______ A Month Later ______
☘︎ Jᴇɴɴɪғᴇʀ Rʏsᴏɴ ☘︎
Someone must've mentioned that every great accomplishment happens in a series of three. And if no one said that, it should be a fact.
My feet remain on a standstill outside my father's hospital ward, a flower bouquet Lykas shoved into my hand telling me I need to take it along with me, clutched in my arms. I contemplate turning around and shoving it back into Lykas' hands and doing hell with what I came here for, very much like a coward. But in the end, I take a deep breath, compose myself and push open the door to the hospital's luxe suite.
Samuel Davidson turns his head in the direction of the door the moment he hears it opening and his eyes light up when he sees me, a warm smile forming on his tired face. My dad is seated on the patient bed clad in a blue hospital gown, a single IV cord strung to his nerve. Yet he couldn't look happier. It softens my heart a little. I did the right thing by coming here.
"Jenna." It's Moon who addresses me, sitting at the edge of Dad's hospital bed, peeling an apple. She looks calmer and homier than I'd ever seen her, even giving me a small smile of acknowledgement.
Things have been so weird the past month after the kidnapping. Paul getting hospitalized due to heavy blood loss and gunshot injuries, until he'd be fit to be put into jail. Dad's health deteriorating when he found out the man who killed Mom and was haunting me, was someone he'd known and him ending up blaming himself for what Mom and I went through. Mia getting intensive therapy for her condition. Moon finally agreeing to let Mia seek the therapy she should've been given eleven years ago.
Moon had taken the news with a lesser blow regarding her daughter's mental health, expressing she'd been doubtful that Mia seemed a bit withdrawn ever since she married Samuel, but how it had become very strange in the past few days from the moment I returned to Davidson Villa. How she noticed that Mia was obsessive about me staying in New York when before even though she didn't say it, Mia always wanted me to go back to London as soon as possible.
Moon's words still stick with me, the ones she'd told me a month ago after we spoke to Mia's therapist regarding the graveness of her condition, "I'm a mother, Jennifer. No mother wants to accept the fact their daughter is becoming more and more unstable with each day. I saw Mia pass that article about your mother's death to a news reporter. I confronted her, took her to a psychiatrist, avoided Samuel when he asked me about it. All because I wanted to protect my daughter. That's what I've always done. You can't blame me for it. Mia is all I have. The man I loved. . ."
For the first time, I'd seen pain flicker through Moon's brown eyes, "He'd hurt me more than anyone could. I'd tried my best to love him even as he abused me, because I've always been in love with him. But. . .I had to leave. I had to stand up for myself to protect my daughter. I hope you understand why I hid about what Mia did, from you and Samuel. I was scared my daughter would be sent to prison. I. . .I'm sorry that I unintentionally put you in danger because of that. It was never my intention. I regret it now. I really do. I hope you can forgive me for hiding everything one day."
In a way, I understood Moon. Even if she's always protected Mia, she's never been cruel to me. Her confession made me realize why she's forever been edgy whenever I was around Mia. She worried I'd find out about Mia's condition and send her daughter away from her mother to a rehab somewhere faraway. And specifically because of that, I made sure with a team of therapists that Mia didn't have to go to the rehab. But she'd have the rehab bought to her.
"What brings you here?" My dad's question asked in a hopeful tone, reverts me out of my reverie.
I hover awkwardly next to his bed, clutching the bouquet closer until I can feel a flower break and fall off the bouquet. Blinking in surprise, I extend it to Samuel Davidson out of instinct, "Lykas sent this for you."
YOU ARE READING
The Secret Heiress | ✔️
Romance---▪︎ A Wattpad featured story ▪︎--- Twelve years ago, an incident changed my life. I was sent to London by my father with a new identity; all alone, away from my family and home, away from everything that was me. With a new persona as Jennifer Ryso...
