Shattered Hearts, Rekindled Vows

Chapter 2

Bella’s POV

«HARDIN’s MANSION»

Stepping out of the cab, I walked towards the mansion door weakly. I rang the doorbell twice before the maid came to open the door for me. Seeing me, she was surprised. Who wouldn’t be?

My eyes were now puffy as if I had cried my eyes out. I entered the mansion tiredly dragging my feet as I walked to the sitting room.

I stopped and faced the maid who was behind me, “Where’s my mother?” I asked her. She pointed at the kitchen, which made me nod.

I slowly walked towards the kitchen door but stopped at the door. “Do you think we should let her know about her adopted sister being promoted as the acting vice president of the company?” I stumbled into the conversation.

“I still think we should try to make Tina more interested in the company. I think Maya has done enough by covering up for her. Making her the acting vice president wouldn’t really be fair, we should just announce her as the new vice president. ”

“What did you just say?” I asked after they noticed me.

They weren’t expecting me, so they were shocked seeing me and even seeing me more miserable like that.

Mom rushed to me worried. I just sighed. She left the food with the maids and escorted me back to my room together with dad.

«AN HOUR LATER.»

After explaining everything to them, I was already crying again. I thought I had started getting strong and getting over it, but reality was bigger than what I thought, and it had already hit me widely.

“He left dad.”

“He left us, he said he didn’t want me. He doesn’t want me, he divorced me mom.” I cried silently.

It hurts the more I think about it. At least we had been married for two years and I hadn’t expected he'd be so nonchalant that way.

He should at least feel a bit of pity for me, even if he wanted to make peace and divorce me, he should still consider the time we both spent together and not just leave me like he did.

And he didn’t even trust me enough to know I wouldn’t have pushed her out of jealousy.

“No, you weren't an abandoned baby, you are the best and purest soul. Lucian probably was very angry at you.”

I knew they were just trying to make me feel better.

“No mom, I know better. I know how much he loves his ex-girlfriend, Vivian. And I knew I was the cause of their break-up. If it wasn’t for me interfering, then they'd have gotten married. He truly chose her over me.”

Mom slowly hugged me as I cried onto her shoulders. I could see dad fuming in anger, but he wasn’t saying anything as he joined in the hug, making me feel more relieved.

After a few minutes, we broke the hug and I cleared my tears. Now was the time to ask them what they meant about making Maya the vice president of the company.

“What do you mean by Maya taking over my position as the vice president of the company?” I finally asked.

Maya and I were close enough for me to ask my mom and dad to adopt her after her parents died. Yes, she was the daughter of our family cook but when she was five, something happened and her family all died from the accident.

She was the one who survived the accident and was living with us. Mom and dad treated her like their daughter, but they never attempted adopting her.

It was after Aliyah was born when I was nine years old, I asked them to adopt Maya so we could also be Liyah’s elder sister, which they did because they loved her so much.

We have drifted apart ever since our final high school year when she joined the bad students to bully me and even went as far as almost killing me by pushing me into the pool when she knew I couldn’t swim.

Why did she do all this? Her school crush was having the hots for me instead of her, so she was jealous because she believed I'd always snatched everything away from her because I was the eldest legitimate daughter of the Hardin family, while she was just adopted by them because of their love for me.

She apologized later saying she acted on impulse and was really sorry. Even though she had been the best of Liyah’s sisters, even though i didn’t know if she had changed or pretended to have changed just to get the family’s company.

I didn’t tell mom and dad so as not to spoil their relationship because they'd surely annul their adoption of her for hurting their daughter.

“Your father is trying to step down from the company, so we want to hand it over to you as the new president, so we were thinking of making her the vice president of the company.”

“Mom, dad. There is something I’ve been keeping away from you both,” I breathed in. Maybe it’s time to tell them.

But I just couldn’t persuade them into not annulling their adoption of her. She deserves at least a lot of love too, but I needed to be sure she had really changed and not just putting on a facade .

“What’s that dear?” Mom was the first to ask me. I looked at both of them, it. It was necessary to stop hiding such a very big situation.

“Dad, mom, Maya isn’t who you both think she is. She’s really vicious, she almost killed me in college, but I decided to keep it from you both.”

Saying that, dad stood up angrily, but mom drew him back down.

“That was why I kept it from you two. I know you’ll be so angry when you find out.”

Mom was equally shocked, but dad was more furious.

“She claimed it was because her crush loved me instead of her, so she decided to join the school bullies to bully me. She was part of the bullies that were rusticated from school for bullying me, but I decided to protect her because she’s my first friend and my sister.”

“Even though she was wrong, I couldn’t just abandon her. I think it was because she never felt enough of being part of this family.”

I think that actually changed their minds a bit because dad's face calmed down a bit.

“You could have just told us, we could have disciplined her a bit. She almost killed you. What if you died? Who’ll tell us all about this? Aliyah?”

Dad was right. If I had died, then I wouldn’t have been able to say the word till today. Maybe a little punishment wouldn’t hurt her.

Since the company has so many branches and groups, one of our last groups needed a CEO to monitor it. It'll be nice for her to be the one.

Judging by her talent, she’ll be able to grow so much, but her personality is kinda bad.

The reason I loved my ex-boyfriend so much was because he was the one that saved me when I fell into the pool that day.

Even though I couldn’t see him well, he was beside me when I woke up and for that, I was grateful. From being grateful, it turned into love, or maybe I was just being appreciative.

My mind went to King again and I closed my eyes. I didn’t realize I was crying again until mom touched me.

“Did dad say the wrong thing?” She asked.

I nodded my head negatively and cleaned my tears.

“I’m thinking she should be the CEO of KING’s group. There’s no CEO to monitor the group, it’ll be great for her to take over.” I smiled lightly.

“If she has really changed, then we’ll be able to see it. And about Aliyah, you should consider trying to talk to her, or maybe I’ll do that for you.”

“That is a very great decision. You have done great, it’s time to talk about your own.”

I was confused at first until he talked about it.

“What do you mean dad?” I asked him. He took my hand and patted it.

I could guess what he meant, but his face was unreadable.

“You need to go out of the country for a while for everything to settle back down, you’ve passed through a lot and if the media knew you both were divorced, it wouldn’t be easy for you.”

“Yes, and you need to deliver your baby somewhere safe so you’ll be able to keep it a secret, then after you come back, you can take over as the president of the group. If you have anyone capable in mind of becoming the acting vice president for now, then you can tell me to work on that for you.” Dad said.

I smiled, at least I still have my parents here with me.

“Okay dad, I’ll go start packing up now so by tomorrow morning, I can leave early.” I said.

I walked out of their room, then went to my room and stood packing up my things.

«NEXT MORNING: AT THE INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT»

I got out of the car with Aliyah and Liana behind me. Last night it was concluded Liana would be the acting vice president of KING’s group, but she had no idea, as she’s still my secretary and best friend as of now.

I wanted her to follow me because it'd make it easier to work from there. I bumped into someone and frowned as I stood up to apologize.

“I’m sorry.” I said.

Looking up as I hissed at the figure in front of me. My ex boyfriend, Gabriel. But that was not my problem as I tried walking away.

“Ella.” He called, holding my hand back.

I groaned, snatching it from him. I came as early as I could to avoid unnecessary scenes or even call attention to myself.

“What do you want?” I snapped at him.

It was enough that he acted like a dog, but is stalking me now just to apologize for what?

“Wait, I need to explain something to you. I’ve been feeling guilty ever since but decided to keep it a secret as long as you don’t leave me.”

I rolled my eyes before asking him to continue, but heaven knows I was not interested in whatever he had to say, I had a flight to catch.

“I wasn’t the one who saved you nine years ago.”

I looked up in shock immediately as he said that, even as my hardened heart was broken and beating.

“What did you just say?”