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Something is up and it makes me suspicious because they won’t share it with me. It’s a secret only they know, but their glances are always saved for me. I feel it in my bones that it’s about me and my gut feeling demands me to figure it out.
They discuss it quite often as if they can’t let go of it, and to me, that means it's a big thing.
Huge.
“Your father would have hated this.” I turn my head away from my family, looking at the older man who burst my bubble.
“Excuse me?” I wonder, taking him in. His face is weathered by age with his white-grey hair and wrinkled skin. His height is average. He’s dressed in a beautiful suit, but it is the polite smile on his face and his kind eyes that make me warm up to him straight away.
“Your father didn’t like to flaunt wealth and he definitely didn’t enjoy flashy parties. He always complained about your mother and brother swimming in luxury and how they were drowning him in bills.”
“I’m sorry, who are you?” I ask, trying to pinpoint where I know him from.
“Oh, of course.” He smiles. “I’m Marc Turner. I was your father’s business partner until we sold every piece of our company. It still breaks my heart.” While his breaks, mine comes to a stop, and the thoughts in my mind flash rapidly.
“You sold your company?” I whisper while my heart finally starts to speed up again, and soon, I’m breathless.
What is he talking about?
“You didn’t know?” Marc asks, frowning, and I shake my head before my eyes seek out my family again and finding them pushed in a corner still discussing something.
“We had debts and the only way to pay them off was to sell every piece of it and file for bankruptcy.” My mouth falls open and my thoughts come to a stop. This is impossible. My dad was a great businessman. One who flourished and told us the moon was ours. Mum had whispered in my ear that she would buy every star in the sky for me.
But that would have been impossible with the truth Marc just shared.
“Then what did we inherit?”
“Not a penny.”
The beautiful picture in front of me changes to a dark one, an ugly one. My heart isn’t beating anymore and my mind is stuck on one thought. One painful truth that has been concealed for all these years.
Now when my eyes fall on my family, I look at them differently, and like an electric shock to my chest, my heart starts to race. My veins push adrenaline through them and rage consumes my mind completely.
“If you’ll excuse me,” I whisper, and I quickly make my way towards them. My eyes don’t leave them for one second as I manoeuvre through the crowd. I see only them as everything around me disappears. My heart pounds in my throat, but I’m bursting with fire.
With anger that I don’t dare let go of, not until they admit the truth.
I finally reach them, and they turn my way when they hear someone approaching. Mum smiles at me, but I cannot muster anything but a hard glare.
“You told me Dad had given us everything. That Dad made our dreams come true. Your dreams. You created an illusion about him. You lied about his financial status and pretended he had a goldmine.”
“Evangeline,” Mum tries.
“You lied and told me he had given us everything and that it would break his heart to see us broke. You used it as a reason to force me to marry while we were already penniless even before his death,” I snarl, hearing the tremble in my voice. My heart breaks in pieces when I stare at my mum, who is as white as a ghost.
“Evangeline,” Mum says, stepping closer to grab my hand, but I step back, pulling my hand to my chest. I’m sick to my stomach, and their betrayal is like a knife to my heart.
“I expect things like that from Frederic, but from you, Mum? Never,” I whisper, and hurt rains over me. I can’t look at them without feeling disgusted.
“Evangeline, please listen,” she tries again with panic in her voice, and I shake my head.
“I can’t believe this. Why should I get married? Your reasons to force me seem to be dipped in shit,” I snarl, stepping backwards. Tears threaten to fall when I stare at my mum. I love her, but this bloody hurts.
“Why should I get married?” I yell at them, and this time, Frederic speaks up. His voice is as cold as always.
“To save your family,” he states, and I scoff, shaking my head.
Family doesn’t lie, and love shouldn’t be used as a reason to manipulate someone.
