Lured into Lies by Melanie Martins
Chapter 32
Alexander Van Dieren
“We should bring some cake to your dad, don’t you think?” Petra asks as we stand aside and watch the waiters cutting the rest of the cake into slices and distributing them to every guest. “He must be feeling so lonely upstairs.”
Agreeing to it, she takes one of the plates with a slice of cake on it, and I instruct a waiter to bring me a bottle of champagne with three flutes.
“We’re gonna throw a little surprise.” While Petra carries the plate and one flute, I take the bottle of Dom Perignon and the two other flutes with me as we make our way out of the ballroom.
All of a sudden, though, I see Sebastian marching toward us and halting us halfway. “We’ve got a problem,” he says, not too loud, to Petra and I, yet he seems truly worried.
“What happened?” she asks.
“It’s Margaret.” I furrow my brows, waiting for him to dwell a bit further. “She found out Hendrik is here. When I went upstairs, I saw two agents guarding his door, and they most likely have his phone since it’s now turned off.”
“Fuck,” I hiss upon hearing this news.
“What’s the matter?” Petra doesn’t seem to get the situation. “Can’t we just go there and tell them to leave Hendrik alone?”
“We can,” I tell her. “But he won’t leave this place alive, unless we do something.”
“Oh, come on…” She lets out a quick chuckle, thinking I’m joking. “Margaret is not gonna kill anyone, that’s silly.”
But Sebastian and I remain looking at her with a straight face. “You definitely don’t know her,” I say, ushering them toward the stairs. “We need to take him out of here.”
As the three of us get upstairs, there is no one in front of my dad’s bedroom. We yank the door open and find the room totally empty.
“Damn it,” Sebastian blurts out. “They took him away already! I swear, they were standing outside a few minutes ago.”
“We need to find Mom.”
As we leave the bedroom, my gaze stumbles upon Emma sneaking discreetly into another room on the other side of the corridor. A small smile escapes me, knowing I wasn’t supposed to see that.
Arriving downstairs, we start looking for Mom—Sebastian takes care of the reception hall, while Petra goes and check the ballroom. From my side, I search the other rooms; I go first to the library where Elliot, Jan, Roy, and a few other guests are smoking and playing poker. Then I go outside to the gardens, but alas, I don’t find her.
Reaching back inside, I notice Yara taking the stairs to go to the first floor. As I stand still watching her, I can’t help but wonder what she is up to. After all, there’s nothing upstairs worth checking. Unless Mom is also upstairs and called her to do something. I wait until she is far enough from me and silently take the stairs, following her.
As I reach the first floor again, I see my sister speeding her pace and running into the same room where Emma entered a few minutes ago. Well, one thing is sure, Mom is definitely not in that room. And I wish I didn’t know Yara well enough so that I could think she was just in there to smoke a cigarette with a friend.
Once I’m back in the entrance hall, I find Sebastian, who shakes his head as I ask him about my Mom, and then adds in a failed attempt to reassure me, “But the staff is looking around for your dad. If they see something, they will call you straight away.”
“Ah, Alex!” I hear someone saying from behind me. As I turn around, to my biggest surprise, I stumble on Mom herself. She takes me by the arm and starts dragging me with her toward the corridor. “Everyone is waiting for you to open the dance floor.”
“Where is Dad?” I ask immediately, following her pace as we walk in direction to the ballroom.
“I let him go,” she says nonchalantly, not even slowing down her pace.
“Go where?” I put my hand on her shoulder to halt her. Once we stand still, Mom glares in disapproval at my hand resting on her shoulder, and I remove it so not to draw attention to us. “He’s on a plane back to Bermuda as we speak,” she snaps, keeping her tone low enough.
Her answer smells like bullshit. “Why isn’t he answering his phone, then?”
“Maybe he is without battery,” she replies, unbothered.
“You are lying.” Annoyed at my insistence, Mom tries to walk forward, but I stand in her way, so that she can’t escape our discussion.“Where is he?”
“I already told you.” Mom starts looking around, most likely in embarrassment for me drawing attention to our discussion. “Julia, where is Hendrik?”
I turn and find Julia standing right behind me. “We sent him back to Bermuda,” she says. And I shouldn’t be surprised that her favorite daughter was also an accomplice.
They are both lying, I can feel it! Fuck… I swear, if something happens to him… Turning back to Mom, I can barely contain the rage I have for her disgusting attitude. “I can’t believe you did this to him on my wedding day. You couldn’t help yourself, huh?”
“Oh, please… he broke our agreement. I could’ve done way worse.” She grasps my arm once more, walking me through the hallway. “Now, kindly go to the ballroom. Your bride and everyone else are waiting for you there.”
As I arrive at the ballroom, I find Petra standing by the door. She greets me with a kiss on the cheek, but I can match neither her lovely smile nor her joyful expression. We enter together, and I notice that most of the guests are here, surrounding the dance floor. The room is darker than before, with only a bright white spot of light following us as we walk toward the center.
Once we start slow dancing, I try to ease myself, but my posture remains stiff, and I keep wondering where my dad is.
“Did you manage to figure out where he went?” Petra asks low enough so not to be heard.
“Supposedly on his way back to Bermuda,” I answer, matching her tone.
“Supposedly?”
“Mom’s lying,” I say straight away. “Dad is somewhere here, I have to talk to her agents.”
“Why do you think she is lying, though?”
I spin Petra around and notice how everyone is still watching us and smiling at us, mesmerized by the whole dance. Once her body is pinned against mine, I whisper, “Because I know her.”
We slowly pace back and forward to match the romantic beats of the music, yet my mind is everywhere but here. “I don’t know much about your mom, but I’m pretty sure she wouldn’t go as far as killing your dad just because he came here.”
“You don’t know the hate she has for him…” I let my words trail off, not really wanting to tackle such a delicate subject.
Not surprisingly, Petra asks, “Why can’t she forgive him? Their divorce was such a long time ago.”
“It’s…” I pause, searching for the best words to put on, “very private…”
But she remains just as curious. “I won’t tell anyone…”
Yeah, right.Given the fact she already repeated my secret to Emma, I’m pretty sure she’ll do the same if I’d share such a delicate matter with her. “It’s Mom’s private life. It’s up to her.” And I hope I made myself clear enough.
Fortunately, she lets this go and doesn’t insist any further. “Okay, fine.”
The music ends, and we see everyone joining us for the next song. And while Roy invites Petra for the next dance, I leave the dance floor and reach Sebastian standing by the wall, and I discreetly say, “We need to find those two agents.”
“The staff has been looking around the whole property,” he tells me. “Those two agents are gone.”
But I’m not gonna give up that easily. “Why don’t you ask your wife?” I ask him.
“I already did; she told me Hendrik is on his way back to Bermuda,” Sebastian answers back.
And as I nod and smile at the guests passing by us, I can’t help but say, “Well, she’s lying.”
“And what am I supposed to do with that?”
I don’t reply; Sebastian is right. After all, no one cares about my dad as much as I do. To my sisters, whether Dad is alive or dead doesn’t make any difference. And Mom knows it very well. I can’t believe Dad literally risked his life to attend my wedding and we didn’t even manage to take a picture with him.
“Hey, have you seen Emma?” Petra asks me. Jeez, I didn’t even notice her dance with her dad was over. “I’m trying to find her, but she isn’t picking up her phone.”
I glance quickly around the room, and, as I expected, neither Emma nor Yara are in here.
Given the fact I’m not supposed to know where they are, I say, “No, I haven’t.”
Once Petra leaves my presence to go and find her, I decide to go upstairs to check if they are still there.
Standing on the other side of the bedroom, I wish I could be deaf so not to hear what I’m hearing. I take my iPhone and call Yara. To my surprise, the sound of the ring bell breaks across the walls, and thank God, the moaning stops.
My lips curve up in amusement as Yara picks up my call. “Petra is looking for her Maid of Honor. Should I tell her she is busy fucking with you?”
My sister doesn’t seem to find the idea very appealing though. “Tell her Emma is on her way.”
A few moments later, the door cracks open, and Emma leaves the room carrying a small gift back with her.
“Did you give my sister her lighter back?” I ask her.
But Emma just chuckles in return, passing through me as she tries to smooth her hair. “She decided to let me keep it.”
I can’t bring myself to match her humor or joy though. After waiting for Emma to go down the stairs, I get into the bedroom and close the door behind me. My first instinct is to glance at the bed, which seems to have been left intact. I remain silent for a moment as I observe my sister standing on the other side of the room, fixing her hairstyle in front of the mirror. “I’m not sure what game you are playing, Yara, but if I were you, I’d put an end to it now.”
My sister doesn’t say a word, she just stares at my reflection through the mirror, quite entertained at the whole thing. “It seems like someone’s been sneaking around,” she mutters in sarcasm before applying some lipstick on her lips. “Thanks, but I don’t need your advice.”
I pace slowly in her direction and stop right behind her. Then, looking at her reflection, I ask, “Does Elliot know half of the shit you do behind his back?”
“My marriage is none of your damn business,” she snaps back, still focused on her lips and makeup. “You can leave now.”
“None of my damn business, huh?” I nod pensively and, in a sudden move, I yank her from the mirror and snatch her against the wall beside us, holding her by the neck. “Maybe I should tell him the meaning of your lovely tattoos then, huh? What about that? Or maybe that you aren’t really going to Venice every year because of a polo match?”
Yara tries to push me back with all her might, but I just release her, because all I wanted was to bring her attention to the gravity of her actions.
“I’m sure your husband and kids will be very proud of you.”
“You know if you do that, I’ll have to report you to the council, right?”
“The council?” I repeat, barely believing my ears. “I’m telling you I could go and tell your family who the real Yara is, but all you care about is reporting me to the council? I don’t give a shit about them,” I tell her. “I left many years ago.” Then I take one of her wrists and bring it up to her sight. “And you can do the same.”
“This is who I am.” She pulls her hand back. “And I’m not ashamed of it.”
“Does Emma know?”
She cocks her head to the side, uneasiness setting in. “To a certain extent…”
“Fuck…” A gush of air rolls off my lungs because I know exactly what she is up to. “I’m gonna make it very clear for you, Yara.” I grab her neck again, making sure she listens to me once and for all.
“You are hurting me!”
"If you drag Emma into that shit, we’re gonna have a problem.” I stare right into her dark-brown eyes, making sure she understands I’m not joking.
“What are you afraid of, huh? That the little girl tells everything to your wife?”
“Careful…” Then I release her and make my way out.
Reaching downstairs, I stumble on my wife who takes my hand, and with a big smile on her lips, drags me outside to the terrace where everyone is gathering. Before I can even ask her what everyone is doing here, we see something going up in the dark sky and exploding in a thousand colors.
“Look at the fireworks!” She points, looking at them totally mesmerized.
I’m also mesmerized…but at the woman standing beside me. The woman I can finally call my wife. Jeez, I can still barely believe I married her, and my heart pumps faster as I look at the golden ring on her left hand. This feels surreal. And although I know all the relationships have their ups and downs, one thing I’m sure of—I’ll never take her for granted. I notice her hand is still on my arm, so I bring her hand up to my lips and give it a kiss. Everyone cheers and claps at the multi-colored fireworks embellishing the sky. The show is truly magnificent ,and the guests seem entranced as they record it. I glance around but I don’t see Mom or any of her agents. I try to relax, watching the rest of the show, but all I can think of is my dad. I just hope he’s still alive. Once the show finally ends, most people start leaving the party, and despite telling them goodbye with a smile, I can’t help but give a look here and there as I try to find Mom.
Then it’s time for Julia and Sebastian to come over to us and say goodbye.
As I embrace Sebastian, I lean toward his ear and ask discreetly, “Have you seen my mom?”
“I think she left during the show,” Sebastian says before giving me a pat in the back. My face remains expressionless until he and my sister leave from our sight. Then I can’t help but let out a hard breath, knowing Mom did it on purpose to avoid further confrontations. “Damn it…”
“Hey…” Petra wraps her arms around my neck, her gaze observing me attentively. “Maybe your mom was tired and went home. It’s already ten after all. Plus, the party is now officially over.”
“I have to find my dad,” I insist, ruminating on how I can do so now that Mom is gone.
“Sebastian asked the whole staff; no one has seen him,” Petra insists. “Maybe your mom was actually telling the truth.”
Despite my concerns, I know she wants to relax and enjoy the rest of the evening with me. After all, it is our wedding night. So I brush those thoughts behind and focus on us. I sneak a quick glance around the terrace, finding most guests streaming away in greater numbers than before. “It seems like everyone is leaving, right?”
A small smile tugs at her lips, and I can see the hunger in her gaze, begging to be left alone with me. “Yeah, the fireworks were the last thing in the program.”
Closing the small gap between us, I hold her by the jawline and lean in, crushing her lips to mine. Soft and gentle, they taste like heaven, and as I deepen our kiss, a little moan escapes her. I slip my tongue inside her mouth, and with heat flaring between us, my heart pants in fury, craving for so much more than that. It has been a long day, and something tells me it’s also going to be a long night. Then as I break our kiss, I press my lips on her forehead, wondering how I’m gonna go back inside with the hard length pressed against my pants. We stand together a few more seconds, reveling in each other’s company so that I can calm myself down. Then looking her in the eye, I ask, “Should we go upstairs?”