BETRAYED TO LOVE

CHAPTER THREE: LOSING EVERYTHING!

Sophia’s POV:

Everything was going wrong all at once.

The banks were calling, the investors were demanding answers I didn't have, and even the board of directors were arguing, as they always have, only, mother had her way with them. She always knew how to put them back into order. I didn't. In fact, I knew nothing about what was meant to be done as I sat there looking from left to right while they screamed and argued.

This was easier in the movies. I have had to act parts in which some I pretended to be a director or the boss, and I had to have a board meeting, but it was nothing like this, in fact, none of those dramas prepared me for what I was seeing right now, making me realize that the ones we have been doing in the movies, was a joke. This was serious, everything looked like an apocalypse. No one was saying anything, yet everyone was screaming. I realized yet again how doomed I was. I should have taken those business classes when mother had been pushing me to. Now I know why she had been pushing me to. She had been trying to prepare me for a time like this. From birth, she has been trying to get me ready for a time like this, but I had failed to see the future, I had mistaken it for her trying to make me like her, and then I had rebelled.

But now, as I sit here staring at the faces of these men and women, now actually interested in a way out of this mess, all only interested in how to make the situation into one that fills up their coffers with more money. Only now, did I realize what a failure I was. Father was immobile at the hospital, breathing through an oxygen pipe, barely alive, and asides him, I had no one else I this world. Everyone else was only interested in how much I could make them. Tears threatened to overtake me, and so I slowly got off my seat, the one next to the seat that was my mother's own on the left. None of them noticed that I had gotten up, they were still arguing. And even after I walked out of the room, they continued to argue without noticing that I was gone. How did mother do this every day?

Slowly, I walked out of the building and towards the car park, where my driver and car were waiting. I opened the door and slowly stepped inside it.

"Where do I take you, Ma?' My driver asks.

"Home." I say. I have had enough, none of which was offering me the solution I needed. The driver starts the car and takes me home. But driving into our estate, I see what I'd liken to a crowd inside the vicinity. I stepped out of the car and headed towards them. "What is going on, James?" I asked our Head of Staff who was standing next to them as they talked.

They all turn to face me, and then James bows. "Madam Sophia, these men say -

"Hello Miss Sophia." The one in charge cuts in, taking steps forward.

Eyes on him. "Why are you here?" I asked him.

"We will need you to vacate the building in forty-eight hours, Madam." One of the men said.

I chuckle. "What do you mean?" I ask for lack of understanding. "You want me to -

"Vacate the building, Ma."

"Our house?" I asked with furrowed brows.

Shaking his head. "Not anymore, Ma'am. This house -

"Belongs to my family, the Richmond's own this place and everything in it."

"Not anymore. The bank is taking over."

I bat my lashes. "The bank!"

"It is part of the liquidation process. The Richmond Empire is folding up," he says.

I gasped. "What exactly are you saying? I am just coming from the company, so what do you mean the Empire is folding up?" I was losing it. I was losing my mind.

"Then you were twenty minutes out before the new owner arrived at the company." He says with a glance at his watch. "As of this minute, the Richmond Empire and all its subsidiaries and property have been seized. A new owner is taking over all of it, including the cars and everything."

"What!"

"I'm sorry, Barbie princess, but you have forty-eight hours to leave with only the things you bought with your money, or get thrown out!"

*

"Thank you, Martin." I said as I got the last of my things from him. After packing up everything I had proven was not bought under Richmond Empire's name, I had no means of moving them. Four hours ago, I didn't even know where I would be staying, not until Mary, my mother's secretary, called me and told me about this apartment my mom had bought years ago as her getaway place. The place was not listed under Richmond Holdings or properties, no one but mother and her knew of this place, and that is the only way I had a place to move to.

She had the key delivered to me via someone else, so nobody would see her and ask questions. And when I was done packing up, Martin had arrived just in time to see me. When he saw the things I was moving after the lawyers had verified that none belonged to the Empire, Martin had called to book a moving vehicle which would bring the rest of my things after us later. Here I was with Martin and Mira, in the new place, new city, new country, where I would be living. The rest of my things are expected to arrive in a week. Father will be moved tomorrow, it had taken a lot of money and convincing to finally get the doctors to accept to make the move. He will be brought to a less expensive hospital here in this town where, hopefully, I will be able to afford. Having him relocated had consumed every savings and money I have, right now, as I stood in the sitting room of this new place, I was Sophia the penniless.

"And this?" Mira asked. "Where do I keep this for you?" It was Rolland's guitar.

"In my room. Put it on the bed for me, Mira. Thank you." I said just as she began to head for that direction.

"You know you didn't have to move down here, Sophia," Martin says, his eyes on me. "I would have found you a place back there, and then we could have worked out a way for -

I shook my head. "Am done, Martins. And I meant it when I told you so weeks ago." I said, looking up at him. "Am done living that life. My father will be needing me more often now, so I need to be available for him, with him."

"But we can have someone -

"No Martin, No!" I shook my head. "My family needs me, I will make myself available for him."

He sighs in frustration. "But how will you survive? How will you -

I put up a smile as my eyes got filled with tears. "I will find a way." I nodded. "I will. Even if it means I have to get a job, I will do that."

He sighs again. "Fine! I know I'll never be able to convince you once you've made up your mind. But if you do, change your mind -

I shook my head. "I will not, Martin. I am never coming back to the agency or acting world."

"Just in case you do." He insists. "Find me." He says, his eyes on me.

I nodded. "If I do, I will find you." I said, my voice breaking.

"We will miss you, Sophia the First." He says, his own eyes turning teary too.

It made me cry. That name. It was a name Rolland had made everyone at the agency start calling me the first day he had visited me there, claiming I was the best they'd ever seen. I stopped crying. "I know. I'll miss you too."