Chapter 71

Chapter 71
I remember it clearly.
The way the sky looked permanently tired from thick gray clouds, the way I looked like the sky had fallen on me. Even the way my voice cracked from begging the bus driver to let me get off when I was short on money to pay the fare.
That was a miserable memory.
My clothes were soaked that day from the rain, mascara streaked down from my freezing cheeks and my mind was filled with the sound of camera shutters and laughter from the world that watched me fall apart from my messy divorce.
And the very few people I went to for help discarded me like I was nothing.
That day, I knocked on that familiar door, my mother’s expression hardened immediately when she saw that it was me.
“You! What are you doing here?”
Behind her, my father appeared with his arms crossed.
“So now you finally decided to come back?” he said.
“I just…” I stammered, taken aback from the hate in their voice. “I just needed somewhere to stay a bit, just for a few days.” 
“You think we’ll let you in after what you did?” my mother cut in sharply. Her words struck me harder than I expected, especially when I have always regarded her as someone highly.
“I… I didn’t mean to…”
“You were on national TV, embarrassing yourself, crying like a pathetic mess. Do you have any idea how humiliating that was for us? For once, we were grateful that you didn’t carry our last name and chose to stick with that ‘Coleman’ name,” She continued with a voice so sharp it sliced through me every time I heard her.
I stared at the two of them, while the rain kept falling behind me, dripping from the roof and down onto the concrete pavement.
My fingers tightened around the strap of my bag, which had nothing of worth inside. Despite the humiliation and pain, I have no money left to ride a bus back to the city. 
So, I swallowed my pride and insisted.
“I don’t have anywhere else to go,”
“That sounds like your problem,” My dad cuts in heavily, turning away to leave my mother on her own guarding the doorway to make sure I don’t slip inside.
“You made your choices,” my mom added, “You wanted a glamorous life, now deal with the consequences.”
“But mom—” My voice cracked, and the sobs creaked in, but it only made my mom upset, suddenly screaming at my face. 
Her patience snapped.
“You humiliated us! Get out! You are not our daughter anymore!”
Those were the last words I heard from my mother’s mouth before they slammed the door shut, its explosive noise echoing all over the neighborhood I once grew up in.
The rain had begun to soak my clothes entirely, my knees were shaking from the cold and my teeth were chattering as well. But nothing is far too painful than the realization that I was abandoned once again.
That memory dissolved slowly from my mind and now, the present came rushing back in as I blinked numerously.
The warmth from the Frantz mansion wrapped around my shoulders like a blanket, replacing the cold memory of that day.
Glinting crystal chandeliers glowed overhead, golden sunlight peered through tall glassed windows illuminating the polished marble floors.
Across from me, sat two people I had once begged for shelter.
My parents.
Kiera Roth and Ben Roth.
Roth was my last name before I took Liam’s, and now I am a Frantz thanks to Arlo.
But before everything else, I was once called Kerri Roth.
Thinking about it now, it sounds so… odd. Like I was rotten. 
“What brings you here?” I finally spoke after watching them for an entire minute gawk at the size of the living room, with wide eyes filled in awe.
They were about to answer but a line of maids and butlers entered and moved quietly around the room, taking my parents’ attention. 
They set down trays filled with a variety of delicacies, and poured freshly brewed tea into expensive porcelain cups.
“My father likes coffee,” I corrected. The head butler nodded and signaled to one of the maids to get coffee.
It was an instinct for me to serve my father.
I watched quietly as they divulged themselves into the food prepared for them, while my chest tightened from the realization that not once did they ask how I was.
They haven’t seen me for more than a year, and now they are more interested in the interior decoration of the new home I’m living in than my well-being.
That alone shows enough how much or how little I meant for them, but even knowing that, I can’t help but still crave their love.
When the servants left the room, I asked again.
“Why are you here?” 
They both shifted their gaze and landed on me.
“Is that really what you’re going to ask us first?” Kiera scoffed, looking back at the small pastry she picked up from the tray and examining it like it was made of gold.
“You haven’t even asked us how we have been,” Ben added, then whispering under his breath the words: “How rude you are,”
My face was frozen in a calm expression, but my fingers curled in my lap.
I slightly look at my right to see Arlo sitting beside me.
I know he noticed my feelings. He notices everything.
Arlo had been silent ever since we entered the room, observing the entire interaction between me and my parents like a man studying business negotiation.
But the moment he noticed the hurt in my eyes, he ended his silence.
“My wife asked what brings you here,” he asked, his tone polite, but the underlying authority was unmistakable that my parents quieted down.
“Well,” Ben began.
“We have a problem, you see,” my mother, Kiera continued. “Our house was seized by the government last week,” she admitted sheepishly.
I widened my eyes.
Seized? Why?
“They say it’s something to do with taxes,” Ben added, sounding embarrassed.
Their words lingered in the air far too long, and I just stared at them while irony quietly gathered in my chest.
“So you need help? From me?” I spoke quietly.
“Well, you are our only daughter after all. Who else can we ask?”
So now, I’m suddenly your family?
Kiera and Ben, the same people who had once slammed the door in my face when I had nowhere to go, now sit in my mansion asking for help.
A strange, distorted laugh almost escaped from my lips, but my hands were quick to press it down.
It seems that life had a cruel sense of humor.
I still remember the rain that pounded against my shoulders, the sound of the door closing, the pain of being disowned.
And yet…
Somewhere inside my already battered heart, I longed for something I never truly received.
Familial love.
“You can stay here for now,” I said, shocking Arlo.
Kiera and Ben immediately rejoiced.
I could feel Arlo’s stare penetrating the side of my face, but he didn’t say anything, then he turned towards Pierce, who was standing nearby.
“Have someone investigate the seizure of their property,” he ordered calmly.
“Yes sir,” Pierce bowed and pressed something in his ear as he left the room, an earpiece.
“You can do that?” my mother seemed in awe of the things Arlo could do, even when it involved the government.
“Of course,” he smiled at them, but his eyes were emotionless. “I would do anything for the people who loved and cherished my wife. You are her parents, after all.”
Arlo’s words were filled with praise, but my parents looked uncomfortable knowing that they never once cared for me. The look of guilt plastered on their wrinkled faces.
However, as much as I want to believe in Arlo’s good deeds, I know for a fact, that he is plotting something while my parents are staying over.
I know the look on his face, like a devil setting his eyes on his next plaything.