“Danary, are you ready to go?”
I perked up in recognition of Haraya’s voice and the familiar clamoring of the visitors entering through the front door. It must’ve been why Achilles darted out the backdoor in such a hurry. He truly was such an antisocial man when it came to anyone besides Liam or myself, but it was still something I found quite adorable in my giant of a husband.
I helped Liam down from the island top and walked out in hand with him to greet our visitors.
Even though it was still only morning, Mrs. Cordova was already spiritedly chatting away with her friend, pointing out all the details and ornaments along the walls as Ms. Mellisa stared at the interior of our house in awe.
I guess it was the first time Ms. Mellisa had visited our home due to Achilles’s overprotectiveness, but I figured that Ms. Mellisa was a safe person. She had apparently been friends with the Mrs. Cordova for decades, even before Mrs. Cordova married Achilles’s father, and generally acted as a good balance to Mrs. Cordova’s overly energetic personality.
I waved good morning to the two as I made my way over to Haraya.
She animatedly waved at me and cooed at my outfit, “You just look adorable, Danary. I love the layers and the color matches your eyes so well!”
I blushed at her compliment, “Thank you, Haraya. I liked the flowers on your dress too.”
Since she was much taller than me, she was able to pull off a longer floral maxi dress that fell down to her feet with a slit on the side revealing part of her leg. It had a deep v-neckline with only two thin straps holding the dress to her shoulders, resulting in the majority of her collarbone and shoulders being left over for all eyes to see.
She had light makeup with just a bit eyeliner and a thin layer of lipstick accentuating her plump lips, but oddly enough, her lipstick was a bit smugged at the side, which was quite unlike her.
I pointed to the corner of her lips and asked, “Do you a makeup remover wipe? It seems like you might’ve bumped into something this morning.”
She reflexively lowered her eyes, mood instantly plummeting, and covered the lower half of her face with her hand. “I-It’s alright. I can just fix in the bathroom with a bit of paper.”
I tilted my head to the side, slightly confused by her reaction. Did something happen to her before she came here?
But I didn’t have a chance to ask before she hurriedly darted off toward our guest bathroom. She didn’t seem like she wanted to talk about it, so I decided to drop it.
Instead, I walked over to the two elder ladies and formally greeted them, “Good morning, Mrs. Cordova and Ms. Mellisa.”
Mrs. Cordova immediately switched topics mid-sentence and cheerily greeted me, “Good morning, Danary! How’s my lovely daughter doing? Has Rafael been giving you any problems lately? Because I can scold him anytime for you.”
I giggled softly at her humorous behavior and replied, “Everything has been going well. And you know that Achilles never gives me trouble.”
Ms. Mellisa noted, “He really is quite smitten with you. I guess it must run in the family. All the Cordova men fall in love quite hard and fast, but they truly are more loyal to their partners than anyone else.”
I flushed bashfully at her comment. Her description really reflected Achilles down to the tee.
Mrs. Cordova playfully tackled her friend into a giant hug and exclaimed, “I’m sure you will someday find the perfect man for you too! After all, Cassy is already all grown up now, so there’s no reason you can’t go on dates anymore!”
Ms. Mellisa gently pushed her friend’s arms off of her and amicably replied, “I’m not comfortable with the idea of dating…”
Mrs. Cordova pouted and grumbled, “Just who is that man for you to still be hung up on him after all these years… I’ll knock some sense into him until he finally sees how great you are…”
I cocked my head to the side in confusion. I knew that Ms. Mellisa wasn’t married, but I never really thought about who Cassy’s father was. It wasn’t something she ever spoke about, but if she was already in love with someone, then was she a widow?
As Haraya made her back to our group, Mrs. Cordova eventually dropped the heavy subject and turned her attention back to us, cheerily continuing, “Mellisa said that she knew a good breakfast place in downtown Manhatten, so I was thinking about going out to brunch together and doing a bit of window shopping together before our boys finish up with their work.”
Haraya and I nodded, not bothered by the plans in the slightest.
Glancing down at Liam, I softly asked him, “Does that sound alright with you?”
He nodded quietly, turning completely silent in other people’s presence, and stuck close to my side. I guess he still wasn’t all that comfortable around people outside our family.
I patted his head softly as I turned back to the two elderly ladies and hesitantly asked, “Is it alright if Watson and some of the guards come along?”
Mrs. Cordova and Haraya nodded, completely unfazed, understanding how protective Achilles had been recently. But Mellisa’s eyes nearly fell out of their sockets when Watson and a group of bulky men in a dark uniform strode up behind me.
I smiled weakly and explained, “It was Achilles’s condition for letting me leave the house today…”
Ms. Mellisa shakily replied, “I, uh… The car isn’t big enough, all of them…”
Watson politely stepped forward to reply. “It’s alright, madam. Our guards can follow you in a separate car, but Mr. Cordova will want at least me to stay in the same car as the madam and young master.”
Ms. Mellisa nodded warily.
Taking no note of Ms. Mellisa’s startled state, Mrs. Cordova obliviously dragged her friend out the door and called out to us, “I’ll get my driver to pull around the car. You, youngsters, can just wait here for us.”
I watched as she disappeared down the driveway, hollering so happily that I could still hear her from even half a driveway away.
I glanced back up at Haraya, noting her blank expression. She was clearly upset about something but was stubbornly trying to hide it for some reason.
I lightly nudged her hand and softly told her, “You don’t have to push yourself to go if you’re not in the mood for it. I’m sure Mrs. Cordova would understand if I told her I wanted to stay at home with you instead.”
She shook her head, flashing me a fake smile. “I’m really alright, Danary. You got all dressed up to go out, and I don’t want let it to go to waste.”
“But you’re my friend…”
Standing a head taller than me even though I was already wearing heels, Haraya patted my head as if I was a child she needed to soothe and replied, “There’s no need to worry about me so much. I’m fine.”
I pouted and grumbled, “There really is something wrong then… People never say that they are fine unless they are not fine…”
She flinched at words and nervously diverted her eyes.
I stubbornly prodded her, “Can’t you tell me what’s wrong? You said we were friends, weren’t we?”
She reluctantly sighed and confessed, “I got into an argument with Benedict this morning…”
I raised an eyebrow in question, “You live with Mr. Serman?”
She stiffened and hurriedly denied, “No, no, no. It’s nothing like that. I-I was just dropping by his apartment to drop off some of the baked desserts that I made. He had been pestering me to give him some for this last week, but I had come at the wrong time and interrupted his time with some random girl…” Her mood dropped off with her words as her eyes fell to the ground. “I don’t know why I’m feeling like this… I mean… I’m not anyone to him, so I shouldn’t have been surprised since he had always been like that… But I just thought…”
I rubbed soft circles against the back of her hand, unsure of what to say in reply. I didn’t exactly know what their relationship was like, so all I could do was offer her condolences.
Trying to lift her mood, I told her, “Let’s stuff our faces with yummy dishes and desserts and forget about him for today. It would do you no good to dwell on things you can’t change, so let’s just focus on having fun today.”
She offered a weak smile in reply and nodded, “Thank you, Danary.”
I watched as she slowly made her way out to the car and pulled up into the driveway, containing the overly energetic Mrs. Cordova.
I fixed my hold on Liam’s hand and asked him, “Are you ready to go?”
He nodded mutely as he watched Haraya’s retreating figure.
As we made our way out the front door, Liam quietly mumbled, “Uncle Benedict is an idiot…”
I glanced down at him and silently raised an eyebrow in question.
He squeezed my fingers and flashed me a big smile, “I’m glad that you never got tangled up with him because I would have never approved of him. My dad is thousands of times better than him.”
I choked on his words and watched as he bounded away from him, hopping into the car as if he hadn’t just badmouthed my boss with an innocent smile on his face.
A soft chuckle sounded behind me. “The young master is really something.”
I pouted at Watson and huffed, “He’s only 5 years old! I don’t know where he learned to talk like that, and it makes me worried about when he grows older.”
“He’s just like when Mr. Cordova was younger, and Mr. Cordova turned out just fine, so there’s no need to worry so much.” He held out a hand to help me onto the car. “Just worry about having as much fun as possible today.”
I sighed and nodded, accepting his hand as I climbed into the car.
The car took off the moment Watson entered the car, speeding off straight into the city. Even though most of us didn’t talk too much, Mrs. Cordova had no trouble filling the ride with nothing but chatter the entire way.
She honestly had much too of an amusing personality.
The car pulled up in front of an open-space cafe spread across a little park in the center of the city. It looked like a pop-up stand with all sorts of greenery crawling up along its walls, but there was a full kitchen inside, and the wooden tables spread across the park were filled with patrons.
One of the waiters greeted us the moment we walked up to the stand. He managed to keep a bright smile for as much as he could, but I could tell that he was slightly startled by the large burly man behind me.
It was a good thing I told the other guards to simply fan around the perimeter instead of sitting right next to us. Otherwise, the waiter might have actually fainted in fright.
We were settled into one of the tables to the side as per Ms. Mellisa’s special request. The table was aesthetically decorated with a floral and spring-like theme like the rest of the shop.
The cafe seemed to have more sweet dishes than anything else, but neither Liam nor I minded, given our sweet tooth. If anything, we were having trouble deciding on a single dish.
In the end, I eventually placed an order for a pancake dish and a crepe dish to share between Liam and me.
The other girls managed to put in their orders with time as well and continue with light chatter about the weather or the other events taking place in the city this weekend. But Ms. Mellisa didn’t seem to be into the conversation as much as usual.
She seemed to be spacing out a bit more and constantly checking her phone.
However, I wasn’t the only one who noticed her change in behavior.
Mrs. Cordova lightly tapped her shoulder, trying to bring her into the conversation, and asked her, “How has Cassy been doing? She should have come with us today.”
I stiffened at the mention of Cassy.
It didn’t seem like Mrs. Cordova knew about Cassy’s confession to Achilles on the day of my accident. I, myself, didn’t even know what Achilles had done to Cassy after he said that he would interrogate her, but Ms. Mellisa seemed to have a bit more clue than the rest of us.
She pursed her lips and quietly mumbled, “She’s been away at a… a friend’s house…”
The waiters arrived with our food as she spoke and quickly left when they noticed the downturned mood.
But Mrs. Cordova was completely oblivious to the mood and excitedly asked, “Did she get a boyfriend?”
Ms. Mellisa sighed tiredly and replied, “No… She’s only ever… liked one person… You can’t expect her to get over unrequited love so easily…”
I lowered my eyes to my plate and quietly chewed on my food, feeling too awkward to join in on the conversation. After all, I was the reason why her daughter couldn’t be with the man she loved. I still felt a bit guilty even though she was the one who had dared to kiss my happily married husband.
Mrs. Cordova’s lips dropped into a little o-shape, probably finally remembering Cassy’s feelings for Achilles. She laughed nervously, “I didn’t mean to offend you, Mellisa… I thought that-”
“You never mean to,” Ms Mellisa interrupted a bit harsher than before. “You just do. You have always received what you wanted so you don’t know how painful it is for the rest of us to not be able to chose who we get to be with.”
Mrs. Cordova flinched at her words and tried to soothe her, “Mellisa, please calm down. I’m sure we can just talk-”
“You have know idea how it feels to have every single person you ever loved go for your friend. To always be the second choice!” Blowing up, Ms. Mellisa slammed her fork down and jolted us out of our seats. “To be always told that you were too dull and boring. To be always asked why you couldn’t be as cheerful as your other friend.”
Her tight grip on the fork made me nervous.
Even Watson was a feeling a bit uneasy behind me by her behavior, but he was still a bit hesitant to step in in fear of triggering her.
Mrs. Cordova nervously tried to reach out to her friend, “Mellisa-”
But Ms. Mellisa had no care for her gestures and swiftly slapped her hand away.
She glared at Mrs. Cordova and harshly replied, “I was always compared to you. Every thing I did was never enough because they always thought you did it better and I’m sick of living like this. Watching you joyfully go about your life and pretending like it doesn’t bother me at all. I-”
Liam had been feeling anxious with the heavy atmosphere and had instinctively tried to ease off his chair to come to me, but his action was not missed by the rigid lady.
Her eyes immediately snapped to my little boy the moment he tried to move. She grabbed him by his arm before I could reach and roughly yanked him into her hold.
Watson instinctively made a move to try to get Liam back, but she immediately backed away with my son in hand before he could get any closer.
My breath hitched when she pressed the tip of her fork into the side of his neck and threatened, “Don’t come near me otherwise the boy gets it.”
I anxiously looked back and forth from the crazed lady and my precious son.
Just how did things come out to this today.