Starting Over: rewrite

Can You Trust Mother?

Thank you for the support during my long breaks in-between updates. I hope you all enjoy this chapter.

3rd Person's POV

Serena takes the elevator up to Blair's penthouse to speak with her best friend but finds Nate waiting for her in the living room. "Hey, what are you doing here?" Serena asks.

"Well, I thought you'd be here." Nate answers. "Where'd you go?"

"Um." Serena bites her lip, not sure how Nate will take this. Finally, she places her bag on the entrance table. "I went to see Chuck and Ella's mother."

"Why?" Serena lets out a big sigh. She moves closer to Nate and leans her body against a pillar.

"Because of my dad." She shares. "I've been trying to find him. I just...I want to talk to him to understand why he left. I've come close to finding him. I tracked him down last summer. But, um, he didn't want to see me. And he wrote me a letter explaining. He was with my mother."

"So that's why you've been avoiding your mom." Nate nods his head understanding more of Serena's erratic behavior.

"And I felt like somehow his letter meant something. You know? But the truth is, he knows who I am now, and he hasn't come to find me. I think talking to Elizabeth made me finally realize that he just...doesn't want to be found."

"Why didn't you tell me any of this?" Nate questions. "Hell, why didn't you tell Ella or Blair?"

"Well, things have been so good with us, so fun. I didn't want to bring any heaviness into it. You know, ruin things."

"Sure, things have been incredible. I mean, everything has been between us. I just..." Nate lets out a heavy sigh. "A big thing that broke things between Ella and me was she kept things separate. She never wanted to let me in for the bad stuff. Of course, I was there for her in the good times, but I'm telling you now as I told her, let me be there for you." Nate reaches for Serena's hand. "I can handle any dark things that come our way." He reassures her. Serena smiles at the gesture.

"I...there is one thing that is still on my mind." Serena makes Nate look her in the eyes. "Do you still love Ella?"

"I will always love her. We've been in each other's lives si..."

"No. Are you still in love with her?" Serena clarifies. Nate hesitates to answer.

"No." He lies to his girlfriend. "I stopped when she broke things off."

"I can't have my heart broken, Nate. Not by you."

"It never will." Nate brings her in for a hug.

"I have to tell Ella and Chuck that I spoke with Elizabeth." Serena shares. Nate nods his head in agreement. "Ella is going to hate me."

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Ella's POV

"E, talk to me." Blair urges me as we do a facial in my bathroom. Chuck is fast asleep in the guest bedroom, trying to sleep off this horrible day.

"There is nothing to talk about." I try and shut her down. She reaches out and grabs my hand.

"You can try and play the I'm not hurt by my supposed birth mother showing up nineteen years later with anyone else but not me." I look at Blair, and I feel like she knows what's in my head without me saying a word.

"It was better believing she was dead and that she never wanted us." I say through tears. Blair brings me in for a tight hug.

"Everyone deserves to feel wanted, especially by their parents."