Chapter 287
Chapter 287
-Ava’s POV-
“This is a disaster! We have to call the wedding off,” Isabella gritted out as she knelt on the floor, stretching her hand under the dresser in a futile attempt to retrieve one of her earrings that had rolled underneath.
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I rolled my eyes, choosing to ignore her dramatics, just as Eliza hummed in satisfaction while putting the finishing touches on my makeup.
“Are you people not hearing me?” Isabella shrieked, her voice rising with each syllable, “I said—”
“The people all the way in another country heard you,” My mother’s voice cut in, flat and unimpressed.
Isabella froze mid–reach before turning her glare on my mother, who stood with her arms crossed, looking down at her with thinly veiled disapproval.
At least it wasn’t directed at me.
Evelyn Pierce was making an effort.
She had even cut her hair–my Aunt Rosaline’s doing, as she had grumbled when I picked her up from the airport yesterday. But I had caught her checking herself out in the mirror more than once, and despite her complaints, she had been smiling.
I had taken her to the hospital to see her first grandchild, who still needed to be monitored, and she had almost cried. Which, of course, made me cry too.
I knew it would take time to truly move past everything she had done, the way she had treated me in the past. But she was trying, and in her defense, she had been kinder and more considerate lately. Isabella, on the other hand, had been on the receiving end of her sharp tongue, and I had wisely decided to stay out of it.
Isabella tore her glare away from my mother and turned to me instead, “Lilian, your mother is being mean to me.”
I pretended not to hear her.
Instead, I turned to Eliza, “Do you think I should add a little more highlight?”
Eliza, who had learned the fine art of avoiding drama, nodded thoughtfully, “A little wouldn’t hurt.”
My mother let out a small huff, and Isabella let out an even bigger one, “You are both ignoring me!”
“And what a blessing that is,” My mother muttered.
Isabella gasped, scandalized, “You see? You see how mean she is?”
“You’re being dramatic,” My mother replied, giving her a pointed look.
“It is not dramatic to be upset that my earring has disappeared into the abyss!” Isabella huffed. “And you, Evelyn Pierce, are just heartless!”
From the corner of the room, Mikayla, who had been pretending to scroll through her phone but was clearly enjoying the drama suddenly let out a snort of laughter.
That was her first mistake.
Both my mother and Isabella turned their heads toward her at the exact same time, their attention now locked onto a new target.
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“What’s so funny?” My mother asked, arching a brow.
“Yes, Mikayla,” Isabella narrowed her eyes. “What exactly is so funny?”
* .96%
Mikayla’s eyes widened like a deer caught in headlights, “Oh, nothing! Absolutely nothing at all.” She waved a hand. “Just, uh… allergies! Yes, allergies! You know, sneezing, watery eyes, and-”
“You snorted,” Isabella cut in suspiciously.
“No, I-”
“You snorted while laughing.” My mother said, unimpressed.
Mikayla visibly panicked. “I–I did not! That was just–uh–air escaping forcefully through my nose due to–uh–seasonal shifts!”
I pressed my lips together, struggling to hold back my own laughter.
“That was not an allergy snort,” Isabella accused. “That was an 1–find–this–entire–exchange–utterly–hilarious snort.”
“Well, do you?” my mother asked, crossing her arms.
Mikayla looked between the two of them, eyes darting like a trapped animal. “Um… I think… you’re both very… passionate people… and passion is… great?”
My mother and Isabella exchanged a look as if teaming up to decide if her answer was good enough and I sighed, finally deciding to save her. “Alright, enough. Stop bullying her,” I said, first to my mother, And stop being mean to Bels.”
Isabella exhaled dramatically, placing a hand on her chest. “Thank you!”
I gave her a flat look. “And you–stop being overly dramatic. Just take another pair of earrings and-”
A sudden knock on the door cut me off.
Isabella’s lips parted as she turned to my mother and again, something passed between them.
Eliza clapped her hands together then, “Okay, all done!” She stepped back as if sensing the sudden shift in energy.
Something felt off.
Something was off.
I looked around, “Isn’t someone going to see who it is?”
My mother, weirdly smiled, “Why don’t you open it?”
I crossed my arms, “Why do I have to be the one to open it?”
Mikayla shot to her feet. “I’ll get it!”
Before she could take a step, my mother flicked her eyes toward her with a sharp look.
Mikayla froze then, like a scolded child, she slowly sank back into her chair without another word.
Poor Mikayla.
I knew without a doubt that she was absolutely regretting accepting my invitation to stay back here instead of sitting with Tessa among the guests.
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Chapter 287
I huffed, pushing myself up, “Well, since all of you want to set weird all of a sudden, I’ll get
With deliberate steps, I walked to the door. My heart pounded for no logical reason.
I reached for the handle, pulled it open and stopped breathing
The world around me idurred into nothingness.
The room behind me vanished. The voices. The wedding. The nerves,
Because standing before me was the last person I had ever expected to see
He looked different. Thinner. His once imposing frame had shrunk, but he still stood tall. His eyes, once sharp and calculating, were softer. Weaker.
“I missed the first chance” My father said, his voice rough, almost unfamiliar. “And then the second chance to walk you down the aisle.” He swallowed thickly. “If you will permit me
1 didn’t let him finish.
A choked sound tore from my throat as 1 flung myself at him, wrapping my arms tightly around his frail frame.
He staggered slightly but caught me, his arms coming around me slowly, as if he wasn’t sure he deserved to hold me.
I squeezed tighter, my breath shaky, my heart pounding “You-” My voice cracked. I tried again. “How are you awake?” I pulled back just enough to look at him, my fingers clutching the fabric of his suit. “They said you’d never wake up” My chest heaved as the questions spilled out of me. “When? How?”
He had lost so much weight. His face was hollowed, his suit hanging looser than it should have. The strong, untouchable man I had once known–who had ruled over my life with strictly–was no longer standing before me.
This was someone else. Someone different.
1 opened my mouth, but he beat me to it.
“Let me say something first,” Hesaid, his voice firm but quiet.
I hesitated before nodding.
He took a slow breath, his eyes searching mine, “I heard everything,” he said. “Everything you said when I was unconscious.”
My breath caught in my throat,
His eyes darkened with something unreadable, “I didn’t see it before. I refused to see it before. But I do now.” He clenched his jaw. “I was wrong”
I sucked in a breath, my grip tightening on his sleeves.
His voice wavered, filled with something raw. “I was so wrong, Ava. And part of my disappointment, my anger… it wasn’t just at you. It was at myself.” He let out a shaky exhale. “That I had let one of my children be taken and I saw you as the wrong one.”
A broken sound escaped me.
His grip on my arms tightened, his expression pained. “But that should have never happened. No matter what they thought you were, no matter what I believed you were, you were still my daughter. And I failed you.” His voice cracked. “I failed you in ways I can never take back.”
Tears welled in my eyes, my chest tightening so painfully I could barely breathe.
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He lifted a trembling hand and cupped my cheek, his thumb brushing against my skin as if trying to memorize the feel of
- me.
“I should have loved you better,” He whispered, voice hoarse. “I should have protected you”
A sob escaped me, one I hadn’t expected. I squeezed my eyes shut, gripping onto him like he was my lifeline.
For years, I had wanted this. Some kind of recognition. Some acknowledgment that I was more than a puppet on his string,
And now, standing here on the day of my wedding, he was finally giving it to me.
It was too much. It wasn’t enough.
I didn’t know what to do with it.
“I don’t know how to fix it,” He admitted quietly. “I don’t know if I can.”
I shook my head, unable to find the words to tell him that neither did I.
He exhaled, pressing a light kiss to my forehead. “But if you’ll let me try…”
A sob shuddered through me as I nodded, my fingers clutching onto him as if letting go would shatter the moment. But then reality crept back in, the weight of everything else waiting beyond this room. My breath hitched as a new thought struck me.
“Does Mother-” I began, turning slightly.
“I know,” her voice came from behind me before I could finish.
I turned fully to see her stepping forward, her expression unreadable yet softer than I had ever seen it. She came to stand beside my father, and for as long as I could remember, seeing them together had only ever filled me with apprehension. They had been a force–cold, imposing, unreachable.
But now… now they just looked like people.
My mother glanced at him, hesitated, then slowly reached for his hand, linking her fingers with his. He looked down at her, and to my utter shock, he smiled.
I had never seen him look at her like that before.
She turned back to me, her gaze steady, her voice quiet but firm. “We are truly sorry for everything.”
I swallowed hard, emotions tangling inside me, unable to find the right words to respond.
Then, from behind us, Isabella’s unmistakable voice rang out.
“Aww, who would’ve thought Evelyn Pierce actually had a heart?”
Just like that, the moment shattered.
My mother’s expression snapped back into something familiar–cool, unimpressed, irritated, “I don’t like her,” she said flatly.
Isabella only laughed, completely unbothered.
Before anyone could say anything else, a distant chime echoed through the estate. A signal.
It was time.
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Tue, 25 Mar
Chapter 287
Lexhaled slowly, steadied myself, then turned to my father, extending my hand
He looked at me for a moment before taking it, his grip wann, deadly, he be fed me forward, hayran 1 will down the Grayson Blackwond
1 simply smiled, “I know?
