LA MENTIRA
Chapter Six
Jesse didn't let me get out of bed for another week after my fever broke. He said I was still too weak. It took a lot of convincing for him to allow me to leave my room and stay at the living room with Mapi and Julia, and even at that I was to stay laying down in one of the couches. But at least the girls were catching up with their lessons. And they were very happy when they heard Jesse and I were getting married.
Jesse had told me he had bought my ring two years before, that one time he had to go to San Francisco because his father wanted to import cows from Chile. Down at the docks some man by the name of Jack Sparrow – a pirate of course – told him that the ring was part of a pirate treasure that he had brought from the Caribbean. It was said the ring would bring happiness to the woman who wore it. Jesse said he hadn't cared about pirate's legends, that he had just seen the ring and thought of me.
"And even after we split, I just couldn't think in another woman wearing it, so I kept it," He said, "And now it's where it belongs." It was a really beautiful ring: a little ruby in the center of a heart made by little diamonds, and it fit perfectly in my finger.
We hadn't talk about the wedding, I thought that maybe Jesse was having second thoughts but actually he was just waiting for me to feel better. I found out one afternoon he was with me in the living room. Jesse had his arms around me – there was a draft, he said, he just wanted to keep me warm – and he had my hands between his, warming them up. Then he brought my hand to his lips and kissed it.
"So, when do you want the wedding to be, querida?" Jesse asked. "I spoke with Father Dominic and he says he will be happy to marry us any day."
"I don't know, any day would be fine. I just want to be your wife," I answered turning to see him. We were about to kiss when Abuela interrupted.
"Two months." She said.
"What do you mean, Abuela?" Jesse asked, slightly irritated for the interruption.
"I need two months to plan your wedding," she said as if it was the most obvious thing in the planet. Jesse opened his mouth to speak but Abuela didn't let him. "Hector De Silva you aren't going to deny me the joy of planning the wedding of my only grandson. Are you? Are you?"
Jesse muttered some curse under his breath but then said, "If Susannah agrees."
"Of course Susie agrees. Don't you Susie?"
"Well, I don't think my mother wants to plan it so, ok."
"Perfect!" She said sounding like a sixteen year old instead of a sixty something year old. And then she started to fuss about this and that and wedding stuff.
Jesse picked me up, according to him I was still too weak to walk, and we were about to make it out of the living room when Abuela called "I'll take you to the town very soon, we need to start to get your dress done," she said and then added. "And Hector, behave!"
Jesse ignored Abuela and took me to my room. "It's late, querida, you better get some rest," he said as he carried me. After I had settled in my bed he sat down next to me, "Querida, we need to speak to your mother," he said seriously.
"So we have too?"
"Yes."
"My mother will never accept this. She has made up her mind about what she wants me to do. She won't accept anything else." All my mother wanted was for me to marry Paul, just because he was the son of her best friend Nancy Slater.
"Well, I'm not going to let him come anywhere near you, so your mother can forget about that." Jesse said in a jealous way, but cute jealous, not Othello jealous. "Maybe your mother just doubted my intentions but now that she'll see that we are serious she will accept it."
"I don't know Jesse, if there has ever been an award for stubbornness, I'm pretty sure Helen Ackerman won it."
"Querida, cheer up. I'm going to be with you when you see her. Everything will be fine," he said reassuringly. Then kissed me softly and left so I could sleep.
A week later we were standing outside the Ackerman's house in the hills of Carmel. It was just Jesse and I, we had leaved Abuela in the town making all sorts of preparations for the wedding – I had gotten the measurements taken for my dress that same day.
We talked to Andy first; he had been the one who opened the door. He congratulate us and told us that my mother was in the kitchen. I went first, if mom started to say something about Paul Slater, I knew Jesse wouldn't take it nicely. Jesse hates Paul's guts.
"Mom," I said sliding in a chair. "Jesse and I are getting married."
"You know what I think about that." She said without lifting her eyes from the carrots she was peeling. "If you only gave Paul a chance."
"Mother, I'm not going to give Serial Shagger… I mean Spawn of Satan… I mean Paul Slater a chance. The guy pretty much ruined the last two years of my life!"
Mom just pushed her lips together, "Well, I'll tell you this Susannah Simon, you'll not see a cent out of me. I will not-"
"Don't worry, Mrs. Ackerman," Jesse interrupted her, he didn't looked pleased. "We don't need your money. I got plenty on my own to give Susannah the kind of life she deserves, which is the best." It was no joke. Jesse owned the best lands in the peninsula and was one of the richest men in the county.
But the whole thing with my mom wasn't really about the money. It was more about from where that money came from. My mother believed that there were things that money couldn't buy – like prestige and a good family name, something that I liked to call pedigree. Jesse might be rich, but he didn't have the old money and name that the Slaters had. In my mother eyes, this made Jesse less; in my eyes it make him more.
Paul had been born with every privilege in the world and yet he chooses to do nothing good with his life. Jesse had - like his father before him, and his grandfather before – worked hard to create the De Silva fortune. He hadn't inherited, he had worked for it. But my mother didn't seem to see it the way I did. I feared she never would.
I shot Jesse a look so he would keep quiet, I didn't wanted him and my mother fighting. "Mom, I love Jesse. We are getting married in seven weeks. Nothing is going to make me change my mind. If you accept this, you're welcome to our wedding. If not, well… I guess I'll miss being your daughter, but I'm not giving in to what you want. And you know that already." My voice was calm and sure. I wasn't going to fight. "I'm not asking your permission to do this. I'm informing you." I got up from my chair. "I love you mom, I hope you can understand."
Once outside, Jesse hugged me and told me everything would be fine. That my mom would come around. I nodded, still in his strong arms, as he stroked my hair.
I hoped he was right.
…
End of Chapter Six.
…
Notes:
Sorry jd, I know is lame but it's the only way I could think of mentioning JD.
Suze lets Abuela call her Susie because she is a sweet elder woman… yeah, right!
Other note, it's Mexican tradition that the groom's family pays for the wedding.
And Tory, actually what happened was part of the story line since the beginning. I never explained it here but LA MENTIRA is an old Mexican movie turned into a soap opera turned into a movie turned into a soap opera. Originally I was going to base this story on the movie/soap/movie/soap (the story is the same) but I realized that it was going to be very difficult to create empathy for Jesse if I let him act like Demetrio – the leading man in La Mentira.
So I just kept some stuff from the original story –basically that a little misunderstanding can cause a lot of pain - and started to shape the fic around it, the part where Jesse finds Suze and takes care of her was on the original story.
: Sigh:I don't know what will I write next! I'll think of something.
Thanks for reading! Please Review!
Much Love,
Alex (a k a Clavie a k a AurynFaith a k a whatnot)
P.S PEACE, LOVE, FRUIT AND JESSE!!!!