Dear Jolene

Chapter 13

"So, how are they treating you?"

"Good," Jo replied, not looking up from her knitting.

Emily kept her scrutinizing gaze on Jo for 5 more minutes before saying, "I heard you've been having breakfast and lunch in your room for the past 1 week."

Jo stiffened, "So?".

Emily sighed and grabbed an apple and knife from the tray on the table. She peeled the entire apple in one go and cut a piece, and held it near Jo's mouth.

Jo paused her knitting and looked straight at Emily.
"I'm fine. Stop overthinking."

Emily pressed the piece against her lips softly with a pout adorning her own lips. When Jo finally opened her mouth and Emily put the apple piece in her mouth and smiled.

"I am sorry we could meet so less this week," Emily apologized.

Jo frowned and said, "Please don't, you literally just got married, I won't lie and say that I'm completely fine here because I will-everybody will need time to adjust."

"So, whom are you making that little neon thing for?" Emily asked, pointing at Jo's hands.

Jo smiled and looked down at the little hat in process. It was for one of the security dogs she had befriended during her first week of her stay at  the Knight Mansion.

"It's for Blackjack. He is one of the security dogs. They keep him near the garage."

Emily cut up the rest of the apple and arranged them neatly on one of the plates kept on the table.

"So what have you been doing all this week?"

"I wake up, have breakfast, sleep again, have lunch, read and use my phone, watch movies, dinner, sleep." Jo said monotonously.

"Would you like to go somewhere? I am sure Axel and Carter would love to take you out," Emily suggested.

"No, Mom, I'm completely okay here. You tell me when you are going for your honeymoon?"

Emily blushed as a response and tried to deny it, but Jo was adamant about it. She knew how much of a hopeless romantic Emily was.

"You know what? I just remembered that I have some work left from office," and with that excuse, Emily was gone.

Jo laughed out and resumed knitting the neon green hat.

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The next day, Jo woke up to see that it was 1 in the afternoon, which meant she had overslept.

She got up and freshend up. Jo felt weirdly happy today, like nothing could go wrong, so she decided to get out of her room and walk around the gardens surrounding the entire mansion.

Suddenly, there was a knock on her door. She yelled out for the person to come in and kept brushing her hair.

It was Demiris, the head Butler, Jo was not exactly fond of him, the reason was simple, he pitied her and her relationship with her stepbrothers. 2 days after the wedding, the entire extended family had gone back to their homes. Everyone got busy with their lives, Theon was out for work, Carter for college, Alexander would go for his fencing practice, and Axel had locked himself inside his room. And, of course, Emily and Andrew were either busy entertaining guests or in their bedroom.

So, if she had been completely honest with Emily, Jo felt entirely alone in this big mansion, with only her own reflections on her gigantic mirrors giving her company.

"Ma'am, would you like to have your lunch now?" Demiris asked.

Jo clipped her hair tightly to get that clean girl look, with a pretty sundress to match the flowers outside. She turned away from her vanity table and said, "No, Mr Demiris, but I would like to take a walk outside if that's possible."