Chapter 42.
NADINE.
I went home, almost forgetting that Natasha and Mrs. Rocco were around. But once I stepped into the living room, I was jolted by reality. Mrs. Rocco was sitting on the couch, her glasses on as she poured through a tablet.
“Ahh, Nadine,” she said as she looked up, “welcome.”
“Thanks, ma’am,” I said, and started heading straight for my room, but Mrs. Clayton obviously was not ready to let me off that easily.
“You’re quite lucky, Nadine,” she said. “I mean, it’s not every wife that can leave her matrimonial home and just go out without explanations. Then come back home later, and dash to her bedroom.”
“I went to see my sister,” I said, hoping she would hear the bitterness in my tone. “She’s sick. I mentioned it earlier when I wanted to leave.”
“Ahh, yes, you did,” she said lightly, as if amused. “Cancer, is it not? Such a horrible thing to befall a person. Hope she’s doing fine.”
“She’ll be fine, thank you,” I said.
I continued walking towards the stairs before she said, “ahh, I think you need to be careful up there, Nadine, Natasha is in there with Clayton. You don’t want to run into them when they’re … up to something.”
I stopped for a moment before making it to my room. Mrs. Rocco thought she was going to hurt me by telling me that Natasha was likely sleeping with the man I was legally married to, but she did not know that I did not care.
I was taking my clothes off when I heard a knock at the door.
“Who is it?” I said tiredly. There never seemed to be any rest for me in the house. Someone was always looking for a way to rile me up, to make me miserable. “Come in, please.”
Natasha walked in. She was wearing only black matching bra and panties and held a glass of a beverage in her hand. Her hair was ruffled and the makeup she had been wearing when she came earlier was gone. She walked in and sat at the edge of the bed without saying a word.
“What do you want, Natasha?” I asked her.
She did not answer, only took a sip from her glass. She set it down gently on the headboard of the bed and gave me a look as if she was just seeing me for the first time.
“Are you going to answer me?” I asked her. “Or are you going to gawk at me?”
She shrugged.
“Isn’t it obvious, Nadine?” She said softly. “I’m here to keep you company.”
“No shit,” I said.This belongs to NôvelDrama.Org - ©.
“I’m serious,” she said. “I’m going to be here for a while, so you might as well get used to it.”
I walked into the bathroom and had a long bath, intentionally staying for a protracted time so that by the time I would get out, she would be gone, and I could have some rest. But when I got out, she was still there. This time, she was lying on the bed, her legs crossed in front of her.
“What the fuck do you think you’re still doing here, Natasha?” I said, already getting peeved. “Don’t you have some place else to be?”
“I want you to know, Nadine,” she said, turning to face me, her eyes sinister, “that even though you’re legally married to Clayton, I still own his heart. I want you to never forget that. All that marriage bullshit, all of that is just paperwork, you understand?”
“I don’t give a flying fuck, Natasha,” I said, raising my voice. “I couldn’t fucking care less. You can have him for yourself for all of eternity. Take him, he’s yours. I don’t care, honestly.”
She gave me a puzzled look, like I was a jigsaw she was trying to put together and did not know how.
“Then, why?” She asked. “Why the fuck are you doing this, being married to him, if you don’t even like him one bit?”
“Because I need his money,” I said. “My sister is sick with cancer. I did not have the money for her treatment, so I asked Clayton, and the sick bastard offered, but it did not come without its consequences.”
“So,” she said, smirking, “you’re a golddigger. That’s just about right.”
“Thank you,” I said, becoming incensed. “Thank you very fucking much. Call me whatever you want. You’ll never understand me, or people like me, being the privileged bitch that you are. You’ll never know what it feels like to have your only relative dying in a hospital, and being too fucking broke to do anything to help. So go ahead, call me a golddigger.”
“Ohh, calm the fuck down,” she said.
“All I want right now is for you to leave,” I said.
“I hear you,” she said, swinging her legs off of the bed. “I’m gone.”
“Thanks,” I said as she walked out the door.
Later, Clayton came in to meet me. By then, I was nearly asleep.
“What is it now?” I asked him as he shut the door behind me.
“I can come in here any time that I fucking please, okay?” He said, somewhat indignant.
I said nothing.
“Okay. So my birthday is coming up in a week,” he announced. “I want it to be one of the biggest parties this city has ever seen, and that means that I need all hands on deck.”
“What does that have to do with me, Clayton?” I said weakly. I just wanted to sleep.
“So, it means that you have to be ready for whatever errands that I’ll need you to run,” he said.
“Fine,” I said, burrowing deeper into my sheets.
He stood there for a moment, watching me. I was looking directly at him, but I knew he was looking at me. After a while, he opened the door and left. That night, I was awakened by the sounds of he and Natasha having sex. Their moans and grunts traveled across the walls and penetrated my sleep, rousing me. It was a terrible night.