My wife

  *ALORA*

     I closed my eyes refusing to believe this.

Maybe I was mistaken.

Maybe they looked alike.

I mean, it was late last night, I could even be making a mistake about his face, they might not even look alike.

  I held my head trying to picture the man I met last night, yeah, definitely different men.

  The man from last night told me his name was Enzo.

Lorenzo.

  My breath caught again.

Enzo could be an abbreviation of Lorenzo.

No.

There were many names Enzo could be gotten from, like Vincenzo, any many others, right?

  I looked around and saw him again, some men were gathering around him shaking hands with him.

           He suddenly looked up and our eyes met but then he looked away, almost immediately.

  I felt momentarily relieved.

He didn’t seem like he knew who I was.

He didn’t.

That was a good sign.

He was definitely not that man from last night.

       “Alora.”I jumped, hearing a voice behind me.

I turned to see Gael.

    

      “Why do you look so startled and…pale?”

I blinked and shook my head.

      For some reasons, I just really wanted to go home. I felt so uneasy and I couldn’t shake it off.

          “I’m not feeling too well, can I leave?”

       “Leave? Lorenzo just got here.”

         “But…”

        “Dad ask me to come get you, we need to go meet with him officially.”

Even if I was trying to convince myself that he wasn’t the man from last night, a part of me felt he was.

         “Please, Gael, you can just tell them I’m not feeling well, I’m sure they’d understand.”

Gael grabbed my arm and I sighed.

What was I expecting?

He didn’t feel a thing for me, talk more of having pity of letting me go home.

      “Fix your look and let’s go.” With that, he dragged me along.

   I prayed for the heavens to be on my side.

  Just as he dragged me along, we bumped into, my father, his wife, Paula and their daughter, Lucia.

          My father barely glanced at me, he just walked off. While Paula and Lucia waited behind.

       “I didn’t know you were back in Argentina.”Paula said to Gael, barely acknowledging my presence.

        “Yeah, I came back yesterday.” Gael replied, nonchalantly.

         “You know, I heard rumors that you were abroad with another woman, is that true?”Lucia probed. “I knew my dear sister wouldn’t be able to please you well.”

Gael didn’t deny or say anything to that.

I wasn’t expecting him to deny anything but it still hurt, especially because he knew this was my stepmother and half-sister who hated me and were always trying to sabotage me.

He had always been defending me against them, I guess he won’t do that anymore.

         “Well, since your husband is back, I guess your marriage is no longer ‘long distance’” Lucia said, mockingly.

         “I don’t see how that has anything to do with you.”I snapped.

            “I would’ve loved to stay around and chat with you, but I have to go meet my future husband.”With that, Lucia and Paula sashayed away.

  My mother passed when I was sixteen, before her passing, I thought I had the best family.

A father and mother who loved each other and loved me, but little did I know that my father had been actively cheating on my mother.

   Just few weeks after my mother passed, my dad came home with Paula and Lucia, introducing them as members of the Ramos family.

  He had said Lucia was his daughter with Paula whom he had kept a secret for years.

      Lucia and I had two years age gap so my dad had obviously cheated on my mom was I was only two years old.

From the moment they came into my family, Paula and Lucia had tormented me every moment they got.

      Lucia even tried to ruin my relationship with Gael when we had just started dating, she had tried to seduce him but Gael didn’t fall for her.

  I guess that had made me really believe that Gael was the man of my dreams. I had wanted him to save me, from Paula, from Lucia and from my father who no longer cared about me.

But I realize now that I should’ve saved myself!

I didn’t need anyone saving me anymore.

I had to stand, firmly and fight back.

I was tired of being hurt, of being humiliated and I wasn’t going to give anyone the satisfaction of breaking me again.

  Families present at the ball were meeting with Don Lorenzo one after the other. It was as if they were all paying homage to the King.

I heard the murmuring of women around me.

    

      “Gosh, what would it feel like to be owned by a man like him?”

        “Mrs Fernandez, you’re married.”

         “I don’t care, I could leave my husband and children for Don Lorenzo if he wants me.”

       “Dream on, in my opinion, I think any woman who can be lucky enough to even breathe the same air as him has to be an extraordinary woman.”

        “I know, right. He’s like a god.”

   These women can’t even hide their desire for him.

I get it, he was handsome, maybe I had too much on my plate to swoon over a man.

I didn’t want to even swoon over any man again, especially not my husband’s cousin.

     It finally got to our turn.

  For someone who was family, he was extremely formal with Javier and Julieta.

       He didn’t even refer to Julieta as Aunt which she was to him.

Too arrogant of him!

      Gael and I moved forward and Gael reached out to shake him.

        “Cousin, it’s been a while.”

Lorenzo made no move to shake hands with him, instead, he turned to face me.

Gael then introduced.”This is my wife, Alora.”

          “Your wife, huh?”Lorenzo let out, huskily.

His intense gaze was making me nervous.

      Can we just go now?

            “We’ve met before, haven’t we?” He asked me, loudly, and instantly, I could feel all eyes on me.