Co-Wife

"Jordan got married?" Aggela asked. She was talking to ma Nana, but her eyes were fixed on me. She stared at me with wide unbelieving eyes, as she looked me from head to toe, her eyes narrowed and her lips curled up with something that resembled disgust.

I stood there in awkward silence under her perusal, feeling like a school girl who had been brought before the school principal for doing something very bad. I had not done anything wrong, and yet, I was feeling terribly guilty. I crossed my hands behind my back, my feet dug into the ground, and my toes were engrossed in an attempt at boring a hole through my shoes.

She was intimidating. Aggela. She was astonishingly beautiful, with a face fit for a goddess. Her body, carriage and grace were all so perfect, so that even as she sat on the sofa, scrutinizing me with her piercing blue gaze, I couldn't help but admit that she still looked so perfect. I think her perfect looks made her all the more intimidating.

"Yes, Aggela. This is our new mistress, June." Ma Nana answered. There was a color in the old lady's voice that immediately told me that she did not like answering to Aggela at all. Her answer sounded like an attack, something of a mockery and warning. "Anax is married to the young mistress now, forever." She added for emphasis. I turned slightly to look at the older lady. She wasn't sounding right at all. Unlike her usual sweet and gentle self, ma Nana was speaking with so much malice in her tone. It made me wonder seriously.

"But that is not even possible. I have known Jordan forever, and he never had any plans of getting married." Aggela argued, shaking her head lightly in disagreement.

"Well, we all know anax can be very unpredictable sometimes. This is one of the times when he is, I think." Ma Nana said dryly, and her tone further convinced me that she didn't really like Aggela very much. I wondered if ma Nana felt that way because Jordan had a strained relationship with Aggela, or if the old maid just didn't like Aggela naturally. I didn't think it was fair that ma Nana was being so cold to the young lady. I didn't think it was Aggela's fault that her marriage with Jordan didn't work out. In fact, from the little time I had spent with Jordan, I could already give a million reasons why any woman would want to leave him. Aggela wasn't the enemy here, she was just another victim. I hoped that ma Nana would be a little more kind in her attitude towards the young woman.

When I looked up again, Aggela was staring at me with cold and doubtful eyes. Although we only just met, I could clearly see that she didn't seem to like me very much. I couldn't blame her though. I was married to her ex-husband. And even though their marriage had not worked out, it didn't change the fact that she was once in my place. It is only natural to hate your replacement.

I felt sorry for her, and even more guilty. So I bowed my head again.

"I just can't bring myself to believe this." Aggela said, sighing exasperatedly. "Nana, please tell me this girl is the new help and you are just pulling one of your silly jokes!" She begged, sounding almost impatient.

"I am sorry lady Aggela, but I don't think I have ever shared jokes with you. We are not close like that, you know. I know better than to joke around with something this serious about anax" Ma Nana replied. "And this is very expensive joke. I cannot pull it on someone like you."

"But how can Jordan settle for this? Even if he ever decided to get married, how could he settle for this? She is way below his standards!" Aggela cried. Her eyes turned on me again, blazing bright with pure hate.

Up until now, I had been understanding of her pain and anger. But at the moment, I couldn't help but feel slighted by her sharp comment and the ugly gaze she was casting on me. Yes, I could understand why she was reacting like that, but it was becoming too much. I didn't think I could handle it much longer if she kept acting like that.

"We do not tell anax what to do. If he need your help to select his standards, he would have called you." Ma Nana shrugged.

"The last time I was here..." Aggela began to say, but ma Nana interrupted.

"The last time you were here, anax was unmarried. But now he is." She said with a cutting tone. "So, if you will let us go now, my mistress and I have something we must do. Ari will show you to a room." She added.

Aggela remained silent, and continued to watch in silence as ma Nana led me away.

"It must be hard for her." I whispered when I got back to my room in the company of Ma Nana.

"What?" Ma Nana asked.

"The divorce." I said. "She must still be in pain. But why would she keep coming back here, to sad memories. She won't get over it and move on, if she continues like this." I said. Ma Nana watched me with a strange look on her face, as I continued to babble on. "So how long has the divorce been exactly? It must still be fresh, seeing that she still hasn't moved on. When did they get the divorce?" I said.

"When did who, exactly, get what divorce?" Ma Nana asked, still looking at me with that weird look on her face. She looked lost and confused, but at the same time it looked like she could already guess what I was talking about, and she didn't like it at all.

I hesitated for a moment. How silly of me! Maybe the staff weren't supposed to talk about the divorce. Jordan's orders clearly. I shouldn't have asked. But ma Nana was still looking at me with expectant eyes, waiting for my reply. So I shrugged and said in a very small voice.

"Aggela and Jordan."

"What?" Ma Nana asked, then she bent over and burst into laughter. After a moment, she stood upright, but she still didn't stop laughing. She couldn't.

"What are you talking, omorfi?" She asked.

"Aren't they fully divorced yet?" I asked softly, unsure of what ma Nana meant. Ma Nana burst out laughing again.

"How can they divorce when they were never even married?" She asked me at last.

"But... Kaiti said she was Jordan's wife." I said, still feeling confused.

"Kaiti?" Ma Nana exclaimed in shock. "Kaiti is just six. How can you draw conclusions after listening to a little girl? She is a child, kallos." Ma Nana chided me. "If she so happens to see an adult man and a woman do as much as hold hands, she believes they are a couple."

My jaws dropped. I couldn't believe my ears, and only until ma Nana said it, did I realize how really silly I had been.

All Kaiti had done was identify Aggela Jordan's wife. I didn't even ask for any clarification, I just believed her. Ma Nana was right. Kaiti was a little girl. I should have known better.

"So, you are telling me that young lady was never married to Jordan?" I asked thoughtfully.

"No, kallos. Never." Ma Nana replied, shaking her head vehemently.

"So, who is she then?" I asked.

Ma Nana sighed.

"She is the only one mistake I have ever see anax make." She said. "The boss never mix business with pleasure, but Aggela, she is both business partner and bed mate to boss."

"Oh." I said, as I tried to process the sudden wave of information. Ma Nana didn't seem to realize that she had just dropped a bomb on me, she just carried on.

"Anax met Aggela way long before they two start any business. Their affair ended just like every other affairs of anax. But Aggela, she wanted more. Anax did not. But when her father start business with anax, and Aggela realized it, she offer to be in charge of her father business with anax. And now she come here whenever she feels she can. She throw herself on anax, and they two still have fling now and then. She know anax have other women, but Aggela believe she will win at last. She never give up. Hopefully, she will now." Ma Nana explained. "She hates you, you know?" She asked.

"I noticed." I said absent mindedly. And as ma Nana continued to ramble on, I didn't hear anything else she said. I just sat there on my bed as my mind replayed ma Nana's revelation.

Jordan had several women.

I knew I wasn't supposed to care. I wasn't even his real wife, I was more of a prisoner than a wife.

And yet, I felt very uneasy at the thought.

And not to mention, one of those women was now in the mansion. Someone he had more than a fling with.

A tightness clogged my chest, squeezing tighter with every moment and making it hurt badly.

I was hurting for reasons I could not explain.