Chapter 10

John rested his back on the sofa, trying his best to conceal his suspicion towards the cunning woman in front of her. She plastered a huge smile on her face, the smile that only made John’s suspicion grow larger.

“I know you lied about her.”, John exclaimed, with his voice deeper than usual. “Why?”

Kiara steadied herself. Though she was in very good care, she still needed to adjust to her new sobriety. She could barely form the lies in her head, so instead, she just told the truth. “I know you’d be taking her away from me the second you know the truth.”

“Based on what she told me, it’s not like you’re the mother of the year.”, John tried to conceal his disgust.

“I kept her because I knew you’d stop sending the money if you took her away from me.”, Kiara said calmly, as if the thing that she said was moral. She finally revealed the truth, although this fact puts her well-being in jeopardy, she felt as if a weight had been lifted off her petite shoulders. “Now I suggest you take a damn good care of her because I never could.”

To his surprise, things did not go terribly with Kiara. He never understood how he ever could fall for such a manipulative snake but he now understands why fate had been very cruel to her. She has no good bone in her body. Every word she ever told him was a big fat lie and he still regrets every second he spent before realizing this.

When Joanne came back to the lounge, she sat right next to her mother, handing both John and Kiara each a can of pops. Although she claimed to despise both of them, there was still a part of her that still wished she had a functional family. However, she knew the second she was to step foot outside of this place, everything would go bad again. At least she was happy for one whole hour before she was forced back to face the bitterness of reality. Before a supercut of all the horrible things that have happened in her life played continuously in her mind.

**

“I don’t see the point in going to school anymore, it’s not like I’m graduating this year.”, Joanne shouted from inside her room that she finally got to herself. She locked the door from the inside so no one could get in to chastise her about the importance of education and how it helped the adults in her house to get to where they are now. She knew what they were going to say and she knew it was not the truth. She knew one should be born wealthy and privileged, or at least marry someone with power like her father did.

“You don’t understand how embarrassed I am by her behavior. Do you know what I had to do to get her into that school?”, Victoria rolled her eyes. Annoyed, she walked away from the door. “I just thought she would be grateful for the life we gave her, but look at how she’s behaving.”, she said faintly. Her words sounded more like a whisper in John’s ears. Unfortunately, I can’t say the same with Joanne. She heard every word of it. Her heart sank as she tried to process what she just eavesdropped on.

“The life we gave her?”, John tried his best not to raise his voice, he failed miserably. “Do you mean the past 3 months that we treat her like a family because she truly is? How can it ever add up to 17 years of her life spent in the trailer park with her mother?”.

Victoria’s eyes widened, this could be the very first time for her current husband to ever show this side of him. Enraged, dejected, miserable. “Great, now you’re blaming me for whatever that snake Kiara is responsible for.”, she felt like she had had enough of this. With no other words, she walked away from him so swiftly that he could barely count her steps.

John was then left alone with his thoughts. She was right, it was never her fault, but why was she held responsible for it? John’s heartbeat grew faster each second, fear started corrupting his whole body. He felt it in his flesh and bones. He had to apologize, he must. 7 years of marriage, and they never once fought. With Joanne living with him, he could not afford to lose all the luxury that’s been given to him so freely.

He sprinted outside, watching his wife leave the driveway with her iridescent Lamborghini. John looked down on his heels. Right then, he thought of what he had to do to keep this marriage alive.