We spent two hours in the hot tub loving each other. We just got out to avoid catching a cold. We went to the kitchen for a quick meal, and, before we got back to our room, we were making love again. Our hunger for one another would never be satisfied. The more we gave in to it, the more we wanted, and after what happened to the car, after being so close to death, everything seemed more intense. It was like the risk made us realize how crazy we were for each other and we celebrated escaping death and being alive. I just hoped it made Jared value his life more, at least enough to take care of his health.
I woke up next morning, and realized I was alone in bed without Jared beside me, but this was the least of my problems. I knew I wouldn’t have a great day when I moved and discovered my body hurt, especially between my legs. We overdid sex last night.
I just decided I wouldn’t get up this morning, when my husband appeared from inside the walk-in closet, as beautiful as a vision, wearing his expensive custom-made suit, freshly shaved and his hair wet and brushed. His splendid smile highlighted the curve of his lips and his eyes were shining. I asked myself how he could be so strong and excited after the exhausting night we had. He definitely didn’t look like a man with a cancerous heart.
“Aren’t you going to work, princess?” he asked before sitting on the edge of the bed and kissing me. I breathed in his delicious scent.
“Not today. I’m exhausted.”
“I don’t know what your boss will think about that,” he said irreverently and I smiled.
“If he fires me, I’ll sue him for exploitation outside the work place.”
It was his turn to smile. Then he got serious, a wrinkle of concern appearing on his forehead.
“The police report still didn’t come out, but I’m leaving some bodyguards at the entrance of the elevator. They won’t bother you or come inside, but if you go out, they’ll follow.
I thought this was a bit extreme, especially since we didn’t know if the car brakes had been sabotaged. It might well have been an accident, but when Jared decided something, it was a waste of time trying to argue. Things always were done his way.
“It’s going to be boring to go out with a bunch of bodyguards following.” I said.
“Where do you intend to go?”
“Nowhere. I’m just using it as an example.” I could enjoy the morning and talk to my family and my uncle on the webcam, but I couldn’t spend the whole day there without getting bored. “I won’t go out if you have lunch at home.” It was my cheapest blackmail.
“I’ll figure out a way to come home. Now, I have to go. Lorry is here, tell her what you want.” He leaned over me and kissed me again, taking longer to express his love this time.
“Are you driving?” I asked alarmed, wondering if it was safe.
“Don’t worry about me. I’ll take the limo. I already asked the driver to check the car to make sure everything is ok with it.”
“You hired bodyguards for you as well, right?”
“Yes. Now I have to go. I’m late for a meeting.”
He left then, leaving me with his nice scent and his taste on my mouth. I turned on my side and went back to sleep. I had no idea what time it was when I woke up again. I still hurt, but I needed to get up.
After a long, hot bath, I went downstairs and Lorry served me a scrumptious breakfast of pancakes, eggs, jam and fruits. After I finished the meal, I went straight to the computer to talk with uncle Jamal. I didn’t tell him about the car to avoid him being preoccupied by it, but I asked a lot of questions about my ex-fiancé just to be certain he was really in Morocco. However, the fact that he was there didn’t assert his innocence in what happened. After all, he could have hired someone to cut the brakes before he left and, if he did, he’d try again, as Jared pointed out.
After two hours spent talking to uncle Jamal, I called my family and spoke quickly with my mother and sisters. My father refused to talk to me because I rejected the marriage he arranged and married an American, but time would heal that.
Searching for something to keep me busy while I counted the minutes until Jared came home, I started browsing on the web. I found myself researching heart cancer. As I suspected, Jared didn’t have the symptoms typical of someone with a tumor. His feet weren’t swollen, he didn’t cough, he wasn’t under- or overweight, and he didn’t feel breathless. However, his heart attack in the parking lot wasn’t faked or a joke, as it certainly wasn’t when Jeffrey took him to his doctor friend. I didn’t doubt that Jared was sick, but my instincts told me that he should seek a second opinion.
That was hammering in my head the whole morning, troubling me. I felt anguished. When my husband came home with a wide-open smile on his face, however, everything calmed. My world resumed normality with his generous smile and the simple shine in his loving eyes when he looked at me.
I embraced him and kissed his chin, savoring his delicious male smell.
“How was your day?” I asked after embracing him while we were still in the living room.
“It was productive. I got a lot of business taken care of.”
“Should I tell Lorry to serve lunch?”
“Sure.”
I asked our housekeeper to serve us the roasted ribs in the dining room that I asked her to prepare earlier. Jared sat on the edge of the table and took off his suit jacket. He rolled his sleeves up, and I sat beside him.
“Hmm. It looks delicious.” he said, sniffing the aroma of the food. The scent permeated the room.
“I asked her to do it especially for you.”
“With this treatment, I’ll be forced to fire you and give you terrible references so you can’t get another job and will only be able to take care of me.
“Don’t you dare.” I said, smiling, and then I served myself some lunch.
Jared served himself as well. His good mood faded, as his expression hardened. “The police expertise gave me the report,” he ground out seriously.
“And?”
“The brakes were cut,” he said matter of factly and I felt the cold course down my spine. “Now, they will conduct an investigation to try to find out who did it.”
“Do they have any suspects?”
“No, but you don’t need to think hard to know it likely was your rejected ex-fiancé. He must have hired someone and, if he did, he’ll try again. We need to be very careful.”
“What if it wasn’t him?”
“It’s up to the police to find out. It won’t be hard. The person who did it had to do it while we were working. The car was in the garage and there are cameras everywhere. It’s just a matter of time.”
“Wow! How could anyone get in a garage in a building that is so well guarded?”
“These people know how to do that. They disguise themselves as employees or delivery-men. It’s not hard.”
“Hope the police get them soon.”
There was a long period of silence before Jared spoke again. “Jeffrey and Erica came to my office today.”
“What did they want?”
“They want to reconcile. They invited us to the club tomorrow.”
“Will we go?”
“No.” He paused for a long moment again. “I told them I decided to have the surgery and Jeffrey booked it for Monday.”
I was petrified. The fork hung suspended on the way to my mouth as my heart sank. For Allah! It was about time we knew whether he’d live or die. The moment to know if the cancer would take him. But If the surgery didn’t work and he died, it’d be my fault. I had convinced him to do it.
Although I knew it was the best way, that it was better than having no chance, I wanted to kneel beside him, cry, and ask him not to do it. To leave things as they were, to wait for a while, but what good would it do? If he waited, death would be a certainty.
I dropped my fork and ran to him, distressed. I sat on his lap, between him and the table, and he embraced me.
“It’ll be ok.” I forced myself to believe these words. “You’ll be ok.” I kissed his chin several times and rested my head on his chest, trying to keep the tears from my eyes.
“I want to be alone with you this weekend. Just us, wherever you choose.” It felt like it was a farewell.
For Allah! Why did things have to be like that? Why did I have to love him so much that losing him would be like death to me? If he didn’t live, I wouldn’t either.
“Let’s stay here. Why travel again? We had enough excitement in Caribe and Green Lake Park. Let’s give Lorry a day off and stay here together.”
Jared put his face against my neck, blowing a warm breath on me before kissing me, giving me chills.
“Seems nice. Seems terrific, but we risk being interrupted by visitors, and I want to be with only you these two days. I have a house in Malibu. We can go there. It’s just a two-hour flight. If we leave soon, we can come back on Monday to have the surgery. What do you think?”
“Is there a place where you don’t own properties?”
“Yes, many. Amazonia, the North Pole, Japan…”
“Ok, got it. Let’s go to Malibu then, but ask your pilot to verify that the brakes are good before we leave.”
Jared smiled and it was like sunshine illuminating the darkness from the anxiety I felt. “We can go to the country house before we head to Malibu so you can see your friends,”
“We’d better wait and let the police find out who did that.” I didn’t feel confident enough to take a long car trip after what had happened.
While Jared called the crew from his private jet, I had just enough time to pack our things, so we could leave the apartment and take the limo to the airport. Not even the fear of sabotage on the plane could shake the awful feeling inside me. I could only think about the surgery on Monday. We’d soon know if Jared would live through it or die. As much as I tried to be optimistic, I was prepared for the worst.
Oh my! How I wish things were different.
After two short hours, we got to Malibu. The warmer temperature thrilled me. From the airport, we took a limo, driving on a long avenue, from which we could see the beach crowded with people enjoying the sunny afternoon. On the opposite side, there were big and beautiful mansions. If it wasn’t for my angst over the impending surgery, I’d have been fascinated by the place.
We were miles away from the city’s center, when the limo entered the big gates to the most beautiful mansion. It was just magnificent, all white with two floors. There were walls with huge glass panels facing a private beach. There was also a big terrace with a pool, sun loungers and palm trees. In the back, I could see a tennis court and a soccer field.
The house was as magnificent inside as it was outside. The rooms where large cathedral ceilings. The furniture was modern and sophisticated. The glass doors in the main hall were open allowing a gentle breeze in that made it very refreshing, quiet and cozy.
As soon as we entered, with the driver carrying our bags, a red-haired, tanned girl, wearing short-shorts and a top that didn’t cover her belly, came from the back, smiling at my husband.
“Welcome back, Mr. Harrington.” She said, her eyes bright as she greeted my husband.
“Inaya, this is our housekeeper, Ashley. Ashley, this is my wife, Inaya.”
The woman, no more than twenty-five years old, looked me up and down before her eyes came to rest on my face, and her smile faded.
“Welcome, Mrs. Harrington. It’s a pleasure to meet you.” I doubted it.
“Glad to meet you too,” I returned.
The driver left the bags in the hall, excused himself and left.
“Do you want me to unpack?” Ashley asked.
“Of course.” Jared answered.
She intimated something to him with her eyes before grabbing the bags and taking them upstairs.
“Isn’t it beautiful?” Jared pointed to the beach to where I could see a motorboat parked.”
He tried to embrace me, but I avoided it. I was irritated by the way the housekeeper looked at him. It was clear to me that there was, or had been something between them.
“I thought we came here to be alone.” I said.
“And we are.”
“What about the tanned Barbie unpacking?”
“She just takes care of the place when I’m not here. She’ll just prepare our food and leave.”
He tried to hold me again and I pushed him back, upset.
“What’s the matter, Inaya?”
I turned to face him. I couldn’t disguise my irritation. “The problem is I’m tired of facing women you had sex with everywhere we go.”
“Where else did you find women I had sex with?” Fuck! I was right about the redhead. He confessed he had an affair with her and felt awkward as he realized it. “It was just sex, Inaya. It didn’t mean anything and it was long before I met you. I’m not proud of it, but I’ve had lots of women during my life, but you’re the only one I loved, and the only one who matters to me.”
I knew I was overreacting by being jealous of women he’d been with before we met. As he said, there were many. However, bringing me to a house where one of them was, half-naked and acting suggestively, was too much.
“I don’t care about how many women you’ve been with. I don’t even like to think about it. I just don’t like you showing them off to me all the time.”
“I never did that. I didn’t even remember Ashley was here.” He took a deep breath and sat on the couch. “Well, it’s your house now. Fire her if you want.”
“I don’t want to fire her. I just don’t want her between us, looking at you that way.”
“I’ll ask her to leave while we are here, but you’ll have to cook,” he joked, but it fell flat.
Then Ashley came bouncing downstairs, but before she tried to entice my husband again in front of me, I left the room and crossed through the double-doors to the terrace. The sun was strong this afternoon. Fuck! The view was beautiful. Behind the pool, there was a small wall and from there I could see the white sand and blue water, surrounded by coconut trees.
I looked around everything, making sure there was no one nearby, and I took off my tight dress, leaving me in my underwear only. I laid on a sun lounger beside the pool and closed my eyes, feeling ecstatic in a heat that was rare in Seattle. Sunbathing my skin, already tanned from our stay in Caribe, made me relax.