HER SILVERLINING

Criticize her all you want, she’s guilty and she knows it. What kind of person abandons her family in pursuit of ambition? An idiot, now she knows.But that changes nothing, it only makes her feel more useless. Carla’s mood dampened as different thoughts twirled in her mind.Steve took one glance at her and noticed, “So…, what brings you to Everheights.” He asked, wanting to liven up the atmosphere.“What? I don’t have a right to come back?” Carla turned to him and fired unconsciously.“No…No… that’s not what I meant… it's just that it’s been so long, you know?”“Yeah, I know. I’m sorry.” Carla bowed her head and adjusted her mood before looking up again. “Vacation.” She declared.“O…h, that’s really good.” Steve glanced at her as he nodded, he had been following all her social media accounts as a fan for seven years and he knew more than anyone what exactly was going on, but of course, he was not going to come up straight and tell her that. “Then you have come to the right place.” H

A few hours later, Carla understood everything. Steve had been a frequent visitor at her house since she left home seven years ago. He was always buying her grandma groceries or having someone else buy them when he was not in town, calling to check on her, taking her to the town clinic for a checkup, and taking care of her.In other words, he had been performing her role as grandchild for the past seven years, and her grandma saw him as one. The moment she stepped into the house, she wanted to take her luggage upstairs but her grandma refused. Instead, she dragged her to sit and relax in the living room while telling her, “Leave it there. Steve would help take it upstairs later.”This left Carla more confused, she glanced at Steve and saw that he didn’t mind at all but her surprise then was nothing compared to her surprise when she saw him actively helping her grandmother in the kitchen as they prepared dinner. He had rolled up his shirt revealing his strong muscular arms and had allo

“See? How hard was that?” Grandma Joan scolded Steve as they walked downstairs. All he did was smile, of course when he came downstairs to invite her upstairs, he didn’t tell her there was something wrong with Carla, he only asked her to help him persuade Carla to go out with him tomorrow and she agreed but not without scolding.“Thank you, grandma.” He said cheekily.“Tsk, you this child. It would be best if you were bolder. You are a man after all.”“I will change grandma. I have to go home now, it’s getting really late.”“Okay, hurry up. Drive safely.” She waved him away as he walked out of their home.The moment Steve was out the front door, he turned and looked up at the window of the dark room on the first floor which was no doubt Carla’s room. The smile on his face no longer existed, his face now cold and chilling, as he pulled his phone from his pocket and dialed a number, it was picked up after the first ring.“Find out what happened to Carla in the capital. I want to know

Carla on the other hand was still in deep sleep, she was mentally and emotionally drained but her sleep wasn’t so smooth, she woke most of the time from panic as she had nightmares of Zak coming after her and her grandmother falling ill from hearing of all her scandals. Sometimes she dreamt that anti-fans came to her home scolding her and beating her up. She woke up suddenly with sweat over her brows, her heart pounding fast. This was the third time she had woken up from a nightmare while sleeping, before she could breathe a sigh of relief, her door resounded with a banging knock and her nerves tensed almost immediately as she wondered if she was still dreaming or if the nightmares were becoming a reality.But she soon heard her grandma’s voice, “Carla, Steve is here to take you out!!!” Grandma Joan yelled from behind the door hoping to wake up the ‘still sleeping’ Carla. Carla heaved a sigh of relief before sitting on her bed. She remembered that no one knew that she was out of to

True to her words, the bikinis in the corner were beautiful and were her perfect size, she immediately got excited and tried on various designs. The sales attendant was shocked at how these styles fit her so well. “Ma’am, you have a really good figure. Have you ever thought of being a model?”Carla stiffened at her word, the light in her eyes dimming as she suddenly remembered who she was. She fell silent for a few seconds, staring at the bikini she had just taken off before turning to the sales attendant. “I would go with the conservative one-piece swimsuit.” She said, now a little calmer, as she also returned the bikini she had earlier picked up with the plan of trying it on.The sales attendant was shocked at her sudden change of mood. She ran their conversation through her head twice to see if she said anything wrong, and when she couldn’t figure out what went wrong she asked her. “Is there a problem ma’am? Did I say something wrong?”“No, no, it’s fine. I just think it is best to