Page 54 of Bittersweet Legacy

“What did you promise him?”

Her father waved his hand dismissively. “It doesn’t matter.”

“Thank you,” I said sincerely.

“Don’t need to thank me, there isn’t much I wouldn’t do for my little girl.” He looked at his watch. “See you girls shortly?”

Tay nodded. “We’ll be down in a bit.” Her dad nodded and closed the door behind him.

Taylor sat on the floor and focused her attention on me. “Why didn’t you tell me?” she asked seriously. I didn’t need to establish what she was talking about.

I sighed, sitting across from her. “Because I didn’t want to accept it. I didn’t want it to be real.”

She nodded. “Yeah, I get that, I wouldn’t want to believe it if I were engaged to him.”

I threw her an exasperated look. “Not helping.”

She bit her lip and winced. “Sorry.”

I shrugged. “It’s not your fault, but I’ll figure something out.”

“Something for what?”

I looked at her with uncertainty. I didn’t know how much I could share with her without giving too much of myself away or putting her in danger.

“Talk to me, Esme.”

“Maybe later.” I pointed at the door. “We’re expected for dinner, aren’t we?”

She looked at me rubbing her pink thumbnail with her forefinger. She sighed, “Okay dinner.”

When we went downstairs, I took the direction of the dining room she’d pointed out to me before.

“Where are you going?”

“I…” I pointed to the door she showed me before. “Isn’t this the dining room?”

Her eyes widened with understanding. “Oh yes, it is! But we never use it, only when we have stuffy dinners or when the Queen Mother, aka grandma, comes for dinner.” She rolled her eyes. “No, we have family dinners in the kitchen. It's much homier.”

“Oh, OK –” I followed her into the kitchen and found a little boy I presumed was Peter setting the table while Mikey was sat playing with his napkin

and Taylor’s mom was getting a huge lasagna out of the oven.

This family portrait was nothing special where I came from but here it had to be an abnormality. A socialite’s wife cooking, eating in the kitchen. It was possible to have this in this reality, you just had to marry someone for love, which unfortunately wasn’t my case.

Peter looked up and smiled at me. “Ah Esmeralda, it’s so good to finally meet you.” He bowed his head at me.

I threw a quick look at Taylor who arched an eyebrow in a ‘I told you so’ way.

“Very nice to meet you too, Peter.” I replied mimicking his little bow

He beamed at me and I knew I had won. “Your lasagna smells heavenly, Mrs Oppenheimer.”

“Oh no, no, please call me Jenny! Mrs Oppenheimer is my mother-in-law and –” she shivered making both me and Taylor laugh. “Please, have a seat.”

I sat beside Taylor and across from Peter and Mikey.

“Ah, you made lasagna!” Taylor’s father marveled as he walked into the kitchen now dressed in a pair of jeans and a dress shirt rolled up to the elbows. He leaned down to kiss his wife’s forehead before taking his seat at the other end of the small rectangular table.

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