cold and angry as he is with Leilani; with Diana, he’s gentle and patient. She knows all too well what it means when a man acts so differently around a woman, and she can’t help but succ.u.mb to jealousy.
Waylen turns livid at Diana’s name and points to the door.
“Get out,” he says, his voice dangerously flat.
“Did you ask her to wait four years? You know, it’s six months to that deadline,” Leonie taunts, “If she comes back, are you going to give her everything—your heart and your name?”
“What else do you know?” he asks warily.
“Well, I know that Leilani will be forced to divorce you if she doesn’t bear an heir within the first four years of marriage. That’s why you asked Diana to wait four years. Am I right?”
“Think whatever you want to think,” Waylen says, “You can always go back to your family’s house if you don’t like it here.”
“I do like here, as a matter of fact,” Leonie says, “And I’ll try to make you like me no matter who you like now.”
She straightens her dress and gives Waylen a conspiratorial smile. “And, I’ll keep your little secret,” she adds.
Confident again, she turns and leaves the room.
In the bedroom, Leilani wakes from a fitful sleep. The door is open to allow fresh air to circulate, and she vaguely hears the conversation between Leonie and Waylen in the study next door.
The words swirl in her feverish mind.
“I didn’t touch you that night. According to David, the marks on your neck are from an allergic reaction.”
“I’m just not interested in you.”
“Are you using me to protect Diana?”
“If she comes back, are you going to give her everything?”
“I know that Leilani will be forced to divorce you if she doesn’t bear an heir within the first four years of marriage. That’s why you asked Diana to wait four years. Am I right?”
Their voices grate on her, and she frowns annoyed that they’ve disrupted her sleep. But slowly, her mind begins to work. So Leonie’s sister Diana is Waylen’s true childhood sweetheart. That’s surprising. Waylen has guarded his secret with incredible care—no one would suspect a thing.
She vaguely recalls meeting Diana once. Unlike Leonie who uses her beauty in a petty and flirtatious way, Diana seemed to be a true beauty. She was generous, and humble, and carried herself with quiet and gentle grace.
“She seemed to like my polar opposite,” Leilani thinks wryly.
She can imagine how deep Waylen’s feelings for Diana must be if he’s willing to use Leonie as a distraction. She shakes herself mentally—it’s none of her business what Waylen thinks about Diana. According to Leonie, Lance has to divorce her if she doesn’t produce an heir. All she has to do is avoid getting pregnant for the next six months, and she can finally leave the Bamford family.
Satisfied with her imminent divorce, she relaxes into the pillows. But then thought begins to bother her. If Waylen loves Diana so much, why is he trying to thwart her divorce plans? He’s such a strange man.
She tries to put the thought out of her mind. The medication has made her feel better and she wants to get out of bed. She doesn’t realize she’s in Waylen’s room until the maid appears to help her dress.
“Go get my clothes from my room, will you?”
“Mr. Bamford asked us to move all of your clothing into his room,” the maid informs her.
She opens the closet door and shows Leilani her outfits hanging across from Waylen’s. Leilani is puzzled. After over three years of marriage, Waylen wants her to share his room? Isn’t he concerned about hurting Diana’s feelings?
Leilani shrugs to herself. Maybe Diana is the type of woman who’s willing to forgive a powerful man like Waylen for loving other women. And anyway, Waylen doesn’t love her; he’s only interested in using her body while he waits for Diana.
Leilani looks through her clothing and decides on a relaxed blue ensemble. Wearing clothing that looks like pajamas are in style, and her outfit looks like it’s been taken off the cover of a magazine. With her messy hair and casual outfit, she looks effortlessly chic and s.e.xy.
“Is dinner ready?” she asks.
“Not yet. Mr. Bamford said that you could ask the chef to make whatever you like since you’re ill.”
“There’s no need. I’ll cook for myself.”
The servant looks at Leilani in amazement but doesn’t dare to object. Leilani always used to complain that the kitchen smelled like smoke and grease. Now she says she wants to cook her own dinner. The maid can’t figure out what’s going on with her.
Leilani stretches lazily, and the casual move reveals a lithe beauty. She yawns and then heads downstairs to the kitchen.
Charles did her a huge favor by making her the morning-after pills, and she wants to do something to repay him. All he’s ever asked is that she cooks him spaghetti, and she’s determined to grant this one small wish.
No one ever taught Leilani how to cook or do chores. The Peters family always had maids and cooks to do things for them, and Leilani’s education was dedicated to making her a suitable wife for a rich and powerful man. She’s never made pasta before and she opens a recipe app on her phone to help. She searches the kitchen for the ingredients.
“I’ll do it, Mrs. Bamford,” the cook says hurriedly upon realizing that Leilani intends to cook. She’d lose her job if Waylen found out his wife was cooking for herself.
“It’s fine,” Leilani insists, “I want to do it.”
Leilani places a large pot of water to boil on the stove and begins to prepare the sauce. As she cooks, she sends Charles several pictures and captions them, “Guess what’s cooking!”
Charles responds almost instantly, “Looks like pasta sauce. Are you making pasta?”
“Are you sure you don’t want something more complicated?” she texts back.
“I don’t want you to overexert yourself,” he answers.
She takes spaghetti from the pantry and places it in the boiling water. The sauce is simmering on the stove, and the smell of ground beef and tomato fills the kitchen. The sauce is the soul of the dish and she wants to get it right.
“Mrs. Bamford, we can make your pasta if that’s what you want,” the cook tries to take Leilani’s place at the stove.
Leilani stands her ground but says nothing. She can’t say she’s making a special meal for Charles to thank him for the pills. And she definitely can’t say that she’s scared that someone has been putting something in her food to tamper with her memory. As she cooks, she begins to wonder how she can convince the servants to let her cook all her own meals. She only has six months left in the Bamford mansion, but in that time, someone could easily kill her with the toxin.
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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