''Genevieve?''
For the umpteenth time that morning, Genevieve felt her heart leap into her throat at the sound of her name from Roberto's lips. The man had been engaging her in a one sided conversation ever since she took the seat beside him a few minutes ago.
He had asked the brunette, whom he had introduced to her as his niece Aurora, to vacate her seat for 'his wife', and proceeded to tell Genevieve that it would be her seating position during breakfast from that day on.
Genevieve had agreed immediately. Not only did she know she had no choice in the matter, but she had also been too distracted at the time to refuse. Distracted by Adrian who had held her gaze and refused to let it go. His artic eyes had reeled her in, making her unable to pay attention to what the others in the room were saying or doing.
And it would have continued like that for the rest of breakfast if he hadn't received a call and left when she had barely taken a spoonful of food. He also hadn't bothered to excuse himself from the others at the table and had left her alone at the mercy of his sister and cousin's glares.
Roberto and the woman on his other side, whom she now knew was his sister, Reyna, were the only ones who didn't seem displeased by her presence. Lost in thoughts, Genevieve forgot she had yet to reply and nervously scooped another spoonful of hot soup into her mouth.
''Genevieve?'' Roberto repeated, snapping her out of her thoughts. ''Is there a problem?''
She shook her head vigorously in reply, ''No… no problem, Sir." She dropped her spoon and sat up instantly, dedicating all of her attention to him.
''Sir?'' Roberto chuckled, his eyes sparkling in amusement. ''I am your husband, Gen, a husband who doesn't like to hear how many years he's older than you by. Or… is your intent to make me feel like an old man by addressing me formally?''
'Aren't you one?' Genevieve replied him inwardly, but feigned a smile outwardly. "Of course not! I wouldn't dare. You... you brought me home from that place, so even if you had called me a slave, I would have had no choice but to agree. It's an honour that you gave me the status of a wife."
Roberto blinked at that, a frown slowly forming on his face.
"You are different..."
Genevieve's eyes snapped up, "Sir?"
"You are different," he repeated. "That idiot Reynolds described you as a bitch who needed to be tamed, but you have not displayed any wild traits ever since you sat on that chair. Or stepped into the room, at all. Tell me, do you actually have the bad characters he mentioned or was the fucker lying?"
Genevieve blinked, conflicted between agreeing and disagreeing with him. What if she told him no, and he decided she wouldn't be an interesting person and went ahead to discard her? She might be completely oblivious as to how dark this part of the world was, but one thing she was sure of was that they never hesitated to take lives.
Hers was not in any way special to them, so she had to do everything she could to make sure they continued to see her as useful.
"I... uh, if you call them bad characters, then I'll have to say no. But concerning how Reynolds described me, I truly don't bend to others easily," she managed to say.
Her words elicited a boisterous laygh from the older man, and the others sitting at the table, aside from Genevieve, wondered what was funny.
"I do not regret choosing you," he said to her, his gaze lowering to her half empty plate and her dignified eating posture, then returned back up to her completely smooth skin that looked like it had never seen a day of suffering all her life.
There was a mystery swirling around this girl, and he was hellbent on finding it out.
His discovery would determine if this girl would be useful for the reason he bought her, or not. Clearing his throat, he dropped his spoon and picked up a napkin to dab around his mouth.
"I have business to attend to, but I'll be leaving you in the hands of my daughter and niece." He turned to Annika. "You and your cousin are to accompany Genevieve to the departmental store to get appropriate clothes. No antics will be tolerated," he instructed.
"Yes, Father," Annika replied snarkily, her voice low, but also loud enough for Genevieve to notice it lacked the spark of anger from earlier.
"Any other needs, Genevieve?" Roberto asked, pulling her attention back to himself.
Genevieve shook her head, and he frowned.
"I didn't marry a dumb wife. Use your voice."
"No, Sir—"
"I asked you not to call me that again. Either my name, or a pet name. I would love the latter by the way."
Genevieve's face paled, and she blurted his name, "I'll go with Roberto."
Gosh! She was already cringing at the simple thought of calling him a pet name. How bad would she feel if it were happening in real life? Worse, how would she feel when the day came that she had to spend the night with him?
She shook her head, clearing the thoughts from her mind. She might have spent the past two years preparing her mind for something like this to happen, but now that it was truly impending, she felt like pushing it back. She heard the sound of Roberto's chair screeching as he stood up but didn't raise her head until she felt the air lighten and knew he was out of the room. Her eyes fell on Reyna, who gave her a soft smile.
"Girls," Reyna's soft and seemingly understanding voice rose. "Take Genevieve with you and give her more appropriate clothes for an outing. She's now a member of this family and shouldn't be seen in anything subpar." She walked around the table, patted her on her shoulders, and headed out of the area too.
Genevieve finally looked at the girls, the noble girls that evil Penelope had asked her to avoid, and her lips curved into a forced smile.
"Hi..."
"Pleasantries are unnecessary," Annika rolled her eyes. "Let's go get you clothes. We have prior engagements to attend to!"
"Okay," Genevieve replied immediately, standing.
Annika and Aurora mirrored her actions, but Genevieve waited for them to walk around her and leave the room before trailing after them. As they passed the line of maids that were standing by the door, her eyes swept through the line for Penelope, and she sent the older woman a fierce glare.
She might not be eager to make an enemy of anyone in this place, but that didn't mean she'd tolerate irrelevant people who were trying to make life hard for her.
Especially not an old maid who probably knew everything about the in and outs of the mansion more than the owners. Someone like that could bring her down without much effort.
But that would only happen if she didn't act fast.
And act fast, she would.