Listen to 'Just Give Me A Reason' by P!nk ft. Nate Ruess❤❤❤❤❤.
Dedicated to ladykakul. ❤❤
She sat on her wooden throne, with slim and perfectly shapely legs crossed, a hand supporting her chin as she gazed serenely at the thousands of people staring at her from below. Her curly hair tumbled down her shoulders ending just above her cleavage.
And the most surprising part of this all was that she was me. The wooden me. JT had eventually finished the sculpture and today was the unveiling of the project at the national art festival holding here in New York.
A snap brought me back to reality as I heard yet another snap and raised a hand to shield my eyes from the blinding camera lights. The reporters had been bugging me all day for pictures and interviews because I was the muse of their blind artist. I had answered a few earlier but now they were just annoying.
"Mrs White, how do you feel about this whole project and what is your relationship with Mr Sykes?" A lady with a pink beret and cute, button nose shot at me.
"Can you describe how Mr Sykes works, we heard it's a quite complex process? It'll be lovely to hear from you."
Another snap and blinding light. They were all speaking so fast and I just stared at them helplessly, wishing I could be anywhere but here. If I was facing this, I could imagine how many times worse it would be for JT.
"Mr Sykes and your husband are very close associates, can you explain why he's absent? The festival lost quite a lot of money due to his absence." A timid looking reporter in thick-rimmed glasses shot out, mic outstretched.
"Are you still with your husband, ma'am?" Pink beret lady asked.
That hit a nerve.
I signalled one of the event coordinators and the small, scraggly haired man got the message immediately and hobbled on to my side to shoo away all the nosy reporters.
"I'm sorry, ma'am," he apologized looking down at his feet, unable to raise his eyes to meet mine. Such was the clout that came with the White name. "I can get one of the guards to accompany you and keep them away."
"That won't be necessary," I murmured, already walking away and straight into the inner building far away from the general public. Each stride sucking away my so-called confidence. Inside the grand ballroom were the elites, the actual rich ones separating themselves from people they saw as commoners.
I could spot JT atop a platform addressing another set of paparazzi, looking immaculately handsome in his neatly tailored brown suit with long, black hair brushed away from his face. He had on his shades but from the way his head turned in my direction when I walked in, I was willing to bet anything he knew exactly where I was.
I looked away from him, walked to the banquet table and grabbed a dish of butter danishes. Through the ceiling length mirror, I admired my reflection with my short, black, backless, skin-tight gown and silver heels. My hair had been stylishly straightened and pulled in a tight bun decorated with silver clips.
I was every inch as perfect as any ideal White bride was supposed to be, only that my groom was gone.
Two weeks. That's how long he had been gone, without any communication with anybody. I knew Aunt Evie's death had a large role in this whole situation but I wanted a chance to talk to him, to explain that what happened between JT and me was a mistake.
We had all flew to England for the burial and he wasn't even present, his present whereabouts, I still didn't know and I was stuck between a rock and a hard place. JT and I had talked about the kiss and we had both agreed that it was a mistake, although it was a bit awkward between us now, we were alright. Gerard's parents had reassured me that it was probably his aunt's death that caused his strange disappearance and that I shouldn't be bothered. He was the closest to the woman during her lifetime.
But how were they to know that I had kissed his best friend?
Obviously, the death had affected him, aunt Evie was practically his mother and she had willed every single one of her numerous properties to him, and yes, she left me some expensive rare stones like we had strangely discussed. I had worsened the situation for Gerard and wasn't even there when he needed me most.
"I'm a horrible person," I said to the danishes, as I picked one and nibbled at the end quietly.
"Well, it's not every day we meet a billionaire's wife talking to a couple of danishes," a slow, bored, female voice said behind me and I whipped back to face the woman.
She stood proud in a camo jumpsuit and brown, designer sandals and on her short, dirty blonde hair was a black beanie. She cracked a smile, her always wary brown eyes assessing my look. Malory, Lance's badass, lesbian boss.
I stretched my hand out for a handshake which she stared at for about half a minute before taking and dropping it immediately. She crossed her bony, thin hands and gazed at me with stern brown eyes which reminded me that the hacker that had managed to work out Fermat's Last Theorem in just five days was no element to joke with.
"What did you do to Chan?" Her eyes narrowed down at me while I turned my focus to her black, painted toenails peeking out of her sandals.
"What?" I tried feigning ignorance but I already knew it was of no use, if Malory wanted to give you a thorough telling off, you got exactly that.
"He's distracted."
"And why would you assume that I had something to do with it?"
She gave a peal of mirthless laughter that didn't reach her eyes and died very quickly. "Absolutely nothing distracts that boy except you, girl. Now I don't wanna know what happened between you two just fucking settle it."
I raised an eyebrow at her, wondering why she was so concerned about our petty fight. "Why?"
"I'm about to send Chan to the Prime Minister in Russia, and I want no mistakes and heaven knows how he's been committing blunders these few weeks."
"That's the only reason why you're interested?"
At this point, Malory laughed, a feat as rear as seeing Big Foot in Central Park and her eyes softened considerably before she spoke.
"You two have a bond closer than what most siblings have, and I would know seeing as I was the one that released the information that led to the imprisonment of my older brother in Germany." She seemed to find that amusing for a second before she spoke up again. "Don't ruin that."
"Thank you."
She nodded. "And that sculpture of you, it's quite beautiful."
"I don't suppose you can tell me why you're actually here?" Mallory didn't do social calls, this was new. She was definitely on some kind of secret assignment here.
"Not really."
Then she walked off, face as bony as ever and all traces of earlier mirth completely gone. I inched my hands to my phone inside my designer, silver cross bag and brought out my phone to dial Lance.
It went into voicemail and after some seconds of indecision, I decided to leave him a voicemail.
"Hey...it's me, Karina...you probably knew that already." I wanted to slap my own face. "Can you call back as soon as you get this...I really need to talk to you...I guess that's all....ummm...bye?" Talking to my best friend had never been this difficult.
With the phone and danishes still in hand, I roamed away from the crowd and into a hallway looking for somewhere I could be alone. I pushed open a door to what looked like a small study and went in, eyes scanning the old furniture and sighing before taking a seat on a stiff, high backed chair.
I tried dialling Gerard's number for what seemed like the millionth time and my heart fell again when it came back switched off as usual. I decided to send him yet another text.
I'm sorry.
Delete.
Please pick my calls.
Delete.
I finally decided on the first word that came to mind and sent it like that, knowing I would delete it again if I didn't just send it.
Hey.
"Karina." I heard the voice from a corner of the small room and knew who it was before even looking up. It must have been my distracted self that didn't let me notice him there in the first place.
"Hey, Taelor." I still referred to JT as that, kinda like he still called me Bella, it was just the way we were. "Funny meeting you here, isn't it?"
He was standing by an old desk, brown walking cane in hand and I observed he had gotten rid of the brown suit jacket, leaving only the white dress shirt and trousers. He took off his dark shades, staring straight at the spot where I sat.
"Yeah, funny," he agreed, fingers clamped firmly over his cane and face completely blank. I swallowed, looking away as an awkward silence engulfed us.
"The sculpture...she's beautiful," I told him after a beat, wanting to fill the silence and I felt my stomach turn inside out. I felt like I was going to throw up and I placed a hand on my tummy to ease the queasiness.
"I know," he murmured, not in pride but simple admission of a fact. "I didn't think you would come, Bella, seeing as how I've ruined your marriage."
I bit down on a danish which turned out to be a terrible move because I heard my stomach hiss, which I ignored before talking. "I wouldn't have missed this for anything, you're my friend and what happened was an accident--" I was saying when I felt the bile rise to my throat.
I flew off the couch, a hand clamped to my mouth and without giving it a second thought, I emptied my stomach contents into the nearest flower pot. As I retched out, I felt JT's hand on my bare back and could hear his concerned questions which I was currently too queasy to reply.
When I finally finished being violently sick into the poor flower pot, I sat on the carpeted floor feeling like I had just gotten run over by a delivery van repeatedly. My mouth tasted bitter and my stomach muscles were currently screaming in ache.
"Are you okay?" JT was asking, kneeling in front of me, concern and deep worry evident in his features. His cane was lying useless a few feet away where he had probably tossed it when rushing to my aid.
"Do I seriously look okay to you?" I murmured, sarcastically.
"I can't exactly tell if you look okay now, can I?" His tone was even more sarcastic than mine and he sighed, reaching out for my hand. I took it and squeezed his big, callused hand gently.
"What did you eat?"
"Nothing, except some danishes but I've been feeling queasy all day," I explained. "In fact, it happens every morning these days but it has never been as bad as this."
JT paled, and I raised an eyebrow which was completely useless considering the fact that he couldn't see it. "What's wrong?"
"Bella," he began, softly and I felt that increasing sense of foreboding. "When last did you see your period?"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
It was official. The darkest hour in a woman's life was that moment wait for the pregnancy tests to change colour. After hurrying away from the festival and leaving JT when I realized my period had been exactly three weeks late, I had dashed off to the nearest chemist and bought five pregnancy tests. I hurriedly took all of them in the chemist's restroom.
All five turned out positive.
Sitting in my brand new car, I didn't know whether I was supposed to be happy or sad about this new piece of information. I was mostly shocked because apart from our first time together in Evelyn's castle by the stream, we had always used protection, so this was most definitely a shock. I had a being growing inside me now, how did that make me feel?
Motherly? No.
Responsible? Maybe.
Scared? Most definitely.
I patted my stomach and drove back to the penthouse, with a plan to take a long shower, sleep and then decide what to do with this creature currently lodging inside me. I still found it extremely hard to believe, but what were the odds of five pregnancy tests being incorrect?
I let myself into the lonely building, a smile almost coming to my face when my eyes dropped to the grand piano in the living room. Gerard had bought it immediately we came back from England because Lance had once mentioned to him that I used to play when I was younger.
I missed both of them very much.
I drank a glass of water, not wanting to evoke any more sickness and went straight to my room. Our housekeeper, Hilda wasn't around which was unusual of her seeing as Mondays were often her thorough cleaning days but I had way too much to deal with at the moment. I scrolled through my phone as I walked to my room and noticed I had gotten a text.
It was Gerard and my heart leapt at the first form of communication with him for the past two weeks now. It was just a word but it made me smile.
One word. Two letters.
Hi.
It was hope.
***
One chapter left, I think;)
Anyways, I'm out.
Love,
Lola✌❤.