Chapter 9

CRYSTAL

The more time passed in silence in my room, the more perplexed I became about the situation. I had a few questions in my head that needed to be addressed, but Mama just continued to walk back and forth in front of me while I sat on the edge of the bed pinching my fingers.

She started whispering again, "This is all my fault." I was wrong to accept his offer in the first place. He will request a claim on her right away!"

She kept murmuring, her following sentences becoming incoherent. I finally got to the point where I had to approach her. When I touched her arm, she stopped.

"You know you have a lot of explaining to do. But you choose to talk to yourself in front of your confused daughter," I almost cried. "Mama, don't you think I have every right about what is happening? Especially that it affects me fully? Why didn't you tell me you are in a constant communication with my father all this time?"

"What for? So when you learned about him, I'll let you go with him, leaving me behind?" Hurt was visible in she eyes the way she stared at me.

"N-no! What makes you think that way?"

"Because you are always bringing him up, that's why!" She yanked her arm from my grip and turned her back on me. "I understand you, though. You are tired of living a life with limited resources. You have always been searching for him because you want a better life—a fat allowance, massive bedroom, and maids that will do the job for you."

My mouth parted but I was not able to speak at once. Oh, God, how could she think of that? "There's no way in this world that I would let that happen. "I love you more than anyone and anything in this world. The only thing that I want from my father is love and a complete family. But I know it would not be possible because he already has his own family. That's why I was always refusing to Erik's—"

I cupped my mouth with my hands before my words continued to spill even more like free flowing water.

"He wants what?" Mama narrowed her eyes when she turned to me. I gasped when she grabbed my hands and removed them from my mouth. 'Say it, Crystal. What's the young man demands?"

"N-not actually his demands."

"Of course, it is the will of your father. Say it anyway!"

I startled when she yelled. Although confused by her violent expressions, I said, "H-he said my father wants me to resign from work. He wants me to live in his mansion, and when I'm on the right age, he will give me his company as the next chairman."

Mama's eyes widened as if she heard the most awful news in history. "That's ridiculous. How can such an irresponsible man offer you almost the whole world?" she chuckled, shaking her head as she snatched her phone resting on my bed-side table. "Forget about what he promised, Crystal. I've heard the same set of sweet words before, and what did I get? I don't what the history to be repeated, especially to you."

Was it possible? Was my father capable of dumping me when things didn't favor him again? He might be one of the wealthiest person in the state, country even. But could I withstand the complication he was living with? How would his legal family react when they learned that the head of their family had extra baggage? My chest tightened, knowing that the baggage was none other than me and my mother. For some reason, it made me pity myself.

Mama was right. I must not accept him. Living with the Waynes would only bring me some pain in the neck.

"This is not part of our arrangement, Miguel Wayne. I agreed to your financial support. But trying to get close to 'my' daughter isn't part of any agreement!" Mama continued to scream to the phone stuck to her ear. "…so, if you don't want me to ruin your clean reputation to the public, stay the hell away from my daughter!"

For the first time, I watched my mother communicate with my father. It felt strange. With her cold expression and tone, it seemed like she was talking to a stranger, to someone whom she really shouldn't talk with in the first place. Right this moment, I was convinced that I could never really have a complete family.

When Mama ended the call, I approached her at once for something was still bugging my mind. "You said my father was supporting us financially. But where is the money going?"

Her jaw hardened. "What exactly do you mean, Crystal?"

"Why in the world am I still working if you are continuously receiving allowance from him?"

She turned her gaze away from me. "This isn't the right time to talk about that, Crystal."

"Then when is the time?" Frustration swept over me as I sighed, planting my hands to my hair. "Wait, do you really plan to tell me everything? Or you are just delaying this issue because you are running out of excuses as to why you spend my father's money alone. Aren't you that selfish—"

My sentence was cut when a solid slap hit my face. For some seconds, my mind went blank from the impact. And when I glared back at her, tears where already streaming down her face.

"You don't have any freaking right to talk like that to your mother, young lady. You know nothing!"

Before I knew it, she was storming out of my room, sobbing.

Because of our heated conversation, Mama didn't go to work and just locked herself inside her room. My heart was weeping. I felt terrible about saying those harsh things to her. I realized I shouldn't have talked to like her as if I was just confronting someone my age. She might be hiding something, but everything could be explained. Maybe she wasn't ready just yet.

Even though it was seven o'clock at night, her door was still shut. 'Oh, no. Does she intend to starve herself to death?' I strolled over to her room and knocked after taking the stored food out of the oven. "M-mama? It's time to eat. Open this door for me please."

My shoulders drooped as I continued to knock because she didn't turn the knob. "Alright, I am entirely at blame. But I swear I won't upset you ever again. I love you and I'll always pick you over my father. He's not necessary for us anyway."

Still no response so I stuck my ear against the door. 'Why is it so quiet in there?'

My pulse beat faster as I noticed the odd silence in her chamber. So I hurried to the living room and looked in one of the drawers for the master key. As I turned the key in the knob, my fingers started to tremble. And when the door swung open fully, my world shrank in front of me as I noticed my mother unconsciously sprawled at the foot of the bed.