ENGAGED TO ONE IN LOVE WITH ANOTHER

Chapter 1

*Into The Devil’s eyes*

1 year before the wedding

"Welcome to our new home," Theo said as we walked out of the taxi that had brought us to the new house from the airport.

I stood in awe at how big the new house Theodore gestured. It was enormous. Bigger than the one we lived in back in our old home. It had bay sash windows, steeply pitched roofs, and multi-colored bricks, and the Victorian style house stood like an odd stranger in the middle of the other contemporary-styled houses.

I felt connected to the house in a way, like me, it was different from others, it didn't fit into the neighborhood and stood like an outsider, unlike our old home. I lived there since the day I got adopted, and to be honest, I was never comfortable in it

To my adopted parents, Elizabeth and Theodore Roosevelt though, the old house wasn't just a house to them, it was home. It was where they had all their memories of their biological daughter Willy and maybe that was why it never felt like a home to me - it was always Theo, Eliza and Willy's home and I was just an extra, there to fill up the silence caused by Willy's absence. I knew this and they knew this too.

I am Willy's shadow and I had no right to complain. I asked for this.

"The family business is struggling". Theo and Eliza had sat me down on one rainy evening about a month ago. I remember it clearly like it was yesterday, I had just gotten back from school, I was having a hard time adjusting and was really contemplating if I ever wanted to go back there when I saw them sitting in the living room side by side on a sofa close to where they kept pictures of Willy and none of me.

"Your mother and I have been thinking for a while and have come to a conclusion. We want to move back to London" Theo had said.

It felt too much like a piece of information and not like - I don't know - a suggestion. I was supposed to be their 'family', their daughter, and they made such a huge decision that would end up affecting my own life without thinking of asking me what I thought about it before they came to a conclusion, but this wasn't the first time it had happened.

I felt neglected but not angry - I had no right to be angry. These people saved me, they took me from that wretched orphanage home in Lagos, Nigeria, and brought me into their home, although I had to cut myself with a knife and write a contract with my blood swearing to them that I would do anything and everything as long as they took me away from hell

They adopted me, so I know I have no right to express discontent. I was to smile and nod my head.

So that's what I do.

I put on that fake smile I have practiced and perfected over the course of living with the Roosevelt for 5 years and showed it to my adopted parents with the fear that they might send me back to where I came from if I disagreed with them and it was a reasonable fear.

"Okay" I replied, smiling, "London sounds like a beautiful place".

Theo and Elizabeth were both natives of the UK, and in fact, Theo's family owned one of the five largest and most successful companies in all of Europe. Theo comes from a line of old money but he wanted to make a name for himself and left London alone without the support of his family. He traveled here to start his own business and there he met Elizabeth they had Willy before they lost her to an accident and then adopted me.

I spent the past few weeks googling up several things about London and how it was. I've been there before, once, and it was to meet Theo's family. If I could describe the meeting with just a sentence, I'd go for 'wonderfully chaotic' because that was exactly what it was.

They hated me, each and every one of his family hated me and didn't even try to hide that they were disgusted by me and Theo and Eliza's choice of adopting me, but I wasn't too worried about it at that time because we lived 5437 miles away from each other except now I was to live in the same city as them.

That sounds fun.

So fun I could shoot myself in the brain.

"Raynette" Eliza's voice called me out of my thoughts and I saw that both Theo and Eliza had dragged their luggage to the front of the house. I turned to them and gave them what I knew they wanted.

A smile

"You should come in or you'll freeze outside," she tells me. I rolled my eyes when she wasn't looking and as much as I wanted to tell her that London's weather was no match for my brown fur boots, black trousers, my warm coat, and the scarf that was around my neck, I couldn't. I don't talk back to them no matter what, instead, I always do what she wants me to do or say what she wants to hear

"Okay mom

Now for this to be perfect, it has to have a bigger room, I thought to myself.

Back in our old home, I had to use Willy's room and there was the pressure of using the room of a dead person. It felt like she was always watching and judging me and, even though I never met the girl, I could feel her ghost breathing down my neck. It would be nice if I had a room that was actually mine where I could sleep peacefully and do what I wanted.

I clung to my luggage, it had all of the things that were important to me and were mine and these things included my locket, my toothbrush, my clothes, and my phone. That's pretty much everything important and was mine.

It felt wrong taking other stuff from the room as most of it was Willy's. Theo and Eliza never did away with her stuff and I don't blame them for it. I don't exactly expect them to throw away all the things their daughter had and used while she was alive but I just didn't want them to make me use her things.

Willy died in a car accident. If she was alive, she would probably be around my age and for the first few years, they would call me by her name,

Theo and Eliza would apologize when they did and say I looked like their daughter, although the Willy I saw in the pictures had brown skin, chestnut eyes, and looked like she weighed nothing more than 40 kilograms, I was different

I was more on the chubbier side.

Yes, we do share the same shade of brown skin but we didn't share other features, like our eyes, mine was so dark you could mistake it as black and my hair had tighter coils than hers.

I am Raynette, not Willy

"Raynette dear, do you like the house?" Theo's voice jolts me back to reality. We were standing in the dining room and I have no idea when we got here, I took a quick look around the house and saw the wide mantelpieces on fireplaces and internal walls with picture rails, dado rails, and flowered wallpaper.

I quickly reminded myself of Theo's questions and I replied

" It's really nice"

"Yes it is" he smiles. "It was owned by my grandparents. They died some years back and willed the place to me but my Aunty Perry took care of it for me" he said.

No wonder it looks so ancient. No one makes this type of house anymore

"It's such a wonderful place and well-maintained", I forced a smile on my face. What I really want to do is take a shower, eat and sleep. The flight was really stressful but I don't think it affected Elizabeth and Theo as they kind of travel a lot already.

"Yes, it is" Elizabeth agreed.

"There are about 7 rooms, but I think you should stay in Aunt Perry's room" Theo suggests.

Aunt Perry was his mother's sister who died just last month, she was really eerie and now I get to stay in her room?

I nod my head like a lizard because I knew I had no choice, I couldn't argue

"Good girl," Theo said and I had no choice but to bow before and follow Eliza as she leads me to the room. It's down the hall and it's at the far end of the house and was hidden unlike the rest of the rooms, which seemed nice to me.

"We figured out you'd like this room because of privacy," Elizabeth said and I wanted to say why didn't you ask for my opinion first but of course, I don't as she opens the room to Theo's creepy aunt’s room.

It was stunning, it had a lot of space like I wanted, a large bed and by its side is a huge mirror. The closets and other furniture looked like they were made of the most expensive materials they could lay their hands on, I knew Theo's grandparents were rich but I never knew they were this rich but even though it was everything I imagined and more, it was still a dead person's room.

Like Willy's room, I will have to spend the rest of my high school year in dead Aunty Perry's room. Great, just exquisite.

"Thank you very much," I said to Elizabeth as my eyes continued to scan the room. It was truly magnificent, like a princess's room but I was no Princess

"No, thank you" she replies "For everything" she gleams. I sigh then drop my luggage at the edge of the bed because if I throw it on top of the bed she'll get furious. Everything has to be done a certain way when it comes to Elizabeth.

'You are so disorganized, why can't you get yourself together' she would yell, and I don't want that.

Eliza drags me into an unexpected hug. I'm so stunned by this that I do not hug her back till after I gather myself before I wrap my hands around her.

"Thank you so much for being so understanding and patient" she mumbles on my shoulder.

"You and Dad are worth it," I say, and mean it. She left me in no time and said she was going to go look around the house more and order us something to eat later, so I decided to take my bath while she was at it.

Bathing in Aunty Perry's bathroom - which is probably not hers anymore because she's dead - makes me think of her. She was really old, about 95 or so, and lived with Theo's elder brother. She was the only one who visited Theo a lot when we were in the States.

Anytime she visited she wouldn't stop touching me like I was an exotic animal or something, which I find very uncomfortable and she doesn't stop talking about stars, the sun, and all that astrological nonsense like she's some witch, but despite the one thousand and one things wrong with her, she was nice to me

I wash off my thoughts along with the shampoo on my long natural black hair before stepping out of the bathroom. I ran to the closest naked to look for a towel because I didn't pack any. I mean who packs towels when moving to another part of the world?

The closet is empty and I don't want to touch my clothes while I'm still dripping. I chuckle at my stupid self, I'm alone and the door is locked so who could possibly come in? So I just decide to walk around till I get dry enough to put some clothes on.

I pace around the room till my attention goes to the huge mirror on the wall, opposite the Queen size bed.

"Who puts a mirror this big in their room?"I muttered. It's been a while since I've looked in one, so I get my naked self to the front of the mirror.

My mouth dropped to the floor as I found myself in front of the mirror, but the problem was this mirror was not showing my reflection. It was as if I was staring into space.

Void and filled with nothing

Did I see it wrong? Was it not a mirror a few seconds ago?

Could I have been mistaken?

I blinked confused trying to think of what would this aluminum metallic coating could be if not a mirror.

The void moved as it changed shape.

I should run

I should go call Eliza and tell her I can not stay here.

I was about to scream out of fear when I heard the squealing sound of the door. I glanced at my door and then back at the mirror and the once void reaction turned into a reflection of a bedroom, but it was not my new bedroom

Oh my God, I didn't get to process what was going on as everything was moving too fast, I saw a young man walk into the bedroom

I opened my mouth to scream but I could not make a sound.

There is a tall young man in my mirror.

He had skin like a copper and with crescent-of-moon-like eyebrows, thin and narrow. He carried an imperious nose well and his angular cheekbones carved down towards a flinty jaw.

His eyes

His eyes were the one thing my brain couldn’t my mind around -eyes, like the afternoon sun shining through a glass of whiskey, they were orb round and focused, they were dark and it felt like I was looking into the eyes of the devil himself.

It felt like if I looked any longer I would lose my soul so I did the one thing I could

I ran away