Lauren's POV “Darla,” Damien called out to her in a scolding tone, but it was too late. I was now staring back and forth between Damien and Conrad, waiting for one of them to give me an explanation on what was happening without me having to ask. “Is somebody going to tell me what she means by that? I was with your nephew before I got married to you? How? What happened?” I questioned, suddenly feeling stupid and used. It was as if they were all in on something that they were laughing about behind my back. “Say something, Damien,” I said, using my leg to nudge his own. “There’s nothing we can say that would make it all feel better unless you get your memories back. A lot happened between you and Conrad. I can only tell you that there’s no animosity,” Damien assured me. “I wouldn’t say that,” Conrad argued. “You have not picked up any of Shirley’s calls, and you have been ignoring her texts. I would say there’s a bit of animosity on your side.”
Lauren's POV “That is the worst possible thing you could want to do, Lauren,” Darla protested against my request to see Katarina. “Even if you do want to do it, Damien would never allow it “ “I want to see Katarina. I want to know what I did to deserve any of this. I want to ask her if the only thing she holds against me is getting married to Damien,” I said. It was hard for me to think that she was only jealous, and that was it. She hit me with a truck after attempting to kill my mother. That was something you could only do to your worst enemy. “Tell me something, Lauren,” she said as she grabbed me by the hands and stood up with me. “Do you remember what happened now?” “All of it,” I answered. “From what she did to my mother to what she did to me, I remember all of it. I want to know what made her do it. If she had threatened me and told me to get divorced from Damien, I would have understood, but why did she have to bring my mother into it? Why di
Lauren's POV “What are you doing?” Damien asked me as he got into the room and found me folding some of my clothes into my bag. “Are you going somewhere?” “I believe I need a break from all of this. I have to get out of here for a while. I could check myself into a hotel and stay there for a while so that I can recollect everything that’s been going on around me,” I said. “You need to take a deep breath and tell me what’s going on,” he said, taking my shoulders and making me face him. “I heard your conversation with Darla a few minutes ago,” I admitted, seeing the genuine surprise on his face when I said that. “Lauren, we can talk about this. We can figure this out. You don’t have to move out,” he requested. “When were you going to tell me, if you were even going to tell me at all?” I asked him, crossing my arms and giving him an opening to say something in his defence. “I didn’t know how you would take it. It started with my father. My
“Miss Lauren Walter, we’re calling to inform you that your father has officially gone over two weeks without providing the payment for your father’s treatments. He’ll be taken off treatment in the next five days if the payment isn’t made.”“No, please. I—”The loud beep came, signalling that the woman on the other side of the phone had hung up.“Oh, God. No, no, no,” I muttered to myself, wiping my stray tears. “Fuck!”I walked back through the backdoor and into the kitchen of the restaurant where I worked as a waitress.I took shaky breaths, wiping the cold sweat off my forehead as I walked towards the manager’s office.“Come on in,” his gruff voice responded right after I knocked on the door.The door creaked open, revealing the man with his salt-and-pepper hair and matching moustache sitting behind his desk. There was a toothpick in his mouth and he sat almost lazily. The customized, illuminated nameplate on his table, which a lot of the staff laughed at behind his back, drew my at
“Lauren,” Shirley squeaked, both of them scrambling to cover themselves with the white sheets. “I can explain, it’s really not—” “I don’t know if I really want to listen to you explain why you’re in bed with my boyfriend, Shirley.” I shook my head, turning to Conrad with tear-filled eyes. “How could you do this to me?” He only sighed and looked away in response, leaving me unsure of knowing if he was remorseful. “I didn’t mean for this to happen, Lauren, please.” Shirley attempted to stand up, but Conrad pulled the sheets back so he wouldn’t be naked. Shirley resorted to putting on her shirt and shorts. “Why…?” I questioned nobody in particular. This whole thing had just been thrown in my face and, as much as I needed answers, I didn’t want to hear much from them. “How long?” I said. “How long has this been going on?” “Three months,” Conrad was the one to reply now, his eyes fixated on me without an inkling of guilt. “Oh, God,” I collapsed against the door, squirming as Shirle
“Your father is not responding to the treatments anymore.” The mechanical-like voice of the woman on the other end played on and on in my head for the rest of the ride to the hospital. It took everything in me not to scream in the confined space of that car. She said he was unresponsive. She didn’t say he was dead. I chanted those words in my head until I got tired of hearing them from myself. Perhaps, I was only freaking out for nothing. They must have done something by then and he was now responsive. They must have forgotten to call me and tell me not to panic. As soon as we reached the hospital, I ran into the lobby, where the waiting room was, to find the receptionist with a concentrated look on her face as she read through a file. “Hi, hi!” I called out, reaching her desk like a wild animal. She flinched, frowning at me. “Walter?” She raised her brows, recognizing me. “Yes.” I nodded, panting. “You’ll
It was silent in the car. I was anxiously chewing on my fingernails, taking deep breaths that didn’t calm me as much as I wanted. I had lost my father, and I was about to lose my mother, all in one night. I couldn’t let that happen. “Please drive faster,” I pleaded, checking my phone to see that I had just three minutes left out of the seven minutes to be at home. The driver picked up his speed, thankfully, but I couldn’t tell if we could make it in time. “What’s the matter? I could always call my boss to sort it out for you,” he offered. “It’s fine, I’m fine. You’ve both done enough. This is more than enough,” I declined. Dragging strangers into my mess, even at their insistence, was not something I wanted to do, especially when I knew that my bad luck never ended. They could help me this one time and the next thing to happen to me would be even worse. I didn’t need that on anyone. “It’s really not a problem. He told me to let him know
Shirley had moved in with Conrad. I had only found out about it when I went to Shirley’s apartment, where her neighbors told me that she had moved just that morning. I found myself in front of Conrad’s door later, only to be met with Shirley opening the door. She was wearing a blue shirt of his which almost matched the shade of her eyes, and her blond hair was up in a messy bun. “Wow,” I mouthed. If I were seated in front of a screen and watching myself going through this, I would be laughing at just how impossibly shitty my life was. “Lauren, I…” she trailed off, possibly out of excuses to make. “You don’t have to worry about the apologies, Shirley. I already wished you two good luck yesterday. That’s not why I’m here,” I assured her. “Who’s at the door?” I heard Conrad’s muffled voice from inside the house, followed by his footsteps as he finally made his way out to find me. His brows scrunched in a frown as he