Tolerating The Player

“…. Grace” she whispered out loud and my whole body froze at the mention of the name. It can’t be true.

“No…. no that’s not true! You’re pouring out lies now because you don’t just want me to even be happy with the bond I’ve created with Grace” I yelled.

“No that’s not it Isabella, I didn’t want to tell you at first because I knew you have bonded with her and so has Joe but did you even care to know why she showered all of those love and attention to Joe?” Fiona asked. It was true that Grace had been really nice to us especially Joe but then I was her daughter’s best friend and she just loved Joe because he was little and adorable nothing more.

“For a second I thought I should believe you but not until you dragged grace into this!” I yelled back at her.

“Isabella, would you just calm down? I know it’s hard for you…”

“No you don’t, you don’t know shit but the only thing you want to do is to ruin me, why the hell did you come back to our lives. You could have just stayed hiding and never show your cruel face to me because you disgust me and I would never forgive you especially for dragging Grace into this!” I spat and walked to leave but she grabbed my hand.

I forcefully removed my hand from her grip and it made her fall causing some noise on the ground. She had fallen and stomped on her glass table, a part of it broke and pierced her skin.

I felt bad for pushing her but it’s better she had even died. Her personal assistant and some guards banged on the door but it was locked. I was about to leave already so I opened the door to leave but a guard grabbed me immediately while her personal assistant rushed in to meet her.

“Let her go” her voice sounded weak and the guard let me go but her assistant was staring at me with anger fuming in her.

I couldn’t stop the tears from flowing down my eyes as I left, why the fucking hell would she come back to our lives to drop these false accusations. The thought of her guards gripping me tight on my arm came to my head as I entered my car and I could no longer control my emotions. I buried my head in the wheel as the tears flowed freely.

It was okay to cry and let everything out since it was getting too much for me, I have been trying to bury all of my sorrows, I was becoming happy and Zach helped too but she came back to break that door I have been trying to shut down for years. My heart was heavy and I emptied it in the car through my tears.

I couldn’t stay here any longer and definitely wouldn’t want another assault from one of her workers. I imputed the address on my phone and started the drive back to where I came from.

My eyes were blurry heavy with tears but I tried to wipe them off to avoid any more disaster. I thought of calling Zach but I wanted to know the truth before calling him. Even though I trusted Grace I needed her to tell me that all what Fiona said was a lie.

The weather was getting darker and the time was ticking by, I eventually arrived at Grace’s house and hopped out of my car before rushing into the house.

They seemed to have heard a car parking since everywhere was silent already. I entered and met Joe standing by the door with a smile on his face already, but the moment he saw the sad look on my face his smile dropped but I tried to feign a smile at him so his mind would be at rest.

“How did it go Isabella?” He asked and I smiled back at him even though my lips were shaky.Text property © Nôvel(D)ra/ma.Org.

“It was fine, Joe, can you go up to your room? I need to talk to Grace,” I said and looked at Grace. She didn’t seem comfortable seeing me back.

Joe rushed up the stairs and I waited until I could hear his room door clicking closed. It didn’t take long before I realized he had closed the door.

“Grace I need to ask you something” I said and she stood up from the chair she was seated on, she placed her muffins on the table and walked up to where I was with a smile on her face.

“Joe told me you went to see your mother, how did it go?” She swallowed her spit and I started to suspect her. I tried to shove the negative thought aside because if Grace knew all along she would have told me.

“It didn’t go well, she was saying all sorts of thrash. She even said you were Joe’s mother and that that’s what caused her to leave us” I rushed my words, I was getting impatient and needed Grace to prove to me that the hag was lying.

“She said all of that?” Grace awkwardly asked, she wasn’t looking at my face either but at her newly made nails.

“Grace I know you didn’t do any of those things but I need to hear it from you, you didn’t do it right?” I asked and noticed how she started to fidget. It was taking too long for her to reply to me and my sadness was growing in me already.

“You didn’t do it right?” My voice broke and she sighed.

“I’m sorry” was the only thing she replied with.

“No, why are you apologizing for what you didn’t do? Grace , you didn’t do anything like that, right?” I couldn’t talk well anymore as my voice started to shake while tears flowed freely.

“I never knew a little mistake would lead to all of these Isabella but I am truly sorry” she begged but she couldn’t bring her eyes to look at me.

I was broken and knew nothing about what I was doing as I took some steps away from her. She wanted to reach to touch me but I flinched.

“Leave me alone you whore?!” I yelled but was still finding it hard to believe that all of these were true.

“You acted like you were on our side all this while and you acted like you loved us but you were the cause of all of these” I yelled and my eyes shifted to Joe standing on the stairs looking at me with sad eyes.

I wiped the tears off my face, my head was hurting really bad and my head kept spinning while my vision became blurred. My whole body was weak but I tried to hold myself up.

I didn’t even know what or who to believe anymore but staring at Joe and knowing the fact that he was my half brother really hurt but it became clear when I remembered how Grace treated Joe. Not every woman would actually treat someone who isn’t her child that way especially when she’s saucy.

She never really paid attention to me and it was obvious she only wanted me around because of Joe.

“Isabella, why are you mad at her?” Joe mumbled as he walked up to us. I needed my time alone and even away from Joe. I had no idea why I didn’t want to be with Joe but it really hurt that I was also a victim of everything happening.

I didn’t do anything but everything affected me and weighed me down. I turned down Zach’s offer to Brazil because I thought I had a responsibility while his biological mother was here and had been here all these times.

I couldn’t believe or take anything anymore as I slowly walked away from both of them. I was to get to the door but the door suddenly felt far away.

“Isabella where are you going to?” Joe’s little voice cried in concern but I couldn’t bring myself to go back to him. Perhaps I needed my time to be alone and not think about anything. Maybe until then will I be able to look at him in the face.

“What happened here?” Mr Anderson asked as soon as he entered the house but I couldn’t bring myself to look at his face especially when Grace told him I found out the truth. My heart broke, they all knew about it but kept it a secret from me.

I gathered up my strength to leave their house as I ran into my car, I couldn’t stay here or with any of them at this point. I drove to Zach mother’s garden as I dug my leg into the lake while staring at the dark clouds.

It was late and could be dangerous to be alone here but I didn’t care about my life anymore. I thought of falling into the water and drowning myself to death but Zach’s face kept appearing on the surface of the water. He would be mad at me if I made this decision.

I thought of giving him a call then I saw I had missed calls on my phone, they were all from Maya. Seeing her name made my heart hurt a lot more than it had been hurting. I thought she was my friend, not just my friend but my sister yet she betrayed me. They all knew about this but decided to keep it as a secret from me.

I thought I could trust them all yet they stabbed me when I wasn’t watching and smiled at me while I was bleeding. My phone rang again but as I was about to throw my phone away I saw the caller’s name on the screen. It was Zach.