The media went into a frenzy. She hated the attention of the media and tried to stay out of it as much as possible.
“Sir, with your wife present does this mean your relationship with Rita Brooke has come to an end?”
“Are you and Miss Shaw back together?”
Questions were bombarded at them. Opal recognised the name of the model he’d been having an affair with. The security team got them inside the main doors.
“Savages,” Tony growled.
She stayed quiet. Ever since they’d been married, she’d attended a few parties with him but nothing else.
People stopped to greet him. Opal stayed behind him not wanting to get in the way. She wished she’d told him to go alone. Parties like this didn’t suit her. Like her mother said, occasions where you had to prove your worth and beauty were not fit for a person like her.
“I don’t think I should be here,” she said.
He spun and glared at her. “You’re supposed to be here. You’re my wife.”
At the present she sure did not feel like much of a wife.
When they entered the main hall where the charity event was taking place her tummy took a nose dive. Everyone in high society was there. The only consolation was when she saw a table with his friends in attendance.
The moment Richard saw her, he stood to greet her. As with proper protocol, she smiled and took the seat offered to her.
Tony sat down for all of two minutes before he got up and left. Business, he said. Opal sat staring at her lap, her hands shaking.
“How is he treating you?” Richard asked.
“What?”
“Tony. How is he treating you?”
“Fine.” She needed to check her vocabulary. All she seemed to say was fine. “I’m going to get up and move around.”
The two couples smiled at her. Feeling like a fifth wheel, she found some solace in an alcove hidden away from most of the room. From the viewpoint she could watch everything around her.
There was a point in her life where she’d been happy being who she was. What had changed from the happy go lucky sixteen-year-old to the incredibly depressed twenty-two-year-old?
Looking out over the dance floor she saw her answer. Her husband. What had started as a stupid high school crush had escalated into something deeper.
She watched as a woman approached him. Her arms wrapping around his neck. She saw the way the woman touched him. The brush of her hand along his arm. Familiarity was in each touch. Who the woman was she didn’t know, and she couldn’t put a name to the face. Unless the woman in question was Rita Brooke, the glorious super model of the month. The slender woman looked ready for everything, while Opal stood in her long black dress feeling like a sack of potatoes. Lily and Wayne sat together. She watched the couple with envy. He didn’t leave her side. Any woman who approached did so with caution. Her brother sat with them, Scarlet staring down at her hands.
Had her brother and Scarlet argued?
At another table, she’d spotted her parents with Charles. What was it about that man they loved so much?
Tony danced with the woman who loved touching him. A waiter passed, and being twenty-two she took a glass of champagne even though she hated the stuff. The humiliation of being brought to an event and seeing her husband pawing at all the other women was too much for her.
Leaving the room, she made her way out onto the patio overlooking the expanse of garden. A water fountain was alight, and there were guests walking round. She sipped the liquid from her glass with a wince. She’d never developed a taste for the vinegar tasting stuff. Moving round, she found a secluded area where no one stood. The night looked clear. No one to disturb her thoughts.
Should she ask for a divorce? Annulment was out of the question. His words came back to haunt her.
“....I’ll fuck you before you get an annulment.”
Could she live the rest of her life like this? Waiting for the next best thing to happen? At twenty-two years old she still didn’t know the touch of a man, and she’d been married for over two years.
“Penny for your thoughts?” a voice asked from right next to her.
She turned and stared up.