Chapter Twenty Three

Emily was finally close to discovering the reality about the trust her parents left her. But it never occurred to her how much that discovery will cost her. Sophia wanted to look at the printed documents again, so she collected them from Emily. After going through them again slowly, she checked it side by side with the old ones that had been compiled.

“Margaret misused the opportunity she had as your legal guardian to transfer your money.” Sophia tells Emily who was already waiting eagerly.

“What can we do to get back theoney?” Emily asked as her countenance changed.

“We can get it back, but first we have to verify the exact account the money was transferred to. We are in luck because these financial records give us enough information to start looking.

“Margaret Carter with all her poise, is a common criminal.” Emily told her, as she took a breath of relief.  “Emily, please you have to mind the words that you use. She was your legal guardian. Even though she did not act in your best interest.” Sophia said.

“Margaret needs to answer some questions. She has to face the law.” Damian said as he took a close look at the pages. “If we can confirm that she truly stole Emily's money, then Emily can ask her to refund everything she stole.” Sophia responded. 

For two decades, Emiiy Margaret had her best interest at heart. Although she did everything to prevent her son from marrying Emily. She still thought it was merely out of maternal instincts.

She told Sophia to do her best to ensure that Margaret pays for what she did.

“I will take my time to analyze  all the records very well and start the procedure of getting back your money.” Sophia said, as she cleared the documents from the table.

“That is nice. I want to wrap up this issue with the trust fund and move on with my life.” Emily said as she felt instant relief, because she believed that she had been able to sort that part out and she could eventually try to focus on divorcing Ryan.

Damian got a call immediately and had to 

attend to something urgently, so Emily had to see him off. Just as she stepped back into the house, she thought about Vanessa. The thought of her gave her instant migraine. Vanessa was her closest friend whom she confided in. They did everything together. They cried together, celebrated their wins jointly. They even went on holidays together. Never for once in her life did she think that Vanessa would betray her like she did. Going as low as sleeping with Ryan, her husband. “Why am I thinking about Vanessa all of a sudden?” Emily said, without knowing that Sophia heard her. She was your friend for a long time, so it is only natural that you think of her from time to time. Do you feel that she owes you an apology? Maybe you need to have a conversation with her to get the closure you need.” Sophia responded.

“Vanessa owes me nothing. Talking to her will not get me closure, but staying far away from her definitely will.” Emiiy responded as she looked down.

“The only part that hurts me is the lies. I don't know how long my so-called best friend lied to me. “Ryan hurt by sleeping with her best friend and Vanessa hurt her by sleeping with her husband. But in a way, it was the latter that hurt her so much.

Coincidentally, Emily's phone rang. When she checked to see who it was, she saw that it was Vanessa and suddenly, all that hurt turned into nervousness. When Sophia discovers she was nervous, she told her not to take the call if she didn't want to. Emily waited for her to call the second time and then she answered.

For many seconds, there was heavy silence at the other end of the phone. Vanessa didn't utter one word. After about one minute, she finally summoned the courage to say; “Hi Emily, I know that I am the last person you want to hear from…” “You are correct. You know that you are the last person I want to hear from, so why did you call me?” Emiiy stopped her before she could finish her sentence.                        “I did not hope for you to accept my apology immediately.” Vanessa said with a croaky voice.

“It is a good thing you know that.” Emily responded.

“Please find it in your heart to forgive me?” Vanessa said. Emiiy kept quiet. She refused to say anything.

“You don't know the whole story about everything that happened between Ryan and I” Vanessa said.

As soon as she said that, Emiiy was curious to hear what she had to say. “What are you talking about?” She responded.

“I love Ryan wholeheartedly. I could not bear it anymore.” She said as she began to weep. “You what?” Emily responded as she found it difficult to understand what she just said. “So all these while, you pretended to be friends with me, you were secretly in love with my husband. You even helped me pick out my dress for the anniversary. You are evil Vanessa. You are worse than a witch.

“I also loved you as a friend, Emily. The whole thing is complicated.” Immediately, Emily ended the phone call, because she did not have any more strength to listen to those lies. Vanessa is clearly making all these excuses to justify what did. “So this is who I was friends with for so many years. This woman is clearly sick. I think she needs professional help.” She said to Sophia as she closed her eyes.

“I told you that you did not have to speak to her if you didn't want to.” Sophia said.

After a while, Emily's phone beeped. A message came in. The message was from someone she had not spoken to in a while. 

It was from Lucas Bennett, Vanessa's boyfriend who is also an investigator.

The message said: “We need to talk. It is about Vanessa. She told me something before I found out about the affair. I know that she played both of us.”