Elara walked through the door to the house that she had shared with Micah for the past three years. Everywhere in there pushed out some kind of memory for her. She wanted to sit in the darkness of the house and cry out her eyes because when her family had told her that she was making a mistake by trusting a man like Micah, she had told him that they loved each other, and that was all that mattered. Now she understood very well that love was not all that mattered.
She walked to the bedroom that they shared and took down her box; these were the same ones she left her father's mansion with, and now she was leaving with the same one. She had wanted the relationship to work out so badly so she could prove to her family that she was right. Now that the relationship was in shambles, she began to clearly see all of the warning signs. "I really am a fool for ignoring all of those signs for the longest time," she murmured to herself with a sad smile. She barely had anything to pack from the house because she had believed his lies and depended on him as the sole provider of the house. She was taught otherwise by her dad, but it made her wonder if she was really in need of so much romance that she had to believe that he was always doing the best for her.She was standing by the door with everything she was able to identify as hers firmly and neatly stuffed into her box. She had called her brother to pick her up but to send one of the drivers. She did not need to make his name appear on the news to be seen with her. He was already on his path to having a good thing with Chole Prescott, so she was not going to help him ruin it with her own troubles.
Ronan had told her that she was giving him one of the best gifts ever by deciding to come back home and that their parents would be so happy to see them. She dropped her key on the small coffee table in the middle of the living room and walked out the door. She sat on the front porch of the house as she waited for the driver to pull up and pick her up.
A car pulled up in front of her, and she wished that she had gone from there before he showed up because now all she could think about was how well she could fight him. All that clouded her mind was the urge to land multiple slaps across his face. He could barely feel any emotional pain since he was not human, but maybe he would be able to feel physical pain if she slapped him.
"Don't bother with me; I am just waiting on my ride," she murmured when he stopped in front of her. She looked to see if Zara was with him and decided that he must have probably dropped her off.
"Elara, I want you to know that I did not want this to end up like this."
"How did you want it to end up? Was your plan to keep me as a backup and see if things went well between you and that?" Elara swallowed the words that came to mind because she was sure that he would not like to hear her call his future wife any of those words.
"I was going to end things with you beautifully, but..." she cut him off with a cackle, wiped the corner of her eyes, and tilted her head.
"Beautifully?"
"Beautifully?" she asked again, the cackle not stopping as she doubled over her hands, patting her knees in laughter. Micah did not like the scene before him; he was not saying anything funny, so she should not be laughing as hard as she was laughing. He had expected to meet her at home on her knees, begging him to take her back. She should be crying and asking him to help her because she had nowhere else to go, but she felt different and out of reach.It was like she was possessed by a confident spirit. "What is so funny?" "You think that a scum like you can ever produce anything beautiful," she said, looking at the car that had parked right before his car. She knew that was her ride, and she did not want to cause a scene. A well-built man who could pass for a bodybuilder came down from the driver's side and jogged to her. The man approaching them made Micah lose his train of thought. "Hello Ms..." Elara waved her hand in the air to stop him from addressing her as a Quinn as much
"Elara, it really is you!" Isla squealed from the door as soon as the driver opened the car door for Elara, and she stepped down. "You are here." Elara's family had not seen her in three years; even though she constantly saw her parents and brother in the news, she had not seen Isla, who was still being protected. Even though she had not had contact with her family for that long, she made sure to always find a way to talk to them without the meet-up. Elara was grateful to her sister, who was now running to her; if Isla had not reached out to tell her that her boyfriend was going around town partying with another woman, she would not have known that she was being cheated on. "Oh, how I’ve missed you," Isla said, squeezing her sister in a hug. Isla was very expressive with all of her actions, so the hug did not come as a surprise to her at all. "I have missed you as well," Elara replied, squeezing her back. "I do not think I would believe that," Isla said, taking her head back and n
"What is this?" Elliot asked. Elara walked towards them; she stopped suddenly as if she were trying to inspect them. Her parents were the reason she went so far and wide in search of love. They constantly showed them that it was possible; even though they had been together for almost thirty years, they still acted like young people in their honeymoon phase. "Are you here for real, or is my mind playing tricks on me because I miss you so much?" Clara asked. She turned to her husband, and sure enough, the expression on his face made her know that she was the only one seeing their daughter standing by the door. "She is really here, right?" she asked in a higher pitch than normal. "She is," Elliot nodded. Before he could say anything more, Clara was out of sight, her hands wrapped around her daughter, squeezing her tightly. "Oh my goodness!" she let out in a huff. "It is real," she said with her eyes closed as if she had to shut off one of her senses so she could enjoy the hug to the f
"Oh my god!" Isla exclaimed as they sat on the bed. She had exclaimed at least ten times since they had arrived, and they had been in there for barely five minutes."If I had a million dollars for each time you exclaimed, guess who would be buying a new car?" Elara said, and her sister laughed. "Still very sarcastic and quirky, huh?" Isla said and Elara laughed.Her heart ached, but she laughed; she was not sure if she was to be laughing at all; she had just gotten cheated on by Micah and left after she thought they were going to have a family together."You know it's okay to cry, right?" Isla said after a brief moment of silence."Cry? What do you mean by cry? Why would I cry?" "Your eyes are heavy like the clouds on a rainy day, and your lips are trembling as if they are ready to make a sound, yet you want to act tough and not cry?" Isla said.Elara could only blame her parents for making her and her siblings so knitted together. Why was her sister walking in her head even though
THE NEXT DAY"Where have you been? You are always sneaking in and out of the house as you wish these days," Sarah said as her daughter sat by the table. "What do you mean by sneaking?" Zara asked, running her hand through her hair in annoyance. "What time did you get back yesterday?" Sarah asked."Can you get off the girl's back?" Carlos asked as he strolled into the tiny kitchen and sat beside her. "Are you asking me to get off my daughter's back? Whose back should I then get on?" Sarah asked, dropping two plates to their front, both plates making a loud sound as they dropped to the table. "Should I go out to train other children?" she asked, going back to the stovetop to pick up her own plates. "Is this all we have for breakfast?" Carlos asked, looking down at scrambled eggs in front of him. "If you earned a bit more, then maybe we might have a bit more to eat," she said in spite. "What was that?" Carlos asked, his eyebrows going up. "Mom, why are you trying your best to pick
"Get me on the phone with Ms. Clark," Ezra said as he strolled into the officer. Mary, his assistant, looked up and stumbled to her feet, slamming her knees into the edge of the table. She bent over, holding her knees as she winced in pain. She took a sharp breath, feeling it fill her lungs with air as she tried to stand up. She was not sure if her ears had heard well or if her boss was asking her to get in touch with his fiance for him. "Mr. Thatcher?" she asked, standing up to follow him. "Mary, are you going to get her on the phone or not?" he asked, taking off his coat and sliding into his chair. "If I may, sir, I would love to stay out of the drama this time," she said, moving closer to the table. She still felt scrawled by his former request and how it had ended up. Olivia Marie, who was his wife-to-be, was not pleased with her, and funny how she was the one who took all of the heat. "Are you disobeying me?" Ezra asked, holding to the edge of the table and pulling his chair
“Come on, Olivia, you can't be like this,” Ezra let out, frustrated. He was wrong, but she might be blowing it out of proportion. “Don't be like that. How else do you want me to be?” she sneered. He cleared his throat and stood up as he began pacing the entire floor. “I am sorry about how it turned out; I am just not ready to...” "Ezra, we are getting married in three months; when are you going to finally be ready to show the world that we are together?” she asked, taking a deep breath. “Olivia…”“It is Olivia-Marie and you would address me as such.” "Olivia-Marie,” he took a deep breath. He had no excuse after standing her up. She had planned this entire engagement party for them so that he could meet her friends and some other people, but he was not interested in doing that yet. “Are you still waiting? Are you still hoping?” she asked, piercing through his thoughts. “Still waiting?” he asked his mind, trying to decipher what she meant. “Are you still waiting for her? The wom
"I have been curious to know." "Mom, not now," Isla said. They were at the table ready for breakfast, Elliot and Ronan had left beforehand to get to work so they were left with only the ladies and Isla knew her mom was going to ask her sister about what happened that made her return home. Clara was glad to see her father, but she wanted to know why she was suddenly home after going without contact for three years. "I know you are curious, and I would tell you, but can I first eat this delicious rice meal?" She looked up at her mom. Clara nodded and wondered if her daughter had been starved of good meals since she left the house. "Have you not been eating well?" she asked, and her daughter smiled at her and shook her head. "Mom, I have been eating very well, so you do not need to worry." Clara made a sound at the back of her throat; it was obvious she was not impressed by the answer that her daughter had given her. "Aren't you going to eat?" Elara asked, looking up at her mother
Elara could not seem to get the thought of Ezra out of her mind; she felt so warm that he had come to see her so early in the morning and he had even brought freshly squeezed orange juice and some bread. She knew that his kitchen staff would have had to wake up extra early to get it done and that meant a set of people were inconvenienced, but the thought mattered a lot to her.She had spent the day trying her best to get a painting done; she had spent almost a month here at home but still, her creativity seemed to stop at a point. She was lying on her bed scrolling through social media when a post popped out of nowhere. Suddenly she was going viral for reasons she did not know.People before had mercy on her for what Micah had done to her but now they were calling her a gold digger that did not care about her family status. She for her life, could not understand why she was being called that or addressed that way; it made no sense and she had not done anything to get treated like that
'Pregnant?" Cora stuttered as she snatched the test out of her hand, scrutinising it as if she were hellbent on finding something amiss with it. She could not kick her out now if she was truly pregnant, in truth. "How do we know this is not fake?" she followed up, turning her nose up. She planned to kick her out and get a better wife for her son. She would do whatever it took to make him richer; if she did not, then Eliana and her husband were going to mock her."We three can go to the hospital tomorrow" Zara replied. Unlike before, she seemed confident about going to the hospital for a test."You seem confident and it makes me wonder, if you were pregnant, then why did the test bring back negative earlier?" Cora asked. Micah did not want to be standing there and he wished the living room was big enough for him to slip off without getting noticed."I was going to explain that to you but it seemed like you did not want to listen to it," Zara said, shrugging as if nothing was wrong. "I
Cora had been waiting for Micah to get back; they had not told her about the test results for the pregnancy test they went to do and if the stick test had been inaccurate. He expected her son to come to tell her how it went, but for some reason, he did not, and he found a way to change the topic or escape anytime she brought it up. She had been tired of waiting, so she went to confront Zara, and it did not go well. She wondered why she thought in the first place that anything could go well with Zara."What took you so long?" Cora asked as soon as she opened the door and Micah stepped in."Is something urgent?" Micah asked. He looked more stressed these days than ever."It better be something urgent" he had learned over time that his mother was a bit dramatic about situations."Of course it is; let us talk in my room so we don't have her listening in," Cora added and began to look around."Mom, if it is not as urgent as you say, then I think...""Why on earth wouldn't it be urgent? Ever
Noelle rubbed her hand on her pants; she was glad that she had chosen a black one as opposed to the white one she was considering in the morning. It had been more than a week since she and Ronan spent the night together but her heart skipped a beat every time she saw him now. It had never been news to her that Ronan was a desirable man; even some women would regard him as sexy but she had never seen him that way. He was her boss and it would be wrong for her to do so. Now she felt her heart surge out of her chest every time he came around the corner when he spoke or when she had to walk behind or beside him. She found her mind constantly going back to him no matter how many times she tried to clean up her mind.How could spending just one night with him change her this much? It made absolutely no sense. She watched him smile at the camera, he was taking an interview and she could not tell why her palms were constantly sweating out as she watched him, this was not the first time she h
"What do you think you are doing?" Elara whispered as she stood up, almost clutching her sister's hand in desperation. She could not believe that her sister had picked up the call and was now talking with Ezra. She could not hear what he was saying but could see the expression on her face was all smiles."I will put her on right away," Isla replied. She took the phone off her ears and dropped it in her hand alongside an encouraging smile."What is it?" Elara asked as she took the phone and gently placed it on her ears."Hi, Elara. Good morning, did you sleep well? I am so sorry that I did not send a response immediately last night; something came up and when we see each other in person, I will explain it to you." His words came pouring out of his mouth at once before he stopped to take a deep breath."It is fine," Elara forced herself to say. She could not tell him that she had stayed awake for most of the night trying to fall asleep since he did not respond. She wondered if she was a
Elara stared at her phone; she could not understand why Ezra had not responded. She did not want to make a big deal out of it but she had thought that with the way he was after her, he would have responded immediately. She glanced at the clock and then murmured to herself. "Elara, you are overthinking this." Somehow she could not help herself; she was even shocked that after the heartbreak she had been through just recently, she had thought of the possibility of getting into another one. Was she trying to rebound? She could not help but overthink; had she been too easy? Did she allow him to talk her into it? Was he now thinking it through? She sat on her bed and put her phone on the nightstand. Lying in the bed, she pulled the covers over her body. She had to force herself to sleep even though she knew that her mind would be raging with all kinds of thoughts; she would wish that he would end something for her even if it were some gibberish that made no sense. She lay in bed for a w
"I came here because I can't give up on you," she said. She had drunk the water he put by the bed and felt a bit better. She had been drinking every night since they met Elara at the store because she had no idea what to do. She was the master of scheming and still nothing made sense to her; she had no idea what to do."Even after I have told you countless times that we can't be together?" he asked. He could not understand how she was so hung up on her. "Ezra, you know that I cut off all ties with my family and moved out here with you." "I told you not to do any of that but you insisted. Every decision in this relationship has been taken solely by you" he interjected. He did not want to hear her make it seem as if he asked her to move out there with him and promised her a life only to then change his mind in the end. "But Ezra..." "Olivia-Marie, I gave in to everything you asked of me before now because I thought there was no chance for me but now that I know that there is a way f
Ezra struggled to get her inside and to bed because she kept acting up. She kept on speaking about wanting to get back together. Ezra knew it was impossible but with her state, how could he tell her that he had just gotten back from a date with Elara and she did not stand a chance? If she slept over there, he would tell her in the morning, and maybe they would find a way to end things in the right way and both be out of each other's hair.As soon as he stepped out of the room that he prepared for her, he met his father by the door. "Why did you bring her in here?" he asked without waiting for any pleasantries."She was drunk outside all by herself; I did not want to give her the wrong idea by driving her home," Ezra replied."Mr. Nice Guy, why would you need to drive her home?" Jacob asked, causing Ezra to stare at him in confusion. Was his father suggesting that he leave her out in the open? That would have been too wrong of him to do."Should I have let her out there?""What about c
"I had the best time today," Elara said as they stood before her car door. The driver had hurried down to help her with the door but Ezra had waved him down before he could get to them and the man understood it immediately. He stopped in his tracks and got back in the car."So you are saying that you are glad you came out this evening?" he asked and she smiled, knowing what he was trying to say. \"Thank you, Ezra." She turned to the car and tried to pull it open but his hands hovered over hers and without as much contact as necessary, she felt herself catch a breath. Her hand fell from the handle to her side as she tried to steady her breathing with her hand clutching onto itself by its side. He pulled the door open, very aware of what he had done while choosing to act as if nothing had happened.She mustered together all of the courage she had left and slid into the car quickly. She turned to him and smiled at him while murmuring a light thank you. "Thank you too," he said and then