More than a game finale

??? More than a game ???

~~~ Beyond jilting ~~~

?? Epilogue ??

 

Lucia Luigi sat agitatedly in the pri-vate room, waiting for the only person who could save her. Her heart was beating out of control, beads of sweat drenching her makeup and face. She gulped down her drink at interval, trying to ease her nervousness but couldn’t. She was about betraying her father by her brothers command, but there was nothing she could do as her hands were tied.

Just like it was spoken about her, the lady she was waiting for walked in majestically. She had a high record of keeping to time, like she was some ghost who waited for the exact time she agree on to clock and then appear. One of the most influential bachelorette in England and even UK. Her name was Hildegarde McMillan, queen of Millan Empire. The longest time rival of her family.

Hildegarde walked slowly to her and dantily took a seat, crossed her legs and dropped her phones on the table. She locked eyes with Lucia, causing a shiver to run down her spine. Hildegarde was as terrifying as they said. “I don’t got all day, start talking.”

“Hildegarde,” she coughed out nervously, “it’s about my family’s bankruptcy. I know my father would rather die than sell the company to you, but it is the only way to save our family from poverty. My brothers and I have agreed to accept your offer, if you are still willing to buy it.”

“Hmm,” Hilde hummed, her plans worked out well. In the world of business, it was kill or be killed to her. She successfully wrecked them and now it was time to collect the boo-ty. “And what makes you think I am still interested? I longer want anything to do with your father’s company…”

“plea-se, don’t give up on us, don’t change your mind. You are the only one who can pay the exact amount we nee-d to pay off our debts and start allover again. plea-se,” she pleaded at the verge of tears. Hilde chuckled and drummed her f!ngersagain.

“Alright, if your brothers are in agreement, you should all carry yourselves and every necessary do¢v-ments nee-ded to be signed. Come with your lawyers and mine will be re-ady. I am expecting you all by 3pm noon in tommorow. Any second late, and we forget about ever having a deal.” She stood up immediately and walked out. Her b©dyguard hurriedly picked her phones and bag and ran after her.

Lucia let go of the breath she never knew she was holding, that was scary to her. It was such aura Hildegarde left behind to strike fear like her great grandfather once did.

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

I threw my car key on the table, trying to balance my phone between my cheek and shoulder. I was on phone with Hans, it had been a while we spoke to each other. It wasn’t easy for us to keep d@t!ng, especially after Hans went to college. You know I was one year below him and his sisters, they went to college before I did. It was just me, Mel, Jasmine and Phoenix. That time made us really get close, close enough for me to adopt Jasmine as my younger sister and make Phoenix my very best friend.

It wasn’t easy for Phoenix af first, since he had a hvge crush on me and yet liked Jasmine so much, but with time, he got over it and our friendsh!pwas sealed in peace. Mel also was a great friend. Neither of us went to prom as Mel used that time to throw a mad p@rty, it was better than wearing a stupid ball go-wn like I did at Hans’ prom. Then I went to college in England with them, during the period Bluey died. Mel was very sad but not as sad as we all expected her to be. Good thing we were there for her and so was Knight.

So literally, throu-ghout my college life, I spent it away from Hans and his noise ma-king sisters, the loves of my life. We always c@m£ together at any slight break, – the girls that is – and that made our friendsh!premain strong. My relationsh!pwith Hans wavered but we were still strong, despite the distant.

“…I know I have to be more careful Hans, but this isn’t the first time I’m doing such a thing. I can do this Hans, I’m Hildegarde McMillan.”

“A human being who can die and get hurt, remember you have a lot to live for.” He scolded. I rolled my eyes as I jogged up the stairs.

“Yes, I’m aware,” I replied with a indifferent tone.

“Iris, I’m trying to look out for you, st©p being difficult. It’s ha-rd enough that we have to be so far ap@rt when you nee-d me the most, ha-rd that we have to be so busy…”

“Hans, I’m not pregnant or paralyzed, st©p with this new overprotective fiance thing.” I snapped.

“Okay, okay, how’s was your meeting with Alexandra?”

“It went well,” I smiled, walking into my room. I sighed heavily. “I’m really sorry for the stress Hans, the whole moving to England thing…”

“It’s okay, if me moving there will make you more comfortable, then I don’t mind. It wouldn’t change a thing if I move the headquarter to England, both company br@nches are large enough. Beside, I’ve rebuilt it, remember?” Since Hans and I both lived in separate places, it hindered him from beginning our marriage process.

But then his father told us to make a decision, one of us had to move the headquarter to the other’s place of resident. Hans decided to move because he had br@nches spre-ad out throu-ghout the globe while I mainly managed around UK. It would be easier for him to join me since he was moving around a lot alre-ady. Our mothers hijacked our wedding plans and literally sideline us. We don’t mind though.

“I nee-d to call the girls, it’s Friday night, remember?”

“Mm hm, I’ll call you before I get on the jet tomorrow…”

“Tomorrow? I thought you were coming in three days?” I g@sped.

“I miss you, and I nee-d to make sure our new home fits what I pictured.” Hans refused to stay at my place and I couldn’t sell the family house, so he built another larger one. The house would have to remain like that, I would gift it to my first daughter.

“Will you go back?”

“I don’t think so, the wedding is next week anyways,” I kicked off my shoes and took the phone from between my cheek and shoulder. “I guess I’ll check on you before I sleep, have to finish what I was doing, so bye?”

“Love you.”

“Love you too… And plea-se don’t let Lee convince you girls to watch any unusual movie again,” he pleaded with a slight warning tone.

“Yes Dad, goodnight.” I hung up and exhaled, time to get re-ady for my last night as a single me. The next would be on my bachelorette Eve.

Immediately I stood up, a strong wave of vertigo and severe nausea hit me. I had been like that for over a week, both at dawn and dust. I was clearly overworking myself. I shook off the dizziness and draged my feet to the bathroom.

Two hours later, the girls had stormed the house. Jasmine lived with me while her family stayed back in New York. She was like the sweetest sister a girl could ask for, a brilliant chef getting closer to her dream of worldwi-de publicity. She carefully br@ided Hailey’s hair as she talked about her husband. Almost surprisingly, she and Jet ended things between them after three years. Neither she not him could tell how they drifted ap@rt, but it happened anyways. About a year ago, they met again and fell over for each other. I guess the love never died.

Lee on the other hand had a good thing going with Johnny, but I guess commitment bec@m£ ha-rd for him to keep up with due to distant. She was currently single but in love with this producer. They were both pla-ying ha-rd to get at each other. Mel, still had Knight chained between her f!ngers, he wasn’t going anywhere anytime soon. It was good because she was the only one who could cage him, his love for her was like a mate bond.

“Jasmine, are you alright? You have been awfully quiet.” Mel asked with even concern.

“I thought I was the only one who was noticing it, sis, what’s up?” I asked too. She sighed heavily, her signature “Phoenix is an idiot” sigh.

“Uh-oh, what did Phoenix do this time?” Hailey asked with a chuckle.

“It’s just that it has been almost eleven years now and Phoenix still won’t ask me out. One minute he’s acting like my b©yfri£ndand saying things that gives me hope, and the next he is completely being a total j£rk by being with another girl or telling me to my face that I am only his friend. I don’t un-derstand, does he love me or does he not? He’s confusing me.” Tears escaped her eyes as she spoke. She was still the same clueless girl.

“He does, he’s just taking you for granted, you make yourself too available for him and we have told you that countless of time alre-ady.” Lee said mirthlessly as she polished her nails. We were all tired of telling her the exact same thing.

“But I love him,”

“That doesn’t mean you should be a fool and let him step on you all the time. He k!sses you when he wants you, sleeps with you anytime he likes and the next thing he will tell you is that we are just friends. Girl, can’t you see you have completely la-id yourself out for him? Leave this guy, give him a cold shoulder and d@t£ a random guy and I promise you that Phoenix will come begging.”

“But Iris, if I do that, wouldn’t that hurt his feelings?”

“Oh God!” We exclaimed exasperatedly, throwing our heads back and face palming ourselves.

“You know what, to hell with you and Phoenix, you guys won’t add your stress to Knight’s, leave me plea-se.” Did I forget to tell you that Knight and Mel got married a year after she got out of college and now has a little daughter which her mother kidnapped? Lee, Jasmine and I were the only single ones.

But not for long.

“But…”

“Jasmine, pick up your phone and give that j£rk a piece of your mind!” I snapped. Phoenix loves her, don’t get me wrong, he is head over heels for her. The only problem with him was that he had become so drowned by his work and fear of commitment that he avoids using the term “d@t!ng”. He’s complicated and almost as stupid as he was back then.

“I don’t want to hurt his feelings,” she whimpered.

“And yours? You look miserable Jasmine, st©p covering up for him or else you would be one of those women who ends up dead in their marriage. Phoenix loves you, yes, no doubt about that. But you can’t let him keep taking your feelings for granted, be tough. If I wasn’t tough, Knight would have destroyed my heart by now. Don’t you want a good relationsh!plike we have?” Mel asked aggravatedly.

“I do,”

“Then pick that phone and call… No, accept to go on a d@t£ with that guy Phoenix hates. d@t£ the guy and momentarily forget about him until he realizes his mistake!” Lee said with a weird intensity in her tone. “Men are all fools! They won’t ask you out when you want them too!”

“Is she still talking about me, or Sky?”

“Oooh,” we cooked tea-singly. Her face turned pink in embarras-sment.

“Shut up,”

We laughed at her sheepishness, she was the cause of her own problems. After more minutes of vehement speech, Jasmine finally called the guy and accepted to go out on a d@t£ with him. Phoenix and her would get together, we knew that for sure. We talked about marriage and then other matters before going to be-d. Alas, in the morning, my morning sickness woke everyone up.

“Babe, are you okay?” Lee asked agitatedly.

“Are you blind? Can’t you see her vomiting?” Hailey scoffed.

“I believe I was talking to her, not your pitiful self,”

“Tell that to your never happening b©yfri£nd…”

“Hey! Sky loves me and would ask me out soonest!” Lee shiuted vehemently.

“When,” Hailey snorted, “two thousand years from now? Oh pe-lease, he is never going to ask you…”

“Will you guys cut it out! Iris is sick here!” Jasmine shouted angrily, their bickering never went well with her. Mel was ru-bbing my back as I vomitted. After a while, I was out of the bathroom resting weakly on my be-d.

“How long have this been going on?”

“A week,” I rasped out.

“And you didn’t tell anyone,” Jasmine said scoldingly, “have you seen the doctor?”

“It’s just stress,” I sighed.

“Iris, when last did you and Hans have S-x?” Mel asked thoughtfully.

“Excuse me?”

“He c@m£ to England like three months ago so that much be it,” Hailey replied in the same thought.

“Guys, I’m not pregnant,” I said laughingly.

“Oh yeah busy bee, when last did you see your period?”

“Well I saw it last…last…last,” my eyes wi-de-ned as it hit me. I didn’t notice I hadn’t seen anything for months!

“Yup, definitely pregnant,” Lee giggled.

“Oh no,” I cried, “a baby isn’t what we nee-d, not when we are adjusting.”

“Don’t worry, Hans won’t mind. You can bear the child and maybe his mom would kidnap him or her like mine did.” Mel said grudgingly. Hans repeatedly told me not to get pregnant, we nee-ded to settle in as couples first and not go straight to a baby.

“Don’t overthink Iris, he better not nag or I’ll break his head. I still don’t know why guys get shocked when the girl say I’m pregnant, what were they expecting before? You sleep with someone, are they suppose to not conceive when they aren’t barren?” Hailey grumbled out, remembering the time in college when Jet made her carry out an ab-ortion. One of the reason she began to dislike him.

My phone rang, it was Hans. Lee answered the call for me, there was no way I was going to talk to him. “Yes little brother, it’s me, Lee… Oh shut up you moron… Yes, you, what can you do?… Come on, shut up before I sl@p you here… She don’t want to talk to you, she’s pregnant… Do I sound like I am joking? You got her pre… Don’t command me!… Hailey, Hans being mean to me again!” Lee shouted whiningly. Jasmine took the phone and pas-sed it over to me.

“Are you going to yell at me?” I asked sharply.

“No, I won’t, don’t think that way. I’m guessing the baby is three months, that would explain your recent snappiness.”

“What’s that suppose to mean?”

“Nothing,” he lied, “we’ll talk about it when I get there and don’t do anything stupid Iris, make sure you eat well and go see the doctor. I don’t want my angel being sick on me, especially with my baby.” He didn’t sound at all upset, like he was expecting it.

“You don’t sound upset,”

“Mom have been blabbing about her dream of seeing me with a boy, I guessed this was going to happen and have prepared myself. The jet is about to take off, I’ll see you in few hours, bye love.” He hung up on me, and not in a bad way. I grinned at the girls, a weak grin.

“Guess I’m going to be a mom,”

“h!ph!p!”

“Hurray!” They shouted in glee. I chuckled exhaustedly. I hadn’t thought much about my past because it brou-ght me too many bad memories as well the good ones.

I looked at them as they fought for the position of godmother and best aunt. I still couldn’t believe how my life changed. At first it was just to jilt some couple of tits, but as soon as we started, they were deleted out of the picture. The whole story turned on me, I met people who were willing to try their very best to give me happiness. I gave my stomach a ti-ght hvg, shut my eyes and pictured the face of my child. I definitely didn’t get the best love growing up, but they would be fed with so much love they won’t know how to take it all.

That is my promise to you future children, that is my vow to my future daughter, Violet.

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The End.