THE DEAL: Novel (24 page)

It was never in Carolina’s plans to introduce her sons to JP as they intended to get the marriage annulment or divorce. The boys went to the rooms to leave the backpacks and take a quick shower before dinner. JP said quietly after they were gone, knowing that meeting her sons was a step too far.

"I didn’t know you had two sons much less, almost adults"

"Never happened in conversation"

Carolina said.

"I got to go, certainly you all need to catch up tonight, we can talk tomorrow what time do you finish work?"

"Usually I finish at 6 pm"

She said.

"Can you be in my house tomorrow at 7 pm?"

"I'll be there because my office is not far away from your house"

Said Carolina already on the way with JP to the door, they said goodbye with a kiss on the cheek. The boys returned to the living room and were disappointed to see that JP had already gone. But Carolina explained that she was missing them so much and needed to talk with them first. While Carolina dined with her sons she told all what she remembered have happened, minus the part where JP treated her as a sexual object aside her share how they met and how he behaved with her. The boys thought everything was all so mysterious and so excited at the same time, quieting the mother that JP would find out what happened and would solve everything in the best way.

Carolina was always proud about her sons, but especially when they were always on her side to support her when she needed. Carolina felt tired, so when they finish dinner and after she knew all the news from the boys, she went to bed. She missed sleeping in her bed so much.

She fell asleep immediately.

Dreamed of a woman all in black, wearing a black hat with a veil that covered her face, she saw everybody praises the mysterious woman and everybody around her as it was the most beautiful and magnificent and rare specimen they ever seen. Carolina tries to see her face, but she can’t. She made a few desperate attempts to get close to her to see her face beneath the veil and a woman dressed in full black comes near Carolina and pulls the veil up leaving it on top of the hat, showing her face.

It was a face of a monster.

Carolina horrified screams in the dream. She awakes from the nightmare all sweaty and with strong heart beat, because of the scare she caught in the dream. She looked at the clock and saw it was only 5 am, she knew she would no longer be able to sleep, got up and opened the bedroom window to get some fresh air, stood at the window for about 10 minutes trying to remember in detail the nightmare, she felt her chest tight.

Why would I dream of this woman if I don’t remember her, why did I dreamed of her with a face monster, the dream was so awful
.

Trying to remember bits of her dream, she is shaking, feeling after a shower, put work clothes on, and took calmly breakfast watching the news on television. Once again she tried to mentally go over what had happened at the end of the day before, remembering that she had forgotten to see her facebook page to see the wedding photo. Going to the computer, turned it on and opened her personal facebook page. There it was the wedding picture for everyone to see, they were publicly exposed. The picture itself she couldn’t see much, she was not able to know where they got married, it looked like a church or a chapel, it was not known where. In the photo appeared only Carolina and JP dressed up as bride and groom, wearing the same clothes that had on the island when they woke up, they had the wedding rings on their fingers, but their features were half weird, they seemed too happy, euphoric perhaps it didn’t make any sense.

She leaned back in the chair to appreciate better the picture but she had to admit they made a cute couple. Carolina had discovered JP’s facebook page some time ago, she couldn’t resist going there once in a while and take a look at it, she went to his page, and saw that he had the same picture on his profile, read all the reviews of congratulations for him. He had even the status changed to married. JP will be so pissed off when he sees the marriage getting public this way, what a mess this will be. It was time to get back to work Carolina shut off the computer and began her way to work.

At work when colleagues start coming are going all, one by one at her office and give her congratulations for having married, she thanks and avoids talking about the wedding and honeymoon. When Carolina’s workday was over she walks to JP's house which was a 30 minute walk, but Carolina had to be calm and collected, provided that the conversation wouldn’t be very good, especially in the state he was in the day before. Still had time to stop at a coffee shop, the ones belonging to a large chains coffee shops in England, bought a cappuccino, drinking it along the way while appreciated the shop windows as she passed by them.

When she arrived at the street and she sees JP’s house again Carolina stops for a moment, comes into her memory everything that happened the last and only time she was inside that house, an overwhelming sadness tears her soul, leaving her without strength to move on and press the bell again, that bell that began the martyrdom of unrequited love and pure sex, plus the humiliation of being treated as a sex object and after the meeting on the island the way they had start to know each other. Never ever have a man, however slightly the relationship had been, had treated the way JP did, but then she thought:

Maybe they didn’t have the courage to say to me in the face as JP did, in all of this he had always been honest with her, cruelly honest.

With this phrase in her mind, Carolina takes a deep breath, and slowly moves toward the house. Stops outside the door, looks at the bell arranging courage to press it, took a deep breath again closing her eyes at the same time. When she opened and was about to ring, JP was already opening the door for her.

"Come in, I was waiting for you."

He said.

They gave a kiss on the cheek, climbed the stairs to the living room, she went ahead and he behind her. Carolina seemed to be living a déjà vu right now, the revival of something she had in the memory every day, trying in vain to erase from her mind. They went to the living room, sitting on the couch where JP had kissed her for the first time. He interrupts her thoughts asking if she wants to drink something or if she prefers wine, she accepted the wine. Contrary to what had happened the first time, Carolina sat down on the couch inexplicably more confident and comfortable, putting her elbow on the couch with her hand supporting her head, tilting it slightly to the right, keeping the hair in the back, exposing the neck.

Strangely she didn’t felt intimidated in the presence of JP anymore she was feeling laid back to her own surprise. When he arrived with the bottle and two glasses of wine, he looked at her and smiled, put the wine in the glasses and handed one to Carolina, who thanked with a nod. JP sits on the couch, drinking a long sip of wine saying:

"I hope you had a good night in the company of your sons."

"Yes it was very good, was filled with longing for them"

He continued:

"Well as you might have noticed, we really got married and there is a marriage certificate and photos to confirm everything. I also know how we ended up on the island."

He added. As he was talking about trying to appear calm, she realized he was nervous.

That was news to see him nervous, he's always so confident. Because he always is
- Wondered Carolina.

She interrupted him:

"How did we get to the island on the first place?!"

She wondered impatiently.

"It seems that everything started when Tess was trying to match us, she traced our profiles and found that we match perfectly, we didn’t believe in her. But she was obsessed with the idea to put us together, she discovered who my ex-girlfriend was so she spoke to her and told everything what had happened. Hence my ex-girlfriend mysteriously appeared in London. She spoke personally with Tess and Tess showed her the work that she had drawing with our profiles and how they match together. My ex-girlfriend thought you could be just what I needed, but as she knew I had closed myself for a serious relationship and to be happy again, I didn’t want to see the obvious, so she decides to help a little bit. When she called me to say she was in London urging us to go to the event together arguing that she needed to make a donation for that specific association, I found it odd she want to come back to see me after everything that had happened between us and especially the way we finished. But the real purpose of it was to meet you, because she knew you'd be at that event because Tess had told her."

Carolina listened but couldn’t believe it.

"So the mysterious woman in black was your ex-girlfriend, the one for which you felt in love. But she is now married to an American tycoon isn’t she?!"

She asks still unconvinced.

"Yes, the same one. She managed to move on and married an American billionaire a few months ago. I kept stuck in the past and memories. You..."

His voice was fading, sighed, staring at the floor, picking up again in the glass of wine and drinking a little, he cleared his throat and continued:

"When she realized you were out of the event, she had security guards watching us and one of them got a way to put a drug in our drinks, a type of drug that is very powerful in autosuggestion and the side effects are memory loss while we are induced in it.

The security team went up to your apartment as they needed to know where you lived to have access to your documents and all info they needed for our stay on the island.

As the drug takes a couple of hours to take effect, we had time to get home and lie down. The same happened to me, they also put the drug at the party and therefore I don’t remember anything more of the following after have gone to bed, or at least I thought I had fallen asleep"

She was listening open-mouthed

"Are you sure?"

Question without wanting to believe what I was hearing.

"Wait there is more"

He said.

"They took us with the private jet to Las Vegas and before the drug effect was going out of our system they gave us more, that's why we don’t remember when we got married. So we got married in Las Vegas in ones of those depressing chapels. I have all the wedding paper work with me already, the signatures are ours, the photos are real, and it’s all true."

"Wow, this looks something out of a movie! But who did married us, couldn’t they see we were on drugs, who married us didn’t saw that?!"

Carolina was confused.

"Oh Carolina sometimes you're so naive, we are talking about Las Vegas where everything is possible and people they marry drugged or drunk, it’s as good as normal there. I am sure that my ex-girlfriend must have given a generous contribution who married us as well. The drug makes the person be awake while high on the drug and it’s really good to impose suggestions, her bodyguards suggested we should get married in a chapel, and we went into one and got married. When the drug effect is over, the body relaxes and sleeps about 8-12 hours straight waking up with a hangover and without remembering what happened in the meantime.

When we got married, the security of my ex girlfriend put us in the jet again, flying us to the island and we ended on the desert island"

JP tried to explain that however had been informed about it.

"But how did you found out all this?!"

She wanted to know.

"I had an email from her apologizing for what she had done, but was confident that everything would work out between us, I called her and she told me the sordid details. I never thought she did such a thing to me. My first instinct was sue her, but it’s her, I can’t do it, I could never harm her in any way"

He confessed continuing:

"Yesterday once I got home and turned on the phone, some of the messages were serious problems due to the marriage, which now I don’t feel like going into great detail, but the mother of my daughter wants to sue me for not ensuring the heritage of my daughter, my business partners are afraid that you can influence in my business having me precipitated in a wedding without a prenup agreement, now everyone's has their nerves on edge.

I've already sent a team of lawyers handling the divorce, yet it is no longer possible to null it, we will have to go through the divorce process as anyone else, just..."

She interrupted him:

"Wait! We can’t ask for the annulment anymore?! Why?"

He explains:

"First because they know that the marriage was consummated, I don’t know if you remember but we had sex at the island. Believe me if I knew I would never have touched you or we had seven days to request the wedding cancellation, from the country of residence if the marriage had been in a foreign country. As we were stuck on the island, it was impossible and being stuck involuntary having honeymoon on a paradise island doesn’t count...We can only ask for divorce right now. Now comes the worst part of all."

"What can be worse than dealing with a divorce?!" Carolina said without measuring her words.

"Well the problem is that my lawyers warned me that we haven’t made a prenuptial agreement before marriage. So we have to deal with a more rapid agreement possible, and wait six months to file for divorce. If we treat divorce already, you are entitled to half of everything that is mine, I don’t think that’s fair is imperative that we solve this urgently.