15

But she still hesitated, she couldn't lie to herself that there were many red flags with Mario Vasko. He had proposed to her as a joke several times which had caused her to cry profusely. He had commented on her weight gain. Even at him questioning why she would leave Arab comforts for American mediocracy. He would always have a wide smile after she forgave him and forgot about it like he was in on some private joke as he played with himself.

Having a childhood where she had been raised mostly in a trailer park with the rough and tumble parents she had was a good training ground for spotting salesmen and cult initiators everywhere. There was no way that such a long standing lie could have been going on with Mario Vasko and she hadn't been able to tell. Was she just so numb to them at this point that she had lost her game?

How? Vasko couldn't be in it for the long con as she had make sure to check out every single thing about Darling Mario as when she had been leaving the royal family. She had confided several times in her sister in law to run a background check and she had sat there with solicitors as the documents were all laid out for her in the palacial drawing room. She trusted those people and he had wowed them over and over again and deemed to be a good choice for her. In all of these encounters there had never been any reason for any of her esteemed in laws to bat an eyelash. After the anniversary of her husband's death had passed he had asked her, "instead of honoring his memory would she like to make some new memories with him?"

That line was one of the most beautiful things that she had heard since her husband had died. Her husband had spoken little to her through the whole ordeal of his sickness and he had just sent her little notes on bits of napkins that a nurse would smuggle out. No one in her husband's family wanted her there after all and she was a wealthy widow staying there. It was an honorable way to send her off, she surmised.

Octopussy? She'd never read something more lewd in her entire life. How would you make an octopussy if there were four people with their whole bodies there? What kind of opening was that? She cringed as the thought of a Durga pose with all the flayed limbs could even happen. It was super disgusting to even think she could have almost married the man. She felt the spinniness come back and she grabbed at the stand to a delicate vase that started to sway.

But before it dipped forward, something caught it and righted it. The same strong hands wrapped around her shoulder and were a catch against her waist as the same velvet was at her ear. "Why are you here? Did he really leave you all alone? It's alright. Why don't you come to me now? I'll fix it all"