Chapter five

‘A billionaire's wife bashed his house due to jealousy!’

That was a trending headline that people were picking up like hot cake.

In my naivety, I thought that public opinion would sway in my direction. But oh boy was I very wrong. The support wasn't even split down the middle, with some people on my side and others on my husbands.

No, everyone was after me like hungry wolves. Each of them aching to get a piece of my flesh. I scrolled hundreds of comments curled up in my old bedroom, under my parents' roof.

I hadn't told them about the divorce. In fact, I'm not sure what excuse I mumbled when I came here two nights ago, but they reluctantly let me through the door, and I've been staying here ever since.

“Nadine !”

The harsh call of my name all the way from the lower floor told me that my stay might have reached its end.

I turned off my phone, and threw off my duvet. With hastened steps, I rushed to meet my parents in the living room where they were impatiently waiting for me.

“Nadine ,” my mother began, “Do you take me and your father as fools? "How long do you think you are going to be able to hide the truth from us?”

I swallowed the lump in my throat, then went to occupy the couch that was opposite them.

“I wasn't trying to hide the truth from you…” I admitted honestly as I was fiddling with my fingers... But at that time, I was not completely ready to tell you everything yet and…”

“Honey, look at this…look at the pictures on this one!” My father called out to the attention of my mother, and she snapped her head over to his phone and the darkness inside her eyes grew.

“How could you?” She said, her voice steadily rising with every single syllable that escaped her lips.

“How could you humiliate our family like this? What did we do wrong that made you turn out like this?”

It was one thing to be threatened by cowards behind a screen that will probably never be able to say those words to my face. But it was another ball game altogether for my own mother to declare the truth without even listening to my side of the story.

“Mom, let me explain what happened. All this time, I've been a substitute for him. He never really loved me, even the kidney that I donated was not enough to keep him with me because he had planned to dispose of me from the start!”

I didn't know what I was expecting from my parents when I confessed all of that, ripping my heart open to remove that night just so that they could believe me. But I definitely didn't expect what came next. My Mom brought her palms together and began to applaud me in the most sarcastic manner possible.

“Mom–” I froze up, not sure what to say or react , my father was shaking his head from side to side like I was the greatest disappointment to exist on the planet.

Isn't this what you wanted? For somebody to acknowledge your stupidity? Well I'm applauding you now so you should be happy right?”

I gripped the arm of the couch, my head growing light and dizzy. Of course I did not expect my strict parents to embrace me in their arms and tell me that everything was going to be alright. Our relationship has always been too strained to hope for that much but this…

“I don't know why you are complaining to us, for three years, you should have known whether he loved you or not. But the only way that he has been able to fool you for that long is because you are an idiot, and an embarrassing one too.”

I wanted to burst into tears but I was sure that my parents would find a way to mock me for that too, so instead I stood up.

“Where are you going?” My mother demanded to know. “We are still talking to you!” She yelled at me.

“What's the difference? Whether I'm crying in my room or I'm down here you can still call me all the names you want so why should I sit here and take it?”

I watched my mother's eyes go red, one minute she was sitting on the couch and then the next she was standing right in front of me delivering a square slap that sent me to the floor.

“How dare you raise your voice to me? Why didn't you yell at your so-called husband when he abandoned you? All you could do was asked out like an escaped psychiatric patient! Just looking at you makes me sick. I don't know how on Earth I became your mother..”

Holding my bruised cheek I looked up at her.

“And I don't know how I became your daughter either,” I said without the slightest hesitation she would have slapped me again if she wasn't held back by her husband.

He calmed her down while I was standing up, but that was not to say he was on my side. He probably just thought hitting me was a waste of time.

“Nadine , I suppose it's unfortunate what happened to you but a lot of the fault still falls on your shoulders and you will have to deal with the aftermath yourself,” my father said, going everywhere but the point.

“So what do you want me to do?” I asked, dreading the response that I was going to get. My father looked at me like the answer was the most obvious thing in the world and I was an idiot for not being able to read it out of his mind.

“This isn't your home anymore, return back to your husband and sort things out with him, if not then just get the hell out of our house!”