Dangerous Games

ONE GOLD DIGGER DESERVES ANOTHER

Giovanna was in a state, watching her mother from the window of her room as she walked around the garden. The weaved basket that swung from her elbow was already filled with flowers. The gardeners usually tended to the garden. They ensured the grass was always levelled, never an inch out of place. The shrubs were trimmed to the same spherical shape each time and watered.

The only thing her mother went into the garden for was privacy. Giovanna watched her speaking passionately with someone and couldn't help but wonder who. Neither her mother nor the gold-digger of a wife Samuel married knew what she knew. They were probably filled with cynical satisfaction, but Giovanna knew their game. She had heard it with her own ears.

The day after the wedding, when everyone prepared to leave the hotel, she heard them speaking. She wasn't sure what exactly they were talking about, she came at the tail end of the conversation but she heard enough. She heard clearly when her mother informed Kali that she had done her part, by paying off a debt, but it didn't mean Kali was free to behave irrationally.

The rest of the conversation was a mystery because she got distracted by other guests passing by and didn't listen to Kali's reply. When she was finally able to get back to the door, Kali was marching out of the room.

For so long the conversation ate at Giovanna. The mistrust she felt towards Kali since Samuel first introduced her double after what she heard that day. There was no doubt that love was not the first thing on Kali's mind when she agreed to marry Samuel. Her brother was an idiot when it came to relationships. A hopeless romantic, if she ever saw one. He wore his heart on his sleeve and accepted people with his eyes closed.

She grabbed the car keys and a purse and then scurried down the stairs. When she threw the door open, she came face to face with her mother.

"Where are you going?"

"Out. A friend called and I want to go meet them."

"It's quite early."

"Even better. That way I can come home earlier." Giovanna pushed up on her toes and planted a rushed kiss on her mother's face. "I'll see you later mom."

"Whose driving you?"

"I'll drive myself."

Basically, the drivers were her mother's spies. Except for a few that befriended them, all other staff members were loyal to her parents. They informed them about people that came into the house whenever they went out on vacation or places the kids went to on a regular basis. Unlike her mother, her father didn't have a strict grip on what they did or places they went. He trusted them enough to allow them make their own decision.

Their mother was the opposite. She watched them like a hawk. If Giovanna wanted to make it to her brother's house, she needed to drive herself. Once she told him everything she heard, she would allow him to figure out what to do with the information. She was tired of everyone being fooled by Kali's act of a perfect wife.

Giovanna would bet everything that Kali was living the life of her dreams. Married to wealth and living comfortably.

"Good morning." The guard greeted her as she rolled to a stop in front of the gate.

"Morning. I am here to see my brother."

"Sorry, Mr Madden left earlier. Only the Mrs is in right now."

There was a good chance that Samuel was at his office working. She could drive over there and tell him, or she could go in and confront the woman herself. Giovanna glared at the gate as she thought about her next line of action.

"Please tell her I am here." She demanded after she made her decision.

The gates opened after he called the house, and Giovanna drove in. She marched to the front door and didn't bother knocking as she swung it open and blazed into the room. Following the sound of metal striking metal, she stalked to the kitchen where Kali was preparing a small meal. She worked with her phone pinched between her ear and right shoulder.