BEING MRS VANDERBILTS

CHAPTER2

Isabella’s phone buzzes with a text message from Mia, her best friend:

“Hey blockhead, why wouldn’t you pick up? Call me, it's important.” Filled with utter betrayal and anguish, Issy wonders if she should return Mia’s calls or not. Indecisively, she storms out of the study.

With a conflicted mind, she rushes out of the study and heads upstairs to her room. Now in her room, she slumps onto the comfortable couch, the weight of the day and the outcome of the confrontation with Jack pressing down on her painfully.

She just cannot seem to understand anything going on right now. “I have to do something about Yolanda. I can’t let her break my marriage apart. I can’t lose Jack to someone as low as Yolanda!” she mutters to herself while rising from the couch and pacing back and forth across the spacious room.

“I have to do something about that slut! I have to take action against that shameless woman! She needs to understand that it's not smart to cross Isabella Vanderbilts.

At the same time, I mustn’t let things get worse between Jack and me. I could lose him to her forever. OH Issy, think… there has to be something I can do.”

Just as she contemplates, her phone continues to ring. “OH, Mia, you just will never give up,” Isabella grumbles as she finally picks up.

“Hey, girl! You were beginning to scare the s**t outta me. Where the hell have you been? Been trying to reach you. What’s going on?” Mia says, her voice loud and urgent too.

“Mia….” Isabella’s voice drifts off, unable to keep up with Mia’s usual playful energy, her voice breaking with emotion.

Mia’s voice softens after a brief pause.

“Issy, what’s wrong? Are you okay? Where’s Jack? Did you guys have another fight? Talk to me, girl! What the hell is going on?” Mia asks, the tone of her voice rising again.

Isabella, feeling quite bombarded with Mia’s endless and provoking questions, manages to speak above her voice. “Mia, Jack is cheating on me with his secretary, his secretary… Mia,”

she says now bursting into tears.

Mia is the only person with whom Issy feels she can truly let her guard down. Besides Jack, she is essentially the only family Issy has left. Their connection runs deeper than that of ordinary siblings;

It’s a bond that has been forged over many years, dating back to their time in the orphanage where they first crossed paths.

Throughout all those years, Mia has come to know Issy inside and out, understanding her fears, dreams, and secrets as if they were written in a book only she could read.

Mia, now feeling a strong urge to express just how much she had warned Issy about the impending disaster that is now unfolding, recognizes that this moment is not the right time to scold her or assign blame for what has happened.

Instead, she takes a deep breath and focuses on providing comfort to Issy, understanding that what she needs most right now is support and reassurance rather than criticism. Her heart swells with empathy as she finally speaks.

“I am so sorry, Issy, I damn saw this coming.”

“I know, Mia. You warned me about this girl. I wish I had listened to you…” Issy says, her voice trembling as she bursts into another wave of tears.

The weight of regrets crashes over her heavily. In all this moment, all she can think about is how she could have avoided this pain and shame if only she had heeded Mia’s advice.

“Please don’t cry, Issy. There has to be some way out of this whole chaotic situation. Have you spoken with Jack about this? What was his response?” Mia asks.

Issy lets out a small, sarcastic laugh, shaking her head in disbelief.

“Can you believe it, Mia? The bastard actually blamed this entire mess on me! He had the nerve to say that he would end things with her, but he flat-out refuses to let her go from her position as his secretary. It’s infuriating! How can he expect me to take any of this seriously when he’s so clearly avoiding accountability? Mia, I can’t lose Jack. I can’t lose my marriage. Being Mrs. Vanderbilts is everything I freaking live for. I can’t see myself sharing my husband with a complete nobody! A lowlife! What do I f*****g do, Mia?”

Isabella says, yet again bursting into intense tears.

“Calm down, Issy. It isn’t the end of the world. You should be glad he isn’t asking for a divorce yet. That’s a subtle sign that he still loves you and possibly would still want this marriage to work. You just gotta put yourself together so we can work a solution out, okay?” Mia says, her voice depicting a sense of comfort and succor.

Issy, who’s now feeling a bit more relaxed, says, “Okay, Mia, I’m calm. I will do anything to bring Jack from the claws of that seductive witch back to his senses.”

“That’s my girl! Now all you have to do is win back your husband from his desperate mistress. You need to remind him of the love you once shared, rekindling the spark that seems to have dimmed,” Mia replies.

“Are you seriously suggesting that I should engage in some kind of romantic battle with that lowlife over my husband? It’s absolutely ridiculous to think that I would stoop to that level. Why should I have to compete for his affection against someone like her? I deserve better than to fight for what should already be mine. This whole situation is just infuriating!”

Isabella, now fueled with pride and her usual arrogance, says.

“Well, I don’t see a better option here, Issy. Do you not want to save your marriage?” Mia asks.

“Of course, I do, more than anything in the world!” Isabella replies.

“Then do it, girl! Fight for your marriage, for your husband, for your name and affluence if you have to—anything to forever be Mrs. Vanderbilts,” Mia speaks to Issy with an unmistakable sense of urgency and powerful encouragement. “You have to let down your pride and ego, Issy, or you’d lose Jack to someone you’d least expect, baby! Someone beneath you, as you always say.”