Chapter 10
So, I woke up this morning right? I am thinking, I am feeling a bit sore so I should stretch out but I couldn't. There was a body next to me. A body hugged up to me as if I was a big, fluffy teddy bear. Their arms were thrown across my chest, one of their legs resting on top of my hip in the middle of my legs. Oh Shit! They're moving. Then, nothing. They went back to being lifeless in a mini second and immediately start snoring again. I am not really bothered by the affection, not at all. It is the fact that the person next to me, embracing me all over, is completely and absolutely and very much, naked. I didn't know, really, about it at first as soon as I woke up. I just felt something, something brushing against my arm tucked against the flesh of the limp naked corpse. I felt something pointy and I'd dare say erect. So, I look down under the covers to find complete nakedness. The erect nipples are not the only thing that I felt. I also felt something else and if I think about it too much, I'll blush even harder than I am right now.
So, I have been staring at the ceiling for a good while, wondering why in the hell was an Amy, fully clothed last night be naked now? I don't know if I should wake her up or not. I am thinking about the events of last night. When she was running to me and fell on top of me last night, she had clothes on right? I know she did. I felt the fabric. Then, why? Why is she naked now? I look down at her, moving up closer to my neck, and burying her head there. You remember that part I was talking about saying if I think about it too much, I'll start blushing harder? Yes, that one, I am feeling it even more now. I am blushing too hard right now. You don't want to see me, so don't picture me either. It's embarrassing. To make things worse, I am feeling their breathing on my neck, sending all types of electricity everywhere in my body. I can't take it anymore. So, I slowly try to disentangle myself from the body but the person grips on tighter. I try once more, removing their arm above my chest but they place it there again.
The person buries themselves against me even more, "What are you doing Sophie? Stay a little bit longer…" she sleepily whines.
That's it, I am pissed off. Who the fuck is Sophie? What the hell?
I am pissed the fuck off right now. I violently push her off me and she rolls off the bed, landing on the wooden floor. The fall resonated in a loud thump and a loud cry from a very pissed Amy Raudenfeld-Cooper.
"What the fuck?" she yells. She quickly gets off on her feet and her eyes turn wide as she realizes where she actually spent the night last night. "Shit! It's not Carmen."
"Or Sophie but keep going, you are getting warmer." I jump up the bed.
And as I start walking towards the bathroom, I am immediately stop by someone sitting on a chair in the corner of the room. I have a fleeting sense of déjà vu. Wait! That chair was never there. Then, why is it there? Was it always there? And who is this person? And how long have they been there?
"Well, I'm guessing both of you are now awake." The person who turned out to be a woman folds up the paper they were reading and smiles at us both, laying the newspaper across their lap. "It took you guys long enough."
"Excuse me, but who are you?" I ask.
The woman stands up on their feet and walks towards me, "I don't think it is well-mannered for someone to be sleeping in my house to demand to know who I am while they should give up their information first."
She is intimidating. Wait! Her house? I blink. Is she who I think she is?
"Amy dear, how many times have I told you to keep your floozies away from my respectable mansion. I don't tolerate having to deal with the scandal or the pain of changing and replacing those expansive sheets with new ones." The lady says and I'll be danm if I didn't hear the sinister tone underneath the quiet insult.
"Good morning to you too mother!" Amy says.
The lady smiles while keeping her eyes locked within mine, "Why don't you put your clothes on? Our little tramp here was extremely flustered this morning. She couldn't keep her eyes off you."
"She's not a tramp mother, she's my fiancée." Amy affirms as she envelops herself in the covers and walks towards me, "And I want to marry her."
What a way to announce an engagement to a mother.
Amy's mother tenses but keeps her composure intact. I could see the aggravating nuance in her eyes. It was fleeting and brief but it left a lasting impacting effect on me nonetheless.
I am a bit scared.
"Oh, do you now?" She simply says and still, keeps the smile that did not look neither honest nor dishonest. I couldn't quite make anything of it actually. She slowly narrows her eyes down on me, "Is that the girl Nick reported to me about? I thought he was merely talking gibberish. For my own daughter has never been serious about any girl." She looks at Amy, "Well, except for one of course."
Amy pulls me at her side, "She's not like her." she spat.
"How do you know for sure dear!" she says, and then turns to face me, "Karma, right?"
I gulp, "Yes ma'am…"
She widens her smiles, displaying her perfect white teeth, "won't you join us for breakfast?"
I tentatively nod.
With the smile still plastered on her face, she turns on her heels and walks her way out of the bedroom.
I finally find myself breathing. When did I stop breathing? I don't know. Danm! She was intense. She was intense and…wooh! Intense. Amy releases me then walks over to the bed and throws herself on the bed, face up, groaning against the pillow that she grabbed. I slowly turn around and all I could yell off after finding my voice was…"Why the deuce were you naked?"
She sits upright almost immediately, "Well, I felt hot in the middle of the night so I took off my clothes." She shrugs.
"You could have just taken off the sheets off of you." I say.
"I did," she complains, "But it didn't help much. I felt like I was in a burning furnace so I took off my clothes."
"Seriously?" I cross my arms above my chest.
"Truthfully, I don't know how it got to this point. I only remember taking off my shirt. I must have taken off the rest through sleep and I didn't realize it."
I say nothing. I feel my hands shaking over my breasts and I don't know why.
Amy sighs, "she's intense…I know."
"Oh yeah! Very intense I'd say." I stare around the large room. This is the first time I ever felt nervous ever since this entire thing started.
Amy must have felt the uneasiness so she gets off the disheveled bed walks to me to gently cup my chin, "Hey, don't worry alright. I won't let her hurt you."
"What? She will…" panic quickly rises within me.
"My mother is sly so, she has different ways to deal with people. She'll probably scheme in a way where the tables will turn and we're the ones being played."
"So, that's like a game." I look to the door where the woman just exits through, "and I am the pawn?"
Amy nods then kisses my forehead, "We all are pawns when it comes to my mother; miserable pawns in the gigantic game of chess that is her life."
She then leaves as well, leaving me with my thoughts. Well, I wasn't really thinking. I was just out of it for a while, a very short while actually. I didn't know what to think. I proceed to then go the bathroom and take care of personal hygiene before heading down towards the back garden where Lauren, Amy, and the intimidating women were already sitting. I take a sit right next to Lauren and she smiles brightly at me.
"Good morning Karma, how was the night?" she beams, placing down her phone. I immediately blush as images of a naked Amy infiltrates within my thoughts.
"It was OK… thank you for asking." I smile at her
She smiles back, "You're welcome." Then she slyly winks at me, "She's very affectionate when she sleeps isn't she?"
Amy heard her, "Lauren shut the fuck up!"
"Amy dear, we have a guest who is none other than your 'fiancée', control your mouth." She is still smiling at me before breaking away to read her newspaper, "A fiancée who apparently doesn't understand the concept of time." She sighs.
"I'm sorry I am late to breakfast." I apologize, "I made you guys wait a while."
"It is OK dear! I hope it doesn't repeat again in the future; if there even is a future." She lifts her eyes over the newspaper and briefly glimpses at me before looking back down.
I quietly smile looking at Amy who is now glaring at her mother, "Yes ma'am."
There was a deafening awkward silence when the maids served us the breakfast that we've all waited for. No one says a thing for a long while until Lauren breaks the icy cold ice.
"So mother, when did you arrive here?" Lauren asks.
"Earlier this morning at dawn." She says.
"How was your flight?" She tries to prolong the awkward conversation that the woman obviously did not have a wish to continue.
"Long and tiring." She lazily briefs a glance towards Lauren then looks down at her newspaper.
"Did you have a good night sleep?" She asks again.
"Nope, I didn't."
"Why not?'
"It was uncomfortable."
"Then, how was New Delhi?"
"Successful, next question?" She glances up the newspaper again then ignore Lauren right after that.
Lauren looks down at her breakfast and mouth a resounding, "Nope."
Wow! If I was given a penny for the incalculable syllables that my mother puts in her sentences, I'd be wealthier than the wealthy than if that woman was my mother. Now, if she was, I'd be dead poor of love and affection and tenderness. I feel bad for Amy now, and Lauren that gained a cold stepmother like that.
Amy looks crestfallen somewhat and I felt this pang tugs tightly in my stomach. I see why she is the way she is. She never had the affection of a mother. That's why she looked so happy when my mother told her to come by again and she'll make her famous soufflé that Amy seemed to have loved a lot. Wow!
Lauren pulls me out of my thought, "So, there was a power shortage last night." She grins my way.
"Yes, apparently so." I confirm and she still gives me that suspicious grin along with a wink.
"I know, I'm the one who caused it." she smiles.
"That was you?" Amy glares away from her breakfast. She was mad.
"It was a joke!" Lauren raises her hands up trying to protect herself from Amy's wrath.
"Amy, I didn't know you were scared of the dark." I say.
"Boy, is she?" Lauren beams, "She's beyond petrified. That's why she always sleeps away from the mansion…"
"Lauren…" she grits.
"What?" Lauren looks perplexed at Amy, "Everyone knows you can't sleep alone in the dark and now Karma knows." She looks back to me, "That's why she sleeps elsewhere with different women, every night."
"Aren't you a bit old to be scared of the dark dear?" She turns the page of her journal without looking up, "You are getting too much attention from that. Please, keep it down! Don't you have your fiancée to cuddle with at night?"
Amy just looks back down at her breakfast and slowly nibbles on the fruits.
I look at the woman who now shifted her gaze on me. "Karma dear! I am assuming that you will want to be of attendance this evening at the family gathering."
I look at Amy who nods, "Yes…?"
"Well, you can't. As you have heard, it is a family gathering and you are not family, last I check. So, please steer clear of the dining room as the family will receive very important guests tonight." She looks at Amy, "My daughter will finally meet with the family of the man, the other fiancé, which she will marry."
Amy drops her fork loudly on the table, "Mother, isn't that a bit rude and inconsiderate of you to be talking that way in front of our respected guest?" She growls, "Who is, after all, you future daughter-in-law."
"Is she now, dear? Is she now?" She places the newspaper down at the table and gently pushes her chair away, "I'll now be retiring. I have an important meeting this morning at the company that you've been neglecting. If you are going to skip out on your homeschooling Amy, I suggested that you work and since you are not taking work seriously, I am on the verge of disowning you." She says, "So please, take your life seriously and be of some type of purpose to me. I have about that much patience." She kindly smiles then walks towards the double doors, away from the table.
She suddenly stops and then turns to look at Lauren, "Lauren, my dear, I have talked with your father and he will be here in time for the gathering. He told me to let you know of his impatient need to see how you've been doing after the wedding."
Lauren nods.
Then she smiles my way, again, "And Karma dear, please spare us all of your presence this evening." With that, she turns on her heels and walks off.
"Wow! She is…wow…"I breathe.
Both Lauren and Amy now look depressed.
"I'm never going to hear the end of that danm marriage." Lauren rolls her eyes.
"So am I, with that stupid engagement to Liam fucking Booker." Amy growls, "I'm sick and tired of the witch."
Lauren drops her fork, "Tell me about it. I fucking lost my appetite."
"That vindictive witch…" Amy spat, "Karma, you will come with me to dinner."
"Yes, please show. Don't let her remarks get to you. She will be kind and nice to you and twists the knife deep in your back right in front of you and you won't even realize it." Lauren adds.
I smile at both. Yes, they are right. That woman is something. Everyone who doesn't know her true would be easily fooled. They would think her delicate, frail, and affable; like a true woman known for her virtues. She has those innocent features which protrude sweetness and youth and sensitivity beyond any deceit through her clear almond shaped brown eyes that may retain all hearts in eternal imprisonment – because, she is beautiful, Amy's mother. So then, how, may I ask, upon such a pale and fair woman, should treachery uphold residency? And she has probably shown dishonesty at its best, for she is but a woman; although, her quiescent-like nature did not give off the air of a woman that may bring treason. Her hair, as long as it may, for it is well-kept, flow about the wind which under the sun may shines gold and twinkle if gazed from afar. She possesses a thousand masks and she smiles genuinely to you but keeps her knife about the middle of her back. How can such a cold lie be a wife and a mother? And I am thanking Heaven for not giving me this woman as one.
"I love my mother." I think out loud.
"Not only you." Amy says ruefully.
I am not so sure about going to that dinner. I mean, since I was so kindly and rudely uninvited; I'd look like someone with no shame. I have my freaking dignity but if I don't show, then I will disappoint both Lauren and Amy. So, I decide to follow with whatever they say and letting them pick the evening gown that I'll be wearing. They run through my closet, the one that Amy filled with new expensive clothes, jewelries, evening gowns, designer purses and bags, designer shoes and sandals. I never thought I'd get to wear them so soon. And I am so not ready, mentally, to even show up at that dinner. I will be meeting with very important people here. I don't know how to act in situations like this. A fucking congressman with is hotel magnate of a wife, an oil magnate billionaire along with his reputably noble wife and his famous son (who I happen to have a serious crush on) – that is quite the festivity for an ordinary girl like me. Nope, I am not nervous at all – not at all.
When they finally find a knee-length silver backless dress, they give it to me and tell me to go change. I come out of the bathroom a few minutes later and they look at me in awe. Even though their expression did give me great confidence (especially Amy's), I couldn't help but feel uneasy. What if I make a mistake tonight? What if I embarrass myself and they ask me questions that I don't even know about? Shit! What am I going to do? Those types of social gatherings scare the heck out of me. That is why I am even grateful that we're not rich. Amy and Lauren both changed into their evening wear as well. Amy wore a white jumpsuit tied around the back of her neck and Lauren, a long, silky red, strapless evening gown. While I had coiffed my hair in a high bun, both of them let their hair down in small waves on their shoulders. All three of us walked back down stairs to find Amy's mother chatting with a man that I am now seeing. I am guessing this is her husband, the congressman, Bruce Cooper.
"Father, when did you get here?"
The man quickly turns around with a smile on his face, walking towards his daughter to embrace her, "Lauren, love, how are you? I have missed you for the past few months. How is the marriage?"
Lauren forces a smile, "Great, I am as happy as once can get."
"I'm happy to hear." She hugs her once more before throwing her gaze towards Amy. She pulls away from Lauren and goes to Amy.
"Amy, how have you been? I hear you are neglecting your homeschooling work, that is not very responsible." He pulls her in a hug but Amy doesn't hug back.
"Yes, I am going to take care of that." She rolls her eyes. Then the man pulls back, smiling down at her.
He now looks to me, confusion written all over his face, "Honey, did you have a third daughter that I did not know about?"
"Please…" Amy's mother shakes he head and this mere response just hurt me to no end. Its ok, I don't need you. I have a very loving mother who loves me unconditionally you narcissistic wench.
"Then, dear, just who might you be?" he asks me.
Amy quickly jumps in, "My fiancée, I am going to marry her.
The man frowns incredulously, "Oh…" he simply says. "What is your name? I am assuming that it is not Liam Booker."
I shake my head, "No, I am not Liam Booker. My name is Karma Ashcroft."
"That's a very unlikely name. First time I've ever heard of it." He says.
"Yes, I concur sir. It is very unique." I kindly smile at the man who still keeps an incredulous stare my way. I shift my attention to Amy's mother who seems rather bored, "I'm sorry I am intruding but your daughters have insisted that I attend this dinner."
She lazily sighs, "I know my daughter would go against my back and defy my authority so I made sure the maids set you a plate at our table. But please, do not embarrass me."
Wow, "yes ma'am."
The butler whose name I now recalled was Antoine walked in the living room, "The guests have arrived."
Three walks within the room. The father who is the oil magnate looked as stuck up as I had thought he'd look although his wife disappointed me because I did not expect her to also look so stuck up. And then, my gaze fell upon the beautiful, male specimen known as Liam Booker. I didn't know what to think. I feel like my whole world shattered to be built up again to perfection but this time, with him and me together, side by side, raising a family. I never thought he'd look so good and beautiful in person, better than his pictures. I am in utter awe. I think I have fallen in love right then and there.
"Great, now, shall we make it to the dining room?" Amy's mother announces and she saunters forward, everyone following after her.
The dinner went by slowly. Well, at least to me, it did. Everyone was talking about stuff that I did not even know about or aware about. They are talking about politics while I am thinking about the next episode on scandal. They are talking about international law and I am wondering the next topic in my history class. I am hearing about a few pioneers in the world of science and I barely pass chemistry with a C – a very low C. Halfway through dinner, I am wondering what the hell am I even part of this world that I obviously don't fit into. Amy gently squeezes my hand from under the table every now and then, smiling at me and I smile back. One of the few moments I catch Liam looking my way and I instantly look down at the food in front of me. I have no idea how a person can't get confused with so many forks and spoons and knifes, and glasses. Why do we even need that many of everything? I look at whatever Amy is doing and I follow her move. The butler then comes up to Amy's mother and whispers in her ear, then kindly retires.
"Karma dear, would you be kind as to serve us desert? It seems that we are short on staff as one of the servers has recently fallen ill." She smiles at me again, that same smile that I could not differentiate between honesty and dishonesty. And neither of them are good.
"Mother, Karma is one of our guests." Amy seethes.
"Yes but one that freely lives under our roof while clothing so expensively thanks to our capability." She smiles to me now, "Dear, would you mind?"
I look at Amy who shakes her head telling me to not do it. I look at her mother who keeps smiling at me and the other guests just look on inquiringly, even Liam Booker.
"Do you so kindly refuse?" The mother keeps the smile about her face.
I look at Amy again before smiling at the mother. I get up the table, "No ma'am, not at all."
"Good," she smiles widely, "The wine bottle is over at this platter, please start serving it to our kind guests."
I do as she says and I take the wine bottle off the silver platter and I walk towards the table. I walk around to Liam Booker's father and then I pour him the wine all the while keeping the smile on my face while sealing the tears wanting to fall down my face.
"Mother this is ridiculous!" Amy gets up, and faces Liam Booker's parents, "If you will have me then, sir, ma'am, I'll bring you the desert."
"Amy, you take one step towards that kitchen and you will regret it." She sternly threatens, "You know I won't hesitate. Obviously Karma is more than willing to do it."
"Amy, it's Ok," I smile at her, "It is only fair that I pay the dues for living under your mother's roof. I can't do it for free."
"But Karma…" she says.
"It's OK…" I smile at her then I look back down to pour wine in Liam Booker's mother's glass.
And then I walk to Liam Booker but I accidentally trip on the foot of the chair and the wine is thrown all over him. "Oh my God, I am so sorry." I cry, "I'm so sorry."
"It's alright, don't worry, it is alright." He says grabbing a napkin and wiping the residue off its vest.
"I hope you have no plans to attend higher education, if you can't make use of your brain to serve a simple wine bottle." The mother scoffs.
That instantly made me releases all of the tears held prisoners in my eyes.
"Mother…!" Lauren cries out.
I make my way up the stairs but I could hear Amy's mother's cruel insults, "Brainless and rude, what a child!"
That night, I spent it crying. I didn't know that it was going to be this bad. I didn't expect her to be this bad – not at all.