The Valentines

XI

Theo knew something was wrong. It wasn't glaringly obvious that Esmé wasn't completely with it, but every now and then she would space out, just for a few seconds. That morning, William had attempted to convince his wife to stay at home, but Esmé was having none of it, quickly becoming frustrated with him for pressing the issue.

To Theo, that wasn't entirely out of character for Esmé. She had never been particularly patient with people who ignored what she said or what she wanted, especially when it came to things about herself.

However, sitting in the lecture room and watching Esmé lose her usually unwavering concentration on more than one occasion, led her to believe that what she had overheard last night had taken a greater toll on the powerful woman behind the desk.

It wasn't that Theo had witnessed much, she had no idea about the phone call from Sebastian, but she had heard Esmé sobbing, which had hit her like a tonne of bricks. Theodora had been living with the couple since February, and not once had she seen or heard Esmé cry.

She recalled seeing her upset when she had disappeared for the day and locked herself in her room afterwards, but nothing like what she had heard that night.

It was almost like Esmé didn't have that level of emotion within her. Which seemed silly, when Theo thought about it. Esmé was still a human being and was still capable of feeling things like everyone else, it was just a thousand times more complex with her.

They were so different, and Theo knew that. Although Theo had grown up in a place that lacked affection, going on to a relationship full of the wrong people and hurt, it didn't make her any less needy for affection. If anything it fuelled her to want it even more.

Whereas Esmé was reserved with her affection. William had a pass to her, which Theo suspected was more due to their dynamic than anything else, but he received a lot of the woman's attention, not necessarily through physical contact.

Theo knew nothing of Esmé's past; the woman was still a mystery to her, and so was her husband. The red-head shook herself out of the thought she was going towards.

Esmé may not be comfortable with touching, but that didn't have to mean something awful had happened to her for that to be the case and it was the same with her dominating personality. Maybe that was just the way she was.

Theo knew William and Esmé hadn't seen her the night before, when she had peeked around the door and watched William cradle his wife close to his chest whilst she cried. The look on his face had been difficult to read, but Theo had noticed a lot of anger there, but also a lot of pain.

It hurt William to see his wife so upset.

When the phone rang, Theo had quickly slipped away, not wanting to push in on the private moment any longer. Despite Theo having openly admitted to watching the couple have sex, this intimacy was different.

When it came to sex and the dynamics in the house, the Valentines were far from shy about it. It was obvious what they got up to and how often they did it, although Theo couldn't even begin to imagine the extent of what they did.

When it came to emotions, it was a different story. That wasn't as publicly shown with the couple, so Theo witnessing anything related to it made her feel dirty like she'd walked in on the world's biggest secret.

As much as the young woman wanted to know what was going on, she knew full well that she would never find out. Once again, despite living with the couple for months, Theo knew barely anything about the two of them.

All she knew about Esmé was that she had many siblings, she wasn't that close to her family, she was Greek, a millionaire and went to fancy events.