Undercover - A Hamliza Story Completed ✅

CHAPTER 4

I sit and hear the ticking of the clock. I lay flat on my back on my bed, my room's pitch black. Anxiety fills my body starting from toes, all the way to my head. I decide to stop stalling, light a candle and move it toward the clock. 7:00 pm it reads. I know that soon it will be time to disobey my husbands trust. See what he does when I'm not around. I hear knocking and I go towards my door slowly. I see my sisters face.
"C'mon we have to get ready to go." She says eagerly. Angelica notices how glum I feel and comes into my room and sits on my bed as I put on my scarf.
"Eliza, I know this is....overwhelming but don't you want to know? Don't you have to know?"
"I don't know if I want too!" I say a little to forcefully.
"I'm sorry I-I just...I need a minute." I turn away from her.
"Okay, but if you don't want to go, I understand. But if you do, I'll meet you downstairs by 7:15." I feel Angelica lingering in my doorway for a few seconds, as if she had something else to say. Then I hear her footsteps get farther and farther away.
I turn around and look out my doorway and look at the door across from me. I flop onto my bed and push my hair out of my face. I sit in silence for a moment, contemplating what might happen. Then I sit up straighter, put my hair into a ponytail, put on my scarf. All the feelings that have consumed me before go away. I feel...fearless in that moment. I get up and walk towards the stairwell. I am hesitant at first, but then I go down the stairs with confidence. Angelica looks at me and smiles. Once I reach the bottom she gives me a loving hug. "I'm so proud of you." She pauses. "You ready?"
I hesitantly nod and we sit at my dinning room table waiting for Alexander to come downstairs. At around 7:30 we hear him coming down. Angelica and I look at each other, knowing the plan is in motion. He comes to the dinning room, he sees me and Angelica sitting together and smiles. Oh, how I love that smile.
"Hey!" He says.
"Hi." Angelica and I say in sync.
"What's going on?"
"Me and Eliza are planning to go to the fair down at the docks."
"Sounds fun!"
"Come with us." I say getting up from my chair, touching his arm. "It'll be the first time we've went out in months."
"I can't, I have some business I need to take care of." He says, putting something in his pocket. "But have fun you two." He gives us a smile, and heads out the door. As soon as we hear the door close, we head out the back. We put on our scarves, and look both left and right. We then keep a safe following distance between us and him. He makes a left turn, which makes us pick up our pace. He stops in front of a house, that's a one story house. The house had maroon colored bricks, that complemented the rest of the houses on the block. He takes out what was in his pocket and heads to the front door. Angelica and I hide behind a tree. We look at each other, wondering what's going to happen next. He rings the doorbell, waits until the door opens, and goes inside. Once he's in, Angelica and I sneak to see the window on the front of the house. He is talking to a beautiful woman with long curly brown hair, red lips and a dress to match. This makes me nervous, but I stop myself from thinking about the worst possibility. They could just be friends, companions, acquaintances...then I see her arm around him. She pulls him in for a kiss. He, to my surprise doesn't resist. He looks as if  he's enjoying it. My throat begins to burn and constrict. Angelica puts her arm around me. "Eliza, it's okay if-"
"No." I say keeping my head looking at the window. "I need to watch." Angelica turns her head back to the focal point. The kiss becomes more and more passionate, soon they move out of Angelica and I's view. I move away from the tree and closer to the house.
Angelica grabs my wrist. "Eliza! What are you doing?" She whisper shouts at me.
"I need to see-" I say trying to get out of her grasp. Angelica grabs my forearm, pulling me away. Eventually Angelica turns me to face her. We look at each other for a moment, and I break down into tears, falling onto my knees on the neatly cut grass. Angelica gets down onto the ground with me. She hugs me tightly as I sob onto her shoulder. She pulls me up from the ground and says: "C'mon we've got to go, they can't know we were here." I nod wiping my tears as Angelica pulls my arm. We run back to my home, we then stop to catch our breath. Angelica begins to walk toward the front door, but I stand completely still. The image of Alexander kissing another woman replays in my mind like a broken record. I look at my home, the place where Alexander and I built our lives, our family together in. Where we spent our first night together after we got married. Another memory swirls in my mind....
It was a late Saturday evening. Alexander and I were curled up on our bed both of us still in our wedding clothes. We were laying on our sides, his arm on my waist. He kissed my neck, making me giggle. "I love you." He said. Those words made me turn to  my left side to face him. We looked at each other with such affection our eyes moving back and forth. Scanning each other's face. "I love you too." I said in response. He kissed me passionately making my heart flutter. After we broke away we looks at each other again. The silence was perfect, it made the moment so much more intimate than it already was. "Alexander?" I said breaking the silence.
"Yes?"
"Can you promise me that no matter what, you wont keep anything from me?"
"Of course, of course." He kissed my forehead, looked at me on last time before falling asleep.....
I continued to stare at my house, the fond memory fading away, bringing back to reality. Both images haunted me. Alexander promised me he would never keep anything from me. But he lied. I felt Angelica's hands on both of my shoulders. I met her gaze which was understanding and heartfelt which went perfectly with mine. I broke down into tears once more and Angelica guided me back into my home. The home where promises can't be kept, where passion is before family, and where hearts are lonely and broken.