Mend My Heart

Chapter 14

Maya’s P.O.V

In my years of existence, I had many a time managed to get myself into a lot of perilous situations. Take for example, the time when my parents had invited a married couple who they had recently met to our house for dinner. As you can imagine, I made my way downstairs in the rattiest, oldest t-shirt I could find, jeans so ripped the Rock’s abs had nothing on them and barefoot. Yeah, that’s right, barefoot. Mr. and Mrs. Wintour and my parents were so stupefied that they spent the better part of that evening eyeing me rather than actually eating. I was grounded for a month after that little stunt.

Now that I think about it, I would have preferred to have been in such a scene rather than being caught on top of Mr. Duke, and the fact that he had almost kissed me didn’t make it any better. Due to a sudden rush of adrenaline, I rose from the floor and dusted my knees. My face was so hot in mortification that I wished the ground would just swallow me whole. 

“It’s true daddy, look at our faces?” Aiden added with quivering lip, at the brink of tears. Their faces were practically smeared in pie bits and whipped cream. For a split second, I began to laugh all by myself, until about four sets of eyes landed on me. Oh-oh. 

“What is the meaning of this? First, I catch you spying on my son and now you’ve made my grand-children into baked good? For shame!” Mrs. Duke sniffed in condescension making me look down immediately. So much for the prank. It’s blown up in my face.

Mr. Duke had risen from the ground, his upper half glistening with sweat. His face was now impassive and he was trying desperately to avoid looking at me. Well, that makes two of us pal! “I’d like to know too. Maya, did you really do this?” he asked, finally having found courage to look at me after what he’d almost done. His eyes were hooded, intense and penetrative. 

I squared my shoulder as I looked up at him. He was indeed taller than me, yet again, aren’t these fictional guys always taller than normal? “I-I did. In my defence, they pranked me hard and this was just my way of getting them back! I couldn’t just let them get away with what they did yesterday,” I defended myself weakly. I sounded like a toddler but maturity be damned. All is fair in war and pranks.

Brianna began to shed some no doubt crocodile tears. “We already apologised for that. It was a welcome gift but ow you’ve gone and done this. How could you Maya? We were starting to like you,” she said in a quivering voice, and Mr. Duke stooped down to wipe some of the smudges with the towel that had been previously around his shoulders. 

“Don’t cry love, it’s really not that deep. I’m sure Maya is sorry. Right Maya?” he directed towards me with a look that screamed ‘you better say what she wants to hear or else’. 

I usually wasn’t one to dance to the musical tune of another, but lately I’d been like a puppet on strings. This family is really testing my patience. I ground my teeth so hard that I could have crushed granite with them. “Of course. I’m sorry guys. I hope you can forgive me,” I worded in a feigned apologetic tone, morphing my lips into a forced grin.

“I told you that she was bad news, Theo. When will you ever learn to listen to the voice of reason? Yolanda told me that she’d ruined hers and your clothes on purpose. This young woman is a she-devil,” Mrs. Duke remarked self-righteously, making my jaw tick ominously. I better find a way out of here before I strangle her pruned neck.

Grabbing the twins’ hands, I began to escort them towards their room. “Let’s get you guys cleaned up,” I said as we got further and further away from their dad and grandmother, who was giving him more and more reasons as to why I’m a ‘nefarious menace’ who should probably ‘be in a correctional facility somewhere’. I scoffed at that. If anyone needed some straightening it was her son, who thought he could have any woman he wanted, and his offspring, who are professional actors.