A Wife for the Billionaire
Chapter 28: SOFIA

Chapter 28: SOFIA

Read.

That was the best word to describe it. My fashion intuition, I mean. When I’m analyzing someone through their attire, it feels like flipping through the pages of a book, except in this case it’s the different layers of their dressing.

Every crease feels like the lines of a page holding words about the read and every accessory feels like a mystery waiting to be unraveled.

I remember the first time I read. It was when I was just ten. 2 years after I lost the family I’ve always known. 24 months after my whole world shattered. 104 weeks after I practically became an orphan. 730 days after happiness and laughter became a stranger and tears and melancholy turned into a friend. 17,520 hours after my last name changed from Reed to Blake. 1,o51,200 minutes after 8 years of my life disappeared like a dream and the years that followed, a stark reality. 63,072,000 seconds before I lost it all.

Some say that when has a power, especially one that has been dormant for a while. One that lay like a dragon in hibernation. It takes a certain circumstance, a desperate need... a need so great often a matter of life and death to awaken the dragon.

Mine wasn’t a matter of life and death though.

I never knew that inherent in me was this power to read and analyze people by taking in what they were wearing.

It was on a day just like any other in the Blake Mansion after I joined them. We (I, Mirabel and Annabel) had all returned from school and like every other day, I was attending to my chores while they ate. Only when I was through with my list of chores do I hope to get the crumbs they offer as my meal.

Specifically, I was dusting the paintings, artworks and artifacts that adored the space called the foreroom, when the doors were thrown open. A raging Alicia stormed in, flinging her bag to the nearby servant who scrambled to catch the bag.

"Thank your stars my designer bag didn’t touch the floor, or else your entire generation would’ve had to work till the debt is paid" I remember her telling the servant who was busy sucking in deep breaths of relief to take in her words.

Covering Felix with her coat, her up to no good twins laughed as he staggered to rid himself of the coat. He was practically blind and somehow he was really finding it difficult to remove the coat. I had rushed to his aid, saving him just in time from crashing into the nearest wall.

"Mama, Sofy is no fun. Punish her" Annabel called, feigning a cry.

"For once shut the hell up, Anna!" Alicia yelled.

"Mama!" Mirabel cried, "that was Annabel, not Sofy"

She had thought her mom had mistaken her own daughter for me, because in the Blake Mansion it was public knowledge who received the yelling and the shouting, and the twins were never in the receiving end.

I have never been able to understand the complexity of a parent’s love. I tell myself that my mom and dad had loved me, but with everything around me saying otherwise, I often find myself questioning that belief.

Had they really loved me, if it seemed as if they had loved themselves more? How could I call it love when my mom had known exactly who she was starting a family with and she had gone ahead with it? Did I even count or was I a mistake?

These questions - I hope to get answers to one day... that’s if there’s still a means to get them.

Alicia may be a bitch, but she loved her twins... so much that I often find myself green with jealousy. I may not understand the complexity of parent’s love, but between Alicia and her twins, it was pretty much simple. They mattered more than anything else.

As if struck by that truth, her countenance changed at her daughter’s cry. Her rage twisted features straightened into a mask of pity, I remember watching her walk up to them where they ate.

"My dearests," she crooned, crossing her arms over their shoulders, pecking them at the cheeks, she continued, "of course, how could I raise my voice to my darlings, no matter how bad my day was, my girls deserve my best self"

My heart had wept at that sight, memories of when I had been the center of someone’s world flashed through my mind. A goodnight kiss. A ruffle of my brown curls. A smile of pure adoration. A scoop into arms that had felt like home. A place that had been filled with joy and happiness.

At that point, I still held on to that place. I still gripped those memories like a lifeboat in a sea of turbulence. But years later, I resolved to what it was... a memory. A fantasy. A dream.

Alicia saw me smiling and reminiscing then.

"What are you doing standing there? Will you get back to your chores!" She yelled.

Focusing back on her daughters, she said,

"Let Mama make it up to you. Finish that and go and change. We are going out."

Mirabel and Annabel didn’t even bother finishing their meal, they dashed to their rooms to change.

I was but a child then and a part of me still believed people were capable of change. That a cruel person like Alicia could grow a kind heart. So, I dared ask,

"What about me, Ma? Should I go and change as well?"

The look she gave me that day was one I have never been able to forget. Her dark perfectly carved lashes drew together in the most demeaning of glares.

Her eyes on me were like two balls of boiling hate, cooking me raw.

Flicking a strand of her chestnut hair across her shoulder, she said,

"You are funny. What makes you think that I would like to be seen with the daughter of a world renowned criminal, and an abettor? You are nothing, you mean nothing and I urge you to stop trying because I will never see you as anything more."

Her words, the intensity of her hate caused me to take a step back. Up to that moment, she hadn’t expressed her disdain for me in such provocative words.

She didn’t care that words like that could mar a child forever.

For the most part of my childhood, I believed her words. How could I not? When everything was a startling reminder. I didn’t belong, I couldn’t belong and may never belong.

I remember that tears stinged my tears after her statement. I could swear my heart broke that day and the weight of my predicament bored on me like the heaviest blanket of sorrow.

The dusting brush I had been holding clattered to the floor and her words echoed through my mind.

You are nothing.

You mean nothing.

Daughter of a world renowned criminal and an abettor.

I will never see you as anything more.

You are nothing.

You mean nothing.

Daughter of a world renowned criminal and an abettor.

I will never see you as anything more.

So did the cycle continue, each reverberating echo daming and flooding my eyelids.

"Wipe those pathetic streaks, cause you sure as hell are not deceiving me with them. Well, I’m really not surprised, what else was I expecting from the daughter of a crook. Your parents may have managed to fool the world for years, but that trick will never work on me" she cursed.

"But I_"

"Just shut it already and get back to what you were doing, even the sound of your voice irritates me more than you could ever imagine"

Running a hand over her black business suit, she retrieved her coat and slung her gleaming leather bag.

"Now tell me , how do you think I look? Do I look okay to go out or should I go change?

In spite of myself, I looked up, taking in her appearance. And that was when it happened, as clear as words on a page in my mind.

Her crisp, designer business suit dark in color concealed her insecurity about her aging appearance and fading attractiveness. The bold, statement necklace, featuring a large, gleaming silver pendant, reflected her desire for power and control.

The elegant, high heels, slightly scuffed, revealed her hidden frustration and feelings of being trapped. The perfectly coiffed hair and impeccable makeup masked her deep-seated fear of losing her identity and sense of self.

And the expensive, designer handbag, slung over her shoulder, symbolized her attempt to fill the void with material possessions.

Shocked by such clarity and totally puzzled, I took a step back.

Mistaking my look of shock as a reaction to her words, she said,

"Yeah that’s right, take a step back, I don’t even know why I asked you that question when it’s clear you have no fashion sense"

I hadn’t known it then, but since that day I started reading and the consistency led me to this very moment.

I was about to wow Richard Wellington and I have no doubt that his jaw will drop by the time I was done.