The Cold Billionaire In My House

4 The Day Everything Shattered

DANIELA’S POV

I woke up startled to see someone sitting by my bed, eyes fixed on me. My first instinct was to look for safety, then I realized it was Maria.

“What am I doing here?” I asked. She smirked.

“I’m sure you remember when I brought everything I bought from the bar to your room right after you stormed out?” she said, twirling her finger on the bed.

“Of course. I remember pouring the wine into the glass,” I replied quietly, holding my head. “My head’s pounding.”

She pulled out a painkiller from the drawer, popped the last two tablets from the pack, and handed them to me with a glass of water. I took them, then reached for a slice of bread from the breakfast she’d already set beside me.

“You started drinking, and when you were completely drunk, you kept yelling, ‘Take me to your room, Emi,’” she said with a smirk.

I smiled awkwardly and covered my face.

“I took you to the bathroom, cleaned you up, and gave you my clothes. I’m guessing you meant Emiliano,” she added.

Damn. That’s the second time someone’s seen me naked.

“Now, how did you meet Emiliano? This feels like the right time to have that conversation,” Maria said.

Maria’s comment stirred something in me. If Maria was going to tease me about him, she might as well know the whole truth. I leaned back on the bed, my fingers curling around the bread crust, and began.

I wasn’t born with a silver spoon and my parents were not struggling; we were in between. I was the only child of my parents and I attended the best school in the city.

My dad made sure he gave me the best school. We were living very comfortably and did not struggle to get anything of our choice.

I completed my primary school with the best grades, and it prompted my dad to enroll me in the best high school in Ancares.

My dad always wanted to get more. He seemed not comfortable enough with his financial capacity; he wanted to explore. I have always heard him say, “Daniela, this is not the life you deserve.” I smiled and shrugged off the idea, often saying, “I am living a better life already, Daddy,” and we both laughed it off.

He was already investing his life savings into an investment his friend introduced to him, hoping to surprise my mother and me.

Things continued as normal and we were living fine. There was no trace of his involvement in any investment until one day, we were in the dining room having our dinner when his phone buzzed.

“Hello Adrian, what’s up?” In a split second, my dad’s expression changed and the spoon in his hand fell on the plate, spilling food all over the table.

“What did you just say?” His voice cracked, and his hand started trembling.

“Honey, what’s wrong?” my mum asked, feeling concerned.

Not long after, my father fainted and fell from the chair to the tiled floor. My mum spilled some water on him. “My money, my money,” he screamed as he regained consciousness.

I was staring into the eyes of my devastated dad, unable to figure out what was wrong with him. My skin crawled because I had never seen him in that terrible condition.

“Honey, tell me what happened, what is really going on?” my mum asked him continuously.

Already disappointed, my dad paused for a while and fell on his knees to beg my mum. “My unanimous decision is about sending us to the street,” he admitted remorsefully.

“What do you mean? What have you done?” my mum asked again, but my dad couldn’t maintain eye contact with her anymore. He looked down, shaking his head in disappointment.

“You are making things worse than they already are with your silence. What really happened?” she said again, this time growing impatient with the way my dad was hoarding the information that could change the family’s life negatively.

My mum and I were both looking at my dad when he finally looked up and realized our gazes were on him. Tears dropped from his eyes and his trembling became intense.

I was also eager to hear from him; the anxiety had already clouded me, and I was anticipating his revelation when his friend Adrian jumped into the sitting room without knocking, panting like someone who had taken a dog’s food and was being chased by the dog.

“We have been duped,” he said.

“Javier is not the owner of the stock, he just shares the name with the real owner,” he revealed, putting his two hands on his head.

“So, you invested our entire savings in this and didn’t deem it fit to inform me,” my mum said, raising his head from where he was kneeling, but shame wouldn’t allow my dad to reply.

It’s true that once you’re guilty of an offense, you lose every iota of confidence in you. My energetic dad became very weak and soft; he could barely talk.

“Do you still have the address of the office?” Adrian asked my dad softly.

The whole room was silent as my dad ignored his question. Then, all of a sudden, he surged angrily towards Adrian and screamed, “You bastard!”

Before he could get closer, Adrian ran as fast as he could out of the house when he realized my dad intended to attack him.

The house remained quiet till midnight. We were all awake, staring at each other without comment, when I broke the silence.

“Do you know anywhere you can find Mr. Javier?” I innocently asked.

My dad was reluctant at first, but he finally replied, “I found out about Javier through Adrian. He told me they were online business partners for years. He went ahead, showing me evidence of the business they had achieved together.”

“I have always warned you about Adrian, how my gut feeling has always been very negative about him,” my mum reminded my dad.

“But it’s fine, honey. First thing tomorrow morning, we are filing a complaint about Adrian and Javier,” she consoled, and my dad nodded affirmatively.

The atmosphere went back to total silence and my parents remained awake until the next day.

THE NEXT DAY

My parents dropped me at my granny’s place, which was not too far from our apartment, while they went ahead to lodge their complaint against Javier and Adrian.

My school was already on vacation, and I was hoping they would resolve the issue and leave me at my granny’s place for the remainder of the holiday because I loved being with Granny Emilia.

I never knew my intention was aligning with my fate and reality. They didn’t return to pick me up, as we heard on the news that same day that their car had been crashed by a trailer on their way to the station. They were rushed to the mortuary as they didn’t survive the accident.

My granny was traumatized by hearing this and fell sick. We are still silently battling the problem to this day.

I lost my parents that fateful day and never heard from them again. That was the saddest day of my life. Till date, I have never seen or heard from my father’s friend Adrian, nor from Javier, who had absconded with my father’s investment.

We planned their funeral and my parents were buried two weeks later. A week after the burial, the bank came to seize my father’s apartment as collateral for the loan he took, which he had invested in the scheme.

I didn’t return to the house, but reports reached us that Adrian took some bank representatives to take possession of the house. When no one was found there, he directed them to my granny’s place, claiming he had somewhere important to be.

“Mr. Ivan got a loan of five million euros and used his house as collateral. The time is due for him to repay the loan. We are sorry for what happened, but we need to take possession of the house, so can you kindly give us the key to the apartment?” one of the representatives said.

With tears in her eyes, my granny dropped the key and they left.

I stayed with my granny until I completed my high school education. Seeing her struggle to cater for my education was touching; she barely ate so she could take care of my upkeep and school needs.

After high school, my granny was already weak and couldn’t continue shouldering the responsibility, so I took over. My inexperience couldn’t put enough food on the table. The struggle continued until I got a call from Fermin, a long-time friend who had moved to Burgos through a scholarship.

I proposed moving with my granny to Fermin’s place and he accepted. We moved to Burgos to join him.

When we got there, we discovered Fermin was also preparing to further his education outside the city. He left us in the apartment and also gave us some cash for upkeep.

I decided we wouldn’t bother calling him for anything again, so I immediately got a job to feed my family. I finally got a job at DEO Oil. It was a cleaner’s job because my qualifications were not enough for any advanced position there.

And, it was there I met Emiliano.