Chapter 3
The wedding was planned for a few weeks after Nora left for college, and even though she would never have admitted it to her dad, she didn’t want to see Theo getting married. Since then, she actively avoided seeing any pictures of the mysterious Violet, and because she’d never actually met the woman; she had formed her own version of who she was and what she looked like.
They’d apparently met on a vacation in Spain and had a whirlwind romance before he asked her to marry him. It had all happened so quickly. Theo was away in Europe for three months and then suddenly he returned with news of a fiancé.
Nora was sitting outside on the porch the morning after her dad’s birthday party, typing away at her laptop and trying to concentrate on work. Theo hadn’t said much after she asked him about his wife and had left soon after, excusing himself on account of an important early meeting the next morning.
“You’re working?!” her dad had emerged out of the front door.
Nora smiled at him.
“The only way I could have taken all of these days off was by promising that I’d still get some work done,” she said. Her fingers hadn’t stopped hovering over the keyboard.
“It’s your first vacation in like four years honey,” her dad said, sitting down on the stool beside her as he tied his shoelaces.
“Going for a jog?” she asked and he stood up, his face beaming.
“Yeah, Theo’s got me into jogging again and now I’m addicted,” he said and just the mention of his name was enough for Nora’s muscles to stiffen.
“Well, you look good, dad. You should keep it up,” Nora said as he started to walk down the steps of their porch. He smiled and waved as he began to jog away from her, and Nora went back to typing on her computer.
She couldn’t stop thinking about Violet. Mrs. Violet Heffernan. She’d always avoided asking her dad questions about Theo or his wife, so she knew practically nothing about her or the relationship. Before Violet happened, Theo had been a confirmed bachelor for as long as she could remember. Everyone in town had taken it for granted that he would never marry, even though his string of girlfriends were no secret of course. Nora didn’t care much about which new hot thing he had on his arm because she had convinced herself that those women didn’t mean anything to him. But when he announced that he was actually marrying someone, she was glad she was going away as she couldn’t bear to see him settling down for good.
Nora couldn’t concentrate on work anymore. The more she thought about Violet, the more her skin crawled. Shutting off her laptop, she jumped out of the chair and looked for the key her father kept under the welcome mat, and locked the door before walking out.
She kept her hands in her pockets as she walked down the neighborhood. Even though she had been away from it for seven years, she still knew the area by heart. She knew just which turns to take and which roads to walk down until she reached the gates of Theo’s home. His house still looked just as majestic and big as it always did.
She had always admired how architecturally beautiful the house looked, which she knew Theo had renovated himself when he bought it several years ago. It was in the style of old Tudor homes, surrounded by a canopy of shading green trees and a beautiful garden, at least ten times the size of her dad’s. The driveway was circular with a marble fountain that was still glistening in the sun and Nora walked through the open iron gates towards the front door.
She noticed the new cars parked in the driveway. Theo had a thing for luxury cars. She tried not to think too much about what she was doing there and why she had gone to his home. The deed was done now. She had walked up to his house already and she might as well just go ahead and knock on the door.
Instead, Nora peered in, her mind racing with a jumble of images of what this Violet might actually look like. Although, of course, the one thing that was certain was that she would be drop dead gorgeous.
Sucking in her gut, Nora knocked on the door lightly. She heard nothing on the other side for a few moments and she was already wondering how bad this idea was. Biting down on her lip, she decided to face her fears. Maybe I actually met Violet, I could get over Theo she thought to herself.
She rang the bell this time, and after a few seconds, she heard the shuffle of feet inside.
Nora stepped back, tucking some stray strands of hair behind her ears and pasted a smile on her face. The door flew open and she saw Theo standing in front of her.
He was in a pair of blue swim shorts and his chiseled torso was damp with drops of water sliding down his pumped biceps as he stood in front of her with a smile on his face.
“Nora, hi,” he said in a casual voice. If he was surprised to see her, he didn’t show it.
“Hi…hello,” she said, at a complete loss for words. She had assumed that Theo was out on a run with her dad. She had been so sure that his wife would be alone in the house but couldn’t tell him that of course.
“Come on in, I was just hanging out in the pool. It’s a lovely sunny day today,” he said. He turned away from her and left the front door open. Nora swallowed deeply as she followed him in, delicately shutting the door behind her while her heart racing. Confronting her fear of Theo’s wife was the plan, but seeing him practically naked and dripping wet definitely wasn’t.