"You have quite a habit of sleeping in other's bed, don't you"
She narrowed her eyes at me wiping her face with her arms and got up from the bed and leaving the room without saying anything. I was shocked to say the least. Why didn't she responded? Is she ignoring me? Is she showing ego to me that me and my actions mean nothing to her?
I held her hand and turned her around.
"Don't ignore me in my own house, Camilla Brown"
"Don't worry I will be leaving soon."
And she yanked my hand and left the room.
Huh? Leaving the house?
I face palmed, did Lily really gave her information?
I texted Jason explaining the whole matter knowing he would definitely find a solution. I was feeling anxious each second. What could be the reason? What is the reason?
Erika
I sat in front of dad's bed looking at his unconscious state.Camilla told me about the incident and honestly I was not even surprised, basically I had expected it and was mentally prepared for it.
But this state of dad has surprised me so much that now I have to be mentally prepared of many other things than I had imagined.Camilla has already transferred us money saying that she will manage tomorrow's trial, but I won't leave her alone. In this war of good and evil, I won't let the evil win. I won't let an innocent soul lose faith in judiciary.
The door opened and I looked at Lily entering with Ash sleeping in her arms. I got up from my seat walking up to her taking Ash in my arms.
"I will head to home to check the papers one last time, you take care of dad."
"Ok, take care of Ash."
I nodded and opened the door only to come face to face with Jason.
Our eyes met and for a moment we kept looking at each-other, not uttering a single word. I avoided his stare and tried to walk past him when I heard his voice.
"Are you okay?"
"Yes, I surely am."
I tried walking once again when he interrupted
"Can we talk,somewhere private?"
I turned around to look at him.
...........
We were sitting in the VIP waiting room. I made Ash sleep on chair adjacent to me and waited for Jason to speak.
"I heard that dad's health was not okay so I came to visit"
"Hmm."
I hummed noticing that he's still calling him dad.
"So..are you not going to give me my ring back which you are wearing around your neck"
I looked at him and touched the ring.
"Erika, stop being stubborn and leave Camilla. Why won't you listen?She's a cheater."
I looked at him with rage filled eyes. This is my work, why does he keep interfering? Who gave him right to order me around?
I stood up holding Ash in my arms and declared.
"Thank you for you concern Mr. Jason. Let's not see each-other again."
I removed the ring which I cherished for all those years and with a heavy heart and firm expression on my face and kept it in front of his table.
I walked towards the parking lot, opening my car and settling Ash on the backseat,and sat on the driver's seat trying to blink the tears forming in my eyes.
I looked at my silver coloured dress and my light makeup and smiled one hundred eighth time this day. It is the day, i am getting engaged to my first love, my last love and my only love, Jason. At the thought of him my cheeks already started to turn red. Gosh! I hope I don't end up embarrassing myself.
I was lost in my trail of thoughts when suddenly someone opened the door. I turned only to find Ivan, he suddenly clicked a picture of me and went out with a mischevious grin.
I was so shocked that I went still for a moment. Then a message popped on my phone from Jason. It said
"That dress suites you well. You raised the beauty standards higher and I am not even complaining either."
I blushed in deep crimson red. Gosh! Its just the start of night and I am all red. I never imagined that arrange marriage would be that romantic.
Another notification popped up, it was a picture, a picture of the most beautiful ring I had ever seen.
My throat now hurts due to crying. My minds kept rewinding memories of that day. The day I was announced to be officially his, And now today is the day I announced him to be a stranger once again. I kept wanting to run back to the room and hug him but I couldn't, cause he was stubborn and so was I.
I looked back at Ash the relief filled boy, the innocent child, free from all the worries was sleeping peacefully, unaware of this chaos-filled world.
No, I can't let this boy to be handed to a monster's den. If I leave Camilla,no one will take the case against that filthy bastard and I can't let that happen. Determined, I harshly wiped my tears and drove to my house.
Ivan
Its currently 8 a.m. and I am waiting for Jason in my cabin. I couldn't even be able to sleep peacefully due to the worries overpowering my sleep. A knock on the door interrupted me and I waited hopefully for the person to enter. It must be Jason. But my face turned into a frown when I saw Lily entering in the cabin along with a file in her hand.
She threw the file on my table and I looked at her with an questionable gaze.
"I knew you saw me with Ash at Ashton's grave and you have 'blah-blah' questions, so read this file and let me do my work."
She noticed me? How? No wonder she is a detective. I opened the file warily. It was file containing details of Camilla's case with the Calloways. I started reading it when her voice interrupted me.
"I know, you are gonna take 2 weeks reading that so let me explain."
"When Ashton died he transferred all his property as well as his maternal-grandfather's property to Ash, and Mr. Calloway as the filthy bastard he is wanted to seize that property but it was impossible because Ash was living with Camilla. So,he made a very irritating plan to take Ash into his custody by proving that Camilla is not a good mother and she doesn't have time for her kid as she is a businesswoman and she doesn't even has a complete family required for a child's healthy mental status. That is why he wants Ash to live with his nephew who has a quite grand family for Ash's bright future.
Taking Camilla's point of view,she wanted to have a complete family as to show that the child will have healthy mental status in near future. That is why she had a contracted marriage with a young businessman Ivan Lockwood, which is supposedly you."
"Why were you with Ash?"
"Erika, the lawyer of Camilla is my step sister and she asked me to take care of Ash who is currently living with her."
"Erika smith?"
"Yeah"
I nodded at the information
"Thanks, you can leave now"
"Most welcome, please proceed to give me my paycheck on time."
She left. And I noticed the notification popped on my screen.
"The trial starts at 11 a.m.
............
Camilla
I tried to convince Erika, thousands of times to leave this case and I will find another lawyer but she didn't listen and now we are sitting in the courtroom.
The lawyer of Mr Calloway was standing in the courtroom asking the permission to summon a surprise witness.
" Your honour I would like to summon a surprise witness who would present the real behaviour of Mrs. Lockwood in his testimony, Ivan Lockwood. "
My gaze immediately turned to the the man that had just entered,..