STUCK 2

Chapter 12

Donavan tugged Ina in bed, pulling the covers over her little frame to keep her warm. Tara didn't say a word, quietly following, realising that the room she followed don into was a kid's bedroom, almost extensively designed for one. The walls were pink, teddy bears were scattered, and charts of alphabets hung all over the walls. Evidently the bed was small, made only for Inaya. It made her worry whether he planned on keeping Tara in another room far away but as he pointed to the room immediately next to Ina's she sighed, momentarily relaxed.

Donavan felt oddly at unease as she kept unusually quiet, not offering him even a glace as she turned the door of her room open and before he could come in thud closed on his face, locking it from inside. The breeze of air hit his face at her action, making him tighten his jaw, but for the time being he took a sharp breath, calming his senses before leaving through hallway, already imagining the piling files waiting at his desk.

Tara didn't waste a second before turning the bathroom door open, entering inside before shutting it close too, a little more loudly than necessary before slumping on the floor, resting her back against the door as she allowed herself to fully fall apart. Her shoulders shook as she held her head tightly in her hands, begging herself to not cry but the more she tried to press it inside, the tighter her throat clenched, eventually drawing tears from her eyes. She tried to wipe them, with the back of her hands, but the more she wiped, the wetter her cheeks became and before she realised it, she was already weeping like a broken woman.

What hurt more was she didn't know why she cried. She hadn't expected a paradise for a welcome, or a prize of loyalty from him all along, but when his marriage adventure unveiled, Tara grew unimaginably agitated, shocked at first and later, just mad, at him, at her. Something was wrong, and most probably with her. She was angrier at herself for feeling this way about his wedding  but couldn't stop blaming Don for cheating on her, for ever touching a woman behind her back. It made her wonder whether  Venetia warmed his bed during their marriage too, whether he fucked around on his business trips when she rotted in his prison of a home.  

If I could tell lies, so could he. Right? 

That assumption burnt in Tara, like a blazing alloy in the fresh lava. 

She wanted to burn the whole world for a moment, she wanted to storm in his hell and smack him across the face before plunging a knife  thousand times in his chest till he died. It was a mistake she realized to have not killed him. She had been too overwhelmed and vulnerable in the moment to spare him a life, all to realise that he simply didn't deserve it. If Tara had known behind the curtains, Don played games with her too, there wasn't a doubt she would have killed him in a beat. But something had told her otherwise, to think several times with an organ that wasn't supposed to, heart. 

This, is the last time 

She told herself, last time that she cried in the mansion that didn't deserve her sadness. She knew she didn't deserve their respect, not their empathy, but she decided not to care. Whatever she had done, she had done it for herself, and if that meant fucking Frantinos in the ass, they might as well bend down to ease the pain.

By the time she got out the door, a maid stood outside, timid and apprehensive, looking around the room awkwardly. Tara recognised the face, remembering the weird maid she was assigned when she had entered Frantino Mansion as a bride, 

"Sia?" 

"You remember my name?"

"Of course, you're the weird woman who wouldn't tell me anything about yourself" 

Sia didn't know whether to smile at Tara's wit or pity the woman's bravery for attempting a joke in such a disastrous circumstance. 

"I am sorry I knocked several times, you didn't answer so I used the spare key to enter" Sia showed the key in her hand to explain her intrusion,