Authors: Aubrey St. Clair
Mirana leads me to the door just as Diego comes out of his room. He runs to his mother and grabs her by the waist as he twirls behind her and then peeks out at me. I smile at him. He looks so much like his mother, but just as familiar as she did. It suddenly strikes me and I turn back to her.
"You're Cuban, aren't you?"
She raises her eyebrow, confused. "Yes. Of course."
The little side trip that Chase took me on while we were in Cuba. The family we had lunch with. I shake my head with the realization. How could Chase be so cold hearted?
"Your parents... Elena and Victor?"
"Abuela and Abuelo?" Diego says, his face lighting up as I say their names.
"Yes. What about them?"
It all makes sense now. He used that trip to look in on his in-laws. I can only imagine the things he was saying to them in Spanish as we ate lunch together. How did he explain my presence? I can't remember how physical we were in their presence. I don't think we kissed or anything. Did he tell them I was his assistant? It's hard to believe how brazen he was, bringing me with him to meet them. Maybe if I had understood Spanish I could have busted him right then and there. It's humiliating to imagine what he must have been saying, the lies about me he was telling as I sat right next to him. And then he took me back to the room and continued to fuck me like he wasn't even married, right after visiting his in-laws. How much of an asshole is he? How was I so completely wrong about him? I've never felt like such a fool in my life.
"Nothing. I... nothing." Mirana is looking at me curiously, but I shake my head.
I visited your parents on a trip to Cuba with your husband. After your mom made us lunch, we went back to the hotel and fucked like rabbits.
Mirana just stares at me, her face a mixture of emotions that I can't decipher. Anger? There is definitely some of that, and justifiably so. But there's more as well. Fear? What is she afraid of? Maybe that I'll steal him away. I could reassure her that I'm going to stay as far away from Chase as possible now that I know he's married, but she probably wouldn't believe me anyway. And I have no idea how much Diego knows. I don't want to drag him into the world of his step-father's lies. She finally just nods and reaches for the door, pulling it open.
"Good day, then."
"Thank you... for... your time." I'm still surprised at how accommodating she's been to someone she knows is sleeping with her husband. How often has this happened? Has she just basically given up on trying to change him? Do they have some sort of open marriage? I feel terrible for coming. I feel like all I've done is drive a knife that was already in her gut a little bit deeper. Twisted it a little bit more.
I turn away with nothing left to say. Diego begins speaking in Spanish and Mirana bends down to talk to him. She's already dismissed me, her earlier hospitality seems to have evaporated as she realized who I was and why I was there. I step into the sunlight and look around. Chase's car is still out front, Mark has turned it around and parked it a couple of doors down. Since he hasn't left, I hope that means he's still willing to take me to the airport.
As I take a step out of the house, a cab pulls around the corner and I watch as it drives right in front of the house and stops. A moment later the door opens and Chase gets out. My heart begins to pound in my chest as anger and shame fill me in equal amounts. I want to lash out and scream at him, but not in front of his wife and her son.
I take another step and exit the house. Behind me I hear another burst of Spanish from Diego, but within I clearly hear the word "Chase".
Mirana says something quickly back to him, and he takes off again, back in the direction he disappeared to before.
Chase is wearing a frown as he looks at me, and I hear his wife step out right behind me as well. I'm sure Chase wasn't expecting to see his wife and girlfriend standing side by side when he got up this morning. Especially since this morning he and I woke up on the other side of the world.
"Chase!" Mirana pushes past me and runs towards her husband. Chase looks at her and then back at me. There's confusion on his face. He's probably wondering how much I've told her and what he was in for. The truth is I have no idea what she plans to do or say to him. I barely told her anything. She seemed to know it all already and be completely unfazed.
As soon as Mirana reaches him she throws her arms around him, pulling him into a hug and then presses her lips against his in a passionate kiss that makes me feel dizzy just to watch.
What makes it worse is that the entire time his wife is kissing him, with her arms wrapped around his body, Chase's eyes are on me.
Finally tearing his eyes away from me, Chase pushes his wife away and breaks the kiss as he looks at her strangely. "Mirana, what are you doing?"
It's a strange question to ask your wife after she greets you with a kiss, but at this point I can't pretend to know or understand Chase Anderson at all. I feel like I should run. Take off to the limo, hop in and tell Mark to take me directly to the airport. But I can't help but want to see Chase squirm now. I want to see how he tries to weasel his way out of this to both his wife and girlfriend at the same time.
Mirana is talking quietly now, but she's grabbed his hand and is clutching it against her chest as if she doesn't want him to be apart from her ever again. His eyes grow wide as she speaks and then makes a strange sound. It's not until he looks up that I see a smile on his face. That noise had been a laugh. Of all the reactions I had expected from him, laughter was pretty much the last one. It makes me want to slap him, and I take a few steps toward the two of them with that very intention.
"The government? Definitely not," he says to her. "She's not even American. She's from Canada."
I stop in my tracks, confused.
Mirana looks back at me with equal confusion on her face, and then back at Chase. She speaks again, and despite the fact that I'm close enough to hear them this time, the words are in Spanish anyway, so it doesn't really matter.
"Well, I don't know what she told you," he says, shaking his head. "But I'm sure it was a misunderstanding." Here come the lies. Is he really going to claim that he and I haven't been dating these past couple of weeks? With me standing right here? Does he actually think I'll cover for him and go along with whatever story he's going to try and spin?
"Don't believe him," I say. My eyes feel like they’re blazing as I glare at him. "Whatever he's about to say is a lie."
Mirana turns to me again, even more confusion on her face. "Chase, what is going on here? Who is she then? How does she know my parents?"
"This is Lila. She's my... well, she was my girlfriend. Now I'm not sure."
I open my mouth to contest his story but stop as I realize what he's said. He's actually admitting that I'm his girlfriend to his wife? What kind of a sick asshole is he? Or do they have some sort of twisted understanding or agreement?
My eyes slide over to Mirana, waiting for some sort of explosion of emotion, but she doesn't react. Not at first, at least. Her head cocks to one side as she looks over at me with her eyes narrowed a bit, as if she's thinking about something, then she smiles as well. "Ahh, this makes sense then."
"Wait, what? What's going on here?"
Mirana's hand loosens her grip on Chase's now and he pulls it away. "You didn't tell her about us, did you?" she asks him. He shakes his head.
"What the hell kind of... look, I don't know what weird open relationship you two have but I don't want any part-"
"No, wait," Mirana says, holding her hands up and shaking her head. She looks over at Chase. "Do you love her?"
Chase looks at me, his deep blue eyes fixated on mine as he nods.
Mirana turns back to me. "Our marriage isn't real," she says.
"Mirana, I wasn't going to-"
She raises her hand again and this time Chase stops talking. "No, it's not fair to you to keep this secret from her," she says. "You've done too much for me and Diego already. I don't want you to risk losing the woman you love."
My head is spinning as I try to make sense of everything, but none of it fits yet.
"What the hell is going on," I demand, looking back between the two of them.
"I thought you were from immigration," she explains. "That's why I told you that Chase and I were in love. You came to warn me about him, didn't you? You found out he was married?"
My head nods automatically but I'm still lost.
"Denise," I hear Chase explain but my eyes continue to stare at Mirana. Who is this woman?
Mirana makes a disapproving sound with the back of her throat. "I told you that woman would only cause you grief." She shook her head again as she looked at me. "You can't listen to anything that
puta
says."
I have no idea what
puta
means, but I have a feeling it isn't a term of endearment.
"You poor woman," she says, putting her hand on mine and squeezing it. "Come back inside. Let's talk. Chase and I can explain."
My first instinct is to pull my hand away and still run back to the safety of the limousine. To hide behind the tinted windows and let Mark take me back to the airport so I can flee to the familiar and comfortable. My country. My apartment. But what's waiting for me there now anyway? Evelyn is gone. Only Harrison remains. How fucked up is my life if he turns out to be the most stable thing in it?
"Come," she urges, pulling at my hand. Chase is just watching us without saying a word. At least he has sense enough to keep quiet now.
"I don't know what's true anymore," I say softly. "You're married but you're not. You were in love a few minutes ago, but now you say you aren't. Chase... so many lies."
"I never lied about her," Chase says.
While it's true that Chase never actually told me he wasn't married, that's a pretty weak argument. I glare at him and his gaze drops away to the ground. He knows the difference is meaningless.
"It's not his fault," Mirana protests, squeezing my hand again. "Please, come inside and I will explain everything. Chase is a great man. If he loves you, you're very lucky. I do love Chase, but not like that. I love him for a different reason."
"Why?"
Mirana shrugs, tugging my hand again and turning toward the house. "Because he saved my life."
I let Mirana lead me back into the house in a daze as I try to process everything going on, but I'm still so confused. Is Chase a cold hearted asshole or not? That's the main question I'm still trying to answer.
"What do you mean, he saved your life? What happened?"
We're back in the house now, and Chase has followed Diego into his bedroom to see something the boy had created out of Legos. More than likely in an attempt to give me some time alone with Mirana.
"Diego's father was not a nice man," she starts, her eyes drifting downward to the long dress she wears as she straightens out an imagined crease. "Not to me or Diego. At that time, Chase was dating a friend of mine, Maria. Chase liked to come to Cuba because he wasn't supposed to. He's always doing things like that. On one of those trips he met Maria and then he would come back about once a month to visit her.
"It was on one of these trips that he met me. Maria asked me to come out with them to a restaurant on a double date with Juan, Diego's father. Chase knew right away what was going on between us. It was like he could read both of our souls. I had always been able to explain away my injuries to Maria, and she would believe what I told her." Mirana looked up at me, her dark eyes looking fuller, surrounded by unfallen tears. "But Chase didn't. Not for a moment."
Mirana was quiet for a moment before continuing. "Chase and Maria eventually stopped dating but Chase kept coming back to Cuba on a regular basis for his vacations, and whenever he did he would check in on me. He found out where my parents lived, and he spoke to them about Juan. He had them talk to me. I was stupid back then. And scared. Chase helped me get away. For Diego." She took a long shuddering breath and I put a hand on her knee which she grabbed and squeezed appreciatively.
"Chase is a good man. He barely knew me, yet he gave my parents money so that they could hide me away from Juan. Juan was enraged, and he kept looking for us. Cuba is not a big island; we could not have hidden from him forever. Chase said that Diego and I would have a better life in the U.S. and that coming here would be the only way to keep us safe from Juan. Even though he barely knew me, Chase promised to help me and he started the process to bring us here, claiming that we were engaged. But getting a Green Card is a very long process and, as you can see, it is still going on. There was anguish on Mirana's face, and I couldn't imagine how hard it must have been for her to be forced to put her trust so completely in a virtual stranger, and to leave her family and everyone she knew to come to another country. It must have been a terribly hard, but necessary, decision.
"I know it is wrong, that we have told a lie to the government. If they find it out, Chase would be in a lot of trouble. And I know it makes his life more difficult, to keep this secret. But he does it for me and my son. So that we can live here safely. When you showed up this afternoon asking about him... I thought you were from Immigration. They have visited us in the past, asking questions about our relationship to determine if we have a “legitimate” marriage. I'm sorry, I just assumed you were another agent. That's why I told you those things about Chase and me, but they aren't true. I do love him, but not like that. He is a great and generous man, and the last thing I want to do is ruin a chance at a real relationship for him."
I slowly let out the deep breath I had been holding as I listened to her story. Out of the corner of my eye I look up to see Chase come out of Diego's room. He sees me, and I can tell by his expression that he's not sure whether to approach or not. I give him a reassuring nod.
"I'm sorry."
"You have nothing to be sorry about," I shake my head. "I'm the one that should be sorry. I never should have doubted you." It seems like with Chase, no matter how things sound I need to always start giving him the benefit of the doubt.
"I wanted to tell you, but it's complicated. And it's really not only my decision, since it's a secret I share with Mirana. I would have taken the risk for myself, but I couldn't ask her to do that. She's very close to getting her green card and then she'll be in the clear, but until then………”
"It's not your fault. Denise... she was obviously looking for this reaction from me, and I was foolish enough to give it to her."
"Puta," Mirana says again under breath.
Chase gives her a sidelong glance and then nods. "Yes, she has a way of finding the one thing that will get under someone's skin and then twisting it around to turn it into a catastrophe. She knows that Mirana is my wife and that she's from Cuba. I think she also realizes the end goal. She's not stupid. But she doesn't know the details. She found out by accident. I never would have told her. But despite her flaws, I know she wouldn't report us, although she obviously isn't above using it to try to break us up."
"The only reason she doesn't report us is because she knows we're not lovers," Mirana says angrily. "She's always been a jealous and spiteful woman."
"I know," Chase agrees. "I've been hearing that a lot lately. I should have figured it out on my own long ago." He looks at me with an embarrassed half grin.
"So what now?" I ask. I really don't know. I'm such a fool, I wouldn't be surprised if Chase is completely done with me after the number of times I've been so quick to condemn him. But instead of telling me to go to hell, he reaches out and touches my hand. I let his fingers slide against my palm and grasp them hard.
"Once the Green Card issue is done in a couple of months, Chase and I will get a divorce. Then he's free to marry you," Mirana says. My eyes widen in surprise as I look at her, searching her face to see if she's joking at all.
"Uh," Chase clears his throat. "We're not quite there... yet." Then he looks at me with a raised eyebrow.
My eyes are still wide and I shake my head as well. "No, that's right. We're not there. Wait, yet?"
He just shrugs and smiles again, then leans forward and kisses me.
"Now you must stay for dinner," Mirana announces.
I haven't even thought about how hungry I am until she says that. Is it dinner time already? Because of the time change I don't even know how long ago it was since we last ate. I look over at Chase and he's nodding enthusiastically. "She's as good a cook as her mother, Elena," he says.
That's good enough for me. Looks like I'm having dinner with Chase, his wife and his step son. At least there's never a dull moment with this man.