FIVE

JOLENE’s POV

Three Weeks Later

It felt like the living beings in this house learnt how to hurt me without making any noise.

It had been twenty-two days since the gala, three hundred and forty-three left on the contract and I counted it like I had no other job.

Every morning started the same, I made coffee at 6:30 because Rebecca liked it black and she liked it to burn her tongue.

I'd set her cup on the island and step back, then the usual mockery and insults.

But they didn't hurt more than the footsteps that'd come from the west wing.

The first sounds were soft, Maya's bare foot and then heavier ones which were Jake's.

Maya always came in with her arms already around him, and when we'd accidentally crosspath, she'd put on a smile that explains she was taking over.

“Morning, babe,” she would murmur against the back of his shirt.  

And Jake would turn, just a little, and his hands would come up to cover hers.

He never did that with me and I thought I'd be fine by it but I wasn't, rather, I soaked my bed.

Rebecca would watch them from the stove like she was watching her favorite show. 

Hailey would watch them through her phone camera. 

And I would stand at the sink and pretend the water running over my hands was hot enough to matter.

***

It was Thursday night, dinner was at eight and I'd prepared my heart for the war.

I was in the kitchen trying to get the roast chicken onto a plate without gagging.

The smell had been making me sick for days and I speculated it was stress.

I'd pressed the back of my hand to my mouth and countered to ten until the wave passed.

But then, I heard footsteps, the fragrance didn't have me looking because I knew who it was.

My mother-in-law.

"Jolane?" She called and I pivot to look at her faking a smile.

Her eyes scanned me from head to toe like a device.

"What's wrong?" She asked and that question had my heart leaping like it was hope.

However, that face proves it might be something else.

"I'm feeling nausea" I squeezed out, darting my gaze at her.

She rolled her tongue as though wanting to say something but stopped when her eyes lowered at my stomach.

Rebecca stepped closer but I moved back, horrified with my head bow obediently.

"Since when?" She went on and I really believed she cared.

"Recently...it could be stress..."

"Have you two being intimate?"

Her question had me lifting my head like I heard wrong. Why would she say such.

I couldn't recall, when had Jake wanted something to do with me?

Wait! I recall but I doubted if anything happened between us.

I mean something did and now it was returning to me.

It was some nights back, when he heard of the death of Logan, his dad.

I found him at the basement drunk while everyone was looking for him.

Distressed and wanting to comfort him, I only embraced him and when he lifted his eyes to look at me, he smeared his lips on mine.

"Have you?" Her voice yanked me back to reality as my eyes grew wild.

Only a head shake had me denying it but then the memories were returning.

His hands on my breasts, down to my shirt, ripping off my dress, me falling to the floor and his whole body enveloping me as he kissed me hotly.

If I wasn't wrong, Rebecca was saying something right now but I heard nothing.

I snapped out again when the gross in my throat wouldn't let me and I poured it out in the sink.

Hastily flushing my mouth, my eyes went up as I felt so dizzy. It isn't what it looked like.

I turned to look at Rebecca, her back was facing me and when she directed her gaze at me, I almost died.

But she let out a smile, slowly yet demeaning.

"It's okay, yes... it's stress" she prod, her fingers found my tangled hair as she stretched. "Let me get you something to cool it down"

"W-why?"

I needed to know because this was the first time she was being nice even before the marriage.

Her grip on my hair became stiff as that smile left her lips.

"I wouldn't want a dead wife on my plate would I?"

She made me understand, it would be horrible, with the news at that too.

"Thank you" I said, wiping my mouth while she let go and left.

When she was gone, I had my two fingers to my forehead, as I felt more dizzy than anything that I had to lean to the island to think straight.

If she was asking why I was intimate, perhaps she might be thinking it was pregnancy.

Oh no! Not now and if it were true, how would Jake react? Would it change anything?

I was so lost that I didn’t even notice when a cup of tea was shoved into my hand, because Rebecca had made it for me herself.

My vision doubled for a second but I held on to the cup like it was the only thing keeping me steady.

“Take it. You’ll be revived,” she said, and her voice was almost kind, like a roaring wave that I wasn’t used to hearing from her.

Before I could even say thank you, the kitchen door swung open and Maya walked in.

  

She was already dressed for dinner, hair perfect, and she stopped the moment she saw me holding the cup and Rebecca standing close to me.

Her eyes narrowed, then dropped to the sink where I had just vomited, and her expression changed immediately.

“Oh,” Maya muttered slowly, looking from me to Rebecca and back again. “She’s vomiting?”

Rebecca had not even answered when her face went pale.

"It's nothing serious" I notified inhaling softly, while almost taking the tea but Maya was inherent on making me worked up.

"Yes, what if everywhere gets affected and you start acting sluggish to feed the whole family?"

I almost retorted but noticed Rebecca pressing a hand to her chest and swayed on her feet, and before I could move, she collapsed right there on the kitchen floor.

The cup in my hand shook and caused the tea to spill on my fingers.

“Rebecca!” Maya screamed, and she fell to her knees beside her mother-in-law at once.

I heard footsteps rushing down the hallway and Jake burst in with his shirt half unbuttoned like he had been upstairs.

“What happened?” he questioned, and his eyes went straight to his mother on the floor, then to me standing there frozen with the tea still in my hand.

Maya did not waste a second, she looked up at him with tears already gathering and her voice shaking like she actually cried.

“Jake, I came in and saw her,” Maya said, pointing at me with a trembling finger.

 “She was standing here with a cup, and Auntie was just talking to her about learning how to run a home, about being a proper wife, and then Auntie collapsed.”

I shook my head in denial, trying to roll out just a word.

Maya's voice shattered like she could barely get the words out. “I think... I think she did something to her.

She’s been so bitter ever since the gala, and Auntie was only trying to teach her. What if she tried to hurt her because she couldn’t take it?”

I gasped, setting the cup down on the island to defend myself.

“No, that’s not—” I started, but Jake ignored me, he had quickly carried Rebecca in his arms, grounded his jaw.

“Is she breathing?” he asked Maya swiftly as she checked her pulse.

“Barely,” Maya sobbed, as she pulled her phone out. “We need to go. Now.”

Jake looked at me once, and the look in his eyes killed me more than Maya’s accusation did.

“You,” he snapped and that voice burnt me. “Pack some essentials. Take a cab and meet us at the hospital.”

Then he turned and carried Rebecca out with Maya following right behind him, her arm around his back.

She looked over her shoulder at me before they left, and her eyes were dry now, there was no pity in them at all, just a mockery grin.

And when they were gone, I just stood in the kitchen with tea running down my hand and my troubled heart only caused an ache.

Rebecca had only been trying to be nice to me for once. And suddenly, everyone thinks I tried to murder her for it.