Twisted Fate

There was another silence. At this time, Alex was seated in his car, his chauffeur was driving him towards the Foster cooperation.

“Sure. Ask me any question” he answered, wondering what she was thinking about and wanted to ask him.

Was she also having the same thoughts and feelings like he was having? She loves him now?

“These two days you haven’t been home, were you with another woman?”Ella asked.

*************

The next few hours were spent in excitement. Ella’s defence was amazing. She was now through with her program.

Her study in the university was now over. How great the feeling was. Her supervisor applauded her, telling her she couldn’t get less than an ‘A’ in her defence.

And that day, Alex was going to regard her as his wife indeed. He would be home to have dinner with her and certainly, she knows he loves her and would confess his feelings to her.

She had thought he was with another woman. But he wasn’t. When she asked, he told her he hadn’t been with a woman for months.

He concluded by saying he wants to be with her alone now.Ccontent © exclusive by Nô/vel(D)ra/ma.Org.

That’s amazing. Her life was falling into its proper place now. Everything would have been fine, if her father hadn’t disappeared with his pregnant mistress.

At the same time at the Anderson Mansion, Jackie and Jerome were searching through Nicolas’ closet.

Jackie used to share the same bedroom with Nicolas in the past. But after she returned from a rehabilitation centre, the lines were drawn.

And despite sharing the same bedroom in the past, there was a demarcation. There was Nicolas’ closet that Jackie never had a chance to peep into.

But that morning, Jerome had intentionally made his father to mistake the bunch of keys in his hands to another.

And as soon as he left, Jackie shut the door and unlocked Nicolas bedroom and then his closet.

Jackie gave the closet a good rummage but couldn’t find anything usual. She kept searching for anything and everything that would make her find out who that was, that stole her husband’s heart, all these years.

When she couldn’t find anything, Jerome looked at the upper closet and his eyes caught a bloody writing.

“Look here mum” Jerome declared, pointing in a certain direction.

Jackie looked towards the direction he pointed and saw a writing in red. They got closer and saw the picture of a couple, dressed in their wedding attire.

It looks a bit old but they could still be recognized. When Jackie took hold of the picture and saw the faces of the couple, her heartbeat almost skipped and her hands shivered.

Jackie’s complexion went pale as she stared at the picture in her hand. For a few seconds, she just stared at the picture.

She turned her head and glanced at her son. Jerome’s eyes and hers locked and she saw the confusion in the young man’s eyes.

Jackie’s eyes become teary. She turned her glance back to the picture. She knew it. She suspected that this woman might have something to do with her husband’s obsession and her marriage that is void of her husband’s love.

There were different writing in the couples body. On the bride was written ‘Betrayer’ while on the groom was written ‘death’.

Both of the writing were in red. Not just red, but a bloody red with dried dots of blood.

Jackie has never seen anything like this before except in rom com and movies. But before her, right before her hand was hatred and maliciously written in blood.

Jerome fixed his eyes on the couple’s picture in his mother’s hands. The man in the picture, the groom, bears a lot of semblance with someone he knows very well known.

“This man in the picture looks like..” Jerome was saying when his mother interrupted him.

“This is Frederick and Charlotte Foster ” Jackie stated. Her eyes had gone red, despite trying to hold back the tears in her eyes.

Jerome squinted. He certainly was right in his thoughts. The man is from the Foster’s family. But is he the father of the young billionaire?

“Are they Alex Foster’s..” Jerome was going to ask when his mother interrupted him for the second time.

“Parents. Frederick and Charlotte are Alex and Alice’s Foster parents. This was their wedding picture.

I remembered back then, when they got married. I was still young and the entire city and every television channel and newsletter had nothing else to talk about except Frederick and Charlotte’s wedding.

They were the sweetest couple I have ever known. Frederick was just like his son Alex. Handsome, charming and stinkingly wealthy.

Charlotte Foster was from an average family but beautiful. She was the shyly type and sweet to be with..”Jackie recalled past memories.

Jerome then stared at the beautiful smiling face in the picture. The woman was beautiful and her smile, despite being dead now, still looked contagious and attractive.

But what her wedding picture was doing in her father’s possession was something he cannot lay his fingers on.

And the writing on the picture was alarming. In what way had she betrayed his father for him to have written such in a bloody ink?

And Frederick Foster, what son had he committed against his father. Why the death sentence on him? And indeed, he was dead.

As if Jackie was a mind reader, she gave an answer to Jerome’s thoughts: