THE DINNER PARTY 2

The sinful smile on his lips turned to a sinister smirk in a second. Out of instinct, I held a part of his jacket as my life depended on it because it literally did. While I held on for dear life, he dragged me around in a way that made me feel like a doll. A broken one at that! While I was struggling to survive the dance, I noticed how the crowd was enraptured by the dance.

Help me!

I screamed in my head and with my eyes but no one noticed. They all stared at us dancing like it was normal. How was anything happening to me normal? I was still appalled by the way he dragged me around the dance floor in the name of dancing when other couples began to join us. At some point, he paused for a second, probably so I would display a move or two like they do in the movies but I simply did nothing. I used that opportunity to catch my breath. I felt like I had been on a long rollercoaster ride.

He resumed dragging me about, following the beat of the music. When he spinned me away so I would return to him, I made no effort to. Instead, I decided that was my opportunity to leave the dance floor but he suddenly grabbed one of my hands and pulled me to himself. That made me suddenly hit my head on his chest. Fortunately for me, the music stopped.

That was the most embarrassing dance in my entire life and I had barely spent a day in that mansion. Dread filled my lungs as I recalled that the duration of his therapy on paper was not specified. It only said I would be his therapist until he fully recovered while I pretended to be his wife in public. It seemed like his condition was a secret from the public.

All that meant that I would not be free of all these until he got better. My eyes widened as I wondered if I would get traumatized in the process. How would I help him heal when I end up traumatized? I asked myself.

"Mr. Greystone, I need some fresh air," I muttered under my breath for his ears only.

"You can have that after I introduce you to your in-laws. Come on, they are waiting for us." He linked his arms with mine as he subtly dragged me to a corner where a group of people were.

"A wonderful party, is it not?" Mr. Greystone asked. I reluctantly looked up to see who he was talking to and was taken aback. It was that elderly woman who had made her guard drag me to that dark room earlier. Looking at her clearly in the bright lights of the hall, I could see how sophisticated she looked. Her chin was raised high in pride as she responded to Mr Greystone.

"As usual, your party is extravagant. One would think that after all these years of throwing a party to introduce your new wife, you would have learnt how to properly host a party." She said casually. When she said 'new wife', she peered down at me.

"Darling Amanda..." Mr Greystone looked at me with mock concern before looking at the elderly woman. " ...this is your mother-in-law, Beatrice Greystone. She is a little bitter that I did not request for her blessings before bringing you into the family."

When he said that, I gave him a side-eye. He did not even inform me that I was getting married to him and his psycho family too! There was hardly any surprise that no one else knew of the supposed marriage until tonight. Then it clicked in my head. He had done a party like this for years and they were probably for his former therapists. How did they resign from this job when he had not recovered yet? Something deep in my heart whispered that they had all met with an unforeseen danger. That thought alone made me shiver in fear.

His mother noticed because she said. "Your wife seems to be coming down with a cold. Look after her before she ends up like the rest of them."

Mr Greystone ignored the statement and looked at the man behind her. "Ethan, it has been a while...." He said with a smirk.

The man he called Ethan glared at him. I was not curious about why he glared as Mr Greystone had a talent for being cross with a lot of people. It had been only twelve hours since I met him and I was already furious with him.

"Ethan, won't you welcome my wife." Mr. Greystone said with a sly smile before looking down at me. "Darling, he is your brother-in-law. Don't mind his grumpy attitude, he is just upset that his latest attempt to take my company for himself failed." He revealed casually.

Ethan looked at me with genuine pity before saying. "Leave now while you can. Once everyone is out of here, you will lose the chance to escape from him." The way he said it brought chills to my system. He spoke like I was going to end up as tonight's dinner if I didn't run away. I gulped as I looked up at a smiling Mr Greystone. His grip on me was firm. Forget running away, I was not even allowed to enjoy a little fresh air without his permission.

If I had known this was my fate in America, I would have simply stayed back in Nigeria. After all, my life was not that bad. The only thing going wrong was that my ex-fiance had cheated on me and my family supported it. Compared to my current situation, that problem seemed little. I know many of my people would wonder how my situation was worse when I was a wife to a rich CEO and got to get paid for my services as his therapist, live like a rich woman and gain the connections ordinary therapists found difficult.

Well, all that would have been nice if I had been emotionally ready for a relationship or miraculously in love with my crazy boss. But I wasn't! And that in itself made me mad.

"Brother, your new wife seems a little too odd than your previous ones." I heard a young girl speak. I turned to see it was that young lady I met earlier. It was Matilda Greystone. She was probably Mr. Greystone's younger sister.

"Shut your pretty mouth, Matilda." Mr Greystone simply said, embarrassing the young lady.

"It is nice meeting all of you. " I forced myself to say so I would be free to leave but Mr. Greystone didn't let me leave. Instead, he picked up a glass of wine from one of the maids walking around with a tray of it.

"Have some, my darling. You need it to loosen up a bit." He said as he handed the glass to me. It was when I took it from him that I noticed every one of his family had their eyes on us. More precisely, they keenly watched our interaction.

Matilda harrumphed before leaving. She was the first before every other family member left for the dance floor. Only Beatrice Greystone remained. "I know all these charades are covering something you don't want the world to know. If I get my hands on it, you will be sorry you existed this long. " She spat out.

"Mother...." Mr Greystone began to say with a hint of sarcasm. "... don't show your true colours to my wife. At least not tonight." Somehow, what he said angered her and she left.

"What a wonderful family you have here," I commented as it made a little sense that he had turned out the way he was.

"Indeed." He said absentmindedly.

"She is your stepmother, isn't she?" I speculated because I knew no matter how rough your relationship with your real mother could be, it could never be this bad as his.

"Finally you deduced something correctly." He said with a pretentious smile before releasing me. "Don't wander too far."

"Goodnight, Mr. Greystone." I left without a second thought. If I had spent a second longer in his presence or worse in his family's presence, I would have gone insane, I would be the one needing therapy instead.

Subtly, I searched around for an exit. It took me a while to discover one in the enormous hall. I quickly made my way out of there and fortunately, I was met with a beautiful sight, and greeted by a gush of wind that relaxed my nerves. I had just gotten to a garden. A beautiful one at that. Even while it was dark and the lights outside exposed only a part of it, it looked beautifully arranged. I didn't notice I was not alone in the garden until I heard odd sounds coming from a part of the garden.

Curious if it was a stray cat in the garden, I walked closer to that corner to be greeted by an awkward sight. A lad was bent over a leveled shrub and a man was behind her, thrusting into her with his dick. I awkwardly left there but it was too late. They had already noticed me. It was barely five minutes later when the man walked out of the bush first. Soon after, the lady walked out.

Unlike the man, she walked out confidently. I looked away in an attempt to pretend like I had seen nothing, heard nothing. The lady didn't take the hint and instead walked up to me with a smile.

"You could have joined us if you were that interested." She said.

"I am not interested. I don't even know you." What was with these people and making assumptions here and there? She should have been ashamed to be caught doing the deed in a public place. Instead, she had the guts to assume I was interested.

"Alright alright." She held her hands up playfully. "I was just kidding. I'm Jasmine by the way. You look new here. What's your name?" She said like I had not just caught her doing the deed a few minutes ago.

"Amanda," I responded.