30

“Ingrid!” Mrs. Asher rushed to her room as soon as the announcement was made by the Adams, just like what they had planned the other night for Ingrid’s plans.

It was Darren who called it off so that Ingrid’s family had no choice but to accept it, knowing that Darren’s parents would easily agree to everything he wanted.

And as soon as Mrs. Asher got into Ingrid’s room, the tissues on the floor and even the state of her clothes—the bottle of wine she was drinking while Ingrid was on the floor crying helplessly made Mrs. Asher’s anger turn into concern.

“What is happening, Ingrid? Why did the Adams call the wedding off?!” Her mother asked worriedly while watching her daughter’s lament.

She caressed Ingrid’s back who reached for the bottle of wine to gulp it down, but her mother took it from her hand.

“You are a mess, Ingrid! Stop this and tell me what happened!” her mother demanded.

Ingrid continued crying, just like how good at acting she is, showing her mother that she was wrecked and devastated and she couldn’t function so well.

“Just give me some time, Mom! I don’t want to talk about this now! I am hurt!” she cried and tried to push her mother.

“Oh my god, hija. What have you done? Whose fault was it?” her mother asked. “I will go to the Adams tomorrow, and I will talk to Darren. Do you want that?”

“No! Just leave it to us alone for the meantime! If you show up there, he will only get mad at me. Just leave this to us for a while. I don’t want anything right now. I just want to rest and to cry,” she lamented.

Mrs. Asher sighed as she couldn’t help but feel worried for her oldest daughter. She gave her space as much as she needed and ordered the housemaid to clean Ingrid’s room and to give her some food.

“They called it off, hon,” her mother said to her husband as soon as they talked about it when Mr. Asher arrived and he got the news.

“Where is Ingrid? I want to talk to that woman.” Mr. Asher was about to go to her room, but Mrs. Asher stopped him.

“No. She is hurt. She is crying, and her room is a mess. I tried talking to her earlier, but she doesn’t want to talk to me. She wanted to have her personal space for the meantime. It seems like they had a big fight that ended with Darren deciding to call it off. I don’t know what happened, but let’s give her some time to process this. If everything went back to normal, let’s just find a way for both of them to sort this out,” Mrs. Asher said.

Mr. Asher sighed and agreed to his wife’s decision. They were worried about the wedding, but they also worried for Ingrid. When Helena went into a coma for five years, it was their realization to never be hard on their daughters anymore because they can’t bear to lose their daughter. They both know that they will never make it.

And Ingrid knows so well that her parents gained a weakness when she watched them break down during the time Helena was in a coma, and they don’t want to give up on her. Ingrid knows that their parents love them, and they are willing to sacrifice and give what they wanted just to keep them happy.

And Ingrid is taking advantage of that now. She locked herself inside her room while crying nonstop, forcing herself to look devastated and lifeless, as if she had lost everything.

Good for two days; her mother was already worried sick, and she cannot just let her rot in her own room because she doesn’t want to repeat the same trauma she experienced during the time Helena was unconscious and they found her.

And Ingrid is just too manipulative; she used that fear to get what she wants, just like how her parents were able to bow down to everything Helena wanted as soon as she woke up.

“Ingrid, oh my god! Call the doctor!” her mother shouted as soon as she visited her room and found Ingrid lying on the floor unconscious.

The doctor examined her while she was still unconscious. Her parents were now worried sick that their main priority once she woke up was to at least lessen whatever burdened her.

“She’s already stable; don’t worry. She just needs to rest for a while and stay away from stressful things,” the doctor advised.

As they waited for Ingrid to wake up, as soon as she opened her eyes, she immediately tried to roam around. Her parents went to her right away as Mrs. Asher looked at her worriedly while cupping her face.

“How are you? Are you okay? What do you feel? What do you want?” she asked.

“Where is Helena?” she asked in her hoarse voice.

“Oh, she is in the camp, just like what Louis told us, Helena. She is having her classes there and it seems like your sister is having fun. She is finally enjoying herself without getting triggered,” her mother said while smiling.

Ingrid started crying. “I want her, Mom. I want her right now. I want to be with her. She is the only one who could comfort me,” she cried devastatingly.

Mr. Asher sighed, wanting to disapprove, but seeing how their oldest daughter was suffering and remembering the doctor's advice not to stress her out, he kept the words in him because he knew that if Ingrid wasn’t in that condition, he would not let her disturb Helena, who was having fun in the new environment she saw.

Mrs. Asher looked at her husband pleadingly as she was hugging Helena, who cried in her arms.

“How about we talk to Darren right now, sweetheart? I will talk to the Adamses.”

“No, Dad. You don’t know what happened, and we just want to rest from each other! I just want my space. I want to rest,” she sobbed hard.

Mrs. Asher shook her head to her husband and gave her a look to give it up, knowing that it wasn’t what she needed right now.

“I just want some space, okay… I still love Darren, and I know he loves me too, but we are just so sick of each other that he badly wants to rest for a while, and I respect that. I don’t want to force him right now because I am also suffering in pain when he is in pain,” her voice cracked while her shoulders were rocking continuously.

“I’ll call Louis and let’s see what I can do,” Mr. Asher said before he went out of the room.

Despite crying heavily, in Ingrid’s mind, she was already smiling. Of course she wanted to hear that so badly. She would always find a way to enter into someone’s life while using all of her cards until she got what she wanted.

Meanwhile, Helena was looking forward to coming back to her own pad because she knew that Louis would wait for her. The call from last night still gives her butterflies, and seeing him brings another feeling to her that she feels like she has slowly built a bond with Louis.

“The way he treats you is just so different from the way he treats girls, Louis,” the girls said after their activities on the field in their class B subject.

Earlier, Helena chose the weapon Bruno had introduced to her because she had a small background on how it works. Although their training wasn’t that heavy yet and they were just tasked with studying their own weapon, as soon as it was done, they stayed on the field for a while to rest and to talk about Louis and Helena.

“Imagine that he is going to visit you often in the camp; if I were you, I would really assume that he is now obsessed with me!” Alice said, which made Helena laugh.

“That’s too much. He is just trying to build a friendly connection with me, alright,” Helena said, but she couldn't take away the smile on her lips.

“Look at this girl! She can’t even convince herself!” Rina pointed at her face.

“But you know, Louis is so gentle with you. I also understand why he is like that to you since we could feel how genuine you are. You are so nice. You are not just angelic, but you also radiate it. If Alpha Louis isn’t in love with you yet, for sure he would slowly fall for you in the long run,” Alice said softly, to which everyone of the girls agreed.

After her practice with Mica on their class activity, she went back to her pad as early as possible to prepare for when Louis would visit her. She even had time to put something on her face while she was in front of the mirror and fixing her hair.

What are you even doing? Do you really believe the girls and what you were assuming just because he spent his night listening to you? You think he has feelings for you? She wanted to shake herself so bad, but the feeling of thinking that she might be right still overpowers her, and she is now slowly assuming things.

When Louis arrived, she was just too excited to see him, but seeing how Louis looked so serious made her excitement vanish.

“We need to go to your house. Your sister got sick,” Louis said, which made Helena freeze.