Love, Lies and Billionaires

“William was impotent, alright?”

“What?”

“You heard me right, Maren,” Irene replied, gritting her teeth. “And you would have known if you had listened to him, gave him a chance to speak”

“Stop it Irene, you’re messing with me”

“Of course, this is the best time for jokes,” Irene said sarcastically.

“You can’t be serious, Irene,” she said almost in a whisper as her voice was beginning to fade from the tears which choked her. Goosebumps traced their way to her brain, and the atmosphere suddenly became cold.

“He said you were always telling him how you wanted a child before the wedding and you always seemed so happy talking about it that he never had the heart to tell you he could not fulfil that one wish of yours”

“No!” she muttered and staggered back a little, holding herself from doubling over as a tear dropped from her eyes. By this time, everyone around noticed something was wrong, but they didn’t seem like they’d come any closer to confirm.Published by Nôv'elD/rama.Org.

Irene didn’t care, she continued. “You’re selfish. You’ve always been. Even while we were friends, Maren, you were self-obsessed. If it wasn’t in your favour, you weren’t involved.” Irene spat.

Maren held her chest, her eyes darting here and there in confusion. Every sound she heard was now an echoing blur. Her mind was racing as Irene’s words rang in her head ‘William was impotent!’ “No!” she said, but this time in a normal tempo.

Suddenly, everything came back to normal. She seemed to snap out of it, wipe her tears, and walk back to where Irene stood.

“It’s not possible!” She thundered but in a low voice, trying so hard to not attract attention. “William is the father of my child and get knew it”

“Oh, now you badly want him to be the father of your son,” Irene said, mockery filling her tone. “William is not the father of your son and he knew it.”

“That’s not possible. The DNA test confirmed it, you’re spewing rubbish Irene”

Irene scoffed bitterly, “Wake up, Maren. The DNA test was forged. William manipulated it, and I helped him. I wanted to see you suffer when I found out you had a child and I knew the only way was to make him torment you by claiming your son”

“But William obviously had other reasons to come back to you to claim Nathan. He still loved you and wanted to save you the shame once you’d realised that you are a slut.”

A tear dropped from her eyes. “We never separated, Maren. I still loved him, but his heart was with you, so I gave him the freedom to go after you. Him claiming your son was supposed to be more easy than it was. It was not supposed to go this far.”

“No, stop it!” Maren warned, as she could hear the sound of her own heart breaking all over again.

“He wasn’t supposed to take it to court, but he was so stubborn and obsessed with getting back with you that he wouldn’t listen to me. And now…” her voice drifted away.

“This can’t be true!” She whispered, her heart aching in her chest that she could feel it in her head.

“Maren!” someone touched her shoulders from behind, bringing her back from the confinement of her own head.

She turned around to view Nella’s worried look, then turned back to where Irene stood, but no one was there. She shut her eyes, trying to get a hold of herself. ‘I’m in my head, I’m in my head,’ she tried convincing herself.

“Are you okay? You don’t look so good”

“Where’s Irene? Was she here?” she asked, silently praying what had just happened was just her conscience playing tricks on her.

“What’s going on, Maren? Do you need something?”

“Stop it Nella, just tell me, was Irene here?”

“Yes, she left you not long ago. I thought you guys were done talking. What’s the problem?”

“No, no, no,” she muttered, shielding her mouth with the back of her palm, trying not to cry.

“If you wouldn’t talk, at least let’s get the hell out of here, everyone it almost gone”

Maren braced herself and looked around the almost deserted graveyard. Her eyes caught sight of William’s aunt who stood by his grave clutching a thick covered book in her arms.

She flashed Maren a murderous stare, making Maren turn away from her. A fresh rain of guilt washed over her all over again.

“Is everything alright?” Nella asked again, her face wrinkled with fear and worry. “What did Irene tell you?”

Maren blinked multiple times before grabbing Nella by her hand. “Nothing, let’s get out of here,” she said and they both made their way to Maren’s car in which they had both come.

“Where is Alexander?” Maren asked as she walked hurriedly towards the car with Nella trying to keep up behind.

“He left minutes ago. I guess he had enough of the questions from the reporters, or something.”

The guard who stood by the car opened the back door for them just as they approached and Nella allowed Maren to get in first before following suit.

The clouds darkened a little and droplets of rain began dropping almost immediately when the driver started the engine. Maren had her head resting on the window, her mind going back to what Irene had said.

‘Was she all that is or was Irene just trying to get into her head like she always did?’ if she was, she really hadn’t noticed. And why hadn’t spoken up while they were together? She could have understood…right?

Just before the car went completely out of the gate of the cemetery, she caught sight of Irene standing at a side of the gate, her hair and dress were being drenched with the rain.

Her eyes were squinted as she watched the car drive out, giving her a ghoulish look with only her head moving with the car.

It felt like she was looking straight at Maren through the glass, but Maren knew the glass was tinted, so it was half impossible.

Thunder stuck, and Maren blinked. Irene was no longer there.

Maren closed her eyes and tried convincing herself one more time that she was just seeing things, but as soon as she opened her eyes, the question hit her.

‘Who the hell was Nathan’s father?