CATALINAI lied. I said I was going to get a glass of water, but the moment I stepped into the kitchen, my fingers reached for the bottle of whiskey I found hidden in one of the fridges. I tilted it back and let the burn scorch its way down my throat, hoping it would stop my bleeding heart. At first, I was worried that one of the maids or chefs would catch me drinking and report it to Henrietta, but that worry slowly disappeared when I thought about Theodore's words. He was right. I wasn't supposed to care about what they thought about me because I was only here as a replacement. As time passed by, the sorrow in my heart slowly changed into anger. But the funny part about this was that the anger wasn't directed at the man who had kept disappointing me each time. It was directed at myself. ‘Why the hell did you let him do this to you, Catalina?’ I asked myself.Whenever I dealt with anyone, I was always the badass Mexican bombshell who did whatever she wanted. But when it came to
CATALINATheodore and I stayed in our room for another hour, discussing plans to consolidate our marriage sham. Theodore told me that he had received a stern scolding from his grandmother before he went to work about his attitude towards me. According to him, he wasn't sure that his grandmother truly believed that we were in love like he claimed, which still put him in danger of losing his inheritance. “I guess we’re going to have to up our ante,” I said, casually shrugging, though I was fighting the urge to give him a full-blown I-told-you-so stare. “Good thing I have a plan.”His brows lifted, curiosity flickering in his eyes. “What kind of plan?”I fell silent for a few seconds. It wasn't because I didn't have an idea, but because I wasn't sure how he would react to it if I told him. After all, he was doing so much already by ignoring Madeline, but we both didn't want to push her too far. “Catalina?”His voice snapped me out of my thoughts, and I realized I’d been biting my botto
CATALINA“Now, do you have something to tell me?”Hearing his words, I paused halfway with one of my hands holding a nail polish and the other holding an ice cream bucket. After we retreated to our bedroom, Theodore went straight to shower, leaving me all alone for hours. I wasn't sure if this was his way of giving me the silent treatment for giving his mother a hard time, so I went down to get myself some ice cream. When he finally came out to wear his clothes, I took the liberty to admire his firm-looking ass and took a spoonful of ice cream to maintain my good mood. “What do you want to know?” I asked him. Theodore tossed away the wet towel he used to dry his hair on the chair nearby before he returned to bed. His eyebrows scrunched slightly at the sight of the ice cream, but he didn't say anything about it. Instead, he kept his eyes on me. His eyebrows twitched a little, a clear sign that he was trying his best to ignore the thing and have a decent conversation with me. “I wa
CATALINAAfter our little “reconciliation”, I finally had the most awkward breakfast I had ever in my 26 years. The entire atmosphere was filled with silence and heavy tension as we ate in silence. No one even bothered to look up from their plates even once, except me who kept watching the scene with amusement and subtle eye rolls. I knew I shouldn't have gone easy on them. Henrietta, Dorothy and Madeline sat opposite us, along with her little minions pretending we didn't exist. Unlike yesterday when they all chatted like I didn't exist, they kept their mouths shut this time. I guessed it had something to do with the motion of not pissing me off so I don't rat them out to Theodore's grandmother, Victoria. On that note, I snuck a little peek at the old woman seated at the head of the table. If Victoria knew anything about the situation that transpired this morning, she gave nothing away but instead, she continued to eat with grace and poise. Since everyone was intent on forgetting
CATALINAThe members of the Knight family were really something else. When I demanded an apology from Henrietta and Dorothy, they simply fell silent and stared at me like I had uttered something forbidden. The mere thought of taking accountability for their mistakes seemed to be a foreign concept, and it was fucking ridiculous. “You're kidding, right?” Dorothy let out a nervous chuckle after she shared a look with my mother-in-law. “I'm the victim here. And you want me to apologize?”I gave her a look that betrayed my thoughts. Did I look like I gave a flying fuck about her earrings now?I arched an eyebrow. “Did I mispronounce those English words wrongly?” The women shared another look with each other, leaving me feeling more indignant than before. They clearly had no problems accusing me of doing stealing their precious jewelry and insulting me, but now they couldn't even tell me sorry?Henrietta's eyes landed on her son before she turned her face away. Just I was about to repea
THEODORE“Wait!”We turned our heads to see Madeline walking towards the door, looking flushed and slightly out of breath. Before she could step inside, a guard swiftly intercepted her with an arm outstretched. “I’m sorry, ma’am,” he said firmly, “only family members are permitted inside.”Madeline froze. Her face drained of color, and her lips parted slightly in disbelief. Even though she had not yet married my uncle, Liam, she had been treated like one of us since we were dating. The fact that she had been reminded of the cold, hard truth about her status was suddenly too much for her to bear.Fortunately, my mother immediately came to the rescue. She closed the distance between them to comfort her. “But Madeline is part of our family,” she said. “I want her to watch the video with us, Theo. Can she do that?”Everyone's eyes turned to me.Great. Trust my mother to leave all the hard decisions to me.I should’ve agreed immediately. Showing Madeline I still cared—that had been my mi