Chapter 24: The Top Of The Food Chain
Kenith didn’t fail to keep his promise of changing her room. As soon as Arianna woke up from sleep the next day, there was already an interior decorator waiting to receive her preference.
“They must have a lot of money to waste on her,” Arianna thought. But then why wouldn’t they when they were basically a loan shark? The thought of it made her blood boil, if it wasn’t for her uncle borrowing from them, she wouldn’t be in this situation.
There was nothing as annoying as being helpless to change your predicament. Her uncle took her freedom, her life! The anger was like claws digging into her heart and no matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t remove it... She couldn’t breathe. It was just suffocating.
Arianna decided to take advantage of the situation. Since they had the money, she should help spend it well. So Arianna went all out decorating her room. Since she was going to spend the rest of her miserable days here, she had to make sure it was liveable. She did not doubt that she would have to live with Big Joe once they got married. Remembering that made her skin crawl.
Arianna chose a globe-trotting theme for her bedroom. It channeled the adventurous spirit of a world traveler with an eclectic mix of far-flung antiques. The bedroom gives the impression of belonging to a gentleman traveler. Since her freedom was restricted, she could at least imagine her traveling around the world. She could imagine herself being free.
However, being free was the least of Arianna’s problems right now because she was about to go meet her husband, Big Joe. Yeah, great news, right?
The news was delivered to her by one of the men since she didn’t get even a glimpse of Kenith since that night he promised to redo her room. With him absent, Arianna was more anxious and uncomfortable since she had placed all of her bet on him. If she was going to leave here, kenith was the one that could make that happen – or at least, through manipulating him.
.....
“You look so beautiful, madam,” commented one of the maids who was making her hair.
If anything was comforting about being here, it was the fact that she was treated like royalty – at least after that day Kenith taught the man who assaulted her a lesson. Unlike her uncle’s place, she didn’t do anything here nor did anyone abuse her physically or emotionally.
The only annoying thing was the fact that they watched her like a hawk. Ever Since Arianna attempted to escape, they didn’t trust her and she knew that. She could move along the house freely but was restricted from the outside – for now. If she was going to escape here, she had to buy the trust of Big Joe and Kenith as well – they were at the top of the food chain here.
Arianna just prayed she had enough time to fulfill her plans. But for now, she needed to be shameless and act out of her character. One must do everything to survive. And she must survive.
“Thank you,” She could only smile at the young girl.
“Gosh,” she squealed, “Big Joe would be so awed by you, I bet you’d bring him down on his knees,”
Funny enough, it would have been more enduring if she had an idea of who her mystery husband was. So she could only smile nervously in response to the young girl. Arianna wondered if she knew she was being pushed into a marriage against her will. Well, even if she knew, what could she do?
Arianna had thought of using the young maid but she had read enough movies and read enough books to know it doesn’t end well for people like her – the ones at the bottom of the food chain. If she does escape, they’d probably murder and dump the maid’s body somewhere and Arianna doesn’t want that for her – she can’t have innocent blood on her hand. That was why she had to make use of the top shots – Kenith and Big Joe. After that, they could finish off each other for all she cares.
“What’s your name?” Arianna asked.
“Cassie,” She answered.
“Hmmm, Cassie,” Arianna muttered under her breath. Although she didn’t want the young maid in her plans, there were some little chores she might be able to help her with. She just hoped that her loyalty to Kenith wasn’t that much.
Arianna suspected Kenith sent her to keep an eye on her. But she didn’t care, cassie was naive and easy going – she was easy to manipulate. God, when did she begin to think like this? However, this was all for survival.
“I have to get you into your dress, madam, it’s almost time,” Cassie said to Arianna who stood up and went over to where her dress was hung. As much as she didn’t want to meet Big Joe, Cassie was just doing her job.
She was dressed in a long emerald green dress that had a beaded off shoulder and accentuated her slim waist. Looking into the mirror, Arianna couldn’t believe her appearance, she looked regal and powerful.
Her fierce red hair cascaded down her shoulder in waves while the green dress complimented her pale skin and popped out the green in her eyes. The dress was flowy and she really look like a queen. It was quite unfortunate that she was meeting that bastard with this dress. The thought of feeling his lecherous gaze on her made her sick to the stomach.
“Who chose this dress?” Arianna was quick to ask. No designer had taken her measurements nor asked of her preference before this. But from the look of things, this dress was chosen with careful consideration and it was of good quality. Who knew she would get to wear a dress like this one day?
“It was sir Kenith,” Cassie answered innocently without seeing the way Arianna cocked a brow.
“Really?”
“Yeah,” Cassie said while straightening out the dress.
“Hmmm, your sir Kenith seems to do a lot of odd jobs around here,” Arianna fished for gossip.