Angelina stopped dead in her tracks. And with her hand still on the door knob, she turned her head to look at the teary-eyed Isabella who then closed the distance between them by running to her and hugging her tightly from behind. "D--don't go, M--Maa--ma! P-lease!"Overwhelmed with both the negative feelings Maxwell evoked in her and the joy of hearing Isabella calling her 'Maama' as well as speaking a full though short sentence for the very first time, Angelina broke into emotion-laden sobs as she turned around in Isabella's arms and wrapped her arms around her as well. Even though this came at the most inopportune time, she was quite happy and relieved that it had finally happened.After that incident that led to Isabella having a cardiac arrest, according to Lucy, she kept having recurrent nightmares. And sometimes during the daytime, she would just isolate herself, sitting quietly in one corner, lost in her own gloomy world. The wheels in Angelina's head had begun turning
Throughout that day, Maxwell didn't come out of his study. He remained locked inside the room, doing goodness knows what. As for Isabella, after shedding the inevitable tears that fell from her eyes after Angelina's departure, she wiped them out with a firm resolution. She wasn't going to allow her Dada to realize that Angelina's departure had greatly affected her. That's because she knows he might use that as an excuse to force Angelina to return to the mansion. And she just couldn't do that to her devastated Maama. She really didn't deserve what Maxwell did to her and forcing her to return and live under the same roof as the man who had humiliated her would be quite unfair to her. As such, lsabella masked her feelings and went about her normal activities.When it was time for dinner, Isabella warmed some leftovers which she found in the fridge, served herself and placed Maxwell's portion outside the locked door of his study. She then texted him, telling him about it before leaving
Jeremy quickly stepped forward and gently pried Alicia's hands away from Maxwell's collar while coaxing her, "No, no, no darling, that's not the right way to handle any situation. Let's calm down and talk this over like adults, okay?"Alicia opened her mouth to speak but Maxwell beat her to it. "No Logan. Let her do whatever she wants to do to vent her anger. As long as she will tell me about my wife's whereabouts after that."Alicia opened her mouth to speak once again but this time around, it was her fiance who stopped her from speaking. He gently dragged her away from Maxwell's side and made her sit down on one of the wooden boxes containing her stuff. Then in a gentle tone, he addressed her. "Please darling, just sit down here and let me handle this, okay? You're not in the right frame of mind for this."Alicia huffed before glaring at Maxwell. However, she remained sitting, wordlessly obeying her fiance. Seeing that, Jeremy heaved a sigh of relief before turning to
Jeremy tried to coax her for the umpteenth time. "It's okay sweetheart. What has happened has already happened and now all we have to do is think of a solution, okay?"Turning to Maxwell, he spoke to him in an understanding tone. "You were jealous."Maxwell abruptly looked at him. It was a statement and not a question. He just stared at Jeremy with an unreadable expression on his face without uttering a word. But Alicia wasn't so quiet. "Huh? What are you talking about? He humiliated my friend and you're talking about jealousy? What he did was pure humiliation at its peak so don't sugar-coat it!"Jeremy shook his head with a half-smile on his face. "No sweetheart. You're not a man so you won't understand how these things are. Believe me, his actions are justified and if I was in his shoes, I might have even done worse. He had once seen me deliberately flirting with Angelina just so as to rile both of them up. And when he came here and found me with a woman who had s
That was just the beginning of Maxwell's misery because try as hard as they may, finding Angelina proved to be abortive. All their sleepless nights, hard work, commitment and doggedness were in vain as gradually, the days slipped into weeks and still, there wasn't even the slightest clue on Angelina's whereabouts.Even tracking her phone number was futile because the last place it was traced to was Maxwell's mansion, on the same fateful day that she disappeared. And when Mr. Smith failed to get any lead on her whereabouts, Maxwell hired five more private investigators located in different parts of the country and tasked them all to find his missing wife. Not just that, he hired two more in the United States of America, just in case she might have already returned back home. After about two weeks of fruitless search, a frantic Maxwell became sorely tempted to report the matter to the police but Alicia, who knows Angelina like the back of her hand, stopped him. According to her, since
It was late in the night and as they have been doing every single night for the past month and a half, the two ladies kept chatting back and forth between each other. And these ladies are none other than Isabella and her dearest Maama; Angelina!Right from the first night she left the mansion, Angelina had been communicating with Isabella via the new number that the latter had gotten for her which no one else except the two of them knows about. They chose to be having their daily chats at around ten pm in the night because that's the perfect, secretive time since Lucy is fast asleep and Maxwell had already done his nightly routine of checking up on Isabella and returned to the west wing.Tonight, Angelina had a worried look on her face as she typed a message to Isabella which read, 'But Bella, don't you think we've taken this too far? Let us not punish so many people for the mistake of just one. I'm really worried about Alicia and Jeremy. I heard that she has been missing her lec
Two more weeks slipped by and just like that, it was already two full months since Angelina disappeared with no trace of her at all. Neither Maxwell nor the couple; Alicia and Jeremy wavered on their search for her as they kept working hard day and night along with their private investigators. But as usual, all their efforts proved to be in vain since they were searching in all the wrong places. Never in their wildest dreams could they have ever imagined that Ethan, who had been steadfast and very actively involved in searching for her, is actually the one keeping her in his house!Even though it pained him a lot to see his best friend and two other people suffering unnecessarily, Ethan had no choice but to let things be as they were. Isabella had approached him on that fateful day two months ago, explaining everything that happened and pleading with him to help her with her plans. Of course Ethan had been reluctant at first, but once Isabella told him that she had a hidden motive beh
Maxwell was seated on the cold marbled floor in Angelina's bedroom with his back pressed against the wall. To a casual onlooker, he looked exactly like a statue as he just sat there not moving, not saying a word, not blinking his eyes— just not doing anything but staring blankly at a paper in his hands. His usually cold and steely eyes held no emotions whatsoever at the moment. They looked lifeless and empty while his strikingly handsome face looked so pallid and ashen. Anyone with eyes can clearly see that he was in a state of extreme shock and despair.His eyes robotically moved over the words in the letter that Isabella had written for him one after the other, just like a kid learning how to read. It read, 'Hi Dada! Firstly, please forgive me for keeping you in the dark. Hope you are not too mad at me? And please don't blame Dr. Ipkins, he had no choice in the matter as I kinda forced him. So please I beg of you, spare the innocent man.Secondly, do you know that quote— 'If y