Jealousy, it seemed, was a monster that Mary had no idea how to tame, so she did the next best thing, which was to stick to the plan.
Since her wedding, Mary’s visits to her therapist, Dr. Lillian Fox, had increased to two a week, but every few weeks, she would cancel a session or two, only to turn up at the next session with a larger, perhaps more severe bruise. The bruises didn’t go unnoticed by Dr. Fox, and neither did the fact that Mary seemed to have become a little ‘clumsier’ after the wedding.
Quaddra, on the other hand, barely noticed any of them, but that was because the majority of Mary’s bruises weren’t real. They were applied using professional stage makeup.
Over the years, Mary had become somewhat of an expert in creating fake bruises. She’d watched countless videos on YouTube and spent hours upon hours practicing, copying the exact tones from real battery bruises from photos that were easily found on the Internet. Even from just a short distance, it was almost impossible to tell that the bruises were fake. But for the Polaroid photos that Mary would take every now and then as a record, and for the final act – the night that she would finally call 911 – Mary wouldgive herself real bruises, real cuts, and real hematomas… the kind that would cause outrage in a court of law. But she wasn’t quite there yet.
Mary and Quaddra were actually just about to celebrate their first wedding anniversary, and Quaddra had suggested that they went back to Salzburg… to the bridge where he’d proposed… to the padlock that they had left there as a symbol of their everlasting love.
When Quaddra first mentioned his idea, Mary felt something knot somewhere between her heart and her throat. What she really felt like doing was slapping him across the face and asking – ‘what everlasting love, you cheating sonofabitch? Why don’t you ask your lover to go with you?’ – but that would’ve been gold coming from a woman whose only reason for being in that relationship was to run a con that would end up destroying Quaddra’s life. Mary couldn’t lose sight of that, so instead of screaming and fighting, she hooked her arms around his neck, kissed him with the same passion that she’d always had, and told him that she just couldn’t wait to be in Salzburg with him again.
Eighty-One
Due to Quaddra’s extremely busy work and traveling schedule, his and Mary’s trip back to Salzburg wouldn’t exactly coincide with their wedding anniversary. The options were to either fly to Austria ten days before their wedding date – staying for a maximum of four days – or seven days after it – staying for a whole week. Mary chose option two, but that didn’t mean that they wouldn’t celebrate on the actual date. On the contrary, for their special day, Quaddra had booked a table at Sons & Daughters – a two Michelin-starred restaurant, located in Nob Hill, just north of Union Square.
Mary wasn’t working that Monday. Quaddra knew that, so he made arrangements for a very colorful surprise.
At exactly midday, a flower-delivery man rang the front-gate doorbell at Mary and Quaddra’s mansion to deliver a mesmerizing bouquet – pink flowers only – containing lisianthus, roses, germini, oriental lilies and soft gypsophila.
‘Wow, that’s absolutely beautiful,’ Gabriela, the younger of the two housemaids said, as she entered the kitchen, where Mary was just transferring the bouquet from its delivery package into a very glamorous dark glass vase.
‘I know,’ Mary said back, her smile brightening the room. ‘Isn’t it just? But I think that they might’ve made a mistake with the card.’
‘Oh really?’ Gabriela asked, taking a step closer. ‘Why?’
Mary pulled the card from its envelope and showed it to her. There were only two letters printed on it. The first showed right at the center of the card – the letter ‘I’. The second was down by the right-hand corner – ‘Q’.
Mary and Gabriela both knew that ‘Q’ stood for Quaddra, but what was the ‘I’ right at the center of the card?
‘That’s odd,’ Gabriela commented. ‘It’s such a gorgeous bouquet for the flower shop to have made such a silly mistake. Do you think that the printer ran out of ink and they didn’t notice it?’
‘I’m not sure,’ Mary said before shrugging. ‘But it doesn’t really matter. The flowers are beautiful, and Quaddra can tell me what the card was supposed to say when he gets home tonight.’
At exactly 1:00 p.m., when the front-gate doorbell went off again, Gabriela was the one who received the second bouquet at the front door.
‘Mrs. Buckner?’ she called, carrying the new bouquet out onto the pool area, where Mary was stretched out on a sun lounger, working on her tan. ‘Either the flower shop has really made a big mistake.’ The smile on Gabriela’s lips already telling Mary that she didn’t believe that that was the case. ‘Or Mr. Buckner has decided to shower you with flowers.’
Mary moved her sunglasses up to her head, as her eyes widened at the new, exquisitely arranged bouquet – this one a striking combination of purple, blue and white flowers.
‘Or maybe the flower shop realized their mistake with the card in the first bouquet,’ Gabriela suggested. ‘And this is how they decided to apologize.’
‘What… with a brand-new bunch of flowers?’ Mary asked. ‘Some apology that is.’
‘I wouldn’t be surprised,’ Gabriela said, confidently nodding at Mary. ‘Nobody wants to lose a customer like Mr. Buckner.’
Mary got to her feet and reached for the card.
‘Oh, you’ve got to be kidding me,’ she said, her head shaking at Gabriela, as she bit down on a smile.
‘What?’ the girl asked, the expression on her face was total disbelief. ‘They made a mistake again?’
‘It’s not a mistake.’ Mary showed Gabriela the card. This one had a single word printed at the center of it – ‘love’. The letter ‘Q’ was, once again, printed at the bottom right-hand corner of the card.
Gabriela looked confused. ‘What?’
Mary returned the card to the envelope. ‘How many flower vases do we have in the house, do you know?’
‘I’m not sure of the exact number, but we’ve got a few.’
