Capítulo 6: Horrible Memory and The Lost Girl
The next morning Ana rose from Nicholas's bed where he lay sleeping peacefully. He looked younger as he slept. Ana crept to the door, opening it slightly looking in either direction for any of the staff. She then tiptoe ran twenty feet to her bedroom door and ducked inside closing the door behind her. Ana grabbed clothes from her bag thinking that she didn't have to hide her pregnancy from Nick so much now. Ana went into the bathroom stripping out of his tee and got in the shower.
Ana felt extremely guilty this morning for giving herself to Nick like she had, especially with her current circumstances. She had wanted him so badly though. The moment he had kissed her in the restaurant she had felt desire more powerfully than she had ever experienced and Ana had known she wouldn't be able to resist him. She had reveled in the feeling of being wanted even as she acknowledged the precarious position her actions would put her in.
Ana didn't want to be Nicholas's mistress and now she was. She was ashamed that she had allowed this situation to materialize but she had wanted him so much and it had felt so good to have a man want her the way Nick had. Even now Ana wanted Nick in a way she was not at all accustomed to. What was she going to do? She couldn't bear to be thought of as this kind of woman, but she didn't know if she could walk away from what was between them either.
Ana finished in the shower and climbed out, drying herself off. She dressed and quickly blow dried her hair putting it up into a messy bun. She really didn't want to see the censure Mrs. Burns would have for her now that she had lowered herself and become just another of Nicholas's lovers. Ana walked down to the breakfast nook grabbing a muffin and a large cup of tea. She slipped out the back door onto the veranda and fled into the garden. She had noticed the way Mrs. Burns eyed her critically as she entered the breakfast room and couldn't bear the disapproval on the woman's face.
***********
Nicholas woke alone in his bed and felt dismay. Somehow, he expected Ana to still be there when he woke. He shook himself out of his alarm. Nick told himself that Ana had simply woken before him and had gotten ready for the day. He would likely find her in the breakfast room. He got out of bed grabbing casual clothes and went into the bathroom. Nick took a quick shower and dressed before heading downstairs.
Nicholas reached the breakfast room and realized that Ana was not there. He glanced around as if she would appear from thin air. He felt panic begin to rise in him.
Mrs. Burns entered the room. "Nicholas, may I speak to you privately?"
"Where is Ana?" Nicholas ignored everything but his mounting panic.
"The woman grabbed breakfast and headed out onto the grounds." Mrs. Burns answered briskly.
The woman? Since when did Mrs. Burns dismiss Ana so carelessly? "Let's talk." Nicholas said and led the way to his office.
Mrs. Burns closed the door behind herself and turned to Nicholas. "May I be blunt?"
"Please do," Nicholas replied levelly.
"I thought you were not going to turn Ana into your mistress, Nicholas. You must remove her from this house at once. This home is intended for your wife, not a lover." Mrs. Burns reprimanded her charge.
Nicholas eyed the woman who had cared for him his entire life. How much did he want her to know? "Ana is not my mistress. She is my bride, and we would be married already if circumstances had not intervened."
"I don't understand." Mrs. Burns frowned.
"I found her, my betrothed. Ana is the girl that went missing nine years ago. She has a crown-one mark, and she told me her first name. I still hold the marriage contract for her hand." Nicholas explained.
Mrs. Burns wasn't sure which problem to tackle first. "Have you confirmed the mark with the scanner?" Every elite family had a scanner that could read the confirmation embedded in the ink of a societal mark. The scanners were updated weekly and held identifying information for every mark given. Confirming her identity was as simple as scanning her mark.
Nicholas paused. "Not yet, I know what it will say."
Mrs. Burns harumphed. "I think you should verify first. Didn't you say Ana was married? Don't you think her husband would have confirmed her identity?"
"Ana's husband is Scott Devon. If it wasn't imperative that she stay married to the man for the time being even if the marriage was invalid, I would have her at the marriage office this morning." Nicholas said with emphasis.
"She is married to Devon. This is some ploy to get at you Nicholas." Mrs. Burns warned.
"It is not. Devon has filed for divorce from her, and she signed the papers. Not that it matters because Ava Minden is a made-up alias. However, they must stay married long enough for Ana to give birth to his heir. I cannot marry her and make Devon's son my heir. Ana is already my bride we are just dealing with a tricky situation because she is pregnant." Nicholas sighed thinking he hadn't even had coffee yet.
Mrs. Burns went to speak but Nicholas cut her off.
"Ana is not my mistress; she is my bride, and I will never give her up so if your response is to be anything but helpful you should save it. You will treat her as if she is my wife already because she would be if not for unfortunate circumstances." Nicholas said, rising from his chair.
"We will check her status with the scanner?" Mrs. Burns questioned, unsure what to say. That was a lot of information to unpack. "Why wouldn't her husband know who she is?"
"Devon only touched his wife twice their whole marriage." Nick said.
"That could be a lie to make her seem innocent." Mrs. Burns reasoned.
Nicholas laughed. "Women can fake a great many things, but their level of innocence isn't one of them."
"What do you mean by that Nicholas?" Mrs. Burns questioned the man.
"Let me be blunt as well. If Ana was not pregnant, I would have believed her innocence intact. She is clearly not accustomed to being with a man. That is not something that can be faked no matter how skilled the actress. A person can lie but the human anatomy cannot." Nicholas intoned quietly.
Nicholas continued speaking. "Ana is mine. We will keep the situation quiet until she gives birth and then I will marry her and raise her son as my stepson. Let me grab a cup of coffee and the scanner and we will find her and verify this to ease your worry." Nicholas walked out of the room and Mrs. Burns followed.
"Ana is pregnant. How far along is she Nicholas?" Mrs. Burns questioned with confused concern.
"Eighteen weeks." Nicholas answered distractedly. "She has been hiding her pregnancy but made it known to me once I made it clear to her that I intended to be with her. She is a good person and not trying to trick me in any way." Mrs. Burns sighed but said nothing.
In the breakfast room Nicholas got a cup of coffee while Mrs. Burns grabbed the scanner. Nicholas fixed another cup of tea for Ana, and they went in search of her. They found her on an upholstered lounger next to a water feature deep in the garden. She was sitting staring at the trickling waterfall and the fish swimming in the small pond. Nicholas handed her the tea and sat next to her.
Nicholas took Ana's hand and brought it to his lips. "How are you this morning, love?"
"All right, I guess." Ana replied.
Nicholas didn't like the way she wouldn't look at him. He used a finger to tip her face to his. "You have nothing to be ashamed of Ana." Ana glanced at Mrs. Burns and looked away. Had she said something to her this morning? Nick didn't believe that she would do that.
"I need to scan your mark, love. It will only take a second." Nick told her gently.
Ana decided it didn't matter. Nick wouldn't say anything but even if he did it wouldn't matter. There was no use protecting her name now that she was a mistress anyway. Ana nodded for him to go ahead. Nicholas grabbed a clunky electronic device and brushed her hair away from her mark. The machine beeped rapidly three times and Nicholas moved it away from her walking over to Mrs. Burns.
The screen read: License number 0008031. Lady Leana Coulter. Crown-1, First tier nobility of royal bloodline. Father: Ralston Coulter, Mother: Arabelle Coulter (Deceased). Siblings: Marselle, Gregory, Seth. Collin Coulter. Marriage Contract To: Lord Prince Nicholas Stanton Status: (Betrothal Intact) Date of Contract: It was dated for his eighteenth birthday. Special Status: Missing person's report filed: Dated Ana's fourteenth birthday. ***Scanner confirms Crown-1 identity on... It read the current date.
Nicholas took a picture of the information with his phone and closed the scanner, handing it back to Mrs. Burns. "Does that ease your concerns, Margaret?" Nicholas asked Mrs. Burns very quietly. She nodded.
"You will treat her as my wife because that is what she will be, understand?" Mrs. Burns nodded assuredly, and Nicholas turned away from her, going back to Ana.
Nicholas walked over to stand near Ana. "Sweetheart, why are you hiding out here?"
"We shouldn't have been together like that. Now I am just another one of your mistresses." Ana sighed dejectedly.
"I don't have any mistresses. I won't lie. I have had flings in the past, but I have never cared about anyone enough to make them a mistress. You are not my mistress, Ana. You are my bride and as soon as your child is born, I will make you, my wife. You will never bear shame because of us being together. You are more important to me than anything else in this world. I would never shame you." Nicholas vowed to Ana.
"Mrs. Burns is disappointed in us." Ana said quietly.
"She didn't understand but she does now." Nicholas explained.
Ana looked at him finally, but her eyes were sad. "Now that you used the scanner my family will be notified. The scanner system records when a mark was scanned you know."
Nicholas startled; he had known that but hadn't considered what that might mean for Ana until she spoke. "Sweetheart, can you tell me why you ran away and how you got from then to now?"
Nick watched as Ana shuddered violently but then appeared to try to steel herself to tell him her story.
"I can try." Ana said quietly. Nicholas discreetly hit the record button on his phone feeling like he might need a record of her answer to go over later.
Anna began her voice without inflection, "My mother was a truly kind woman, but she died when I was seven. After her death, my father went from kind and loving to emotionally distant with everyone, but he was always warm with me. Everyone said I looked exactly like my mother. On my ninth birthday, I remember getting my mark and then Father introduced me to a young man that I was told was my betrothed. Father only let us speak a moment because he feared that the man might try something with me. I remember thinking that no one would think untoward thoughts to a little girl.
Ana paused collecting her thoughts. "As it turns out, Father just didn't like to share." Nicholas hissed a breath and Mrs. Burns gasped, her hand covering her mouth. Ana continued quickly or she would never get it out. "Father said there were things I needed to know to be a wife and he would teach me. That first night he just made me look at him and I was so embarrassed and ashamed, but I didn't really know why."
Ana swiped away a tear. "For the next five years, he would come to my room several nights a week and force me to do things to him mainly. For my education he told me. I hated him. However, I was too afraid to tell because what if my family already knew and he punished me for seeking help? Then it was my fourteenth birthday and Father had been coming to my room less. He told me once that it was too difficult now that he had to wait until I was older. I didn't know what he meant.
Nicholas's hands were fists as he stared across the garden his mind recoiling in horror. He thought Ana's history might kill him.
Ana took a drink of her tea feeling like her voice was raspy. By the time I turned fourteen I had of course learned the hard way about things that happen between a man and woman, but I had not been violated at least not by having sex, thankfully. That night after my birthday party when everyone was asleep. Father came to my room, and he was happy. He said that he didn't have to wait anymore, and he was going to teach me how to be a wife.
"Father told me to get undressed, but I didn't listen. He was taking his clothes off. He grabbed my arm and tried to pull me close to him and I was suddenly very scared. I just reacted and kneed him between the legs. Then when he doubled over, I shoved him and ran. I made it to the kitchen and grabbed a big knife. I got into the housekeeper's petty cash drawer and took all the cash from it. Then I ran out of the house." Ana sighed and took another drink of her tea. Nicholas was stretching out his fingers from the tight fists they had been in.
Ana blinked rapidly as a tear fell. "I left my whole family behind. I was wearing jeans, a tee, a sweater, and a pair of sneakers. My hair was in a braid, and I had a kitchen knife and two thousand and one-hundred dollars. I didn't know anything about money. It seemed like a lot as I walked deep into the heart of the city that night. That night I slept in a grouping of dense bushes in a park. I almost felt like I was camping."
"The next day was cold. I realized I was cold, and I didn't remember ever being cold before, but I was grateful to have escaped my father raping me." Nicholas cursed accidentally interrupting.
"I had never been to a store that wasn't designer. I had never looked at a price tag. I couldn't afford the stores I was used to. I bought myself a large coat and a duffel bag at a department store I found. I tried to find a hotel, but I was fourteen and had no ID or credit card. I had filled my duffel bag with food and bottled water at a small grocery store. I didn't know where to go so I just followed along with a group of vagrants. I ended up in this alley with about twenty other vagrants. One woman was nice and gave me some cardboard so I could get off the concrete. I fell asleep thinking I would be alright. It wasn't glamorous but no one was touching me." Ana paused a scowl on her face obviously angry at what came next.
Ana finally swallowed audibly and continued. "I was robbed while I slept. I ended up being left with my coat, my duffel bag, two bottles of water, three food items, and the fifty dollars that had been in my pocket. The rest of my money had been in the duffel bag. The next day I tried going to the orphanage, but they were going to scan me, so I escaped. I went to the shelter but anyone under sixteen was sent to the orphanage. After that I learned to fight and claw my way through life. I slept in the bushes alone and ate at the soup kitchens when they had enough for the dirty child that I had become. I tried to find work and occasionally someone would give me an odd job."
"I had become pretty known in that area of town. So, the day I turned sixteen I told the lady at the reception for the shelter finally let me go inside and she gave me a bed. I got cleaned up for the first time in forever and got clothes from the free store. I was given a locker for my belongings, and I went to see the vocational counselor. Davy helped me apply for nursing school and because I had been a homeless child I got a full grant after the administrator saw my test scores. I became Ana Minden. The workers at the shelter helped me get an ID. I stayed at the shelter for the first two years then I won an outside scholarship that let me live on campus." Ana was deep in her story telling now.
"I started to live a decent life on campus and focused hard on my studies. When I was twenty, I became a nurse and decided to go into hospice care. I wanted to make sure no one ever felt as alone as I had as a child and dying seemed lonely to me. My first patient only lived for three months, and it was hard at the end. The woman had given me a glowing letter of recommendation and that got me hired to care for Scott Devon." Ana sighed at the memory.
"Scott was extremely sick with a brain tumor and wasn't expected to survive even six months. We would sit together before his treatments, and he would squeeze my hand so hard. I never found the courage to tell him it was alright to be scared. Then one day he asked me if I would marry him. He wanted to know what it was like to have a wife before he died. I had been taking care of him for about four months and all he had ever been to me was kind, gracious, and respectful so I said all right." Ana smiled wistfully.
"We got married maybe two days later. We had to meet the legal requirements, which was difficult because he was sick, and I was very shy. That was the first time I saw Scott laugh. He said he sucked at being a husband and laughed at himself. I told him that I gave him an A for effort, and we were fine for a while. After the surgery we thought would end him inexplicably he started getting better. Every day that he got stronger he became colder, more emotionless, mor difficult, and mean or rude maybe. He didn't need a wife or a nurse." Ana frowned and huffed, taking another drink of her tea.
"There was one night that he came home half-drunk, and he was nice again. I let that fool me and that is how I wound up pregnant. Scott told me the next day that if I turned out to be pregnant, I would have to have an abortion, but when I found out I just couldn't end my child's life. I didn't know how to tell him and honestly, I was afraid to. I didn't know what he would do. Then on the day that I found out the baby was a boy, I came home to him calling me into his office." Ana scoffed, still angered over the situation.
"He had divorce papers and told me to sign them, and he would give me severance pay. I signed the papers, filled my duffle bag. I told him to go to hell and walked out leaving nearly everything behind. That is how you found me on the road in the pouring rain. That is my whole story." Ana shrugged, seeming to slump as if all the air and life had just leaked out of her along with her story.
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