Chapter Four

"Where are you, Carlton?" Stacy was out of breath as she sat on the lid of the water closet in the bathroom at the party, with her hands trembling intensely as she texted her husband because of what she had just witnessed.

She had been trying to keep her mind together for the past few minutes after seeing Carlton and Marilyn at the same event, while assuring herself that nothing was wrong and that she was just overthinking it. However, her head wanted to explode at the imaginations which were conjured up in her head.

The most painful part of the scenario was that she had to remain where she was standing like she didn't know him, because no one knew, and could know that she was married to Carlton Howard. Yet, she was losing her mind because she could not even do anything to claim her husband right on the spot.

Marilyn and Carlton held a conversation at the end of the room so affectionately, and she was probably the only person who almost died at the sight of it. And like she had never seen before, her husband's cheeks crept in a smile as he talked to his ex-girlfriend.

His eyes glistened like never before in the way it had never lighted at the sight of her, and it was palpable that the fondness was probably still there.

'He was a kind of man that rarely attended any events, but he was present in the same party with his ex-lover. The same woman she had always felt intimidated by.'

"What is going on?" Stacy's voice came out with a panic as she breathed in and out.

'Carlton, please reply to my messages. Where are you?' She typed shakily on her phone again, as she began to walk out of the bathroom towards the back door to find a place where she would be alone. She needed to breath.

There was a delay in his reply she stood anxiously on the terrace, leaning over the smooth cold metal with her eyes trying not to look at the screen of the phone. And from where she was standing as she looked around from the balcony of the floor where she stood, her eyes caught the most shocking sight that froze her on the spot.

Her heart pounded in her chest and threatened to burst through her rib cage, as she struggled to comprehend the scene unfolding before her eyes.

It was the sight of her husband, Carlton Howard, whom she had loved unconditionally with all her heart, locked in an intimate gaze with the same lady she had seen him in the room with, and their lips were about an inch away. Her world crumbled before her immediately as she looked away.

Tear tracks trailed down her flushed cheeks immediately as her throat hung in a gasp of breath which was mixed with pain, and she crumbled heavily on the floor hopelessly, with a consuming anguish that gripped her stinging heart.

A message entered shortly as she sat there in her forlorn.

'By myself, Any problem?' she read, and her heart sank immediately as she drowned in more tears, 'Have you signed the papers?' Was the next question that followed, and it felt like Stacy's head was about to explode as she read it again and again. Hot tears ran down her cheeks in pain.

Her husband, indeed, was ready to divorce not because she did anything wrong, but because Marilyn, his ex-girlfriend, was back in the city. He was no longer interested in her again, and there was nothing that could change his mind. It was obvious that even if she left him on their wedding day, he was still in love with her. The mysterious text message too finally made sense.

'She had finally lost him.'

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Time seemed to stand still as the main door to the house swung open, revealing a figure that seemed both familiar and unfamiliar as she made her way in. The air grew thick with anticipation as a hushed silence settled over the room, and Claire thought she was about to lose her mind when she saw who had walked into her house.

She jumped on her feet and turned around to be sure that she was not hallucinating, as a chill froze her to the spot with a dropped jaw.

"Mum," Stacy cried with a heavy heart as she began to walk closer to her extremely shocked mother, who could not still decipher if she was hallucinating on yet another day.

"Are you truly Stacy? Is this real?" The shock and disbelief etched on her face showed the emotions that were swirling within her, and tears began to well up her eyes, as she struggled to comprehend the sight before her.

'Her dear daughter was back home after giving them a shocking announcement two years ago. It was one of the most stormy moments of her life as a mother.'

"It is really me, Mum," Stacy cried bitterly as she wrapped her hand around her mother so tightly, to find solace for the terrible heartbreak which she was yet to heal from.

A few hours after discovering that she had lost everything in her life even after sacrificing a lot, she signed the divorce papers and left the mansion quietly after packing her things at dawn.

Her head had been a mess ever since and she almost went insane when she tried to imagine her life without Carlton, but the only person that she could think of was her mother to offer her respite. The one person that would not judge the stupid and dumb decision she had taken all by herself.

"Oh my goodness! I cannot believe this is you," Claire cried even harder as she wrapped her hands around Stacy, as if she was trying to bridge all the months they had lost without one another.

Her heart had shattered when Stacy suddenly announced her marriage to an unknown guy, and didn't even tell both she and her father anything upon registering it. She tried to convince her husband that they could go and find out where their daughter was to help her, so that she would not be making a mistake that would destroy her.

However, Stacy's refusal to tell them the truth about the man she married worsened things and ruined the relationship she had with her father. He was disappointed in her. He wouldn't even talk to her again ever since.

"I am sorry for breaking your trust, Mum. I know you wanted the best for me, but I made the biggest life decision by myself without you," she cried so much as she confessed her apology, which she had practiced a million times on her flight.

"I am just glad you have realized your mistakes and come back to your family. I am so glad, Stacy," Claire assured her daughter with a smile that reflected the deep love she still had for her as a mother, regardless of her rebellious act.

"Where is Dad………"

"What is this bastard doing in my house?!" Jack, who was unable to contain the sight in his living room upon entering, raged with a surge of anger coursing through his veins like an inferno. His eyes narrowed intensely with his brows furrowing by each second, and his jaws clenched hard.

Stacy turned in fear and separated from her mother the moment she realized that her father was around, and she fell to her feet to beg him immediately, "I am so sorry, Dad. Please forgive me."

"What is this useless dropout doing here?!" He demanded imperiously, and was consumed by the overwhelming fury which burned deep in him.

His words were true.

Stacy never finished school by the time she secretly got married to Carlton, because she planned to go and witness him get married to another girl so that she could finally give up. She had lied to him that she was done with college so that he would agree to marry her, but she was just on the point of entering her last year of college, which made things even worse with her family. Nothing made her father more enraged than that.

"It is a gap year, darling. Please calm down. She is back now and can still return to school," her mother tried to solicit for her.

"Back where?! Where is the man you got married to? Oh, you have finally come back to your senses after he chased you out, you disgraceful pig?" His voice questioned viciously with harsh words spewing forth from his lips, each syllable laced with venom that was filled with pain. He was so disappointed in her.

Her mere existence in his house fueled the flames of his wrath even more, as the memories of her words to him that she had gotten married to an unknown person flooded his mind, while intensifying his anger to an almost unbearable level.

"I am sorry Daddy. I have come back to my senses, and I am back to doing everything that you want me to do. Everything! I will return to school, get a degree, and get a job," Stacy begged desperately with tears rolling down her cheeks, and her face contorted with a mixture of fear that nothing could placate her father.

That was the only resolution she thought of as she flew to Chicago from California.

For two years, she had derailed her relationship with her brother and parents because of her selfish desires, and the only thing she could do was go back, make them take her back, and do everything they wanted. That was the only way to keep her sanity after her separation from Carlton. It was a truth she could not tell anyone.

"Darling. Please, let us settle everything now that she is back. She has made a youthful mistake and has realized it. It is our job to take her back as a family after reprimanding her," Claire pleaded with her husband desperately, because she had not seen her husband that angry in so long.

"Claire, I do not want to see Stacy in my house, and I mean it! Either she goes back to the house of the Godforsaken man she ruined her life for, or leaves my house for good! I never want to see a daughter that I have disowned!" His eyes blazed with a fiery heat as he warned menacingly, with the room trembling at the force of his rage.

"Please, Dad. I promise to do everything you want. Please don't cast me out," Stacy cried as she stumbled on her words in pain. Her life would finally be over if her father rejected her too. It was finished for her.

"Please, Jack. She is only twenty-three and was immature two years ago. Please don't do this," her mother tried to placate to futile.

"I am going to my room now, and by the time I am out here, I do not want to see you ever again. Any more words from you Claire, then you are free to join her. I have only one child, and he is doing well. I do not need a disgrace for a child," Jack insisted sternly and stormed past them.

Stacy just shook her head as she collapsed to the floor in more unending tears. Her father totally meant his words. It was impossible to change his mind if it was made up.

'She was finished. Totally finished.'