Dangerously Tempted

Chapter 9: Lingering Wounds

Isabel

Whoever that woman was to Odile, she had left her shattered. She was quiet all the way home except for a simple apology that was given in a hushed whisper. I'd never seen her this exposed, like a fragile bloom in a storm. I hadn't seen her around a lot of people other than her staff so I didn't know if this was just another side of her. It didn't feel like it though. It seemed whatever feeling that had taken over Odile didn't want to be trapped in her body, didn't want to exist. When Dalia called out her name I could see the physical effect, she quite literally slumped. Life left her body nothing but an empty shell.

There wasn't anything I thought I could do. Dalia pinched a nerve with Odile. Her face told that much when she got back in the car. It wasn't rocket science that they had dated. There was a lingering tension that reached out between them. I didn't like it.

As the car idled in the circle driveway, the silence felt heavy, and I finally broke it. "Do you want to talk about it? About her?"

Odile's face pinched up and then relaxed. It was widely uncomfortable seeing her like this.

"I umm, we-" she started, like a baby saying their first words, slow, shaky. I gave her all the time she needed to compose herself before trying again.

"Dalia and I dated."

That much was obvious, I hoped that wasn't all she was giving me.

It wasn't.

"We were engaged actually. We had a wedding date and everything. Our futures were planned out and goals together."

Hearing her speak about another woman and what once was between them brought an uneasy feeling to my stomach.

"It was a really great time in my life, I thought I had everything I needed, wanted for the rest of my life. She was my-'' She stopped herself from continuing. Her cheek pulled in slightly from her biting it. "The day before our wedding, I discovered the truth about our relationship, and it shattered me. She had been cheating on me, and was using me to get in my fathers good graces. It seemed like a joke though, something as stupid as that couldn't have been what my Dalia was doing."

My Dalia. God what had that woman done to her.

"Dad told me about it, that night. She had just gone downstairs to the hotel lobby to get something from her car and dad came in hurriedly to show me all of this proof that he had gotten together. Phone records, emails, pictures. Nausea churned in my stomach, an urge to lash out swelling within me.

I watched as she took a deep breath and ran her hands palm down on her pants.

"When I confronted her, she didn't even seem sorry, that same look on her face as today is what I saw two years ago. I wanted her to apologize, I feel like if she did it wouldn't hurt as much but knowing that dad was right, that I was just her ticket in, it-"

The instinct to comfort her surged within me, to pull her close and shield her from this pain

"I know it's been two years and I should be over it but please understand that she and I were together for a while, she was my everything. and she had me thinking I was hers, but I never was and that did something to me that I can't explain. For a while I blamed myself for not seeing the signs, for not noticing anything, maybe if I had noticed it wouldn't have hurt as bad, taken me aback as much."

"Odile you can't blame yourself for that, you were in love, it's not your fault that you were taken advantage of." Hesitantly, my fingers wrapped around hers and squeezed them reassuringly. That brought a thin smile to her face. But the pain behind it didn't go away.