Chapter Twenty-Two
As Elise pounded on the door of Carmen’s hotel room, her only thought was Alejandro. The skirt of her big wedding dress was thrown over her arm and her fist ached from hitting on the door. She was doing her best not to think of the horror of the last four hours. “Open up!” she rasped as she looked up and down the corridor. No one was there, but then they were probably all in the church waiting for Elise to march down the aisle.
Just hours ago, she’d been sitting in the little library of that woman, Arrieta, doing as she’d been told, and thinking hard about the time she wanted to return to. When the silence continued, Elise opened her eyes, expecting to see Olivia and Kathy sitting beside her.
Instead, she’d found herself in the big hotel suite her mother had booked for her to use for the wedding. Elise was sitting on a hassock with her ghastly wedding dress spread out around her. It was like a silk cloud left over from a nuclear explosion.
To her left was a full-length mirror, and to her right were four of the six bridesmaids that her mother had chosen. They were the unattractive daughters of the two mothers’ college friends. “They’re all rich and they’ll help you in the future,” her mother said when Elise protested them.
As she glanced in the mirror, she saw the girls huddled together, whispering.
For a few moments, Elise was caught in a halfway point between then and now, and she could still feel the elation she’d had on her wedding day. She was going to marry Kent! The man of her dreams. And a side effect was that in doing so she’d please everyone. She had a vision of both families smiling and sharing meals together. It was going to be heaven!
But now, years later, she knew how wrong she’d been. Marrying Kent had brought her more under the control of the families—and made her more unhappy.
It had taken her a few moments to adjust to the transition and she heard Kathy’s voice in her head, telling her what she needed to do was run away. She sent a bridesmaid to get the limo driver to come to her. He said that yes, her bags for the honeymoon were in the trunk, and he’d been told to take the newly wedded couple to a nearby hotel. There wasn’t to be a honeymoon as Kent couldn’t be away from work for long. Elise gave the driver a check for five grand and told him that in about an hour she wanted him to drive just her to the airport. He smiled as if this kind of thing happened all the time, and said he’d be glad to. She’d then booked a one-way flight to Bangor, Maine, on her cell phone.
After he left, her heart was pounding, but she was also exhilarated. She was going to do it! She looked at her left hand. No wedding ring. On impulse, she asked one of the girls where Carmen’s room was, making it sound like she truly cared about the help. Cared enough to strangle her, she thought, but kept smiling. When the girls didn’t giggle or exchange knowing looks, Elise was relieved. At least it didn’t seem as though they knew about Kent and Carmen.
It was only by accident that Elise found out that the limo driver had betrayed her. Just as she was about to leave for her triumphant scurry out of the church, one of the bridesmaids burst into the room saying that there had been a bomb threat. They all came to a halt. The girl had reached the conclusion that there was a bomb because Elise’s father had called a security company and they’d come quickly.
“There are men with guns standing in front of the church doors. And you should see the limo! There’s a guard in the front seat and one in the back. And I just saw two more security men waiting for the elevator. I think they’re coming up here.”
For a moment, Elise’s heart seemed to stop. When it began again, it was in her throat.
Think! she told herself. What would Olivia do? She wouldn’t stand for this! Elise thought. She’d probably say she wasn’t going to—
Okay, Elise thought, I’m not Olivia and never will be. But she knew of one place where it was guaranteed that no one would look for her.
Turning, she smiled at her bridesmaids and said that she’d like to be alone for a while. “To pray,” she added, knowing that that would clear them out quickly.
She closed the door behind them, waited about two minutes, then opened it and ran out. There were some hotel guests in the hall who ooohed and aahhed at the bride in her big white dress. Elise grabbed all forty pounds of the skirt and hit the stairs just as the elevator dinged.
Kent had rented his pregnant mistress a suite at the top of the hotel. No doubt he’d told Carmen that he needed her there. That he couldn’t get through the wedding to the bland Elise without the lusty, fiery Carmen nearby. Oh yes, if people were looking for Elise, the last place they’d look was in Carmen’s room.
She pounded on the door harder. What if Carmen was gone? What if—?
Finally, Carmen opened the door. Her pretty face was nearly green with morning sickness and it got worse when she saw Elise. “What are you doing here?” Her voice was a sneer.
Elise pushed her way into the room. “I’m running away and you’re going to help me do it.” She shut the door behind her.
“I’m just the gardener’s sister,” Carmen said. “I can’t—”
Elise glared at Carmen’s stomach. “Do you really want to go that way? You want to turn me over to them so I can marry your boyfriend?”
Carmen’s only reaction to that revelation was a couple of blinks. She put the chain on the door. “Your father called in men with guns. You’re in a lot of trouble.”
When Elise sat down on the bed, the dress billowed up so high that she got a mouthful of it. Sputtering, she said, “I’m not going to be bullied into a marriage that I don’t want.”
The green look was beginning to clear from Carmen’s face, and for the first time Elise thought of it from her side. She was here to attend the wedding of a man whose child she was carrying. Elise’s voice softened. “I need to borrow some clothes and you have to help me find a way to get out of here.”
Carmen’s lips tightened. “My clothes won’t fit you.” She gave a pointed look at Elise’s much flatter chest.
“You’re going to be catty now?” Elise said. “Really?”
Carmen gave a shrug, as though it didn’t matter what she did. For a moment, they stared at each other. Then Carmen picked up her cell and called her brother. She told him, in Spanish, that he needed to come to the hotel right away, that it was an emergency. She listened, then hung up.
“My brother will be here soon,” Carmen said. Neither her eyes nor her voice had softened. She was still looking at Elise as though she were the enemy. Not Kent, who was playing the women against each other, but Elise.
She started to say she’d heard the call, but it dawned on Elise that this was years earlier. No one knew that she’d learned to speak Spanish. Nor did anyone know that she and Alejandro were friends. The first time around, they didn’t meet until after she was married. “So Diego is coming for me?” she asked.
“No. He’s out of town. My younger brother, Alejandro, will be here as soon as he can, but it’ll be at least an hour. He’s one of the men who’s been working at your father’s house for a month.” She looked Elise up and down in contempt. “If you plan to sneak out, you need to change now. My brother has to work for a living. He doesn’t have all day to wait for you.”
Elise was trying to steady herself as she grasped the facts. Alejandro was coming for her!
She turned away from Carmen, pointed to the buttons down the back of the dress, and reluctantly, Carmen began unfastening them. When the dress was unbuttoned, Elise managed to step out of the thing and let it drop to the floor. She was glad she’d worn her yoga pants.
Reverently, Carmen picked the dress up and put it on the bed.
As Elise took a robe off a chair, she looked at the way Carmen was smoothing the dress. It was as though she was imagining her own wedding. Softly, Elise said, “What is it that you like about Kent?”
Carmen didn’t turn around, and when she spoke, her voice was quiet. “He makes me laugh. He’s generous, always doing things for me.” She straightened her shoulders, then turned to look at Elise. “And the sex is great.”
Elise stifled the hurt that she felt. “He sounds like he is truly in love with you.”
“Yes, he is. And I’m in love with him.”
Elise nodded toward the dress on the bed. “It must have hurt to see him planning his wedding to marry me.”
Carmen grit her teeth. “I wanted to kill you. No offense.”
“None taken.” Elise went into the bathroom and closed the door. For a moment she leaned against it and tears came to her eyes. Generosity, laughter, fabulous sex. She’d seen none of those in the years she’d been married to Kent.
She pushed away from the door and wiped her eyes. What was wrong with her? Why couldn’t she just stand up to all of them? Why couldn’t she look into her mother’s eyes and say she was not going to marry Kent? Not going to spend her life with a man who didn’t love her?
But then what? Elise had no money. She had a useless education that had prepared her for being a wife to an executive. She’d studied art and poetry, and done lots of exercise to keep herself fit. If she defied her parents, she knew of no one who’d risk their wrath to take her in until she could get on her feet. And that thought terrified her. What could she do?
In the shower, she washed off the quarter pound of makeup her mother had insisted on. She was trying to combat the “blandness” of Elise, meaning her blonde hair and eyebrows and lashes. What her “family” was planning to do to her wasn’t fair. Where were those parents who said, “We support you no matter what you want to do?”
She got out of the shower, dried off, put her underwear back on and the thick hotel robe, then began to blow-dry her long hair. Okay, so now she had a second chance, but what had changed? Her parents were going to be so angry that they would cut her off completely.
Maybe she should have asked Arrieta to go back to when she entered college so she could major in business. But then, when the three weeks were up, her old self would probably still believe she was in love with Kent. What was she going to do? Write herself a letter about her future? No, she needed the years of marriage to show her that Kent wasn’t who she thought he was.
Her thoughts were interrupted by a low rumble of a sound that she recognized.
Alejandro’s voice. He was here!
Elise looked at herself in the mirror. With no makeup on, she was pale, but she knew Alejandro liked that.
With her hand on the doorknob, she took a deep breath. She reminded herself that at the time of her wedding she’d never met Carmen’s brother. She needed to act that way now.
Quietly, she opened the door. Carmen and Alejandro were on the far side of the room so she couldn’t see them, but she could hear them clearly. They were talking rather loudly in Spanish.
“You want me to take care of her?” Alejandro’s voice was disbelieving.
“I want you to look after her for two or three days, that’s all. Is that too much to ask of my own brother?”
“You’re up to something, aren’t you? You...” He paused. “You want me to do what? Seduce her? So you can steal her husband?”
“He is not her husband.” Carmen sounded angry. “You don’t have to do anything with her. Just feed her. She’s so skinny she probably eats a peanut a day. Just keep her hidden for a few days, then put her on a plane to wherever she wants to go.”
“What the hell am I supposed to do with her? Can she dig flower beds? Spread mulch?”
“No,” Carmen said. “She can’t do anything. Kent says she is an absolutely useless person!”
Elise leaned against the door, her eyes closed, trying to take in the hurt.
Carmen’s voice sweetened, was cajoling. “I know you don’t like this whole thing, but Kent and I love each other.”
“He’s marrying someone else.”
“He was, but after this humiliation I don’t think he will. And Kent may lose his job because of her. Why did she have to destroy everything? Stop looking at me like that. You’ve seen this girl. She’s so shapeless I’m not sure she’s a woman. And Kent said she’s really cold. There’s nothing between her and him except business and she knows it.”
“If she wants the marriage, then why did she run away?”
“Who knows? Maybe she wants more money. I know she thought that by coming to me I could get Kent to forgive her.”
Elise gasped at that great lie. “What was that?” Alejandro asked.
“Nothing. It was in the hall. Will you do this for me or not?”
“I don’t know. Where’s she supposed to stay?”
“I’m staying with Diego, so she’ll be with you. In your bedroom.”
“What?” Alejandro half yelled.
“Shhh! She’ll hear you. Not that she’d understand, but she’ll hear. If you think I’m going to sleep in the same room as a crazy woman, you’re wrong. She ran away from her own wedding. Who knows what she’ll do next?”
Elise stepped back into the bathroom and silently shut the door. You’re afraid to go to sleep around me? she thought. So much for her compassion for Carmen. It looked like it wasn’t reciprocated.
She stood up straighter. Right now, she thought, I need to think about how to take care of myself.
Since she’d seen the extent of what her parents and Kent would do to get her under control, she had to act wisely. She knew that if she showed herself to them now she’d either marry Kent or be taken away to...to... She didn’t like to think about that.
She needed food and shelter until she could figure out what to do. Surely there was someone in her life who could help her. She just needed time to think about it all. Even if she could get to Warbrooke, Maine, she didn’t know if she’d find help there. It was years before she’d met Olivia, and years before she got back together with Kit.
“One day at a time,” she whispered. At the moment, she needed to take care of the necessities, like food and shelter, and the rest would have to follow.
She opened the door again. Carmen and Alejandro were still arguing. “You’re sure she doesn’t speak Spanish?” he was saying.
“Absolutely. She’s American. She can barely speak one language, certainly not two. And it’s none of my business but if I were you, I wouldn’t let her know you speak English. Kent says she’s the world’s biggest whiner. She complains all the time. She says no one ever pays any attention to her or spends enough time with her. You’re so softhearted you’ll probably begin to believe her. You might even fall for the skinny girl.”
“After the mess I just got out of? I’m staying away from all females. I’m going to let Mom choose a wife for me. Some village girl with a hairy upper lip.”
Carmen laughed. “I’ll believe that when I see it.”
Elise had heard enough. She started to step into the room, but on impulse, she let the robe fall to the floor. One thing she knew about Alejandro was that he was physically attracted to her.
She had on a lacy white demi-cup bra that exposed the top halves of her breasts. Her matching panties curved across her—thanks to frequent gym visits—very firm derriere.
Loudly, she flung the door open. “Carmen!” she said as she strode across the room to the closet, not looking at the two people standing on the other side. “Which of your clothes should I wear? Everything is either too big or too short for me. Your jeans wouldn’t reach to my calves. It’s a curse having such long legs.” Elise pulled out the smallest skirt and held it in front of her in a way that exposed her tight stomach. The upper half of her was nearly bare.
Turning, she saw Carmen and Alejandro staring at her. Carmen’s frown was so deep she could plant wheat between the furrows. Alejandro was looking at her in stunned silence.
Was there anything more gratifying than seeing a beautiful man dumbstruck by desire? Elise had never seen it on her husband’s face. And Alejandro had always kept himself under control. She’d seen twinges in his eyes but never this down and dirty look of lust.
“Oh!” Elise said, trying to sound innocent. “Sorry. I didn’t know anyone else was here. You must be Alejandro.” She pronounced it as Alex-andro. “Did I say that right?”
She held the skirt up in a way that it covered nothing as she went forward to hold out her other hand to him to shake.
He just stared at her.
“Is he okay?” Elise said in a false whisper, and realized she was channeling Tara.
Carmen was still frowning. “He doesn’t speak English and he doesn’t greet naked women.”
“Oh.” Elise pulled the skirt to her, but covered very little of her well-toned body. “I. Am. So. Sorry.” She spoke slowly and very loudly. “Welcome. To. A-mer-ee-ca.” She was almost shouting. Elise looked at Carmen and whispered, “I’ll just be a minute, then we can go.” She gave another glance at Alejandro, as though to say it was too bad he wasn’t a fully functioning human being, then she walked back to the closet—with the skirt in front of her, exposing her entire back half to their view.
With a warm smile at the two of them, Elise grabbed a handful of Carmen’s clothes, and disappeared into the bathroom.
“I’m a dead man,” Alejandro said, and collapsed into a chair.