CHAPTER 5: Breaking News

“Mama, look at grandpa!” Rowan's high-pitched squeal snapped Fiona out of whatever was going on in her mind. She instinctively whirled her head in the direction in which Rowan had pointed. Her jaw hit the ground. She felt like her heart stopped pumping blood into her body. 

She couldn’t believe her eyes or what she was reading on the small TV mounted on the wall of the motel room where they had both lodged for the past two weeks since the incident of her divorce with Jackson. 

That same day, she returned to her father's mansion, hoping he would take her back now that she had learned her lesson and lost everything she had worked hard to build to Jackson's deception.

She just held onto that glimmer of hope; maybe he would have let go of her past mistake, but to her dismay, her father still rejected her again, telling her he had long broken ties with her. 

The thought of what made her father denounce her years ago felt like a broken record playing in her mind, repeating the same melancholy tune. Mr. Robinson never supported her relationship with Jackson. 

He wanted her to marry someone wealthy like them, not Jackson, who was struggling to make ends meet. Fiona disappointed her father and got pregnant outside wedlock, prompting him to disown her. Fiona, who chose true love over wealth, married Jackson against her father’s wishes. 

Breaking News: THE FAMOUS CEO, BECKETT ROBINSON, IS DEAD.

Fiona's eyes were glued to the TV screen, her heart pounding in her chest. The news hit her like a bolt out of the blue. The newscaster was still talking, but the words didn't seem to register. All she could focus on was the name—Beckett Robinson, her father.

Even though her father disowned her years ago and also didn’t welcome her two weeks ago, nothing can change the love she had for him. After all, he was being protective of her. The only thing gnawing at her right now is a bitter cocktail of guilt for disobeying her father. 

Rowan's voice, small and confused, broke through the fog in her mind. "Grandpa is dead?"

Fiona nodded, her throat tight. The words seemed stuck in her throat. How was she supposed to explain this to her six-year-old son?

Rowan's face crumpled, his bright blue eyes etched with confusion. "It’s not like I like him,” Rowan said curtly with less energy. 

Fiona furrowed her brow. “Why?”

“He hurt you the last time we visited him.” 

Fiona pulled him into a tight hug. “Forgive Grandpa; he doesn’t mean to hurt Mama,” she mumbled amidst tears. 

The guilt she had been carrying around for years suddenly felt heavier. She had lost her father twice, once when he disowned her, and now forever.

A wave of sadness washed over her. 

He seemed to be perfectly fine when last she saw him. Was he sick? 

Just as they were still mourning the loss, Fiona’s phone beeped with an incoming notification. She took her mobile phone that was lying on the bed beside her. 

She brushed the back of her hand on her face to clean the flowing tears that had blurred her vision. She sniffed, focusing her gaze on the mobile phone that she held with her trembling hands. 

She received a message from Mr. Logan, their family lawyer. It reads: "All of Mr. Robinson's family should gather after his funeral at the family burial plots in the mansion today."

Fiona tossed the phone back on the bed as she smiled sadly.

Was she a family? 

Will her father even want her to be at his funeral? 

A wave of disappointment hit her as those questions filled her mind. But then a thought came into her head. She needed to pay her father the last respect. 

With these thoughts, she decided on what to do. After she lost her unstable mother to the cold hand of death in a ghastly car accident, her father was all she had.

After all, she was the one who didn’t listen to her father when he had sternly warned her, but she was blinded by the fake love Jackson was showing her. 

She needed to tell her father that she was sorry. 

***

The funeral was packed full of influential people offering condolences. What could Fiona expect? Her father was the richest man and famous CEO after all. 

“We commend Beckett Robinson to the merciful love of God."

As the final words faded, everyone began to depart the burial plot where Mr. Robinson was laid to rest. But Fiona stood frozen, Rowan clinging to her arm.

Dressed in simple black clothes, Fiona's face was hidden behind dark sunglasses. Yet the storm brewing within her was evident in her tense posture. Her gaze fixed on the burial spot, still in shock at her father’s sudden demise. 

“Now that he is dead, you are left with nothing,” a mocking, contemptuous feminine voice spoke beside Fiona. 

Fiona bit her lower lip so hard, recognizing the voice. Jessica, her stepmother, appeared beside her, a smug smile playing on her lips. Clad in an expensive black outfit, she seemed more interested in a fashion show than a funeral.

“You seemed to be very unfortunate, Fiona; your husband used you, and now your father is gone,” she laughed mockingly. 

Fiona simmered with rage as she clenched and unclenched her fist. She took a deep breath, forcing calm over her turmoil.

With a mocking tone, she continued. “Isn’t it better if you don’t show your face at all? I am so sure my husband wouldn’t want you to be here if he were alive. You’re such a petulant child,” Jessica hissed. “The lawyer will read his will soon, but I don’t advise you to be there because my husband left nothing for you,” Jessica added and sashayed away, squaring her shoulders like an arrogant peacock. 

Just as Jessica left, Fiona spurned her head to the back, running her eyes through the departing guests as if in search of someone. Just as her eyes caught someone among the crowd, she called after him. 

“Hello, Mr. Logan,” she called out as a middle-aged man turned to the direction he heard his name. 

He smiled broadly and said, "Oh, Fiona." “It’s been a while since I last saw you. How is your husband? Why isn’t he here?” Mr. Logan, Robinson's family lawyer, inquired.

Fiona’s breath hitched at that question, but she quickly found a reply. “He isn’t in town,” Fiona lied, knowing that it was shameful to talk about her divorce. “I need to go back home on time too. Do I need to be present during the reading of the will?” She asked, finding an excuse to escape from her stepmother. She knows deep down that her father wouldn’t want her to be present, just like her stepmother had said earlier. 

“Mr. Robinson insisted everyone be present,” Mr. Logan responded. “I’m going in now,” he added. 

“Okay,” she turned away from him with a frown. 

"Let's go, Rowan," Fiona said quietly, her voice barely a whisper as Rowan tagged along with her. 

They walked along a winding path with tall, green hedges. And ahead of them stood a big White House. It looked like a castle. The doors were made of dark wood and had shiny brass parts. 

Stepping into the mansion, they were welcomed by a sweet smell that filled the air. Sparkling chandeliers hung from the high ceilings, and the floors were made of shiny, smooth stones. A big staircase curved up like a snake, leading to another part of the mansion. 

Fiona remembered growing up here, but it’s all a memory now. She walked forward towards the living room when she saw someone. 

“Nana!” She called out as an elderly woman in her early forties turned her gaze to Fiona. 

“Fiona,” Nana responded with a big smile, walking briskly towards Fiona. 

“Look at you. You’ve changed a lot,” Nana said, cupping Fiona’s cheek like a little child. 

“It’s been seven years, Nana; I don’t believe you would still be working here,” Fiona said gleefully, pushing her worries away in the presence of Nana. 

“Hmm,” Nana took a deep breath. “Mr. Robinson never gave me a reason to leave this family, but your stepmother, she is…” 

Before Nana could finish her sentence, a feminine voice echoed through the room. 

“Nana! Where the fuck are you?” Jessica’s voice was laced with disgust. 

“Fiona, I need to go. We’ve got a lot to catch up on,” Nana said and ran off. 

Fiona’s face wrinkled with a big smile, seeing Nana after a very long time. Nana had been working with them as long as she knew. Nana was her mother’s favorite maid before she died, and thus Nana extended the love Fiona mother had shown her to Fiona. 

With Nana gone, Fiona sauntered forward to her father’s study, where she was welcomed by the cold gaze of Jessica and her worst nightmare, Bernard Robinson, her stepbrother. 

“You still have the guts to show your face?”