-JOANNE contd.
“What the fuck are you on about?” My voice wasn’t loud, but it was stern enough to prove that I was mad.
What the hell did she mean? ‘What else do I want from her?
“I mean, yeah, I deceived you; I fabricated your name in my contract, the signatures, and everything. But look at you; you look better than me. You look like you’re actually enjoying your life here.” She proceeded to end her words with another eye roll.
“Are you serious right now?” I scoffed.
“You know me better than anyone, so yeah, you should know when I’m serious.”
I shook my head. “No, Bailey. I thought I knew you, but it turns out that I don’t, not one bit. I lived with a snake, and I didn’t even know about that.”
“A snake!” she laughed, her bright red lipstick menacingly matching her red leather skirt. “Thanks to this snake, you’re living a fancy life and out of our crappy old life at Bronx.”
“Where the hell are you getting at?” I squinted.
What the fuck was she trying to say?
“I’m not trying to get anywhere; I’m just stating what I’ve been seeing. And yeah, I have a phone, so I see all that happens here. All news outlets are talking about Hardy and his new fiancé, Joanne. After his last one, how she’s pretty, and how every lady wants to be her right now. So what part of sorry do you want from me? The only thing you should be telling me is thank you! Be grateful for once!” She yelled.
I took a step forward; I was taller than her, so it gave me good morale as I stared at her.
“You’re a fuckin psycho,” I breathed out. “If that’s all you see, then you should have held on to your hefty debt ass and inserted your names on that contract instead of mine. Then maybe you will be the one on every news outlet, tagged as Hardy’s fiancé.”
“I should have; maybe I got scared that I was signing my existence to a man whom I barely knew. But now, call me selfish, but I wish I really did. I wish I never ran away because now you’re stealing my life and having a blast.”
“Stealing your life?” I almost choked on my voice. “Are you crazy?” I yelled.
Bailey was beyond crazy.
How dare she? She didn’t know what I was going through and only believed what the news provided her.
Did she really think I was actually engaged to Hardy?
Did she really think signing her stupid contract felt like signing an engagement paper to a tycoon?
“Bailey!” I screamed. “This is ruining my life; you don’t know half of anything! You don’t know what I had to endure during my stay here. I am being used, and you’re only choosing to believe what you saw on the internet? Getting mad because you made an irresponsible decision to run away from your problems. If only you knew what I have received from Hardy because of you. You’ll shut your darn mouth.”
“Bullshit!” Bailey scoffed.
“You’re a fuckin liar, Joanne; you’ve always been. Fine, maybe we were both going through some hardships in the Bronx, but somehow your life has always been better than mine; things have always rounded up your way. People actually liked you.”
“What?” I scoffed.
She rolled her eyes and said, “Don’t act clueless. We don’t have time to waste and go back to the past.”
“No.” I shook my head, hoping the tears waiting to crawl out would shake off too. “We have all the time in the world; take your time. Tell me!”
She scoffed, folding her arms in a very nasty manner.
“Before you started going out with Asher, I liked him first. And I told him, but he went on about how he has eyes for you.”
“My gosh!” I scoffed. “You sound like a child.”
“Leave me to sound like one. It might not seem like anything to you, but it hurt me so much. You started going out with Asher, and suddenly you had a lot to say about how he’s not a good kisser and bad in bed. You’re only going out with him because you don’t want him to feel bad. And let’s not leave out the fact that we always go for job interviews, but somehow you bagged yours. I bombed mine.
“Really?” I interrupted. “You want to pin your lazy ass on this? Your jealousy backstory sounds dumb. I’m sorry.”
“Yeah to you. It always seemed like you had this invisible spotlight on you. Everything is always working out in your favor. What if I had signed that contract for Hardy Bensimon and became an actual laborer for him instead of his fiancé like you had become?”
If only she knew how I was almost kidnapped two nights ago. If only she knew I wasn’t
“I’m not engaged to Hardy,” I began. “I’m just being used, okay?”
She scoffed, and a laugh followed afterwards.
“You don’t look like it,” she said.
“Not everyone gets to look like their problems Bailey. You have jealousy written over your features for letting yourself think the wrong things.”
My words felt like a blow to her face, and she glared at me.
“The wrong things? I saw pictures of both of you at a private party thrown by the prime minister’s son, called Trevor Jones. Why did it look like you were both actually engaged and in love?”
“It’s called an act. Keep up,” I slammed.
“Right. For someone being used, you look better. Way better than when we were in the Bronx”
She was so annoying.
The fact that I could be killed along the line was used by Hardy to catch the culprit who killed his ex-wife.
Even if I tried to tell her, Bailey believed whatever her subconscious rubbed into her mind.
“I mean. You used to be all skin and bones. But look at you now,” Bailey scoffed.
“I’m pregnant,” I let out.
A silence was immediately thrown at us, and she gawked at me like I just landed a slap on her face.
“I was forcefully inserminated when I got here. None of this is real. You know me; I never dreamed of wanting a child. But I’m pregnant. Isn’t that enough clue for you to realize everything happening here is not according to my will?” I scoffed.
She took a step back.
“So, you’re saying. That baby could have been mine.” She pointed at my stomach.
And that was it.
This conversation was pointless to begin with.
“You know what? I do hope Hardy replaces you with me and lets me go. I didn’t know why I was worried before, but I don’t care if you have this life that you irrationally rebuked me for. But Bailey, I am done with you. And I will never forgive you,” I spat, heading towards the door.
“You’re living a good life; you bought a painting worth millions of dollars; try to forgive your selfish thoughts before mine,” she echoed.
Gosh, I haven’t felt this much anger before.
I left the room in anger and felt my eyes well up with tears as I hurried down the hallway.
-*