Ruby St. Clair's POV
"We need to talk."
I looked up at my twin sister who storm in the penthouse like whirlwind. I didn't see Emerald for days since our grandfather asked for a favor and landed me at the mercy of my secret husband. In short, I became the very personal chef of Roman Vasquez, my husband for one month now.
"Gladly," I answered with a lack of enthusiasm. I closed the cookbook I'd been reading for new recipes that my new boss might like. I knew I cannot dodge Emerald forever. "What do you want to talk about, Em?"
Emerald threw her designer bag on the white sofa and sat next to me. "Rumors were circulating about you in The Jewel that something is going on between you and the mysterious man that showed up here the day after your return, Miss Ruby. Care to enlighten your curious twin sister about it?"
I tried keeping my face remained expressionless but it was hard when my twin sister looked at me with the St. Clair all-knowing eyes.
"What kind of rumors?" I asked softly, avoiding her gaze. I don't think I like where this conversation leads.
My twin sister looked at me in the eyes squarely. "Are you going to deny the fact that you have nothing to do with that gorgeous hunk, Red? You know you can't lie to me. I am your twin sister, remember?"
"Really, Em? Gorgeous hunk? Is that how you see him? Hunk? I think you need glasses, dear." I snorted, as I echoed my twin's description of Roman Vasquez.
"Are you going to deny that fact too, sis?" Emerald raised an eyebrow in my direction. "I have a very clear vision. I know how to appreciate a man's beauty. That Spanish man is the epitome of a male splendor."
I shook my head resolutely. "No. I'm not going to deny that, Em. There's something wrong with your eyesight. That man is not handsome as you think plus he's so arrogant, mind you. He's taking no for an answer."
"Whatever you say, sis. So, let's hear it." Emerald said casually, crossing her legs making herself comfortable with the expensive designer dress she'd been wearing. "What's the deal between the two of you?" When I hesitated to answer, my twin becomes impatient waiting for the answer she desperately wants. "What?" Emerald snapped at me. "Are you going to tell me or what?"
"What do you want to know?" I asked ruefully. I knew when I was at my dead-end no escape route.
"Everything!" My twin sister had said too eagerly, her eyes gleamed with curiosity. "You can start with his name. What's his name I'm curious about his name since the day I found him standing in my doorway looking for you."
I sighed deeply, rubbing my palm together. I knew too well that Emerald would not stop from her track until she gets the answer she so badly wants. From the determined set of her aristocratic eyebrow, she plans to get those answers right this moment. So what choice do I have to give the information she needs.
"His name is Roman Vasquez." I started reluctantly. "I met him in Spain three weeks ago in an unfortunate event and from that day on my life get tangled with his."
"Tangled?" Emerald repeated too cheerfully for my liking. "How did you become tangled with the likes of him?"
I shrugged casually. My lips twitched with a smile, Emerald always interrupts me when she's so interested in something. She never changed in the past years that I was away. I remembered those bittersweet memories of me and Roman in Spain before we slept together and ruined everything. He didn't want a virgin wife.
"Ruby...?" Emerald asked worriedly. "Are you all right, sis?"
"Yes, I'm fine," I murmured looking at my twin's concerned face. "The thing is, when I met him in Spain I was in a dire situation."
"Dire situation?" She repeated and interrupting me again with my tale. "What kind of calamitous circumstances is that? Is it about money? If you are experiencing such a problem back then why didn't you just come back here to New York?"
I shook my head in resignation. Despite the uneasiness, I was experiencing right now I couldn't help but laugh at my twin sister. I think I haven't laughed in a long time. "Do you want to know the story or not?"
"Sorry," She murmured. I could still see question's in her green eyes. The eyes that match mine. "Please continue I won't interrupt you again."
I studied my twin for a while before I relate how I met that man who turned my perfect little world upside down the moment we met. That day fate decided to mess with my life.
Growing up, we'd been the mirror image of one another. Emerald had been the refined version of me—the sensible one. It never occurred to me that one day the reclusive Emerald St. Clair would become a supermodel and whose life was in the public eye.
"Are you going to look for a difference in our face before you start talking?" Emerald asked sarcastically. "Because if you are. You're going to fail, my dear. Need I remind you we are identical twins, sis. Unless you have undergone some plastic surgery while you are away now you are wondering if it has changed your facial features so much."
I couldn't help but smile. Leave it to my twin to be sarcastic when she's running out of patience. And that circumstances were very seldom only when...
That reminds me of a gorgeous hunk with a title in his name and a pair of blue eyes. Like the clearest summer sky. "I saw Khalil the other day. He is still as gorgeous as ever and he wishes to convey his message to you that he'll be in town for a few weeks and will seek for your gruesome company because he wants a good adrenaline rush."
Emerald's eyes turned wintry as the weather outside. "That good for nothing bastard." She hissed. "He always wanted to humiliate ourselves at every occasion. I saw him last night at a charity ball I attended and he never fails to impress me with his sardonic wit. I hope I will never see him again. I desperately wish that I have a new project so I can be away in New York while he's here."
I smiled privately. They really hated each other's gut. I wonder why she passionately hated the prince when he seems very nice and charming at times. He's very closed to the family despite Emerald's protest.
"Enough about that crude man for now. He's not worth the time talking about." Emerald interrupted my thoughts again with irritation in her voice. "Tell me about your association with that Spanish hunk, instead."
I sighed and started my story again where I left off. "I met him when I was working in a small restaurant in Seville. He was with his date and I was serving their table." I smiled a little remembering that day. "Things happened when he saw me and introduced me to his date as his girlfriend and he also kissed me in the middle of the restaurant for all the people can see."
Emerald barked laughter, her dark green eyes sparks with delight. "That's rich. I wish I was there when that happens, Ruby. It's like only something that will happen in a movie."
"I'm glad you find my situation funny, Emerald," I answered dryly, eyeing my twin sister with her laughter. "Catastrophe happened to me after I met him. I was sacked from my job. I couldn't find a new one. I'm celebrating Christmas with nothing in my purse. So I decided to meet him and ask for employment."
"You work for him?" My twin sister's eyes widened at the information.
I nodded ruefully. "Not just any kind of work. He needs a wife and I need a job so—"
"You married him!" Emerald concluded by herself. "You are married to him, Ruby. That's why he's as angry as hell when he arrived here. You left him. He's your husband. You are now a married woman."
I cringed at the truth my twin sister had just said. However, I looked at it I couldn't change the fact that the powerful Roman Vasquez was now my husband. I sighed deeply. "Yes, Em. I am married to him. I married him despite my better judgment."
"Oh my God..." Emerald's face turned into ashen when my kept secrets sink in her brain fully. "...you are in very deep trouble now."
"You think I don't know, sis?"
She looked at me with such trouble in her eyes. "It's more serious than you think, Ruby. You are in trouble. Be careful with this secret of yours. If Granddad learns about it this will be the end for you."
I just fervently hope that the three months would pass by in a blink of an eye so I could seek divorce. Before our scheming grandfather would know this little delicious secret I brought home. Because from the look that Daniel St. Clair had been sending in my direction since I arrived had to translate—he intend to see us be wedded by the end of the year.
I just hope that I could survive these three months and send away Roman out of New York before Granddad learns anything about this.