Chapter 39 ENGAGEMENT PARTY IV
All the members of the Grayson gathered in the living room of their family mansion, including Isabella who sat close to Ethan as the eyes of everyone were on her. All except Gage who wasn't in the room. They sat in silence, just staring at the girl as if they were seeing a ghost, rather than a human.
El was the most confused one in the place. She couldn't still understand why everyone was staring at the girl in that way. Many questions ran through her mind as she sat close to Chloe, but she couldn't bring herself to ask. She had seen the girl earlier at the party when she walked in, and how her presence had affected every member of their family. She could tell from the expression written on all their faces which were the same as now, except for Ethan whose face was back to the normal calm, yet serious one.
She remembered how for the first time since she met Ethan, she had seen an emotion boldly written on his face at the party, Shock. And it had lasted for a couple of seconds before returning to its normal one, but he still couldn't fool her. With the way his eyes were locked on this woman, she could still tell he was shocked even if he tried to hide it from reflecting on his face. She also heard him fumble on a name, her name perhaps and she didn't know why, but seeing Ethan react like that at the sight of this girl made her feel weird.
The girl had walked up to them at the party, slowly, in her red turtle neck mini dress, her legs placed one before another so gracefully as if she walked to a piece of unheard music in her silver six inches of heels, and she smiled with her beautiful white teeth. At that point, El had thought she was an angel because of her beauty. Even if she hated the way this girl had stared at Ethan, she couldn't deny the fact that she was an elegant woman and she felt like no man could resist her charms, including Ethan who couldn't seem to take his eyes off her.
When she got to where they had stood, she stood directly in front of Ethan with a smile still spread across her lips, their eyes locked on each other like there was no one else in the room other than them.
"How is it possible that you are here?" Ethan asked, making El even more confused as she stared at them both.
"Well, I came to surprise you," Isabella paused for a second studying his face "And from the way you look, I guess it worked."
Ethan didn't say a word, and just continue staring at her, and for the first time also, El had seen another reaction from him. He was speechless.
Isabella walked closer to him and hugged him. They stood there for some seconds before Ethan released himself from her embrace. "You're really here. I thought you were at the hospital, unconscious" he held her shoulders "so, how are you here?"
"It's a long story. I'll tell you later, but for now..." She turned to El and Mirabel and she forced a smile. "Congratulations on your engagement," she said with gritted teeth as her eyes suddenly became damp.
Ethan turned to look at El who stood beside him confused, before turning back to look at her. "I want to hear it now." Without any further delay, he had led her out of the room without caring about how the guests at the party reacted. As he led her out, they murmured amongst themselves as they stared at them both but turned back to El when they left the room and were no longer in sight.
El also stared at them and when they were no longer in sight, her eyes wandered around the room as she looked at the guests whose eyes were all on her as they mumbled words. She couldn't still believe what just happened. Was she dreaming, or did Ethan just leave their engagement party with some girl she didn't even know? She had never been more humiliated in her life. As she stood there staring at the guests who seemed to murmur, even more, she felt like disappearing into thin air.
Chloe who saw her reaction from where she stood, alongside Sophie, had walked up to her and led her out of the room, and the other members of the Grayson followed, but Gage had stayed back to give a formal announcement. As she walked out of the room with Chloe and Sophie, she could feel the eyes of the guests still on her.
When the door of the room opened, the paparazzi outside started taking pictures as they all came to her at once with their cameras in their hands.
"Miss Eleanor, would you mind telling us who the woman Mr. Ethan left with is?" One of them asked.
"Does she have anything to do with why the engagement party is over?" Another had asked.
"Is she Mr. Ethan's secret girlfriend?" Another had asked again.
They all asked at once as they took pictures of them but the bodyguards were quick to push them out of their way, and even the building. Max had led them upstairs, while Sophie was escorted out of the building when she had bid farewell to El and Chloe.
.
"It's good to see you alive and healthy, child." Griffin broke the silence in the room as he stared at Isabella who smiled on hearing his words.
"Thank you, Mr. Grayson," Isabella replied in a calm low, but audible voice.
Just then, Gage walked into the room, and Griffin stood up to his feet. "How are things out there?"
"I've handled the guests, Dad, but we'll have to wait till morning to take down any news which is displeasing."
Griffin's eyes moved to Ethan, who sat unbothered by whatever they were saying and he sighed on seeing his nonchalant attitude toward the feedback. "I'll leave you then to take care of that," he said to Gage, before walking out of the room.
The once quiet room suddenly became lively as every member of Ethan's family went to welcome Isabella, except El and Chloe who sat still watching all of them. It felt like they were waiting for Griffin to leave the room because his presence was stopping them from acting the way they wanted. When most of them were done welcoming her and headed back to their seats, Chloe stood up from hers and greeted her casually.
As El watched them act all friendly around her, including Aunt Amelia and Vanessa, she felt weird because she was the only one who wasn't welcoming her or doing whatever they were doing. It wasn't her fault tho. She barely understood what was going on, even if she had her hypothesis in her head which may or may not be true. As she watched Chloe walk up to the girl, she felt a certain pair of eyes on her and when she turned to see who it was, her heart skipped a beat.
Ethan's eyes were glued to her face as he sat opposite her. Unlike those friendly eyes, he had earlier at the party, his eyes had returned to that cold, emotionless one that she hated the most. Looking at him like this reminded her of the humiliation he had caused her not too long ago, and it angered her in a kind of way she couldn't understand, yet she couldn't bring herself to say anything to him. What was she supposed to say? Was she supposed to confront him, and ask - Ethan, who is the girl sitting close to you that you left me at the party for? Or aren't you going to give me an explanation for why you left the party with a girl, humiliating me in front of everyone?
She sighed inwardly. It was just going to make her sound pathetic especially because this marriage was a contract, and it is clearly stated in the contract for her not to meddle in his business. But still, it was so unfair to treat her in this way.
Without saying anything to her, Ethan stood up from the couch and walked out of the living room. Everyone's eyes in the room were on him, including Isabella who stood up five seconds after and followed him out. Gradually, the rest of the family who was in the living room also, left the room until there was no one except Chloe and El who seemed to be lost in her thoughts.
"Who is she?" El asked Chloe who sat beside her, after a long period of silence between them.
"Her name is Isabella..."
"I already know her name," El interrupted Chloe. "I heard Ethan murmur her name." She added as she turned to look at Chloe.
"That's because she is Ethan's girlfriend."
"You mean ex."
"I can't say because they never broke up."
El shot her a questioned look. She knew from the way Ethan and the girl had stared at each other that they once had an into a relationship, but she had doubted that thought. Ethan didn't look like a person who could ever love anybody, or was she wrong? If this girl was Ethan's girlfriend as Chloe had said and they hadn't broken up, why then was she contractually getting married to him? Why was she in the picture?
"They never broke up? If they never broke up, why am I here? Why have I been tortured for a full month if Ethan has a girlfriend who is very much in love with him? Huh? Tell me, Chloe, why?" She paused to look at Chloe's face carefully "I never wanted any of this but I was forced into this, so why am I being treated in this way?"
Chloe sighed, trying to choose her words carefully because, at this point, she didn't know the fate of their relationship and her friend also felt really bad. "Isabella was Ethan's first love, first girlfriend, and his best friend. They had known each other since Ethan was twelve and apparently, she was the person who brought Ethan back to life after his mother died. I don't know how they met, but because of their friendship at that time, everyone grew fond of her in our house, and the two families were united also." She paused for a second, looking at Els's face.
"They grew up together to become extremely close, and soon they started getting attracted to each other, so they started dating when Ethan was 15 and at that time, she was 14. It lasted for a very long time, and those were the times when Ethan was always very happy" "Have you ever wondered why there are no stairs in any of the Grayson's mansions?"
El looked at her confused. Well, she had always wondered that even if she told herself not to read meaning into any of her assumptions. But why was Chloe suddenly asking her that now? Had she been wrong when she failed to listen to her instincts that told her that there must be a story behind this? Was the story related to this girl?
El nodded.
"Ethan was 16 then and Isabella was 15 when the incident occurred. They had a misunderstanding for the first time since they started dating, and Ethan was really upset. No one had seen him that upset before. I didn't know what led to the misunderstanding, but all I knew was that it was her fault and she was running after him, saying words I can't remember. I was only 12 at that time, and I wanted to go up the stairs when I saw something roll down, so I shifted from the entrance of the stairs just in time to avoid getting hit by whatever was rolling down." She paused, staring at the floor as if it was a mirror that she used to see everything that happened in the past.
"Only for me to see that it wasn't something, but a person, whose face was covered with her hair. When I looked up to see who was standing up there, looking at the girl on the floor, I saw Ethan. He was staring at the figure on the floor terrified like he had seen a ghost. Another glance at the person with the way Ethan reacted told me that it was Isabella."
El held her mouth with both hands as if trying to stop herself from screaming, even if no sound came out of her mouth.
"I screamed in fear which attracted some maids, and other people in the house who hurriedly helped her. She had been in a coma ever since, and even if Ethan suddenly acts like he doesn't care, he has been living with the guilt ever since. And from that day, because of Ethan, stairs ceased to exist in all the Grayson's mansion, and Ethan returned to the cold person he is now" "I don't know what may become of their relationship now, El." She held Els's hand. "And I don't know if Ethan would still be interested in the contract anymore, now that she's back. But I know that I'll always be there for you, so don't think you have no one because we're in this together, okay?"
El nodded with a smile, and they hugged each other.
They spent the rest of the night at the mansion, in their respective rooms. As El lay on her bed, she couldn't sleep. Everything Chloe had told her earlier that night flooded her mind and she couldn't stop herself from thinking about it. She felt bad for Isabella, but more for herself as she wondered about her fate in the Grayson house.
Now that Isabella was finally back, were they going to terminate her contract? Ethan would certainly do that. She could tell from the way he had stared at Isabella that he couldn't wait to get reunited with his first love. If that was the case, she should be happy, right? She was finally going to get the freedom she had always wanted, but why was she feeling bad about this? She turned sideways on her bed for a while disturbed, but when she got tired, her eyes got heavy and she drifted off to sleep.
At 7:00 am, she was woken up by her alarm, and as usual, the maids were in her room to prepare her for breakfast which she was going to have with other members of Ethan's family. Sluggishly, she got up from her bed and started preparing.
It was a quiet morning as usual, and she was led to the dining room by her maids. On arrival, every member of the family was at the table, already sitting, including Aunt Amelia and Isabella. Everyone except Ethan didn't seem to be on the table.
She sighed inwardly and wanted to walk to a seat when she felt someone standing behind her. She could tell who the person was from his scent and she swallowed. She turned to look at the person and their eyes met as they both held a stare. It was Ethan.