Billionaire Romance: Seduced by the Billionaire (10 page)

Gwen felt
hungry all of a sudden. It came without surprise because, like Natalia, she
hadn’t eaten breakfast yet. “Nat, I’m hungry…”

“Me too,” she
agreed.

Gwen took her
wallet out of her purse, but without luck, it was empty. She tipped it over,
and in that instance, Natalia knew what she wanted. A couple of dollar meal
wouldn’t hurt Natalia’s pocket for sure. She was good at handling money,
anyway.

“Alright, I’ll
treat you for now. But make sure you treat me too when you got your first
salary, okay?” she smiled with her eyes beaming with delight.

Gwen crossed
her finger, “I promise.” Then they broke into a laugher, giggling as they
continued walking toward the sushi shop next to where Thom and Mellissa were
standing.

A few step
closer, Gwen rubbed her eyes to make sure she got it right. “Nat…” she shook
her slightly.

Eyes on her
wallet, Natalia was counting how much cash she got left. “What?”

“Is that your
brother?”

As Gwen’s words
reached her eardrums, a sudden dread rang in her ears. She looked up in Thom’s
direction, and without a doubt, he stood there with Mellissa wrapped around
him. Oxygen denied its supply to her lungs as she felt herself running out of
breath.

She dropped her
wallet to the floor. Coins pealed against the slippery floor. Mellissa broke
her grip away from Thom. With shared surprise, the four of them stood there
like a statue. But Gwen couldn’t quite understand what the fuss all about was.

Back to her
senses, Natalia quickly urged Gwen to eat somewhere else. “Gwen, the sushi here
wasn’t as tasty as the ones downstairs…” she kept her eyes on her friend alone.

“But they’re
the same…” she contradicted.

“Gwen,” she
looked at her with an intense look in here eyes, “let’s go.”

“Alright…” Gwen
looked like a child being forced by her mother. Poor girl.

Thom blinked
repeatedly,
skeptical
of what he was witnessing.
Is
that Natalia?
He asked himself. As he realized it was really her, he
quickly ran to apologize, but Mellissa, as usual, wouldn’t let go without a
fight. For the second time, she seized his hand and held him back.

“What are you
doing?” Thom was crossed, but Mellissa couldn’t care less. You break her, she’d
break you hundredfold.

Her fist
slammed into his perfectly symmetrical structured face with a jaw that belonged
to a highly-profiled male model.

Thom’s ears
rang out. She must have a heavy hand. With unrestrained resentment, she walked
away, leaving Thom in ignominy.

On the line,
Mrs Lynn was talking to Tonya.

“Don’t worry so
much about it now, Tonya. It wasn’t your fault. It was an accident and no one
wanted that to happen.” Mrs Lynn’s voice sounded emphatic, sympathizing with
Tonya’s miserable past.

“But… it keeps
bugging me, Lynn. I can’t sleep every night. It’s like they’re ghosting me, or
something… I can’t explain it,” Tonya cried, expressing her great sorrow.

Tonya heard a
door slammed shut. “Is everything alright over there?”

“Ha? Oh, yes…
it was just Jacobson. He slammed the door quite loudly. Don’t mind him. He’s
not listening to our conversation.”

“Right.” Tonya
sighed, wiping her mucus off her runny nose.

“So… I
recommend that you just have to relax and take it easy. Everything happens for
a reason, Tonya. God does not punish anyone. He loves you more than you could
possibly imagine. We’ll keep you in our prayers.”

Clouds of
relief overshadowed Tonya’s perplexed spirit, calming her down as her heart
lightened, humbling her soul. “Thank you so much, Lynn, I don’t know what would
happen to me if I’ve never met you…”

Lynn smiled
quietly. “I’m glad that I’ve met you too. You’re like the sassiest woman I’ve ever
known…” she giggled, destroying the drama.

“Hahaha…” Tonya
laughed, “Thanks! And you’re like the prettiest lady I’ve ever seen, really. No
joke.”

“I’ll take that
as a genuine compliment.”

Tonya laughed
again. But when she remembered about the car crash and the couple’s child, the
atmosphere darkened and a blanket of fear enveloped her. Her stomach began
turning, making her want to vomit. If she was correct, the child was around
Mellissa’s age. But she wasn’t quite sure if it was a girl or a boy. She’d
never had the opportunity to ask the authorities. Such information was
prohibited from sharing to a criminal.

Mrs Lynn
noticed her friend became silent. “Tonya, are you alright? Please, speak a
word. I’m getting worried now…”

“Yes, I’m fine.
I just remember something,” her tone sounded detached and distant as if she was
thinking something deep and unsearchable.

“Is something
wrong?”

“No, everything
is fine. Don’t worry about me…”

“How can I not
worry about you if you sound depressed and lonely? I can’t just leave you like
that,” Mrs. Lynn’s voice sounded angry but gentle at the same time. She was
just really concerned about Tonya who was now thinking of hanging herself.

Mrs Lynn waited
for few seconds for Tonya to answer, but she heard nothing but the depressing
silence that droned on the phone.

“Tonya, are you
still there? Please, answer me…”

“Yes, I’m still
alive, don’t worry… Bad grass is hard to die.”

Mrs Lynn sighed
in great relief. Don’t worry girl, Tonya was not going to kill herself as yet.
She still had plenty of parties to attend.

“What’s keeping
you agitated? Please, just tell me. You don’t need to bottle it all into
yourself, you know. What’s the point of me being your friend?”

“Lynn, do you
still remember the child of the couple I killed?”

Now, the
situation flipped over. Mrs Lynn gasped for air as soon as she heard the word
‘child’. It took her a good thirty minutes just to move and bring her gaze to
her husband who was lying beside her, with his reading glasses on and Jill
McCorkle’s famous novel,
Life After Life
. Tonya heard Mrs Lynn’s painful
gulf…

“Lynn… are you
okay? So sorry if I made you cry. I guess we should sleep now and kill the
drama,” Tonya finally felt tired after a good three hours of talking to Mrs
Lynn on the phone non-stop.

Fear and
accusation jumbled in her head. Mrs Lynn had been keeping this secret for as
long as she could, but the truth wanted to escape – there was no secret that
could be kept for eternity. Everything has its time, and now, after all, those
years, she had to tell the truth for the sake of her loved ones.

A breeze of
mist came out of her mouth onto the lips of the telephone. “Tonya…” her voice
croaked.

“Yes… I’m still
here,” she was oblivious that her world was about to shatter into pieces.

Tonya heard a
mysterious sound coming from the kitchen as she extended her neck to glance it
over as if she was a giraffe with an infinite neck.
Oh, darling. She’s
hungry again,
she thought Penelope was searching the pantry for something
to eat, but the poor cat was lying next to her, deeply asleep. She should never
forget her glasses at her age.

“Promise me
you’ll stay relax and don’t panic, alright?” Mrs Lynn contracted her first,
before revealing her deepest, darkest and most gruesome secret she’d kept for decades.

“Alright, just
say it, Lynn…” Tonya peered at her red polished nails, wondering what colour
would suit her white gown for next week’s event which also happened to be
Natalia’s parents’ death anniversary.

“Do you
remember my daughter?”

“Who? Samantha?”
Tonya crossed her eyebrows, wondering why the hell Mrs Lynn’s daughter came to
the conversation.

“No. Natalia,
the eldest…”

“Oh… What about
her? Wait, was she the one I told you about when I picked up Mellissa from the
airport? I thought she was Thom’s girlfriend…” she laughed, making fun of her
mistake.

“She – she’s
the child…” Mrs Lynn paused, allowing her tears to fall down. Mr Jacobson gazed
at her in an utter wonder of what was happening.

“What do you
mean she’s the child? I don’t understand, Lynn. She’s your child, isn’t she?”

“Yes, she’s my
adopted child, Tonya.”

It was almost
there. All the clues were laid out for her to take in, but she wouldn’t take
any of them. No way…

With swollen
eyes, she swallowed her horror and asked again. “So, what’s the point you’re
trying to get across here? Don’t tell me…”

Mrs Lynn cut
in, “Yes, she’s – she’s the child of the couple who died in the car accident…”

Spectra of
lights danced in her eyes as her vision blurred, disallowing her to see her
surroundings. Stuck in between her jaw and shoulder was the telephone. She
couldn’t hold it properly. It was too heavy. She felt like the entire galaxy
had suddenly collapsed upon her shoulder. Everything seemed loaded. She
couldn’t take it anymore…

“Hello? Tonya,
are still there? Please…” Mrs. Lynn cried out, but her husband quickly jumped
in to comfort her.

“Let her alone,
for now, honey. She needs time to take it all in. Please, I beg you…” Tonya
overheard him spoke. How she wished to have someone to ease her anguish too.
But she had none… not even one. What about Penelope?

“Tonya, I’m so
sorry about this. Please, have a rest now. We’ll call you tomorrow, okay? Have
a good sleep.” Mr Jacobson hanged up.

“Have a good
sleep? Yeah, right…” Tonya mocked. Her gaze was fixed on the floor, floating in
the mid-air, detached from her consciousness. The telephone fell down. She did
not care. Her brain was frozen, numbed with guilt and shame.

Still staring
at the floor aimlessly, she tried to think of any reason to live but found
none. Mellissa wasn’t at home. Really? Penelope was sleeping, unbothered by her
master’s grief.

“Why? Why didn’t
I kill myself before all this shit happened? Am I that wicked to be punished
like this?” Tears formed around her eyes, edging to trickle down, but she was
holding them back, afraid to break down and lose her mind completely.

She stood up,
and with idle pace, she walked like a drunkard woman in the street of Chicago.
Her weight pressed down against the soft brown carpet. Few step at a time, she
was heading to the kitchen to end her misery. Why did it need to reach this
far?

Over the
kitchen’s island countertop, pots and pans were scattered all over the place.
It was as if the house was ravaged with sand of thieves. It was messy as hell.
A spill of alcohol was everywhere, and the smell was unbearable. It was too
strong for Tonya’s ancient nose.

Her nose
twitched, compelling her to postpone her death. She walked around the island,
and sure enough, she knew it wasn’t Penelope who was raping the kitchen.

“Mellissa?”
Tonya’s sympathy for herself shifted to her daughter.

“Whatttt? Go
away, you bitch…” Mellissa’s head swayed on both sides, an indication she was
severely intoxicated.

“Watch your
language, Mellissa. I’m your mother!”

“Fuck you! You
fucked my life, and I don’t have a mother like you. Without you, Thom would’ve
never left me,” she enraged, utterly oblivious of her rudeness.

Whoosh… her
mother’s palm struck her cheek, forcing her to wake up and return to her
senses. Tonya felt terrible about it, but she had to stand on her ground and
show who the boss was.

Stunned and
hurt, her mother’s slap seemed to have an everlasting effect on her that cast
the alcohol’s spirit away. Mellissa kept her gaze away from her mother who was
now flooding the kitchen with tears and mucus.

“Why? Why did
you do that?” Mellissa asked desperately. In her entire childhood, her mother
had never laid a finger on her, and now that she felt Tonya’s vexation, she
fathomed that her mother was going through a hard time right now.

“Thom? What’s
so special about him that you can’t seem to let him go? He’s that special to
you more than your own mother?”

“Yes,” Mellissa
faced Tonya. “He cares about his family. He loves his sister, Natalia, so much
that he can’t live without her. Unlike you, you never truly care…” she enraged,
screaming and shouting hard out as if she was in theatrical stage drama.

“No. All my
life I sacrificed myself to make you happy, but you never appreciate it.” Tonya
wept.

Silence took
hold, pausing the moment. Then, when she could no longer keep it to herself,
the words just came out of her mouth like a stream of water, flooding
information into Mellissa’s ears.

“Thom and
Natalia aren’t true siblings…” Tonya revealed.