29 – THE LAST PERSON TO KNOW
The motorcade reached the mansion, driving along the extremely beautiful driveway. Everything was top notch, but Kiara did not see any of those, for her heart was shredding into pieces. She was led into a luxurious room, where maids met her at the entrance and took her to a room to have her dressed up nicely.
"You need to wipe off the tears, madam." One of the maids, who seemed to be the one in charge of them all, spoke hastily. Light make up was quickly applied to Kiara's face, and she was given very beautiful clothes to wear.
"I don't want them. I want to wear what I am wearing right now. Jeremy's mum bought this dress for me, and I love it."
The maids froze and stared at Kiara for a long time. None of them dared say anything to her, for they had been instructed to treat her with great respect.
Kiara was soon led into another, more beautiful room. As soon as she sat down, the man and the woman of the house entered.
"Welcome home, my dearest Kiara!" lady Pinkerton opened her arms wide and hugged the young lady.
"Welcome, welcome," her husband greeted her as well.
"Please do excuse us," the lady told the maids, and they all vanished off.
"Can we serve you anything, my dear? You must be hungry," she smiled.
"No thank you. I am not hungry and besides, I don't usually eat this late into the night." Kiara said.
"You don't? I used to have midnight snacks every day, when I was expecting my son, vine's father. Do you have any cravings?" she asked joyfully.
"No." Kiara snapped.
The lady realised that Kiara was in a bad mood, but she chose to ignore it.
"Before we say or do anything further, master and lady Pinkerton, you need to know that there is a possibility that the child that I am carrying might not be Vine's." she told them in a flat, emotionless tone.
"We know; we do know that. We decided as a family to take you and the child, for the sake of the 50% chance of the child being ours. If the child is ours, then we have done the right thing to bring you in, but if not, then there is no harm. You kept nothing secret from us, so we will let you go."
Kiara nodded her head.
"A DNA test can be done," Mrs Pinkerton went on. "It can be done even today, before the child is born, but we chose to take it after the child is born." She smiled.
Kiara nodded her head but did not smile back.
A maid, whose name was Tessa, was introduced to Kiara as her right hand person, the person she could go to if she needed anything, any time. Mrs Pinkerton would have loved to go on and on chatting, but Kiara looked exhausted, so they let her off to sleep. As soon as she left the room with Tessa, Mrs Pinkerton called Gareth.
"Hallo, lady Pinkerton?" his voice was very loud as he tried his best to scream above the noise.
"Where on earth are you, Gareth?"
"I left to find the young master. Ma'am, he is dead drunk. There is no way I can bring him in to meet his new wife in such a state," he sounded apologetic.
"Someone didn't do their job. Didn't I say he must be watched and not be allowed to go out?"
"But ma'am, he doesn't listen to anyone. If I had been around, I would have made sure to make him stay indoors, but the bodyguards on duty failed."
"How disappointing! Bring him home! Make sure he is sober enough to meet his wife in the morning. I don't know how you are going to do that, but I want it done!" she screamed.
"Yes ma'am."
***.
In the luxurious bedroom, Kiara sat on a couch and looked around the room.
"Do you like it, ma'am?" Tessa smiled.
"Do I like what? And stop calling me ma'am, my name is Kiara."
"I'm sorry but I have to address you as such, or else I will lose my job," she explained.
Kiara did not respond but just looked aside, angry.
"You're very beautiful, ma'am. No wonder the young master fell in love with you."
"Will you just stop! I don't want to hear anything about that young master of yours! You will not talk to me unless if I ask you a question, of which you shall answer only what I would have asked you. And your answer shall be either a yes or no. Only that! Do you hear me?" Kiara screamed at the top of her voice.
"Yes ma'am."
"I said call me Kiara! My name is Kiara and you shall address me as such! Do you understand?"
"Yes," Tessa nodded.
Kiara looked aside and began to feel bad at how she had shouted at the poor girl who was just trying to be friendly.
"I'm sorry I didn't mean to shout at you," she spoke in a low voice.
"It's ok ma'am," the girl, who was used to being shouted at anyway, responded.
Kiara began to think that maybe if she needed to know more about the Pinkertons, and possibly find a way to run away, it was best that she becomes friends with the girl.
"Your name is Tessa, am I right?" she forced a smile.
"Yes ma'am," Tessa smiled back.
"How long have you been working here?" Kiara asked.
"This is my third year. I came in as a kitchen staff, but I worked very well and I got many promotions."
"What exactly do you do?"
"My job, ma'am, is to take care of you. And I plead with you to please not make my job difficult," she giggled and quickly said, "I'm just joking, I'm sorry."
"It's ok. Before your job became this…taking care of me… what were you doing?" Kiara asked.
"I was the head of the cleaners. Not a lot of work, if you ask me, but the salary is good," she smiled brightly.
"I would guess that since they promoted you to take care of me, you also got a salary increase, didn't you?"
"Of course ma'am, I did. You have no idea how much lady Pinkerton loves you. She will do anything and everything to make sure you are happy." The girl said.
"But she hardly even knows me," Kiara shrugged.
"She doesn't need to know much. The fact that you and the young master are going to get married is enough for her to love you."
Kiara widened her eyes in shock and said, "we're going to get married? Who said so?"
Tessa tilted her head to the right and chuckled, "we all know it, ma'am. I know you're just teasing me. I mean, who doesn't know that you and the young master are getting married on Monday?"
"On Monday? Which Monday?"
Tessa burst out laughing and said, "oh ma'am you're so funny! If I didn't know any better, I would actually believe that you have no idea about the wedding. This coming Monday, of course. We all know about it, although most of the staff here are not invited."
"Oh?" that was all Kiara could say.
"I am invited," Tessa said proudly.
"Ok thank you for chatting with me. I feel exhausted and I would love to rest now. If I need you, where will I find you?"
"There's a button there, ma'am. Yes, that white button. If you press it once, I will be able to hear you from wherever I may be, and I will leave everything and come and attend to you?"
"Really?" Kiara raised her eyebrows.
"Really, ma'am."
"OK thanks. I will call if I need you. You may leave now," she pointed towards the door.
Less than a minute after leaving, Tessa came back and knocked. She opened the door and peeped in,
"Are you fully dressed, ma'am? I have Gareth with me here. May he come in?"
Gareth? What was Gareth doing there? Annoyed, Kiara nodded her head and Gareth came in. To her surprise, the arrogant Gareth had been replaced by a much more respectful Gareth.
"With orders from the lady of the house, ma'am, I am here to take your phone," he said.
"What? How am I expected to live without a phone?"
"You will be given a new phone."
"Well then let me have the new phone first before you take this one away."
"The order is for me to take this one now, ma'am."
"I need to call my mum and I have friends, you know. How am I expected to survive without a phone?" Kiara fumed in anger.
"If you need to make any phone calls, please inform Tessa." Gareth stretched out his hand and, feeling defeated, Kiara placed the phone in the open hand, and Gareth walked away with the phone.
Tessa would have loved to stay a bit longer, for she had taken a great liking for Kiara, but seeing how angry the latter was, she chose to leave too.
***.
Dear Kimmy
I guess I am the last person to know that I am getting married on Monday. I must be the last person to know this. How far will the Pinkertons go to show me that they are powerful and they absolutely disregard me and my feelings?
Was it not proper for them to ask me what I wanted, and have me make my own input into this wedding of theirs?
I wish to vanish into the air. How can I just disappear and not be a part of all this? On Monday; this coming Monday, I will be a married woman? I made an error. I should have married Jeremy. I regret not marrying him.
How many nights will I have to spend in this room? How many days? They have taken me away from Jeremy, and they took my phone away too. I know why they took my phone away. It is because they don't want me to call Jeremy.
I only have you, Kimmy. I only have you now, and I have reached breaking point. The only reason why I am still standing now is the baby that I am carrying. For his sake, I have to be strong. I cannot be weak now.
I am scared, Kimmy. I don't know what the future holds for me. I don't even know what Vine will think of me.
And my dad? Do you think I can trust my dad? I have never seen him taking anything seriously…I really don't know whether to trust him or not.
Dear Kimmy, something else worries me. It's Vine. As far as I know, I am here because of him, but now I am wondering, is it because of him, or it's because of his grandparents? Why have I not seen him since the time I arrived? Why do I feel like the effort for me to be here is coming from the grandparents and not from him?
Why do I feel hurt that he is not here? I guess it is because I wanted to see him and tell him in his face that I do not love him. I was hoping that it was him who sent them to take me….not that I love him, no. But it would have felt better if it was him.
But now that I know he probably has nothing to do with my coming here, I feel like a pawn in some game. Why am I here? Why have I been brought here?
Besides bringing me here and planning the wedding, what else have the Pinkertons planned for me? And will I always be the last person to know about the plans? Will I ever be asked, and will my interests ever matter? Or I will always be the last person to know? I am not happy, Kimmy. I cannot recall the last time I was ever happy.
Dear Kimmy, I am very exhausted, but I am sure that today, and the many nights to follow, I will not be able to sleep…