Chapter 13 - Feeling Unwanted

Not even a day in this sumptuous mansion, one certain fact is already cemented in Cassidy's head, and that is how everyone here seems to be not favoring her.

The maids and manservants aren't openly hostile or cruel to her, though. She's not being treated like a slave nor object of scorn. The way they display their disfavor is different from those that are typically seen in movies and television dramas.

How they do it is in the form of this cold treatment - Cassidy really feels like she's being treated as air.

Everyone knows that she is there, but they don't pay any attention to her. In a sense, it indeed feels like she's lower than a guest around here, much less the lady of the house.

"So then, what am I supposed to do all day...?" Cassidy asked to no one in particular, laying flat down on her bed with her arms sprawled out on both sides.

"It's better back in the hospital. I still had a lot of people to talk to even though no one visited me apart from Charlie."

Her home doesn't feel like home at all, and it's the people in it that makes her feel that way.

Cassidy is also already convinced that her relationship with Adrian has always been a one-way street of affection. Just from the interior layout of their bedroom alone, she can point that out right away.

Their bedroom is very enormous - a few times bigger than her previous one. The cordovan wall interior has these ornate details and is filled with intricate ornaments.

Cream is the main color palette of the furniture and fixtures. There's also a balcony that offers a picturesque scenery of the mansion's back garden, a lavish bathroom with an indoor pool and its cascading water feature, and other luxurious stuff she never laid eyes on before.

But then, those are not her objects of concern. It's the fact that even though they're supposed to be married, they have their own respective beds.

The two of them may be sharing one room, but they sleep on different beds.

Hers is placed near the balcony while his is on the other side. A wooden cabinet and a fairly long table serve as the gap between them.

"Anyway, it's no good laying around here all day. I might even start living the life of a cat at this rate..." Cassidy mused out loud, coming up with a decision.

"For now, let's tour the house."

With that in mind, she bounces off of the bed and starts to make her way outside of the room, leaving the forlorn quietude that once enveloped her behind.

Since no one there is paying Cassidy any mind, her tour sets off smoothly and peacefully. All the maids she passes through just leave her be, not even pausing to greet or ask how she's been.

She feels like roaming around a museum with how silent and stupendous her surroundings are. Perhaps, the mansion might as well be the castle itself with how grandiose everything is.

"Oh, what's this?"

That's until Cassidy stumbles upon this long narrow hallway that seemingly leads to another section of the building. As she strolls down the path, her head keeps turning at every point of the wall that she passes through.

It just happened that it's a corridor full of huge pictures - family portraits, to be specific.

Cassidy can tell since it's made up of formal takes. Everyone in the pictures is wearing sumptuous attires, posing in front of the camera with a smile.

"A family picture, huh? How wonderful..." she thought out loud, eyeing each frame with delight and awe.

"I wonder where is ours-"

Then, she paused.

At the very second Cassidy catches sight of the last portrait, she finds herself halting on her tracks out of nowhere. There, she's able to spot her husband almost instantly.

Adrian is sitting on the center of the sofa, surrounded by his relatives. Each one of them is very good-looking. Not to mention, the picture itself is captured perfectly.

There's only one thing that takes her aback here, though. That is the glaringly obvious fact that she isn't there at all.

Cassidy isn't able to find herself in the family portrait.

"Oh, I see... Should have expected that already..."

With a downcast smile, she then slowly peels her eyes off of the photograph. All the while, she can't help but feel a painful sting inside her.

She won't deny that she had kept her hopes up and was ecstatic to see it. After all, she never met her own family in her entire life, much less had a portrait of them.

Cassidy thinks that she should learn by now, though - how everything about this place, family and life of hers is only perfect-looking on the outside, that is. She shouldn't expect too much since nothing in this world is truly perfect to begin with.

That's why she should just settle with what her life has given her for now. This mountain of luxuries should've been enough for her. She must keep herself from yearning for more.

Otherwise, Cassidy will only end up feeling hurt over and over again - feeling as unwanted as ever.