Chapter 35 "The Woman I Became".
Lara's pov
On a cool Monday morning, I arrived first in the meeting room. It was a high- rise conference room. The floor and the ceiling window were cold and sterile.
I sat on the power position table, expecting Natasha and Veronica.
Veronica and Natasha came in with my personal lawyer - Margaret. They looked worse than their last encounter with me. They are now more broken and empty. They both sit down across me, and won't make eye contact at first.
Veronica’s hands were trembling as she set down a folder.
Natasha’s mascara had already smudged due to the fact that she had cried her eyes out.
I could honestly tell that they are broken but that doesn't really matter. They hurted me more too.
“ My client has agreed to this meeting as a courtesy. You have just thirty minutes”. Margaret said.
“ Thank you so much for allowing us to meet you again.” Veronica voiced out.
I went silent fir na moment, to be honest I didn't know what to say to these people again, I just stared at both of them.
“We brought the documentation, Everything you asked us. Natasha continued.
Veronica pulls out a folder with the bank statement and the legal documents. This shows how completely they've been destroyed. All assets had been frozen, the children's college funds were gone.
The documents are: “ For closure in their home, debts collection notices, legal bills they can't pay and their frozen empty bank accounts.
“ This is everything we have left which is nothing. Veronica said.
“And you think I should care because -”
“We are not asking for sympathy Lara, we are asking you for mercy. Please have mercy on us.”
“Mercy , you say? Interesting words can come from yiu now, so you can ask for mercy right?
I feel powerful but empty at the same time. I remembered when I had nothing to eat. When I slept on the street. When Lucas threw me out and here I am in a better place.
The memories began to flash back on me. What Natasha and Veronica said to me then. I remembered the moment when Lucas and Claire told me to leave their house. When they threw me out of their house like I was nothing.
When Veronica called me common trash at their family dinner. Natasha laughed when Claire made me serve them like a maid.
When both of them at the gala watched me struggle and smile as I suffered.
“They had champagne when I had nothing”.They helped create fake affairs photos of me. They both stood slowly while Claire berated me.
So why would I be merciful to them?
Natasha started sobbing, she was now fully broken, she couldn't hold back tears.
Veronica's tries to maintain her steeze and
composure before she eventually cracked down as well.
“Oh, you don't have to cry”, Margaret said , looking so uncomfortable in the situation.
“My daughter asks why we have to move out of the house.” Natasha said.Why her friends can't come over anymore. She continued. What do I tell her now?
“ Then tell her the truth that her grandmother was a murderer and her mother helped in it.”
But she's just twelve years old.
“Do I look like I care?”
“Yes you do care Lara" .You are better than this, you have a good heart. You are not like us.
Don't tell me who I am. You don't even know me. I started fighting against my sympathy, but honestly I remembered Ethan, my son, about children suffering their parents’ sin.
My husband already left me, Natasha mumbled, he took the kids half time and right now he has taken my children away from me.
We now live in one abandoned two bedroom apartment selling junks so as to survive and even eat. Veronica added. I sometimes do night shifts for just $15 per hour.”
I appreciate the minimum wage you gave us , Though it was not enough, we were able to use it to rent the apartment even though we can't afford the luxury like we used to do before.
Ehn ehn… And what again? You don't know what I passed through, I slept on the street in November and I was pregnant.
So forgive me if I don't feel sorry for your two bedroom apartment.
I realized revenge now feels emptier, I was still angry but honestly, I was tired of it. I kept wondering what the point of destroying them further would be.
Veronica dropped her head. When she looked back up at me, something changed in her face, probably empathy.
"We were cruel," she said quietly. We enjoyed making you feel small and humiliating you, because it made us feel big."
I didn't expect that from her . I didn't expect actual honesty from her.
"Mom taught us that," Veronica continued. "That's not an excuse. Just a fact. She taught us to look down on people who had less. To protect what was ours."
"And now you have nothing," I said.
"Now we have nothing. And maybe we deserve it."
"We do deserve it," Natasha added, wiping her eyes. "But our kids don't."
I sat back in my chair.
That was the problem, wasn't it?
Their kids.
Bryan. Genevieve. Natasha's children who didn't ask for any of this.
"I need a moment," I said, standing up from where I was sitting.
Margaret looked at me. "Take your time ma."
I walked out of the conference room and walked down the hall to the bathroom.I Iocked myself in a stall and just stood there.
My reflection in the mirror looked tired, I was so tired of all of thi.
I could destroy them completely and take every last thing they had.
But what would that give me?
Dad was still dead. He had gone and gone for good and nothing would change that.
Would he want this? Would he want me to become the kind of person who crushes people just because I could?
But they hurt me, honestly,they deserved to suffer.
Except for their children, they didn't deserve it.
When does revenge become enough?
When do you stop being the victim and start being the villain?
I washed my hands, fixed my hair and they took a deep breath.Then I went back.
\---
When I walked into the conference room, all three of them looked up.
I sat down on my chair again.
"I'm going to drop the civil suits."
Veronica opened her mouth wide. "What?"
"But I have conditions that are non-negotiable."
"Anything," Natasha said quickly.
I looked at both of them, I made sure they understood I was serious.
"First of all, you two disappear from my life. Forever. I don’t want to ever see you again. Don't call me, don't come to my office, don't send messages, I don't want anything from you."
"We will do exactly as you've said," Veronica said.
"Secondly, if I ever see you at a social event, a charity gala, anywhere I am, you leave. I don't care if you were invited first. You leave."
"We understand," Natasha whispered.
"Thirdly, don't mention or talk about me in public. Not to press, not to friends, not to anyone. As far as the world is concerned, I don't exist to you."
They both nodded.
Margaret was watching me with something like approval.
But I wasn't done.
"One more thing."
Veronica looked nervous. "What?"
"I want you to tell your children the truth when they are older,tell them nothing but the truth. That their grandmother killed someone. That you helped hurt people. That actions have consequences."
"You want us to traumatize our children?" Natasha asked.
"I want you to raise them better than Claire raised you. I want them to know that being cruel has a cost."
Veronica swallowed hard. "We will do that."
"And if I ever hear that they're bullying someone, treating someone as a piece of trash, this deal is void. I will take everything. Do you understand?"
"Yes," they both said.
Margaret pulled out some papers from her briefcase.
“ I had prepared these just in case,” she said. “The settlement agreements. All the terms and conditions are legally written out.”
She spread three copies across the table.
"Sign all three."
Veronica picked up the pen. Her hand was shaking so badly that she could barely write.
Natasha cried while she signed. Her tears dropping on the paper.
I signed without feeling remorseful.
I just wrote my name three times.
Margaret witnessed and notarized each copy.
"It's done," she said.
Veronica and Natasha gathered their things as they stood up slowly.They walked to the door. Then Natasha stopped and turned around.
"Thank you," she said. "We don't deserve this but thank you."
I nodded. I didn't say a word.
Veronica looked at me for a long moment and said.
“I'm truly sorry for the pains I've caused and for the pains our family as a whole has caused you. I'm truly sorry.”
"Will you ever forgive us?"
"Maybe. But for now I'm letting you go. That's all you get."
They left.
The door closed behind them.
The room felt bigger suddenly and quieter.
Margaret poured two glasses of water from the pitcher on the table and handed one over to me.
"That was generous," she said.
"Was it? I don't feel generous."
"You could have taken everything. Left them homeless."
"And what would that have given me?"
Margaret smiled slightly. "Satisfaction?"
"I thought it would. But sitting here, making them beg, I just felt tired."
"That means you're healing."
"Does it?"
"The fact that revenge doesn't satisfy you anymore? Yes. That's healing."Margaret packed up her briefcase.
"I'll file the dismissals tomorrow. This is over for now”.
"Thank you so much”.
"You did the right thing, Lara."
After she left, I sat alone at that big table. I looked out the window at the city below.
People were so tiny,tiny cars.Everyone fighting their own battles.
They were gone. Out of my life forever and honestly I felt relieved.
I won.
So why didn't I feel like I won?
Dad would have wanted me to be kind. But would he have wanted me to be weak?
Is mercy weakness? Or is it strength?
I was so tired of being angry.
My phone buzzed.
Text from Damien: "How did it go?"
I stared at the message.
Just showed mercy to the Ward sisters and gave them a second chance they didn't deserve.
But could I show mercy to Damien if he lied?
That was different.
The sisters were followers. They were weak and controlled by Claire.
But Damien? If he lied to me about the hotel, about Ethan and about everything? Would I forgive him?
That was a different kind of betrayal.
From someone I loved.From someone I trusted completely.I didn't respond to his text yet, because I needed to think.
\---
I drove home slowly. There was a lot of evening traffic on the road.Everyone was rushing somewhere and home obviously.
I wasn't in a hurry. I kept thinking about the day. About mercy and revenge. About who I wanted to be.
I let them go. Not for them but for me especially, my peace and my sanity.
Carrying that hate was like drinking poison and expecting them to die.
But Lucas was different.
The sisters were followers. Lucas orchestrated everything.
He helped kill my father. He stole my company and he even threw me out pregnant with nothing.
Lucas deserved no mercy.
And Damien... if he lied to me...
God,I was so tired. Tired of fighting. Tired of being suspicious of everyone.
I just wanted peace from within. I wanted to be free from all these.
But I didn't know if I'd ever have it.
I pulled into my driveway and saw Damien and Ethan through the kitchen window. They were cooking something together. Ethan was laughing.
They looked happy, like a real family.
I sat in the car for a moment and watched them. I gathered my strength and then I got out and went inside.
"Mommy!" Ethan ran over and hugged me. "We're making tacos!"
"That's wonderful, baby."
I kissed the top of his head.
Damien looked at me. "Is everything okay? You didn't respond to my text."
"Just work stuff. I had a long day."
"How did the meeting go?"
“It was fine. It's handled.”
He kept looking at me like he knew something was wrong.
But I smiled and put on the mask I'd gotten so good at wearing.
"I'm hungry. Let's eat."
During dinner, I watched Damien carefully.The way he laughed at Ethan's jokes.The way he touched my hand when he passed the salsa.The way he looked at me like I was everything.
Was it real?
Or was it all a lie?
Tomorrow Robert would call with the investigation results.
Tomorrow I'd know if the man sitting across from me, the man who saved me, the man I loved, had been lying to me for seven years.
Tomorrow everything might fall apart again.
But tonight, I'm gonna just pretend. Pretend we were just a normal family having tacos on a Monday night.Pretend my world wasn't about to explode.
Pretend I wasn't scared of the truth.
After dinner, I helped Ethan with his homework. And I pet him to sleep.
He fell asleep within minutes.
I stood in his doorway watching him breathe . My son that I do love so much.
No matter what Robert found out tomorrow, no matter who Ethan's biological father was, he was mine and nothing would change that.
I went to my bedroom.
Damien was already in bed, reading. "Are ou okay?" he asked again.
"Yeah. I'm just tired."
I got ready for bed and climbed in next to him.He put his book down and pulled me close.
"I’m so in love with you," he said.
"I love you too."
Did I truly love him?Could you really love someone you didn't trust?
I closed my eyes.
Tomorrow would bring answers.
Tonight, I just needed to sleep.
But I wasn't able to sleep, I just lay there in the dark, listening to Damien breathe as he was far asleep.
Wondering if the man next to me was my savior or just another person who'd used me.
Wondering if I'd ever be able to trust anyone again.
Wondering if mercy was my strength or my greatest weakness.
The sisters were gone.
Claire was dead.
Lucas was in prison.
But the war wasn't over.
Not even close to.
Because the biggest battle might be with the man sleeping peacefully beside me.
The man who might have been lying to me from the very beginning.