Leilani can’t deny that she’s been intentionally pissing him off in an attempt to persuade him to divorce her. But it hasn’t worked the way she planned.
The conversation seems to be getting too heavy, so she jokes, “It’s hard since I’m so beautiful. I think only a cranky doctor like you could resist my charm.”
She winks at him with her beautiful blue eyes and Charles feels his heart tremble. How can he resist her?
Leilani changes the subject back the pills, “They work up to 48 hours after, right?”
Charles, still drowning in her smile, clears his throat and nods.
“I want some more, just in case.”
One by one, he carefully puts the tablets into a glass container and hands it to her without question. He knows what she’s up against. Waylen is not a normal guy. If Waylen has decided he wants to have her, Charles worries that she might not be able to refuse him.
“Thanks,” she puts the glass in her pocket, “I’ll check on Nanny now.”
She turns to leave the room, but a strong hand grabs her wrist. Charles looks at her intensely, then releases his grip, gently stroking her palm and fingers with his. Something icy and hard slips onto her middle finger.
“Will you marry me?” he asks lightly.
“My answer doesn’t matter,” she jokes, “Bigamy is illegal.”
Charles smiles, but he doesn’t say a word. Instead, he fiddles with the ring he’s put on her finger. The green diamond at the center of the ring opens, revealing a thin needle embedded in the stone.
“It’s made of a material which can detect poison in food,” he says, “It’s specially designed to detect the new toxin in your body.”
“It’s far too valuable. I can’t take it.” Leilani protests.
She starts to take it off her finger. She knows a lot about precious gems because collecting them is one of Mrs. Bamford’s passions. When her family prepared her to compete for Waylen, lessons on precious stones were considered a compulsory part of her education.
She can tell that the green diamond is incredibly rare: it’s extremely difficult to manufacture and it costs at least three million dollars a carat. Judging by its size, it’s multiple carats. She doesn’t realize that the needle is far more valuable than the rare gem that conceals it.
Charles pushes it back down her finger.
“It’s not as valuable as your life,” he says.
She’s never seen him so insistent about anything. Reluctantly, she lets him put the ring back onto her finger. It fits perfectly.
“Let’s go,” he guides her out of his office and toward her nanny’s room.
“Has Bryan Flynn been coming around lately?” she asks.
Bryan is her nanny’s son. She grew up with him and thinks of him as a brother.
“If he doesn’t have to go to school,” Charles answers, “But he’s busy lately and he’s always asking me when you will come.”
“Doesn’t he know it’s almost impossible for me to go out?”
Leilani can’t help but frown thinking about the difficulty of visiting her nanny.
“He knows. But we all want to see you more often.”
“I’ll probably see you every day once the divorce is finalized,” she says, “Won’t you get bored of me?”
“No, it would be a pleasure.”
Charles looks at her with intense almost slavish devotion and she laughs.
“What’s so funny?” Charles worries.
He’s never heard her laugh like this before.
“She probably has no idea how beautiful she is when she laughs,” he thinks.
Leilani shakes her head, “I’m thinking about Bryan’s wild haircut,” she says, “The last time I saw him he’d just changed his hair. It was hilarious.”
“What if I got the same haircut?” Charles jokes.
“Don’t. You look better this way.”
Charles nods with satisfaction and smiles to himself.
They arrive in the room. The nurse isn’t in, and Leilani’s nanny is alone. She’s lost weight since the last time Leilani saw her. Her hair has grayed, too. She’s lying on the bed so serenely, she wouldn’t look ill if it wasn’t for the oxygen mask strapped to her face.
Leilani walks toward the bed, moving lightly so her heels don’t create any noise against the floor.
“Nanny?” Leilani calls her tentatively.
The woman doesn’t respond; she just lies there, motionless and silent. Leilani takes Nanny’s hand and Charles pulls up a chair for her. She sits down and strokes the wrinkles on the old woman’s hand. The long coma has caused such dramatic weight loss that Leilani feels like she’s stroking only skin and bone. It aches her heart to caress nanny’s wasted hand over and over again.
“I’m sorry it took me so long to come,” she apologizes, “You mustn’t be angry with me. You know how strict the Bamford’s rules are—it’s taken me ages to sneak out. But then if you knew what I’d done you’d scold me for misbehaving, wouldn’t you?”
Leilani smiles suddenly, recalling how worried her nanny got every time she came home past curfew. The older woman used to swear when Leilani complained that the Bamford’s house was like a jail.
“Would you wake up if you knew I was divorcing Waylen?” she asks.
She stares at Nanny’s calm face. If Nanny was awake, she’d give Leilani a stern look and put her hands on her h.i.p.s. She’d frown and scold Leilani, telling her that she’s very lucky to be Waylen Bamford’s wife. That she should cherish her marital bliss.
Lucky? Bliss? Waylen groans. The last three years at the Bamford’s house have been the most miserable years of her life. There is no bliss. She is not lucky.
“Rest assured, I promise to take good care of Bryan and myself.”
She thinks of Bryan as her baby brother, although they don’t have any blood relation. Charles escorts Leilani to the entrance of the hospital. After a simple goodbye, Leilani gets into her car, floors the gas pedal, and disappears into the night.
The hour hand on Leilani’s watchpoints to twelve. There is little traffic on the road at midnight. Everything looks deserted; Leilani passes only a handful of cars as she drives. She turns on the radio. Jazz comes out of the speakers at a high volume, echoing into the night. She feels alive and free.
Three Porsches trail her sports car. Probably wealthy men on their way to another nightclub, she thinks. Thought the cars are speeding, they intentionally slow down as they pass her. One honks the horn, another man rolled down his window and shouts “Hey, baby, care to join us?”
Leilani isn’t agitated. She’s not going to let these men ruin her rare freedom. Subconsciously, she turns and looks at another car—it’s been following her for almost two hours and she knows all too well who sent it. She smiles and turns to the Porsche owners, “Sure, s.e.xy! Why not?”
Leilani pulls her car over to the side of the road. She hops out of the driver’s seat and gets into one of the Porsches. She gives her keys to the driver’s friend and asks him to take her car. The men drive quickly, and they soon lose the slower car filled with Waylen’s henchmen.
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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