“Just stay here for a few minutes.”
She stayed longer than that. Danica stayed with her for a whole hour, forgetting her own shower in favor of calming Alicia down from the panic attack that gripped her heart and soul.
Don’t leave me. Don’t betray me. Don’t let me believe that this was all a mistake.
If Alicia thought that hard enough, she might adhere to it.
Chapter 7
Agood night’s sleep helped Alicia reorient herself the next day. She knew it was a fleeting reprieve, but she would take it. It helped that shortly after lunch, she met up with Candice and went shopping for a new phone since her old one was laughably slow in comparison to her wife’s and even her assistant’s.To think that thing was considered the greatest ever back in 2020.Yeah. Back in 2010. What year was it now, again?
It also helped that Alicia had her own personal driver.New driver, new start.That’s what Alicia told herself as she sat in the back of Danica’s Lincoln Town Car, now designated as hers to use as she pleased. Danica had Ms. Clayborn shopping for a Bentley or a BMW, or something that started with a B.I’m sure it’s hilariously expensive and with all the trimmings.Whatever she got, Alicia hoped they could take a spin in it sooner rather than later.
Candice helped Alicia unbox the new phone in the backseat. She was always the more technologically savvy of the two, and without her, Alicia was liable to completely fuck up her newphone that was the size of both fists put together. Weren’t phones supposed to get smaller as time went on? When did they suddenly get bigger?
“Alicia Col… Moreau. Shit.” Alicia deleted the voicemail greeting she had begun recording. “I’m still not used to this.”
“Welcome to married life, sister.” Candice took the phone back and synced it to her own. Well, damn. Someone could do that? Alicia probably knew that, but she just never looked into it.I’ll have to try that with Danica’s phone later!Better than trying to remember her number off the top of her head. Or, worse, inputting the wrong one. Watch her call someone in Oklahoma and start talking about stocks and shares and handcuffs. “You’re out here changing your last name all willy-nilly. I bet that wasn’t even negotiable.”
“Not really.” Danica had made it clear that she was a, well, Moreau now. She was marrying into an empire the size of millionaires’ portfolios. There was no room for Colberts when she was representing her wife’s vast legacy. Not that Alicia was attached to her last name. Alicia Moreau sounded as sexy as Alicia Colbert. Maybe sexier. Because Danica was sexy.
“Ah, well.” Candice laughed. Someone wanted to say something snarky, but refrained. “I’d change my name too if I married someone like that. By the way, does she have a brother?”
“Yeah.” Alicia almost didn’t continue. “A dead one.”
“Oh. Ouch.”
Alicia was grateful that the car turned down a private lane. Good enough distraction from the bullshit she was sharing about her wife’s family life.
“Holy crap. Check out the landscaping of this place!”
This was more along the lines of what Alicia expected when she entered a world of wealth and prestige, let alone a family almost as old as Danica’s. The Warners were the closest thingto equals the Moreaus had in the whole region. Old, stinking rich money and a reputation that commanded people to invest in them and ask for return investments. The only real difference was that the Moreaus were city-dwellers at heart, and the Warners kept to their more secluded estates on the outskirts of the city.
Alicia’s brief research into the family and home estate said that the horseshoe-shaped mansion and the surrounding properties had belonged to the Warners for generations. The enormity of the complex suggested that the original intention was to have multiple branches of the same genealogical tree living under the same roof.I would die to live in a place like this.Alicia wasn’t sure if she meant that in a good way or bad. It certainly played into her visions of what old money really bought.
Perfectly trimmed hedges, trees, and beds of flowers arranged in intricate designs made her wonder if she could convince Danica to buy their own estate for their family. The woman may have been used to living in penthouses her whole life, but with marrying Alicia came a few more changes.Who wants to raise kids in a penthouse?Alicia took one look at the open yards and imagined her own children playing.
The car entered the center of the horseshoe, where a magnanimous main entrance lurked behind a large fountain topped with dancing cherubs. A butler came out to meet the car.
“Glad I dressed up,” Candice mumbled. She had worn her nicest day dress, both she and Alicia hoping that it would pass muster. Particularly when one compared it to the floral stretch-crepe dress from Dolce & Gabbana that Alicia wore.I hope it’s air-conditioned in there.
Of course it was!
“Holy. Shit.” Candice craned her head back to stare at the vaulted ceilings streaming with sunlight. “Why don’t you live in a place like this?”
“Because my wife doesn’t appreciate regal living, for all her talk of legacies.”
“You gotta fix that. Then invite me to live with you.”
“Perhaps so.”
The butler approached from behind, a white-gloved hand appearing before the two guests. “The Lady Warner awaits you in the East Wing parlor.” There were wings? “You may either follow the crimson carpets or allow me to escort you.” The butler clipped any further words as Alicia and Candice walked toward the large grand staircase. “That was the East Wing, madams.”
After some sheepish apologies, Alicia bade the butler to lead the way down another hall. Servants crawled the whole place. Servants in matching uniforms, no less. How many maids had the run of the mansion? Alicia had felt out of her element employing one full-time servant. This many, of varying ages? Did whole generations work for the Warners?I feel like I’m in a Victorian hotel!So many people. So many rooms. Was there a conference going on at this hotel? Even in her Dolce & Gabbana dress, Alicia felt woefully underdressed. Now she knew how Candice felt the day before at the office.
The parlor wasn’t too far into the wing, which both relieved and saddened Alicia.I don’t want to further intrude on this place, but I’m also super curious to see how it’s laid out!The scent of roses lured Alicia and Candice into a brightly lit room with flung open windows that brought in the summer breeze. Monique Warner sat at a table next to a large planter filled with blooming orange and yellow flowers. Her Saint Laurent paisley dress blended in with its surroundings as if the lady dressed based on which room she would be occupying for the day.
Aside from one servant on standby, the only person in the parlor was Mrs. Warner, whose grace put Alicia to shame when she attempted to shake hands and sit down at the table. Candice was even more without grace, but that was to be expected. Wasshe the wife of the Warners’ rival family? No?Then I’ll take the brunt of this embarrassment.Alicia maintained a smile as she sat and accepted a cup of tea from the servant lurking in the room.
