Chapter 2

BRIELLE POV

“Lizzy and Brielle, meet my son, Mateo Caldwell” Davis said proudly

“Unfortunately he's late as he didn't seem to honour my wishes to arrive on time” he quickly glared at Mateo

“Im sorry father, I was caught up with work and traffic, at least I'm here now” He said as he sat do

“It's very nice to meet you, you look so much like your father” Mom said

And she was right, there was a striking resemblance between Mateo and his father, the shiny black hair, the strong jawline, and similar facial features.

“It's a pleasure meeting you and….” his attention turned to me

“Brielle, my name is Brielle” I quickly said before he gave away the fact that we knew each other

My best friend is going to have a field day when I tell her about everything that's happened.

“Brielle, nice to meet you” my name rolled off his tongue slowly and it instantly irritated me, I had no appetite for dinner again.

I was so annoyed that I was going to get up and go outside but my mom told me that it was rude to get up from the dining table without eating and I had promised my mom that nothing would go wrong today and I was going to make sure to keep that promise.

*******

Fortunately, dinner went well without any drama, we all talked and I avoided looking at Mateo the entire time, although I did catch him stealing a few glances at me.

After a few hours of catching up, I decided to go outside to the patio to clear my head

I thought I was alone until I could feel a presence right behind me, a very tall presence and I instantly knew who it was

I turned around slowly and I finally brought myself to stare at him directly, that's when I realised just how tall he was. Despite me wearing a six inch heel as a tall girl, I still had to look up before I was finally able to look at his eyes.

Those eyes, the same eyes that tortured me, the same eyes I looked at with tears in my eyes, the memories of over eight years ago flooded in my mind, I thought I had forgotten all about them, I thought I was better and would finally be able to live my life without dreading about those terrible days.

Yet here I was, just one look into his eyes and I was falling apart. I had to look away from his eyes before I actually cried in front of him.

“What do you want?” I finally spoke after minutes of staring at each other, my voice cracked.

“It's really good to see you after all these years, Brielle” He said, I could see the sincerity in his eyes

Why was he acting like we were friends?

“Well it's not nice to see you” I said still not turning to face him

“I know we were not the best of friends but i'm still glad you're here” He said

My head ticked. I turned to face him.

“Listen, don't think we're friends just because my moms engaged to your dad, we are still and always will be high school enemies and don't even think about telling my mom that we knew each other, don't even dare” I threatened him and walked off before I would say something worse.

Honestly I felt cursed by the universe for making my mom have to go meet his dad of all people.

*********

“Wait no way, is this a joke?” Ryan asked

She was still finding it hard to believe everything I just told her

She grabbed her phone and was searching for something before popping it in my face.

“You mean this Caldwell? Your mom is engaged to the billionaire Davis” She stated

She showed me the Forbes website where there was a picture of Davis in the top 30 billionaires in the USA list.

“Yes Ryan” I said

“Oh my freaking gosh. Your stepfather is a billionaire, you're about to make bank” She screamed jumping excitedly

“You do know I don't care about the fact that he's wealthy right?”

I mean it was good that he was rich, no doubt about that. My family were not billionaires, but at least we had a pretty decent livelihood. My mom had a business of her own and she had always provided everything I ever wanted,she raised me single handedly and we could afford the things we wanted. We bought designer things: perfumes, clothes, shoes.

All I cared about was my mothers happiness, I just hoped she was making the right choice by getting married to him.

“Don't worry Brielle, your mother is making the right choice, i'm not just saying it because he's rich. Your mom is an adult and she knows exactly what she wants, you have to trust her” Ryan said

“I'm not worried about my mom, it's the family she's marrying into im worried about, davis son” I said

“Why are you worried about his son? You already met him? Is he hot?”

“His son is Mateo, Mateo caldwell, my ex bully”

“Mateo? OMG” She said when the memory sinks in

“The same mateo who caused me to go see a therapist for years” I said

Ryan was my friend from college, she knew about how I struggled with confidence, social anxiety and so many other things that I had to go see a therapist, she was there with me through every step of the way.

She is and will always be my best friend.

“I'm so sorry” she hugged me when she was on the verge of tears.

I stayed in her embrace for a few minutes before disengaging.

“What are you going to do? Have you told your mom about it? Surely she wasn't happy about it”

“I didn't. We both acted like we've never met before”

“Is that the right decision to make?”

“I don't know. I just don't want my mom finding out that he bullied me. She's about to get married into his family”

“If you think that's right, I support you”

“Thank you, enough talk about Mateo, tell me about you. How is Terry?”

Terry is Ryan's fiance. They live together

“Oh he's good, he's starting to talk about the wedding” She said, smiling.

“Yes finally, i can't wait to be a bridesmaid”

“I told him to hold on, there's no rush, we could do it next year”

“No way you said that, are you crazy,

My phone beeped, a notification entered.

I read the message and I screamed excitedly

“No. Freaking. Way”