Chapter 010

Lily

I arrived at the villa, the hell of a home I grew up in, I felt nauseous by the sight of its white walls and the so called beautiful garden planted with venom by my witch of a stepmother.

I walked to the front grey door, my blood boiled in my veins, I curled my hands into tiny balls untill my knuckles felt numb. I hated this place, I wasn't planning on coming back anyway because everyone who breathed here hated me to the core, and the lawful owner, my mother was taken out and she was a vegetable at the hospital. I took in a deep breath then twisted the golden door knob.

As always, that venomous woman was seated on the couch, draped in red silk while enjoying sipping tea. A maid was massaging her shoulders as another servant was on one knee, a plate full of grapes in hand as she fed her one at a time. Her face was covered in a white face mask.

"Wow… you’ve really settled in, haven’t you? Must be nice playing queen in a kingdom you stole.” I shouted, making the servants stop what they were doing and stare into my direction. She opened her eyes and turned towards the direction of my voice. My voice was laced with venom but she acted completely oblivious.

“Oh look what the rain dragged in, Lily darling, tell me, what brings you here today?” She said in a cockish voice.

I rolled my eyes at her fakeness. "Tell me… how does it feel? Living so comfortably in a life that was never yours to begin with.”

She sat up straight and gestured for the servants to leave, the face mask fell from her face as she stared daggers at me, and then, her expression changed. She curled her lips into a mocking smile.

“Lily dear, how can you say that, I mean all this has been mine for as long as I can remember,” she said mockingly.

“You witch, aren't you afraid of retribution?”

She laughed out loud at my words. “Don't tell me that you came all the way to lecture me, tell me, what is it that you want, I'm kind of busy.”

I was about to open my mouth and talk when my dad came from his study and joined us in the living room. He walked to her side and sat next to her.

He took the tv remote, stretching his arm and turning on the television, he acted like my presence was nothing at all, he didn't even look in my direction once. So this is the father who used to pamper me. I remember when my mother was still around, he used to buy us flowers everyday and would always come with a gift for us, after Vivian and her mother showed up, everything changed, my mother fell down the stairs and became a vegetable, that's when my dad changed, Vivian used to scheme against me, her mother not being an exception making him hate me.

Before I would cry and beg for his love, but right now, I couldn't care less. Silence stretched in for a moment before Clara's horse voice came in.

“Darling, look who finally remembered this house exists,” her hand all over my father's chest. Pathetic. He scoffed then turned his cold eyes towards me.

“Lily,” he called out impatiently, “ what are you doing here? Shouldn't you be at your husband's house.” I let out a bitter laugh, he's acting was worse, he pretended like he didn't know what was going on and I was sure that this was their idea. To take everything away from me, my marriage, my mother, everything.

“You seem to be enjoying yourself Patrick,” I called him out by his name, making him look at me with icy eyes, like he could strangle me there and then. I mean, he was Vivian's father, not mine. “Cheating on my mother wasn't enough, you had to bring your mistress and bastard to this house and give them legal titles and forget about your wife and your daughter, your own flesh and blood, you're so despicable.”

“How dare you talk to me in that manner, it seems you've never changed, you're vicious and useless just like your mother,” those words hit me like a slap, how could he say that about my mother.

“Useless huh,” I said, finding my voice, “ don't forget that you're the one who married into this family, and without my mother you are nothing.”

“How dare you, you ungrateful wretch, is that a way to talk to your father?” He said, his hand holding his chest dramatically as Clara rubbed his back.

“How could you talk to your father like that,” Clara said in a soft faked voice.

“I heard Nolan finally came to his senses.”she said in a now sharper voice, that soft voice vanishing into thin air, her words made my fingers twitch on the sides, I wished I could just scratch the itch on my palms by connecting it with her face, I stared at her blankly, though my heart was twisting painfully in my chest, I must admit, I wasn't strong enough for such, I was still recovering from what Nolan did.

She seemed to have seen my helplessness when her smile grew wider. “Such a pity. A husband choosing your own sister over you? Carrying his child too…” She sighed dramatically. “That must hurt. Being that unwanted.”

Did she just call that witch my sister, she was my stepsister, why am I even acknowledging her. She was nothing to me.

Her words made my father chuckle under his breath.“Can you blame him? Look at her.”

I waited for them to enjoy mocking me, I was already used it. And I wasn't going to give them the benefit of doubt with some useless conversation. I exhaled slowly, steadying myself.

“I didn’t come here for that.”

“Oh?” Clara exclaimed with a raised brow. “Then what? To beg? To cry? To ask for leftovers like always?”

I stared at her with a sharp gaze.“I didn’t come to pick through trash,” I said quietly. “Isnt that your specialty, picking after someone else, I see your daughter has picked through the same, it seems that it's a tradition, it's in your DNA, the apple doesn't fall far from the tree.” That wiped the smile off her face.

“I came for answers.”