Mirrors

Chapter Nine

With shadows hanging overhead, Mr. Moore found himself in a delimma when he thought of confessing his feelings to his wife. Many times when he held her close after making love, he wanted to declare his love for her but something held him back. After pondering over, he realized he didn't want to be branded as a liar, not by his wife who was his other half. Who he thought about more often and more frequently now. Until now he had reasons to keep secrets from her knowing she didn't know him enough and any day she may leave him if she came to know about his truth. The truth was he didn't know her.

But now that he had come to know her, her real self, he realized she reciprocated his feeling in all her actions. She didn't say it either but she cared for him and showed it in ways more than he did. He had also caught her staring at him, smiling up to him even when he was busy doing his work. She called him more often now saying that she missed him, asked him to come back home for no particular reason. So Mr. Moore decided to take matters in his own hands and say the three words tonight as their first month anniversary gift to Sarah, after telling her the entire truth regarding his past, of course.

He rolled the pencil in his fingers, looking at the projector and pretended as if he was paying close attention to the presentation, he, if truth be told, was thinking of ways to broach the topic with his wife tonight.

When her mother passed away, she thought she was the only one being deprived of love and care. She made herself believed that in order to be be loved by her only parent now she must follow all his beliefs and rules. For the years that followed her mother's demise she did only that and kept her own preference aside. She continued to please her father even when he remarried. The years that followed his remarriage, Sarah made herself believed that if she sacrificed her likes, she would still be his favorite, only she was wrong in all her beliefs. So when Mrs. Heather Addison showed up in the morning and shook her world, she stood her ground.

"Why are you here?" Sarah asked as she pulled the door open to let her stepmother in who in return looked around the house as she replied. "To burst your bubble."

"You did that years ago."

"Then you are no different Sarah, you married Daniel for money too."

"Ever heard of love?"

"Don't pretend to love a nobody, child."

"He may be a nobody for you but he is my husband."

"How about a reality check then?"

"I think I have had enough of this. There is the door, please use it."

Mrs. Bancroft only smirked as she continued saying, "has he told you he is an orphan?"

Something in the way she said it made Sarah believe her and if she was shaken inside, she didn't let the woman know as she pulled herself together and faced her battle. "Somebody like you only would bring this up. And where were you when your own nephew was having this way with me? Where was your lineage then? He was not an orphan."

"What can I say? You two are adults."

"You disgust me." She said as she turned her back towards her.

"You have a child too I heard, you will understand my insecurities soon."

"I won't marry her off to a leacher just to have money."

"But your husband might."

"What are you trying to say?"

"The business belonged to Kevin, his friend from the orphanage. You didn't know that either?"

"I don't care.. You are certainly not here to act in my best interest. How do you know all this?" Sarah couldn't help but ask.

"Your father ran a background check on him." She replied with a smirk. "He thinks Daniel married you for family business too."

"Then why isn't he here with you bashing me?"

"He doesn't know I'm here."

Now opening the door herself for the lady to make an exit. "Please leave." She said.

When Mrs. Bancroft left, Sarah kept standing at the same spot for what seemed like an eternity as her world came crashing down. Her husband who she had come to love and care had been keeping secrets from her. The vows he took on the wedding were based on lies. He hadn't come clean even when she had confessed all about her past. But why was she blaming him? She had been lying to him since she entered his house and even then he had taken her in, without any doubts or hesitations. She trusted him, even now. So instead of getting all riled up at him without listening to his side of the story, she decided to face him.

An hour later,in hot pink top Sarah found herself in her husband's cabin waiting for the man himself to return from the conference room. She made her daughter sit in Daniel 's chair as she roamed around the office to satisfy her curiosity. She smiled when she spotted a picture of Mia, another one of Daniel and his friend Kevin. She ran a hand over her family picture that was kept on the other side. The one they took the next day of their wedding. But what got her attention was her solo photograph which was taken in her college. From her farewell function perhaps, it was a candid shot as she laughed away not looking in the camera. As she reached closer to pick it from the desk, the frame fell in the drawer which was half open. She picked the frame and in the process moved other documents in the drawer, among them was her details. She took the file out and started reading, it had all her information. And she couldn't help but wonder, did Daniel really marry her for money? Is she back to square one?