Chapter 3

Ellisande Porter looked up from the painting of a scenery that she is doing when she heard a sound of an engine from outside. She placed her paintbrush down and reached for the crutches she has been since last night after the accident she was involved in during the race she entered.

“Who’s it for, William?” She asked softly, standing beside the butler, who was giving back the paper he had signed. “What’s a Lamborghini doing here?”

“Mr. Kincaid had it delivered,” the butler answered patiently as he assisted her back inside.

Ellisande abruptly stopped and refused to budge from where she is standing, looking at William coldly. “So, he’s not giving in to my request, is he?” She shot angrily. She held out her hand. “Give me the keys, William! I’m going to wreck that piece of trash right now!”

“Ms. Elli, please don’t be hard on yourself,” he said gently. “You’re still recovering from your injury. The young master was upset when I told him about your accident.”

“So, he compensated for a new car?” She asked intently. “Get him on the phone, William. I’m going to give him a piece of my mind!”

She carefully brought herself back to the room where she does her painting and sat on the sofa, seething angrily, and cursing her father on the so-called arranged marriage he got herself into.

She had just turned seventeen and looking forward to Senior High when her father shockingly told her that she has been arranged to marry the son of his employer that he had work for twenty years. Ellisande didn’t take the news so well since she just started going out with her long-time crush, Lance Harrison.

“I’m only seventeen, dad!” She yelled angrily. “Why are you pushing this marriage? I don’t even know that guy! Is this some sort of loyalty to your employer? There are others!”

“I have reasons, Elli,” her father said calmly. “When you’re old enough, you will know. Please trust me on this. I know SJ is a good man and he will treat you well. His parents will let him know the reason for this marriage. It is beneficial to them as well as to you when the time comes.”

Ellisande had never made her father disappointed in her entire life except for this one time. She ran away and stayed with her best friend. She closed her eyes and recalled the sermon she received from him when she finally came back home.

“Is he answering your calls, William?” She asked when she saw the butler, hanging up the phone a few hours later. “Was that him?”

“Mr. Kincaid might be in a meeting somewhere, Ms. Elli,” he responded formally. “I just got off the phone from his secretary and she said that he had all documents delivered to his penthouse.”

“Call his mobile, then,” she insisted as she picked up the phone and pointedly look at him, telling him to dial the number. “This will not even take long.”

The call finally went through after William dialed and she waited for him to answer it.

Ellisande opened her mouth to start off but froze on what she heard on the other line.

“Oh, baby, f*ck me like that again,” a sultry female voice moaned.

A male grunt responded, knowing it to be SJ’s voice.

Ellisande slammed the phone angrily and walked off to her room, slamming the door loudly. She knew those sounds very well. Because she had walked in on it herself, finding her best friend and her long-time crush on the bed, having sex. She immediately turned around and left.

Feeling heartbroken and betrayed, she went back home to her dad, crying her heart out. She endured without arguing his long sermon and she felt guilty because after all she did, her father whole-heartedly accepted her back, all things forgiven and forgotten.

To make up for her mistakes, she finally agreed to marry the Kincaid’s son. She waited nervously that fateful day, wearing a plain, flowy white dress with lace trimmings, which belonged to her mother at the family’s living room, where she is living now. She watched as the man, who they called SJ, strode angrily towards her and stood beside her as the judge officiated their marriage.

She remembered the look in his dark grey eyes. Her husband hated her.

That was the first and the last time she saw him. After they were married, he then went back home to the city despite his parents’ pleas. In the next months, being Mrs. SJ Kincaid, it will take her a while to get his approval on her requests, especially on her education.

But, thanks to her father, who never left her, she was able to finish her Senior High in time despite the hardships she went through. After learning that she was betrayed by Lance and her best friend, the entire school made her a laughingstock.

“That’s because your standing in society is no match for Gertrude.”

“Her mother must have died early to save herself from her daughter’s embarrassment.”

Ellisande endured all that, never telling her father and others the hurt, emotionally, mentally and physically she had gone through. After she finished school, she enrolled in the nearest college in her area and took up Interior Design. She thought that she had all problems left behind but another one came like a blow.

Her father was diagnosed with Stage 4 cancer and died after a few weeks. With the bills, piled up to cover all the medical expenses, Ellisande has no choice but to stop school but it still wasn’t enough to pay all her father’s debts. It left her with no choice but to call her husband and pleaded for his help.

Her husband immediately wired her the remaining balance and told her not to call him again. But, she called him again after a few months to ask if she can continue her course. After badgering him, she finally agreed that she will take it online.

And, here she is now. She had finally graduated. It wasn’t easy because there will be time she would be distracted and she would take one of her husband’s sports car for a spin. Growing with her father, who raced for the Kincaid’s racing team back in his days, the love for racing has grown into her. She knew the troubles she had gotten herself into but she has her reasons.

For the past two years, with no communication from her husband, she started sending him divorce papers to sign. Over the years, she had found herself falling in love with one of her online classmates and he seems to be interested on her as well. But, she received no reaction from her husband.