ꕥ
Amabella's POV
College is overrated.
I came to that realization after spending two years at university, and then I dropped out.
I left my friends and family behind and returned home jobless and without a degree. To be honest, I felt more relieved than ashamed about it. Yeah, I hated disappointing my mother, and I never thought I would carry the title of being a college dropout, but I did what needed to be done for the sake of my mental health and bank account.
Sometimes I think about how my life would have turned out if I had chosen the road less traveled by taking a gap year to figure out who I even am as a person. Instead, I stuck with the norm and went straight to college after graduating high school at eighteen, which resulted in me later saying to hell with it all. I spent the following three years working on myself, and so far, I've been having fun trying and failing at new things. I worry less about the future and spend more time living in the moment. Life is good. I'm happy.
Or at least I was before my apartment complex caught fire this morning.
"Enjoy the rest of your day," I say to the Uber driver before exiting the car and heading up my mother's driveway with the last of my bags.
I've yet to receive a reason on how the fire got started, but after the firefighters got it under control, I was part of the group of residents who got cleared to go back inside the building to retrieve a few belongings. The fire destroyed most of my stuff, so I packed up what was salvageable, and that left me with two full duffle bags and my wallet. No purse. Just the wallet.
Safe to say I'll be living a minimalist lifestyle for a while.
"Mom, I'm here!"
After entering my childhood home, the aroma is what I notice first. My mother has her favorite essential oils burning, sweet orange mixed with lemongrass, and I can't help but smile. The house smells the same as when I left all those years ago for college. It's almost like nothing has changed.
Then I spot the cardboard boxes sitting around.
My mother is clearly packing up to move and has neglected to tell me about this. I don't know whether to feel upset or concerned.
"Hello! Anyone home?"
I shut the front door and kick my bags off to the side while scanning the area. Crumbled packaging paper is all over the living room floor, our family photos no longer hang on the walls, and the furniture is gone. The sight grows more depressing the longer I stand here.
With my friends still doing their thing at college and my father no longer in the picture, my mother is all I have. I'm grateful for her taking me in on such short notice, but had I known I'd be an inconvenience by disrupting her moving plans, I would have gone into my savings and stayed at a hotel long enough for me to secure another apartment.
"Evangeline Knight!" I shout her government name while heading upstairs, knowing how much that ticks her off. "I would appreciate a sign to let me know you're alive!"
I saw my mother's car outside, so she must be around here somewhere. Then again, she runs two hair salons. She might be on an important phone call and simply can't respond to me. I try not to psych myself out otherwise because this behavior is typical of her.
Even before my father left us for his other family, my mother has always been a workaholic. I took on a lot of responsibilities around the house because I was an only child, and that included making sure the doors were locked every night. Had that task been left to my scatterbrained mother, we probably would have been robbed a hundred times over by now.
"Okay, Mom. I'm starting to get a little nervous here..." Once upstairs, I turn the corner and head straight for my mother's bedroom. I peer inside her opened door. "Thank God."
I sigh in relief when I see my mother sitting at her work desk. Her back is to me, so I sneak over to her. The reason why she couldn't hear me yelling is because she has in earbuds. I tap her on the shoulder and she spins around with a startled look.
"Oh! I didn't hear you come in, darling. Sorry about that." Mom removes her earbuds before standing to give me a hug I didn't know I needed until now. "I'm so glad you're okay, Bella. Know that you can stay with me for as long as you want, and if you need a little cash to help get back on your feet, I'm here to help. All you have to do is ask."
"Thanks, Mom." I decide not to beat around the bush after we pull apart. "I couldn't help but notice all the boxes downstairs. What's going on—" I pause, suddenly at a loss for words when she answers my question by raising her left hand. On her ring finger sits a giant diamond that probably costs more than the house we're standing in. "Wow! Um, congratulations?"
"I'm sorry you had to find out like this. I didn't want to introduce you two without being 100% sure he was the one for me, but I suppose I may have waited a little too late, huh?"
"Late would be an understatement," I reply. "Mom, when did all this happen? What is his name? Where did you meet him? I'm so confused right now!"
"There really isn't much to say, darling. I met a wonderful man about a year ago. One thing led to another... we fell in love, he proposed, and I said yes." Mom flashes her ring again, grinning hard. "As for the mess downstairs, I'm packing up to move in with Kaden. It doesn't make sense for a married couple to live apart, right?"
My head is spinning. I grip the edge of her desk for support, feeling like I'm going to pass out from the weight of this unexpected news.
"I'm guessing Kaden is..."
"Your new stepfather."
"Oh."
Had I been told about all this beforehand, I'm certain I wouldn't be taking her news as hard. My mother and I aren't tell-each-other-everything close, but we have a healthy relationship and speak frankly about a lot of things. I had no clue she started dating or was even interested in dating again, and this is partly why I'm struggling to process her big reveal.
My mother hasn't been in a serious relationship with anyone since I was ten years old, ever since my father left. I'm honestly thrilled she's found love again, but I wish she hadn't kept me in the dark about it. I should not have found out that she's been dating, got a boyfriend, got proposed to, and is now getting married all within five minutes.
"I'm trying to be happy for you, but this is a lot to digest," I confess. "And I don't want to rain on your parade, but... a year? Sounds like this relationship progressed pretty fast."
"You must embrace love when it finds its way to you." Mom pats me on the cheek and then returns to her seat to continue working on whatever she'd been busy doing before I interrupted her. "That's what I did with Kaden. I was hesitant to open up to him at first, but I eventually let down my guard and let him into my heart. Now we're husband and wife."
"Husband and wife?"
"That's right, darling. Kaden and I aren't engaged; we're already married."
"Mom! How could you—"
"Please don't make a fuss, Bella." Mom spins around and cuts me off before I can yell more questions at her. "We couldn't wait to do the real thing, so we settled for a quick little courthouse wedding. I plan on having an actual wedding with family and friends around one day, but because of the busy schedules that Kaden and I work, that might not happen for a while."
"If you say so," I mutter. "Does Kaden know about what happened to my apartment? Will he be okay with me tagging along to live with you?"
"You and I are a packaged deal, darling. I've already informed him of your situation, and of course, he doesn't mind you moving in."
"God. This is just so..." I sigh and shake my head, still having a hard time wrapping my brain around everything. "It takes a tragedy happening for me to find out that not only are you a re-married woman, but you're also moving out of the house that I grew up in to go live with a guy that I've never met and whose last name I still don't even know? You must understand how insane this whole thing sounds, right?"
"I know it's a lot to take in, but you'll get adjusted to everything in due time." Mom gives me a sympathetic look, reaching out to hold my hands. "Kaden Matthews is a good man, Bella. He's charming, intelligent, and witty. And unlike your father, Kaden is a family man. He always puts his family first and I'm sure you'll come to love him just as much as I do."
"Yeah, that all sounds great, but what about his job? What does he do for a living? You're marrying him, so I assume he can afford you."
"Bella!"
"Sorry, but we both know how you can get."
My mother has always been a go-getter, even while being married to my father. They both worked hard, but my mother was the breadwinner in the family. She opened her first hair salon before I was born and then opened her second one when I was a little girl. I can still remember the days when she would take me to work with her and I would play around the salon, mimicking her. I wanted to be her because I admired her so much.
As an adult, I admire her work ethic even more. I never took for granted how we could live life so luxuriously, all because of how hard she worked. But as they say, more money more problems. My mother likes to spend it as quickly as she makes it. Part of me suspects that may have been what contributed to my parent's divorce. I pray this new husband of hers can afford her because I know she'll be running through his pockets from now on instead of hers.
"Money is nothing to a man like Kaden. He is COO of Fortran Inc., and he is more than capable of taking care of me financially," Mom answers, looking peeved. "I know this is overwhelming for you now, but when the dust settles, please give Kaden a chance. I want the three of us to start a new life together. You and I, we deserve to be happy too, Bella."
Before I can say anything else, her cell phone rings. She excuses herself to take the call in her bathroom, wanting privacy.
I take this opportunity to go downstairs to do some digging into Kaden Matthews.
This whole thing with him and my mother just doesn't sit right with me. I know the type of person that she is, and it isn't someone who up and marries a man that she's only known for twelve damn months. I remember what she told me about my father, how they dated for over five years before finally tying the knot.
Yeah, this whole marriage thing with Kaden smells like bullshit, something that hasn't been made out of love and I'm going to prove it.
"Alright, Mr. Matthews." I grab my laptop from one of my bags and then sit on the floor. I open Google and start typing away. "Let's see what you're all about."
. . .