"I want to know."
"Know what?"
"The reason behind the arranged marriage."
"Are you sure about that?"
"Yes, I want to know."
"Do you think he will finally tell you"
"I hope so."
"All right, it's up to you. We'll arrange a meeting with your uncle."
" Okay."
"Go to sleep now. Tomorrow will be a long day for us."
"Hm... Good night."
"Good night to you as well."
She waited for her breathing to slow, confirming that she had fallen asleep before she left the room after giving them both a kiss on the forehead.
'The reason... is surely not what we expect... will we be disappointed? Hm... I wonder.', Harmonie thought after she came out of the room.
...
"Do you really have to go, can't you stay?", Cassandra said softly, in a tired and hoarse voice.
"I already told you, we have stuff planned tomorrow morning..." said Harmonie as she put on her pants,
"hm... okay," said Cassandra in a somewhat lazy tone before getting out of bed, completely naked and heading for the bathroom, under Harmonie's watchful eye.
"Fuck it" Harmonie took off her clothes again and joined Cassandra under the shower.
The sound of laughter escaped from the bathroom then it was silent for a few seconds, and sounds escaped again, different from the ones in the beginning...
...
5 A.M
Harmonie had finally returned home. She entered her house and checked that Adelaide and Chloe were sleeping well.
Despite the crying, Harmonie had managed to convince Adelaide to sleep with Chloe again.
For her part, Chloe was also curious about why Harmonie wanted Adelaide to sleep with her. The latter just informed her that she had to take care of something without further details.
Chloe and Harmonie were used to not questioning each other about what the other was doing, because no matter what, they would tell each other things when they were ready to tell them. Besides, they trusted each other. Chloe was going to wait for Harmonie to tell her what was going on if her friend thought she needed to know.
The night light illuminated the room,
Harmonie's gaze fell on the two of them. Her eyes softened, and she then went towards them, since the little one was in Chloe's arms, the latter, woke up when she lifted the child in her arms and then went back to sleep after hearing Harmonie's voice telling her to sleep.
When she came back, she usually did not take Adelaide but strangely, that day, she knew she needed to have her child in her arms. She checked that the little one had her pacifier and then took her stuffed rabbit, Tiger.
And she left the room, closed the door gently, and headed for her room. When she entered the room, she went straight to her bed and put her daughter on it, the little one started to whimper and Harmonie put her blanket in her hands.
After the baby calmed down, she put on her pajamas and quickly headed to her bathroom to brush her teeth and clean her face before heading to her bed.
She lay down on the bed and closed her eyes, imagining how tomorrow would go. Then her eyes opened as she felt movement on her and looked at the face of the child who had her whole body slumped over her.
Harmonie smiled then, looked at her child with eyes filled with joy,
"Tu es tellment belle, mon amour." (You are so beautiful, my love), she whispered, caressing her back, "tellement belle" (so beautiful),
Harmonie gently raised her head and placed a kiss on her child's head,
"Je t'aime." she whispered again,
...
10 A.M
"Dada?"
Harmonie stirred but didn't wake up, Adelaide frowned,
"Dada!" called again Adelaide,
"Dada!" this time she punched her in the face, but she only hummed and took her in her arms,
Adelaide struggled to her feet, but she quickly realized that she was trapped in Harmonie's arms. Tears started to appear,
"Dada!!!" she wined, tears starting to escape her eyes,
Harmonie began patting her back to calm her down.
Adelaide, feeling that she could somehow move, raised her head to look at Harmonie, seeing that the latter still hadn't opened her eyes. She escaped from her arms, she moved closer to Harmonie's face,
"Dada, ' (wake) up, p'ease", Adelaide whined again, trying to fight her tears,
Harmonie was awake before the little one, but she wanted to enjoy her child first before getting up. And she was fighting her laugh because of her baby's antics.
Not wanting to bother her daughter anymore, she finally opened her eyes and stopped her daughter's hand that was rubbing her eye.
"Hello, mama," said Harmonie in a hoarse voice with a smile on her face,
"Hewwo dada," said Adelaide as she put her head on her chest and put her pacifier in her mouth.
"Give Dada a kiss?"
Adelaide raised her head, her pacifier still in her mouth.
"Mwah!" they said,
"Thank you, mama."
Harmonie sat with her back against the bedhead, she lifted Adelaide and put her on her lap, then hooked her pacifier clip onto her Galaxy onesie.
Adelaide lay down on Harmonie's front, and Harmonie hugged her,
"Je t'aime, tellement, mama. Tu es mon plus grand t'amour." (I love you, so much, sweetheart. You are my greatest love.) Harmonie said as she placed kisses on her daughter's head,
" Tu le sais, n'est-ce pas?" (You know that, don't you?) Harmonie added as she tilted her head to get a better look at the child's face.
Adelaide raised her head and looked at Harmonie with a questioning look as if to ask her what she was talking about.
"Tu sais que tu es mon plus grand t'amour ?" (You know you're my greatest love?)
Adelaide finally lowered her head and nodded,
"Tu sais que je t'aime tellement, tellement…" (You know I love you so, so much...)
Adelaide turned herself and wrapped her little arms around Harmonie's shoulders, and bury her head on her neck.
Harmonie then felt her right arm come off her neck and saw her take her pacifier out of her mouth, and then put her arm back around her neck.
" ' t'aime," (wove you) she said softly, before putting her pacifier back on. A smile formed on Harmonie's face.
...
"Say can we take the blindfolds off now?" asked Chloe, she heard no answer only footsteps coming closer to her, and her eyes were finally free from the darkness, she blinked for a few seconds, the time for her eyes to adjust.
Harmonie was facing her, she too was giving her eyes time to adjust before observing the new environment.
"It looks like the waiting room before entering the doctor's office," said Harmonie,
"Now that you mention it, it does look like the doctor's waiting room with all the chairs along the wall facing each other. All that's missing is a little coffee table in the middle with a bunch of magazines on top and whatever song the radio is playing in the background, and you have the perfect example of a waiting room."
"On the other hand, it seems that Dr. Yves doesn't have many patients today," Harmonie said as she looked around, feigning a sad expression, "Hard blow to his business."
"Poor guy," Chloe said as she nodded, getting into her act.
They turned their heads as the large wooden door opened,
"Monsieur Yves, is waiting for you." said one of the guards in a suit posted on the side of the door.
"Tsk, you should have said Doctor Yves..." said Chloe with a sigh,
Harmonie stood up and held out her hand,
"Shall we go?"
Chloe took her hand and stood up too, "Let's go."
The two of them walked into the room, hand in hand.
"Chloe, I feel like laughing... I'm holding back like crazy..." said Harmonie trying to keep a neutral expression, but you could see the corner of her lips trembling.
"Ha ha ha..." Chloe couldn't stop laughing and laughed out loud,
In front of them was the uncle with a large shelf of books behind him, the uncle was wearing a white suit, with a fountain pen in his hand and papers lying on his desk, and in addition a computer. Two chairs were facing him.
Hearing Chloe's laughter, he looked up and had a questioning expression on his face.
Harmonie moved to the chair on the right side and Chloe followed her, taking the other one,
"You really fill the cliché," Harmonie said simply,
"Ah, I almost forgot. So, um... I get migraines all the time. What do you recommend?" added Harmonie, Chloe on the other hand was holding back her laughter, and her face was the proof, turning red.
"What are you talking about, Harmonie? And you, Chloe, what's wrong with you? You look like you're constipated."
Chloe, hearing this, couldn't hold back her laughter anymore. Harmonie had a smile on her face.
"Well, let's be serious," said Harmonie looking at Chloe who was trying to wipe the tears from her eyes, then turned back to the uncle and said,
"She wants to know why, we had the arranged marriage." began Harmonie, nodding towards Chloe,
"Besides, I want to know why we were blindfolded and had to change cars three times."
"Ah, right, why is that?" said Chloe,
"For security reasons, the police are following-"
"I don't want to know," interrupts Harmonie,
"I want to know."
"Hey, isn't there a game room around here somewhere?" said Harmonie, clearly not in the mood to hear anything.
The boss pressed a button beside him, and the door opened,
"Bring her, where the arcade is. And be careful how you treat her." The uncle said sternly, the bodyguard nodded and Harmonie followed him, the door closing behind them.
...
"Hm... the purpose of the arranged marriage was to sort of unite the two empires. You know our family has been in this business for a long time and let's say Harmonie's family is powerful too. Your father and Harmonie's father being best friends decided to marry their first child to you.
All this before you were even born. We thought that Harmonie was going to be a boy due to a medical error but since the documents were all done and the promise already formed, they had only two choices: either cancel the promise completely after your birth or simply marry you off since, in any case, marriage between two girls is not a problem in our families and the country, especially if you want to have offspring.
So they preferred to unite you."
He took a sip of water,
"Eight years after your birth, on the day you moved here, your mother learned about the contract. She confronted your father and Harmonie's father. But since the two of you were already inseparable, your father somehow managed to convince your mother, but she first asked him to show her the contract he made with Damien."
He laughed lightly,
"She punched his jaw, right after." He laughed more,
"Why?" says Chloe softly,
"Those two assholes, they put in the contract that you and Harmonie no matter what, divorce or separation is not an option."
He sighed,
"That part pissed her off. But she couldn't cancel the contract, since you know our family always keeps their promise as good as possible. So what she did was add a new clause that states that you and Harmonie stay together for three years and the contract will naturally be canceled. And that even if after a year of marriage you still want a divorce, you could have done it..."
"And I know what you want to ask me, and I'll answer it," he said, Chloe closed her mouth,
"Let's just say that I was the one who made the marriage last, if you had waited until 2 months from now the contract will cease to be and the promise would have been kept. So I 'forgot' to mention this clause and just allowed separating you 3 years later."
"Why did you separate me and her for almost 4 years then?"
"After your parents died, I wanted to have you with me to protect you. Losing my sister and her husband was a shock to everyone. It was when I heard about the contract and read a letter my sister had left me that I wanted to keep her promise. The best way to protect you was to keep you away from me at that time."
"Then why did you hurt Harmonie like that?" said Chloe, in a pained voice.
" I was trying to test her resilience? If you're going to marry someone, I hope that person can protect you. So I tested her, but what's very strange is that no matter how much you isolate her or hurt her, she never defends herself or even gets angry.
She always kept her composure. That's when I realized that if one day she attacks Angel and her group, they will have suffered. So I decided to enroll you in their school and be in the group with Angel."
"She has to know that you are the one behind this." Saïd Chloé hiding her anger.
"She does. My ribs, my jaw, and all the sore parts from three years ago witnessed it ..."
"She beat the crap out of you?!"
"No, she massacred me. She'll probably tell you what happened."
"So she knew all along, everything you just told me about the contract?"
"No, she only knew that it was my fault that she was being bullied. About the contract, I only told you about it. And since she's out, I figure she probably doesn't want to know."
"Ah..." Chloe nodded her head,
"Well if you have any more questions call me on this phone, my number is already on it," he said as he handed her the phone,
"Okay, thanks."
Chloe knew that her uncle did this to protect her, and what made her not resent her uncle was the fact that Harmonie had taken revenge on him already. But touching her family was something that she couldn't forgive.
...
In the airport
"Ah, she scares me, that woman. I swear."
"Haah, I have a feeling that her return is not going to be easy."
"Do you think she's coming to scrutinize the place?"
"No, she's done it before. Three years ago. She just hadn't found the right time to start. And now, I think she's found her moment." Harmonie massaged her temples,
"And the whole organization is going to move, too. And Hazel, too."
Chloe's eyes widened,
"Hazel is coming?!"
Harmonie nodded her head,
"Yes." Harmonie lifted her head and looked around a bit,
"Well speaking of wolves, there they are!" she said with a nod in the direction of people walking towards her,
"I didn't know they were coming together...but hey...whatever. Let's go."