Anna squeezed her eyes and she adjusted them to the light of the room, wondering where she was. The blurry vision was slowly clearing and when she had her eyes fixed clearly, she realized she was in a hospital but that nearly made her smile, she was sure she was fine and hadn't had any attack, right? What brought her to the hospital, then? Then she recalled, as though it were a movie, everything was coming back to her mind that she felt the urge to pull her mind out of her chest and without wanting to, she only felt the salty liquid of her tears on her lips.
She tried to sit upright when two warm hands held her back and when she turned, even though blinded by her tears, she realized it was her mother. “Mom...” Her lips trembled and she broke into even more tears, she felt as her mother wrapped her hands around her neck, and she broke into tears.
“I feel so terrible, Mom.” She cried harder and all Daphne did was patted her back lovingly as she began to make some soothing circles on her back.
“I know, Anna, I know. Just hang in there, okay? Everything will be fine, you don't have to talk about it now, just concentrate on getting ready, okay?” She slightly broke their hug and cupped her face calmly with love gleaming through her eyes. She didn’t know what had happened to Anna yesterday, but she knew it was something terrible, and when she asked Julia about it, she only told her that she went to see Charles.
She knew that she was in love with Charles, but seeing the way he treated her was what stopped her from telling Anna to be careful with him. If something happened to him, this wasn't the way she would act. Something must have happened to her. “Can you take me home, Mom?” She asked with a drained voice that didn’t sound like hers and Anna knew if she stayed in this hospital longer than a minute, then she wouldn’t be able to breath as normally as she should.
She sensed the hesitation in her mother’s eyes, “Please, Mom. I promise you, I'm alright. I don’t even know what happened but I'm fine.” It took a lot of begging and it wasn't until her Mother saw her crying that she told Julia to go and collect the discharge letter from the doctor. Anna was just staring at the street while they drove back home, because she didn’t know what to say to the curious looks both Mom and Julia were flashing her.
She sighed and closed her eyes as she leaned back on the seat, she didn't know what was going to happen to her heart if it kept hurting the way it did now. Whenever she closed her eyes, all she could remember was Charles...no, she quickly stopped herself and shook her head as pathetically as she had never done before. He said his name was Henry, right? Henry Donald. She flicked back her tears because she didn’t want Mom to think that she wasn’t alright. Who was she joking? They knew she wasn’t. In fact, she could feel the coldness of her heart surrounding her and the ache Jack Robert caused was crushing not just the red flesh beating in her chest, but even the bones she called her lungs.
It was excruciating. She thought when Nate broke her heart that was the most painful thing she would ever get to overcome in her life, but she was wrong. Nothing had ever pained her the way this did. She wished she could run away but that would only be her seeing a coward, she had to face her demons this time, she had to show Jack that she wasn't the weak woman he had always known she was. She cleared the stubborn tears that rolled down her cheeks, meticulously not to let her Mother see her tears.
They arrived home and when she got down the car, she felt as though the first day she had seen Charles, no, Henry standing beside her car as they all waited for her. She thought from that day that he would be the one, and because she believed in the notion that Anna Brayden got whatever Anna Brayden wanted, she trusted her instincts and went for him. Not knowing he wasn’t real, everything about Charles was a fake even though it was the exact thing her soul had been yearning for. She turned her eyes away from the place as she stared ahead of her.
“Do you need some help, Ma’am?” Julia politely asked. And when Anna turned to look at her, she knew she was so worried, in fact, she wanted to know what happened and instead of the No that wanted to come out of her lips, Anna nodded her head and she watched as Julia warmly held her before they walked into the house. Julia helped her took the stairs and when they got to her room, Anna felt as though it had been a year since the last time she was in the room.
Wasn’t it just yesterday night that she was so up creak about what must’ve happened to the man that she loved? She was so afraid that something must’ve happened to him and she took the risk of driving herself there, had to sneak out because she didn’t want her mother to know that she had gone out. She felt so useless now that she knew everything, so his absence was deliberate, it was like a magnet that will pull her to him because at least, Jack knew how selflessly she loved, and if Char-Henry disappeared for a day she would have to and find him wherever he was. Then it happened, the avalanche that even the protective Maya had never seen coming.
Julia was about to leave when Anna spoke in a voice filled with so much anguish. “Charles...” She began and let her words trailed off to prepare herself, “That wasn’t his name. His name is Henry Donald and he’s not a bodyguard like we’ve all imagined him to be. Jack Roberts is his best friend, and he came to California purposely to fake-date me and make sure I crumble to my bones due to the pain that they planned on inflicting on me...” She was speaking with no tear dropping down, just raw pain dicing her heart at every nook and cranny.
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He turned his face away from his mother because Jack knew if he kept on seeing those tears on her face, nothing could stop him from doing what she wanted him to do and that would be the last thing he wanted to do in his life. He hissed and sat down because she kept on staring at him with her eyes filled with pain and guilt. “I want you to understand that I haven't slapped you because I wanted to, Jack. I had to do the to protect you, don't you realize?” Did she have to tell him that? He knew already, and he wasn’t angry at her because she had slapped him. He had never been angry at her because of that and couldn’t start now.
“I came here to apologize to you, Jack. Please forgive me and you should also go and apologize to your father...” He cut her off before she was done. He shot his head up and shook his head at her.
“You know that will be the last thing I'd do, right, Mom? And you don’t have to apologize to me, I know you did that because of him and never because you wanted to do it. As for him...” He roamed his fingers through his hair and shook his head. “I'm sorry, but I can’t go to apologize to him, because I haven’t done anything wrong, did I?” He fixed his eyes on her and she knew she had no reason to tell him that he was the one at fault. He was an adult, of course, but that didn’t mean that he wasn’t under the care of his parents, right?
“But you know how your father is...” he cut her off again, it always hurt him whenever she spoke this way. Whenever she acted as though he wasn’t the one at fault, she excused his habits and how he had always made her cry.
Jack stood up from where he sat and pointed at the tears she was trying so hard to wipe off. “Look at how miserable that man has made of you, Mom. You’re a whole better than this, you don’t deserve. You’re rich enough to live in luxury and never go broke by your unending shopping sprees for me to say that you're staying with him because of his wealth. Please, Mom! You don’t deserve a man like him, you don’t. Set yourself free, give Willa the strength she secretly needs because I'm sure she wasn’t able to walk out of her abusive marriage because she was afraid of what would be of her. Her Mother didn’t exude the energy she needed now...” He had to stop himself because he had realized what he had done. He had given up a bit about Willa which he had promised her that he wouldn't.
Mom was staring at him with her mouth slightly agape, “What do you mean? What’s with Willa? Are they having issues with her husband?” He shook his head as he began to pace the room when she held his wrist and he had never seen her as panicked as she looked like today.
“Mom, look, it’s nothing to worry about...” She cut him in rage.
“How dare you tell me it’s nothing to worry about? What the hell is wrong with Willa? Tell me everything, Jack.” She fixed her intense eyes on him and Jack gulped down a lump in his throat. He had promised Willa, but he knew Mom will be damned worried if he didn't tell her what was going on now.
He placed his hands on her shoulders and she looked up at him with all the pain he had never seen in her eyes, more tears were already accumulating there. “Victor is cheating on her, Mom. But you need not to worry about anything, okay? We can...” he was cut off by her.
“What can we do? Take me to her house right now, call her, even if she’s not home I ca meet her wherever she is.” she was already at the door by the time she was done talking and Jack knew his mother so well that she wouldn’t relent unless she saw Willa and she told her everything herself. Even though he was certain that she couldn’t do anything about it.
He followed her and she sat down on the passenger’s seat with her eyes red with the pain she had accommodated in her eyes. “Mom, please...”
She turned with a sharp look in her eyes, “Can you please not talk to me now? I’m not strong enough for all these things, Jack, can’t you see?” Her lips trembled as she spoke, and he tightened his hold on the steering wheel. So, this was karma working back on him because if he had made Anna cried for the whole of yesterday night, his mother and sister were going to cry their chests out too.
They arrived in front of Willa’s house and she didn’t even wait for him to call her when she rushed inside and was hitting the knock button so hard until a maid walked up and unlocked the door for them. “Can you please help us call Willa? She’s home, right?”
The maid nodded her head respectfully at Jack before she disappeared into one of the corridors, she knew who he was. He waited there for a few more minutes before a slightly disheveled Willa walked down the stairs and she smiled brightly at him, “Hey, Jack, I wasn’t expecting you.” She gave him a quick hug and he pecked her forehead.
“We’re here with Mom, Willa. I'm sorry, I got angry and began spilling nonsense. Can you forgive your baby brother?” She looked displeased, but immediately shook her head as she smiled beautifully at him.
“Come on, I've been wanting to tell her but didn’t have the courage. Let’s go and meet our cry-baby in the body of our sweet mother.” They all grinned at each other and he wrapped his hands around her shoulders, this was the Willa he had always loved and cared for. She can never show you that she was in pain unless it was so serious to the point that she couldn’t hide it anymore.
The moment they appeared in the living room, Mom rushed to her and she took her into an embrace. “Oh, my baby, I'm a bad mother not to have noticed your pain, right?” She broke their hug and despite Willa’s attempt to look so happy, she ended up making a mess of her cheeks.