Amanda dragged her suitcase along the road pavement as she glanced at the mansions. She knew that it was quite a distance to the city but she had nothing on her that she could hail a taxi. She had thought that her prayers had been answered when she got married to Damien Scott but it seemed that life was playing a certain game with her. Sighing in desperation, she walked hurriedly since it was already evening.
She walked for two hours before arriving in front of a hotel. Without even looking at the name, she got in and sat in the nearby booth.
"Excuse me?" she heard a voice ask, succeeding in getting her attention.
"Ma'am, what can we offer you?" a waitress who stood in front of her asked politely.
"A glass of water for now please," Amanda said in a calm and soft voice.
"Okay," the waitress said as she scrambled on her small notepad before walking away.
Being left alone, Amanda felt bitter and she didn't know the reason. She gazed at the streets through the transparent window. As much as she wanted to admire the view and scenery, it was hard. Luxurious cars were being packed one after the other outside the hotel making her question the name of the hotel but out of feeling that she might be misunderstood, she kept quiet and lowered her head.
'I am divorced.'
That was the first thing Amanda texted her best friend when she got hold of her phone and saw Elsa was online. After a few seconds, her phone started ringing.
"What?"
"Why?"
"How?"
Amanda found herself being bombarded with a lot of questions when she picked up the call, she couldn't help but be helpless.
"It's a long story," Amanda answered since she didn't know where to start when she had always lied to the lady that she was having the happiest moments of her life.
"Where are you now?" Elsa asked, desperate and full of worry.
"Honestly, I don't know. I walked two hours from the Scott's mansion and entered the first hotel I saw because I was so tired," she answered in frustration.
"Okay, stay there. I will be there in a few," Elsa said then hung up the call.
Amanda looked at the phone in her hand and shook her head.
"Ma'am, here is a glass of water," the waitress said as she put it gently on the table.
"Thank you," she said as she took the glass to take a sip.
Looking in front of her, she became shocked.
"How or when did someone sit in front of me?" she asked herself inwardly.
"Excuse me?" she said as she looked at the woman who had her eyes on her laptop.
The woman looked up and both of them were quickly shocked.
"Amanda?" the woman asked softly and in disbelief.
"Miss, how do you know my name?" Amanda asked because she didn't know the woman seated in front of her but she felt familiar.
They stayed silent for some minutes while just looking at each other. At the moment, the more Amanda looked at her the more she saw the resemblance and some images came on her head making it start to hurt severely.
"I..."
"Girl, you got to tell me what happened," a voice interrupted them, making them look in its direction.
A lady in the latest fashion outfit and a limited Chanel bag asked. Amanda looked at her best friend who had just arrived and couldn't help cursing inwardly for her having bad timing. Nonetheless, she wore a smile on her face as she stared at the beautiful woman. Sometimes she wondered how lucky she was to have someone from the high society as her best friend while she, Amanda was brought up in an orphanage.
Sensing the awkward silence, Elsa looked around and saw another person aside from Amanda. She recognized the later opposite Amanda but she couldn't bring herself to greet her since she knew what kind of a person she was.
Raising her eyebrow, Elsa asked, "Amanda, since when did you know Miss Anderson?" "You know that they are the Scott's family adversary?"
"First of all, I don't know her. It's just that we are sharing the same booth. Secondly, I honestly don't give a shit about that family," Amanda said the last statement coldly making the warm atmosphere in the booth turn chilly.
"Uhm. What the hell happened to you? You have always cared about the Scotts so much. It has always been the Scotts this, the Scotts that," Elsa asked as she sat next to her best friend and turned her attention to Amanda waiting for some juicy gossip even though inside, she was worried what might have really happened.
Even though Amanda had always told her how her life in that mansion was, Elsa knew the truth but she had never wanted to confront her best friend in fear that she might hurt her even more.
"I...I am sorry. I have always lied to you about how I am treated in that family and everything," Amanda said with her head lowered. She was broken, she wanted to cry but she had to be strong for herself.
Amanda narrated everything from how she got married into the Scott family to how she got a divorce from Damien.
Hearing this, Elsa's eyes were filled with tears because even though she knew that Amanda wasn't treated fairly by the Scotts, she never thought it was to that extent.
On the other side, Miss Anderson had a frown on her face as she listened to what Amanda was saying. Her family had always been at odds with the Scotts but she had never thought that they couldn't treat a human being worse, even worse than an animal. If it weren't for the fact that she had been taught since young to always have control over her emotions and mask them, she would have been crying just like Elsa.
After noticing that the story had come to an end, Miss Anderson's eyes stared at Amanda deeply as if she were trying to see through the young lady.
As if analyzing Amanda by her physical appearance, her eyes moved from Amanda's face to the collarbone, Miss Anderson saw something that shocked her to the core. This time, tears found a way out of her eyes and she started crying. She quickly stood up and walked towards Amanda.
Hearing the movement, both Amanda and Elsa snapped back from their thoughts and story and looked up. That is when they realized that they weren't alone but they had company.
"Uhm, sorry you had to listen to that," Amanda apologized as she bit her lip like she was waiting for her punishment.
Seeing this, Miss Anderson felt both amused and angry at the same time. She quickly wiped her tears in fear that someone might see her like that but Elsa had already seen it and was shocked.
"It's okay," Miss Anderson said as she sat on the right of Amanda.
Without even waiting for Amanda's reply or even asking for permission, she embraced Amanda then said, "I know you are pretending to be strong. You can cry all you want no one is going to question you."
When Amanda heard this, she felt as if a heavy weight had been lifted from her heart and she found herself crying.
If seeing Miss Anderson's tears was shocking, Elsa was even more shocked at the scene in front of her.
Amanda cried for more than fifteen minutes before coming down.
"What's your name?" Miss Anderson asked.
"Amanda Anderson," Amanda replied without even thinking twice.
"I know you are pretending to be strong. You can cry all you want no one is going to question you." Amanda remembered these words, she closed her eyes and found them in her mind. She became wordless, emotional, happy as she looked at the woman seated on her right.
"You...you are..."