Maybe just maybe

Chapter 8

Emily sat at the back of the cab, her eyes swollen red from crying.

After she had fainted in Mr. Samuel’s office, she was rushed to the nearby clinic and was told to reduce the stress load on her. But how could she, when she was just about to lose her family home filled with memories of her once happy family?

Mr. Samuel, her father’s friend, had insisted she plead with the bank to give her more time, but she knew it was of no use.

The bank didn’t care about the fact that she was scammed. All they wanted was the money for the mortgage, and they were willing to take her house if it came to that.

The sound of her phone ringing pulled her from her thoughts as she stared at the screen, her swollen eyes burning from staring at the bright screen. It was Becca calling, but Emily wasn’t in the mood to be entertained right now, so she ignored the call.

Just then, a text message from Vanessa popped up on her screen.

“I really do hope that you would consider,” was Vanessa’s text.

Emily’s thumb hovered around the device screen, thinking of a response to it, but she couldn’t come up with anything as her mind kept drifting back to the conversation they had earlier today. A conversation that Emily never in a million years imagined they would have.

******

“You owe me, Emily!” Vanessa screamed, making everybody around them turn in their direction.

The words echoed through Emily’s head as she stopped dead in her tracks, anger coursing through her veins.

What the hell did she mean by that? She turned to face Vanessa, who was now storming towards her with running mascara from crying.

“What do you mean by ‘I owe you,’ Vanessa?” she barked, her voice raising more than she wanted. “I owe you nothing!”

Vanessa just chuckled. “You can keep telling yourself that, but you know the truth,” she said, stopping a few inches away from her.

“What truth?” Emily sneered.

“I sponsored your entire life back in college,” Vanessa said with a smirk on her lips. “All the trips, even when you were about to drop out due to no tuition fees. I paid that shit!”

Emily felt the anger inside her fading into shame.

Shame of not being able to afford those things, shame of thinking that her best friend who had done those things at the time out of love was now dangling them over her head at the worst period of her life.

Emily’s eyes now a film of tears. “You sly bitch,” she said, although shocked by her choice of words, but she continued.

“Here I was thinking I had a rich best friend that didn’t mind helping me back then, only to now dangle them back on my head. That was low, even for you,” she said, blinking the tears in her eyes away. There was no way she was going to let Vanessa see her tears.

But Vanessa didn’t care,her expression now unreadable. It was as if she was no longer that sad girl, a few minutes ago, crying for Emily to help save her failed marriage.

“Yes, I did it out of love, which I was now expecting you to return the favor,” Vanessa said, dabbing the dry tears from her eyes as she tried her best to salvage what was left of her makeup.

Emily pulled her brows together. “Can you hear yourself?” she asked, still surprised that Vanessa could ever think that this was a fair trade.

“So because you helped me out financially, I should help you carry your baby for a man I used to be in love with? Are you crazy?” she asked.

Vanessa exhaled. “Yes, you can call me crazy…..crazy because I want to save my marriage. Crazy because we both know that if it was not for me and my money, you would have never even met Richard, and I would still have a happy marriage and my best friend,” she spat bitterly.

Emily’s chest tightened at her words as she exhaled. It was no secret that Vanessa was right about this one thing.

If it hadn’t been for her money and influence, which had somehow gotten them on that yacht to attend that elite party, then she would not have met Richard.

And maybe, just maybe,she and Vanessa would have still been friends now, and she would not be hurting this much for a man who had chosen a freaking company over her.

Emily sniffed. “Don’t you dare blame me for this,” she said, remembering how Vanessa was the one who had turned her back on her first. “You ruined this friendship, not me,” she pointed at her.

Vanessa’s face fell, a tear now falling from her eyes. “Yes, I did, and I regret it every single day. And I take full responsibility for it,” she said, her voice now creaked from crying. “But you can’t deny, Emily, that you ruined my marriage.”

Emily felt the tears burning at the back of her throat, her tongue tied as the words could no longer come out.

Somehow, Vanessa’s words were beginning to form the truth inside her head.

Maybe if she had not met Richard, then maybe they would have still been friends.

And maybe, just maybe,Vanessa would still be in a happy marriage by now. But that was all just a maybe, as it has all happened the way it did, and nothing can change the past.

Emily shook her head, blinking back the fresh batch of tears that was threatening to fall.

There was no way she was going to stand here and let Vanessa blame her for all the bad things in her life,especially not to a man she had been in-love with.

She had better things to worry about.

“Goodbye, Vanessa. I really do hope you find a way forward in your marriage,” she said, forcing a firm smile as her chest tugged at her. With that, she turned and walked out of the café.