Elspeth didn't sleep! She thrashed on the bed from left to right, crying tears into the soft pillow that accompanied her on the enormous king-sized bed in the most spacious room she had ever been in her life.
Who would she call? Who could she tell, about her heart ache?Alone in her room, she cried with no one to hear her. Surely, the walls were thick and soundproofed. Qualities that were meant for other purposes.
Finally, she sat up in the generously-spaced bed that made her feel more lonely than she would have thought she was and picked up her phone in an attempt to dial someone's number. Anyone. Her eyes were swollen from crying for three hours straight through the night.
She felt so sad. She was in pain. She wouldn't want to call her mother in fear that she would be too worried for her daughter. If she called her father, then she would be prone to hear him try to convince her to endure and stay for the sake of the money. Nevertheless, if she was ever in need of anyone to talk to, he would be the last.
If she called Tracy, Tracy would be so worried that she wouldn't be able to keep it from her mother and if her mother knew, then she would inform Stone's father and he would not only reprove his son for treating her as he had done, but eventually, the marriage would be ruined so soon.
Either they divorced or things got worse. Her mother would never approve of her staying any longer so it was definitely the former. And if that happened, it would equal sadness for everybody.
Her mother would be more sad that she might have been right that things wouldn't work out between her best friend's son and her daughter.
Her father would be so disappointed in her for letting her family down.
After all, life was not always smooth for everyone and instead she decided to be selfish rather than selfless, even though it was an honest bid to allow her family have money in their hands. All because the rich man she married didn't express love towards her as she did towards him. Or worse, because he had put her in a separate room.
No, he had slapped her, too!
The only person that had ever done such to her was her father. And it was a bit long now, since she'd grown older to avoid his troubles.
As for Tracy and Emmanuel, though they would be happy for her to have left such a cruel man, they would also be sad within, for they were also tired of the necessitous life that they lived, regardless that they tried not to show it to her or their parents.
Eventually, Elspeth slept with the phone in her hands. Nonetheless, before sleeping she told herself one thing. That she would do it for her family. She refused to be selfish!
By morning, she woke up, again, but to the sound of someone knocking on her door.
"Yes!" She answered aloud, pulling out of her sleep.
"Good morning, Mrs Gerardo." It was a woman that spoke behind the door and Elspeth guessed it must be one of the maids of last night who has showed her to her room. "Breakfast is served."
Oh! Elspeth thought immediately and grabbed her phone to check the time. It read after seven in the morning.
"Okay, thank you!" She quickly responded so that the woman would be able to leave and indeed, she did not hear her speak, again.
Elspeth took the hint that she was now gone and then she lifted herself from the bed, undressed quickly and entered the fine en-suite bathroom to quickly have her bath. By the time she came out, her phone was already ringing.
The screen of the phone displayed 'My Queen' for her to know that it was her mother calling. "Hello?" She picked it up and answered.
"Hello, dear." Louella said on the phone. "I just called to check up on you. I hope I didn't wake you?" Louella knew Elspeth was usually asleep by this time.
"No, mom. I was already awake." Elspeth smiled as she sat on the bed, even as she was still wrapped up in the new peach towel that she had found in the bathroom for her. "You will be surprised to know that I have also had my bath."
"Oh, wow." Louella laughed. "And eaten too?"
"Oh, no!" Elspeth laughed, heartily. "Not yet. But I will soon. I heard breakfast is served."
"Glad to know you're doing well dear." As soon as Louella spoke those words, Elspeth felt her chest squeeze tight. She wanted to tell her mother that it wasn't entirely true that she was doing well.
In fact, she could still feel the slap from last night. But instead, she swallowed the words and decided to say something else. "How's Tracy and Emmanuel? I promised to send them something nice soon."
"They know dear so don't worry too much." Louella's voice clearly sounded like a smile was drawn on her face. "I'll call again later okay? And Tracy and Emmanuel said they'll like to visit soon."
"Oh..." Fear washed over Elspeth immediately.
What if they came and saw what was going on? What would she do?
"Bye bye, dear. I love you." Louella said, cutting her strain of thoughts.
"Love you, too, mom." Elspeth answered and let her mother end the call before she took it away from her face.
Sighing sadly, she walked to the wardrobe where the maids had helped her to arrange her clothes and searched for what to wear. There were two wardrobes; one that contained her own little amount of clothes and the other, the one that the older maid had made sure to tell her about.
The extra wardrobe contained new clothes specially for her. When she opened it, she found lovely gowns worn on cloth hangers and she picked one. It was a black floral dress with pink and white splattered all over.
“If only it wasn’t armless and too short to wear.” Elspeth thought as she returned it, shaking her head.
She searched again for another but most of them were all too shorter than the gowns she wore. Finally, she found one long enough to pass her knees and she decided she would manage it.
She stood in front of the long mirror in the room and was surprised to see that the gown fitted her just right. How did they know her size?
The gown was pretty and blue, her favorite color. It was plain though and she didn’t mind as long as the top front was covered and the sleeves were long enough to reach her elbows.
Now, she was ready to step out of the room. But before she had the chance to, there was yet another knock on her door.
“Yes? I’m almost done!” She said and quickly turned away from the wardrobe, picked her cellphone and rushed to open the door. “Sorry, I was—” The rest of her sentence flew in the air as she quickly realized it wasn’t the maid.
It was Stone.