Sometimes I felt like the gallery was a little bit large since my paintings were spaced out but at the same time, I loved it like that because it allowed each person to relate to my painting in a private setting since the next person would be a few feet down.
At the opening, a reporter asked me why I named the gallery Hazel’s eyes and said it was an unusual name to give a gallery. I told him it was named that because the public would be seeing the world from my eyes, I was giving them a view of the world from my perspective hence the name.
When I arrived this morning, the place was filled like it had been for the past ten days that it’s been open and I just wanted to cry in relief because not only were we crowded with visitors, but the online ratings were insane.
My gallery was always in the news and trending on social media so we even had visitors from outside the country and it made me feel like I did something good. I had offers asking to sell some of my art pieces to them but I was a bit reluctant about it.
The price that was being offered was insane not to sell but I opened the gallery with the intention of not selling any of them but the offers I was getting were too tempting so I decided to talk to Atticus about it as soon as I got home tonight.
“That’s the artist, isn’t she beautiful? She is Atticus Hayland’s wife” I heard someone whisper as I walked towards my office slash drawing studio.
I heard these kinds of things a lot recently so I wasn’t the least bothered. Since I kept to myself a lot, I wasn’t recognized easily as his wife and I was happy about that. I wanted people to see me as an artist first before his wife.
“Really? Wow, she is so stunning and talented. Atticus is so lucky to have her as a wife” another person whispered and I had to hold myself back from looking at them since I didn’t want them to know I could hear them.
“Right? He is the lucky one” The other girl agreed. I felt so happy to hear comments like this. I had prayed not to be associated with my husband because I would hate for people to say my success was a result of my husband and not my talent or hard work.
My new assistant, James, was an art major who was looking for an intern position when I employed him. He is talented and I was looking to showcase some of his pieces as well in the future. We were the same age so we got along well and avoided all forms of formalities.
When I entered the office, James was at my desk doing some tidying. There was also a cup of hot chocolate sitting on the table waiting for me to devour it. Unlike some people, I didn’t like coffee and tried to avoid it as much as I could. I only drank it whenever I needed to be awake for a long time.
“Good morning Hazel, it’s a beautiful day to make a lot of money” He sang as soon as I walked in. I always wondered where he got his energy from. He was always so hyper and happy even on Monday mornings.
“Who is this happy on a Monday morning? You should be detained for this. It should be illegal to be this bright on a Monday” I groaned and flopped onto my office chair which had to be the most comfortable place after my bed at home and the sofa in my office.
“Come on, don’t be such a grouch today. You better wake yourself up because you have a meeting with the finance department and later PR. Looks like we are getting way more money than we expected and as for PR I have no idea what they are calling the meeting for”
“Apart from the meetings, is there anything else to do? I feel like I wasted my time coming here, I should have stayed home today and let you handle things here” I groaned but moaned later after I took a sip of the perfectly made cup of hot chocolate.
“That needs to be completed. It’s been left untouched for way too long so it must be finished today else you aren’t going anywhere” I didn’t need to look twice to know what he was talking about. I had a sudden urge to draw but the inspiration left as quickly as it came so I was unable to finish it.
“There is no way I can finish it if I can’t get any more inspiration from it, maybe it wasn’t meant to be a finished work of art, some things are better off left alone” I watched him stalk towards the covered canvas and remove the cloth that was covering it.
The only thing on the canvas was what was supposed to look like worn-out feet with injuries but I had not yet drawn fingers on the feet and the legs were just horrible to look at and it wasn’t even finished yet.
“What if we place it like this in the gallery? Just like you said, some things are never meant to be finished. You could put it as a caption underneath it so it won’t have a subject either” It made total sense what he was saying. Even looking at the artwork, it looked like an unfinished project if anyone would even understand.
“How are you so fucking smart? I can’t believe I never thought of this. Okay, this is what we’ll do, I believe it’s almost time for the meetings so I can’t touch anything now until after the meeting, I will put some finishing touches on it and we can put it up before the opening tomorrow” I suggested and leaned back to take a good look at the portrait
“I think I deserve a raise. What would you have done without me?” He fawned himself and I rolled my eyes at yet another dramatic person in my life. How do I even meet these people?
There was a knock on the door and James told the person to come in. The security guard at the front door came in and he was holding an envelope.
“A little girl dropped this letter just now at the door. She said a man gave it to her and told her to bring it here” He handed me the small brown envelope that had just my name written on it and no address or anything.
“Thank you, Billy, you can go back now, I’ll see what it is about” I took the letter from him. He gave me a curt nod before going back to his duty post.
“What do you think it is?” James asked me as I examined the sealed envelope. He came to stand beside me and we both kept staring at it while I turned it back and forth over and over again “Will you open it or what?” James finally spat.
“Give me a minute. I am getting a weird vibe from this letter, I feel like I shouldn’t open it” I told him but he scoffed and ripped the envelope.
‘Waittttttt” James yelled as soon as I ripped it open “What if it was a letter bomb?” His face slowly turned from confusion to horror while I just stared at the letter that was lying half open on the table already.
“If it was, you wouldn’t have gotten the chance to yell” I deadpanned and I watched him slowly process and understand what I was trying to tell him.
“ohhhh..I guess we are safe and certain it’s not a bomb. Go on and bring it out then, let’s see what it is” He gestured with his head and I just shook my head before opening the letter to see what was in it.
I brought out the paper, it was an A4 paper that had been printed on and it was addressed to me so I opened it and read it out so James could also hear.
I don’t know if I should congratulate you for finally getting Atticus Hayland all to yourself but I think I should. It is a great achievement after all, you succeeded in driving all the women in his life and even me.
I have always been content with the little time he gave me and never asked for much because I thought it would keep me safe with him. I knew I shared him with countless others and It never bothered me until he got married and even then I thought it was nothing for me to worry about since it was an arranged one.
Imagine how shocked I was when he told me he was discarding me because he wanted to stay faithful to his wife after everything I had done for him. He was going to push me aside just like that. I was quiet, I never talked back and I never asked for anything even when he preferred that sleazy bitch Samantha over me.
I feel a little bit bad for hurting you because you are a good person but I can’t let you take him away from me. I would never allow it.
The only heads-up I can give you now is that you should always watch your back because I have my eyes on you and I am coming with a fury to claim my man. Atticus doesn’t know what he wants so I have to show him that I am the only woman he needs in his life.
Take as much time to make the best of what you have now because you won’t enjoy it for much longer. I’ll give you some time to be happy with him because I am a kind and understanding person.
I should also say sorry but I am not sorry. I don’t feel guilty because I am just taking back what originally belonged to me.
Look forward to our meeting because we will be seeing each other soon.
My hands were shaking and the letter fell to the table since my hands were not capable of holding on to it for much longer.
“The fuck is this about? This clearly spells danger. Your life is being threatened here Hazes. We have to tell someone, your husband, Justin anyone” He began to pace the room as he panicked.
“I knew I wasn’t wrong about being followed but I thought it would be Samantha but this clearly shows that she wasn’t the one. Who could it be then?”
My stomach clenched with dread because this person just threatened my life. If they didn’t want me dead, they would have at least asked that I divorce him which I wouldn’t have but they didn’t which means they wanted me out of the picture for good.
“The bitch even had the nerve to say he belonged to her, in fact, forget about that, what should you do next?” He stopped his pacing to stand in front of me. “Are you just going to sit there and do nothing?” He yelled again and that’s when I snapped.
“You better shut the fuck up or get out” I spat and he flinched at the acidity in my voice “I am trying to think here but you are giving me a headache with your ranting. Do you think I am not scared? I am so fucking scared right now my bones are freezing so please give me a minute to think of what I want to do next”
“Sorry” he mumbled and went to sit and it made me feel bad immediately because I knew he was only trying to help me so I didn’t need to take out my anger on him.
“No, I am sorry, I shouldn’t have taken my anger out on you,” I told him “It’s not your fault, I just need to think”
‘I’ll let you be” He stood up and made his way out of my office.
“Thank you and please don’t tell anybody just yet” He gave me a nod and left the office leaving me alone to think.