(Sybil’s POV)I stood in the funeral home, where all of my relatives, some of whom I hadn’t seen since I was very young, were milling about. I could also see Charlie’s friends scattered throughout the room.Charlie looked so peaceful in his coffin. If I didn’t know any better, I would have thought that he was just asleep. Finally, he was free from all of the suffering that his illness had caused him. He could no longer feel pain, but I could. My heart was broken at the knowledge that my beloved brother, the one person who had loved me unconditionally, was gone from my life forever.“This is all your fault, Sybil.” My mother was suddenly standing beside me, dabbing at her eyes with a tissue as she gazed down at Charlie. I hadn’t even heard her approaching me. It was as though she had just materialized out of thin air.“How is it my fault?” I asked. “Charlie had ALS. We all knew that this would happen sooner or later, and that there was nothing that could be done to prevent his death.”
(Sybil’s POV)The more I thought about it, the more I needed to know what John’s real motives were. Why had he decided to marry me? It wasn’t for love. That much was clear. I didn’t understand what had influenced his decision, and I knew that I had to find out.I was interrupted from my thoughts by John grabbing me and pulling me closer to him. He was clearly awake now.“John,” I asked him, “can I ask you something?”“Of course you can.” He yawned. “What is it?”I turned around so I was facing him. “Why did you marry me?” I asked, my voice quivering from the fear of not knowing what his answer would be.He went silent for a little while. Finally, he looked at me. “You know the reason why.”“That’s just it, John. I don’t know the reason.” I gazed into his eyes. “All I want is an honest answer. I started out as your secretary. Then we started sleeping together a few times.”“I remember those days very well.” He waggled his eyebrows, trying to lighten the mood. “Very well indeed.”“John,
(Sybil’s POV)I looked John straight in the eyes. I could see that he felt bad for telling me the truth behind his decision to marry me, but I could also see that he wasn’t about to apologize. I was partly to blame, since I was the one who had insisted on opening this particular can of worms. At least now I knew exactly where I stood with him.I suddenly felt extremely uncomfortable being in the same bed as him. I got out of bed as quickly as I could and raced into the bathroom, locking the door. Again, he didn’t do anything to restrain me. Typical.I felt like such a joke. When he had first told me that we should get married, I found myself wondering if maybe he was starting to see me in a different light. The whole thing had been very sudden, and like the pathetic little fool that I was, I had actually believed that I meant something to him. After all, as I had thought at the time, he wouldn’t have married me if he didn’t care about me at least a little bit. Now I knew that he had
(John’s POV)I knew that I never should have told Sybil the truth about our marriage, but what was I supposed to do? She had insisted that I be honest with her about my reason for marrying her, and I knew that she wouldn’t stop asking me until I answered her question. I wasn’t at all surprised by her reaction.She just looked at me incredulously. I kept waiting for her to say something, anything, but she never did. She just ran into the bathroom, leaving me to wonder what I was supposed to do. The worst thing that I could do at that moment would be to force her to talk to me before she was ready. I knew that I should give her all the time that she needed to process everything that I had just told her.So I waited. After a while, I heard a ping coming from my phone, so I looked at it to discover that she was texting me. My first thought was that she was more comfortable talking to me that way, rather than face to face. Then I saw exactly what was in her text message. It was contact in
(Sybil’s POV)As the minutes went on, I decided that I had spent enough time hiding. I could hardly spend the rest of my life in the bathroom, and I knew that I would have to face John sooner or later. Besides, I thought as I glanced at my watch, I needed to get ready if I wanted to be on time to meet Liam for lunch.I got out of the bathroom to find John sitting on the edge of the bed with his phone in his hand. He looked up at me like a helpless, scared child when he heard me approaching. “Why did you send me your lawyer’s information, Sybil?” he asked.“I think you know why,” I said coldly as I opened the closet and started taking out the clothes that I had chosen to wear today. I wasn’t in the mood to talk to him, so I busied myself with getting dressed.“You’re getting all dolled up,” he observed, “what’s the special occasion?”“I’m meeting Liam for lunch today, remember?” I glanced at him. “You were there when he called me last night.”His face hardened and he walked over to me
(Sybil’s POV)As we got into the car, John looked me over appraisingly. “Do you really have to wear that scarf?” he asked.I touched the silk scarf that I had tied around my neck. “What’s wrong with it? I think it looks good with this outfit.”“It hides your neck,” he said, “which is a shame. You have a beautiful neck, and it should be seen.”I gave him a look. “Well, maybe I would have left my neck exposed if a certain someone hadn’t given me a hickey last night.”“All the more reason to show it.” He grinned. “Don’t you want the world to see that you belong to me?”I sighed. “It’s very unprofessional to show up to a meeting with a hickey. Especially one as big as this one.”“On the contrary. I know that there isn’t anything going on between you and Liam, but this would ensure that your relationship remains professional.” John glanced at me, his eyes gleaming. “He’ll see that you’re taken, which will hopefully keep him from getting ideas.”I rolled my eyes. “I’m not a cow to be brande
(Sybil’s POV)“Of course I’ve read the story,” John said to Liam, “I read it back when Sybil originally wrote it in high school.”That was news to me! I didn’t remember ever showing him my story. In fact, the only time that I had ever spoken to him about it was earlier that day. How could he possibly have seen it in high school?Of course! Willa had most likely shown it to him when she was pretending to have written it herself. Everything made perfect sense now. He was probably the one who had convinced Willa to study creative writing. That was so typical of her to do something that she clearly had no interest in doing, just to impress John. And it had actually worked! Until now, at least.I was too stunned to speak. From the amused look on John’s face, I could tell that he saw each emotion express itself on my face as I processed all of this information. I went from shock that John had read my story, to realization and annoyance when I thought about Willa and her motivation for doin
(Willa’s POV)The previous nightI listened intently as Alex finished telling me the real reason behind John and Sybil’s marriage. “So Grandpa thought that John should marry Sybil, just in case the photos ever turned up somewhere. If they were married, it wouldn’t be a scandal if photos of them in compromising positions were to appear.” He shrugged. “That’s all I know about this.”“What?” I was shocked. At the time, I had been hurt and confused when John randomly decided to break off our engagement and marry Sybil instead. Now it was a small consolation to know that it hadn’t even been his idea. This new information could make it much easier for me and Alex to go through with our plan.Alex glanced at me. “Did you really not know any of this? I’m fairly sure that your parents knew about it, but I guess they never told you?”I shook my head. My parents were in the same social circle as the Rutherfords, but I had no idea whether or not they were aware of these circumstances. “If they k
Sorry it’s been a while! You may think that this story has been abandoned, but fear not! You can still follow the adventures of Sybil, John and the others in the sequel–Hidden Heiress: My Ex is Addicted to Me. The story will start a few months later for our characters but the drama is even more intense! I am still working on it but don’t worry, it will come.
(Sybil’s POV)I walked into the hospital, going over what I would say when face to face with Charlie. I had known the truth for over twelve hours now, but it wasn’t any less of a shock. The Worthingtons had been so supportive the night before, promising to give me space until I was mentally and emotionally ready to deal with the fact that I was their biological daughter. I didn’t blame them for anything, because as they had told me, they’d only just found this out themselves a few days ago. They had also been shocked, which was why they had kept it to themselves until now.I wondered if Willa knew about any of this. She had always accused me of wanting to be her, ever since she got her hands on the story that I wrote. Now it turned out that, if things had turned out differently, I actually would be living a similar life to what she was living now. I would have grown up in a loving household, with parents who loved me.Unfortunately, thinking about Willa reminded me of when I had hea
(Sybil’s POV)The next afternoon I decided that I should turn my phone back on, just in case someone was trying to reach me for reasons other than the scandal or John. I didn’t want to miss anything concerning Charlie, for example.I saw that I had a message from the Worthingtons, so I phoned them back. It did me so much good to hear Mrs. Worthington’s voice, especially now. She had always been a comforting presence, and ever since I was a child, I enjoyed spending time with both her and Mr. Worthington.“Hi, Sybil. We just wanted to see how you were holding up. Whoever wrote that nasty article doesn’t know you at all!”“I’m still in shock, but just talking to you makes me feel better.” I smiled. “I’m sorry it took a while to get back to you. My phone was turned off for much of yesterday, because I just needed to take a break.”“That’s understandable. Would you like to come over for dinner tonight?”“That sounds wonderful!” I grinned. “I could use good company.”***A few hours later,
(Sybil’s POV)The day after the meeting with John and our lawyers, I wasn’t really in the mood to talk to anyone or go anywhere. Emma had taken me to Darcy’s as promised yesterday, which was a nice distraction, but I knew that it was only temporary and that I couldn’t run away from my problems forever.I couldn’t stop thinking about the way that John had looked at me at the meeting. His eyes had been full of hatred. I knew that he was hurt by what he assumed to be true. I couldn’t blame him for feeling that way, but if he had just given me a chance to explain that what the article said about me wasn’t true, maybe we could have talked things through. Then he wouldn’t have signed the divorce papers impulsively.Or would he still have refused to believe me? Probably, knowing him. He could be very stubborn at times, not willing to change his way of thinking, even when there was actual proof that he was wrong.Still, I would have liked an opportunity to at least try to clear up the misun
(John’s POV)After signing the divorce papers, I just had to get out of that room. I’d had just about all I could take of Sybil sitting there pretending that she hadn’t paid that guy to take pictures of us. Just recently, she’d acted horrified when I told her about the indecent photos of us. She’d claimed not to know about any of that, and she was so convincing that I actually believed her and felt awful for telling her everything. I was such an idiot! How could I let myself be fooled like that?I couldn’t believe my eyes this morning when I woke up on her sofa and decided to check my phone to see what was going on in the world. I went on a news website, and there was one of the photos. At first, before I read the article, I was afraid that the photos had resurfaced for some reason, despite my family’s efforts to keep that from happening.I wasn’t really afraid for myself, because I was used to being in the spotlight for both negative and positive reasons. Because of who my family
(Sybil’s POV)I was extremely grateful that Emma had shown up when she did. I really didn’t want to deal with all of this on my own. Now that I knew, or at least suspected, that John had read the lies that were being spread about me and the reason for our marriage, I had a sinking feeling that he wouldn’t believe me if I tried to explain that none of it was true. I didn’t know what I would do the next time I had to face him.After a while, I knew that I should get ready for my meeting with Jane. “Sorry to cut this short,” I said to Emma, “but I should get dressed and go see my lawyer.”“I can drive you, if you want.” She gave me a supportive smile.“Would you?” I looked at her. “That would be great. Don’t worry, I won’t ask you to sit in on all the legal stuff. Believe me, there are times when I wish that I didn’t have to listen to all those complicated terms.”She laughed. “I completely understand that! I actually have a book in the car that I’m in the middle of reading. I’ll be able
(Sybil’s POV)I woke up the next morning, my head still spinning from both all the drinking I had done and the excitement of knowing that my story would soon be published. There was a sense of optimism that I still wasn’t quite used to, but I finally felt as though my life was heading in the right direction.I got out of bed and left the room to go and see John. He had promised me that he would spend the night on my sofa and be there when I woke up, and I had no reason to doubt that he would keep his promise.When I went into the living room, however, he wasn’t there. I wasn’t too concerned, because I knew that things came up sometimes, like an emergency meeting or some other reason for him to have to leave right away. If I was still asleep whenever he had to go somewhere, he was always careful not to wake me. He was considerate that way. Also, I knew that he would usually explain everything later, when he had time.I’d be lying, though, if I said that I wasn’t a little disappointed t
(Alex’s POV)I phoned Willa as soon as I stepped out of Darcy’s, looking behind me to make sure that nobody from our group was following me. I didn’t want Sybil to know what I was up to. “You were able to get the photographer to change his story? How did you manage that?”“Yes, it’s all taken care of,” she replied, “I had my private investigator track him down. It was fairly easy to find the guy, apparently. I was able to talk to him and persuade him to paint Sybil in a more negative light. Can we meet somewhere to talk about this? Somewhere where we wouldn’t run the risk of bumping into anyone we know?”“Sure,” I said, “where did you have in mind?”“We’re not going to a bar.” She sounded annoyed when she said this, which brought a grin to my face, remembering how pissed off she had seemed the night before when I’d ordered a drink in front of her. I stifled a laugh as I thought of the look on her face before she had left.”“Okay, fine.” I had just had enough to drink anyway, with Sybi
(John’s POV)Sybil didn’t seem to mind me accompanying her to her apartment. In fact, she smiled at me gratefully when I helped her out of the car and put my arm around her to steady her as we walked into her building. She leaned against me, putting her head on my shoulder.When we went into her apartment, she gave me a small smile. “Thanks for bringing me home, John. I think I had a tiny bit too much to drink.”“Just a bit,” I chuckled, “but it was no trouble at all. You know that I would do anything for you.”She looked at me with slight skepticism. “Would you?”“Of course I would.” I smiled and held her a bit tighter. “Why would you think otherwise?”She didn’t answer, but she didn’t try to get out of my grasp either. I could tell that she was softening toward me. It seemed lately like our conversations would usually end in an argument, and sometimes with her threatening yet again to divorce me, but she was behaving differently right now. Of course, it could have just been the fac