Chapter Text
September 30 th
Alone in the entryway of an old Victorian mansion, a woman stood alone. The news had not hit her well, and she was still processing it in her mind.
Despite the fact that the actual event had happened almost three years ago now, she had only just found out.
She had been away, out of the country, for all that time. When she knew that she’d be returning, she had called up a detective that she’d worked with before to look into a few things for her…
When she had returned, she had found two envelopes laying on the floor in the foyer, having been slipped into the oversized mail slot.
Inside the first envelope from the detective, she peeked inside without really looking at anything closely. Thumbing through the contents, she had found a few pictures that had obviously been taken at a distance and enlarged with a slightly grainy quality to them and a few reports.
It was the smaller envelope that had gotten her attention. It was a more personal letter, even if it was worded rather impersonally.
She tossed the detective's envelope aside without actually removing anything yet.
She turned to the single, smaller envelope with something bordering on excitement. It was a letter from her daughter. They hadn't had the best relationship, and that was her fault for staying away so long.
The letter inside was three pages long, handwritten in a carful script that bordered on modern calligraphy. She settled down in a large antique armchair to devour the news.
By the end of the first page, she was almost blind in her anger.
She tossed the pages aside, and made a mad dash back to the foyer table where she'd left the information packet from the detective.
Both the detective’s report and the letter told her basically the same things.
Her first love had married another.
It was a hard thing to see the last of what she’d come to think of as her early life disappear. He had been her first love, and they had even created a child as a result of that love.
Then he had turned on her, pushed her away, and apparently had abandoned any of his so-called heart-felt vows that he would love her forever. He had even gone so far as to warp their child’s feelings to match his own, turning against her.
She thought she had accepted that, moved on. She had a life now, working for a multinational corporation. She had taken lovers, had almost married a man once, but in the back of her mind had always been the thought that there was a chance.
A chance that he would change his mind. That he would come around and realize that he still loved her.
He had called her his “angel”, once upon a time…
Unconsciously, she let the papers and photographs slip from her fingers and drift back towards the floor.
She took a breath, running her hands roughly through her hair.
All of her hard work, all of the travelling and time spent on her plans, and in an instant it was all crumbling away.
She was too late to stop it from happening, but that didn’t mean that she didn’t still have some tricks up her sleeve.
She was not going to stand by and allow this sham of a “marriage” to continue.
With that thought, she stalked to her bedroom. It was too late to put anything into motion today, having arrived late in the afternoon by private jet.
But there was always tomorrow, she thought grimly. She would have plenty of time to work out a plan.