Chapter 14

Cruella de Vil is back.

I did not miss her one bit. On our way down the stairs to breakfast, she pulled me aside so that she can have a talk with me. Not that I know what this talk would be about because, it's not like we have anything to talk about. But, I didn't protest and I followed her in her study where no one has dared to walk into. As expected, everything was in order and organized, not one thing misplaced. And that says a lot about her character, a whole lot. I follow on her heels and she did not even offers me a sit so I stood right in front of her huge desk behind the chairs. She just looked at me, inspecting me for some reasons. I couldn't help but feel like I was being evaluated. She doesn't say anything for a while and then she suddenly reaches for her phone and types in a number.

"Hello, Nick, will you please bring the case up for me right now?" She asks. Then nods, "OK…" she hangs up.

I say nothing.

"Karma dear, how much shall I offer you?" she asks, resting her back against her chair while studying me up and down.

I frown, "Pardon me?"

"Name your price dear, I do not have all day." She shrugs, "Go on, how much will it take for you to leave my daughter?"

I shake my head in disbelief, "I'm sorry but…What?"

She rolls her eyes, "I know you are not here because you are in love with my daughter because, dear, that's ridiculous. You guys are young, what do you know about love? Even if such thing even exist at all. You have an entire future awaiting you. Do you want to waste a few years of your life for a doomed to failure marriage with a daughter as irresponsible as mine? She doesn't love you dear. I know she fools around on you and yet you are still here. If a girl can't see that they are being disrespected, then they are in it for a whole other reason. In your case, I am guessing it is popularity and fame and money. After all, you are engaged to my daughter, a Raudenfeld. So, name your price right now so that we can all move on."

I can't believe this shit!

The man that came in to visit Amy that time appears with a huge silver case in his hands. He places it on the desk in front of Amy's mother then retires out of the study while keeping his eyes on me.

"So, here I have a few hundred thousand dollars in cash but I can double the amount if that is not enough." She rolls her eyes, "Which I hope it is, because I am being extremely generous. But, I know how people like you are so, if it is not enough, I have no problem increasing the amount."

She then swirls the case around for me to stare at a mallet filled with green papers. They were all encased in twenty and ten dollars bills. I have never seen that much money in my life before. Never in my life, did I ever see so much money.

"Are you serious?" I say.

"What? Not enough? Just as I thought…" she purses her lips and turns it around and closes the case. She grabs her phone again.

I can't believe the witch, "Ma'am, with all due respect, I was born with a really deep mentality where I believe that one can't buy a human being. I have a soul, ma'am, and I breathe the same air that you breathe. I have just as much blood running through my veins as you do. You even have feelings, ma'am, just like me. I poo just as much as you poo."

She raises her hands up in exasperation, "Oh dear God, how vulgar!"

"What? Ma'am doesn't shit? I don't think that it is biologically possible." I say, "And please, even if you have done nothing but disrespect me the entire time that I have been here, I have render to you the deepest of respects just because you are the mother of the girl that I am madly in love with. And I feel really bad for her because, a warm heart like hers doesn't deserve a cold mother like you."

And at the same moment, Antoine, the butler appears in the office with a glass jug of cold water with ice. I grab it from his hands and I throw the entire thing in her face, "Don't you dare try to buy me ever again. Please, recognize that I am a human being and I am worth way more than just those lousy green papers." I give the butler the jug back and I walk out of her study.

Then I walk back in…she was trying to wipe her face with the help of the butler. I grab the case in front of her.

She deviously smirks, "I know what you were saying was just gibberish. People like you; I had dealt with on the regular." She talks and as she talks, I try opening the case.

"There you go, count the money and let me know how much money you want to add as surplus. I can get you in the most prestigious universities out there; offer your parents the vacations that they've always wanted…" As she keeps on yapping, my anger increases even higher.

"You know what, better yet, I can get in the college that you've always wanted." She continues.

(click!) It's open finally. I look at the dirty papers lying side by side in front of me.

"It is about half a million. It is five hundred thousand dollars…" I violently throw the case off her desk, the money flying everywhere in the room. She just looks on in disbelief as the money just falls off the desk, dispersing everywhere in the office.

"You can't fucking buy me, and much less my parents. Ma'am, you don't know what they've been through so please respect them. Disrespect me all you want but give my parents the respect that they deserve." I say while the tears are making their way down my face in full.

"Get the fuck out of my house!" she yells at me, all manners leaving her stranded in the middle of her own rage.

"Gladly…" I walk out of the study and I head for the stairs but Amy stopped me right there.

"What's going on Karma?" she says, wiping my face of the tears. I was too enraged to be friendly right now so I pushed her off me. I got to go.

"Amy, let me go." I say.

She grips my shoulders even tighter, holding me within her gaze, "No, you have to tell me what is going on."

"Amy, your fiancée is leaving my house right this minute. I don't want her in here anymore. She has to leave." Amy's mother bolts right out of her office along with the butler.

"Excuse me, but she is staying here with me." Amy holds my wrist in her hands, "She is the love of my life and she is staying here with me."

If only she meant what she just said, this entire fiasco would feel more worthy. But since it is all fake, it is worthless and completely unnecessary. I try to snatch my wrist away from her grip but she holds on as tight as her strength allowed her to.

Amy's mother scoff, "Love of your life? Love? Amy, you are a teenage girl who sleeps around, what do you know about love?"

"More than you ever knew and more than you'll ever know. I may be someone who doesn't know how to love but I know what love is. I have felt it. I am feeling it." she says, tears running down her face, "And you were not the one who showed me this feeling."

She laughs, "Amy, you think that this thing loves you?" she points to me.

Amy looks over to me and grips my wrist even tighter, "I hope she does and even if she didn't, she still showed me more love and care than you ever did."

I do baby, believe me I do.

"Amy, you are a Raudenfeld; we don't show feelings or emotions. Those trivial things are for the weak. I have raised you to be the next heir of the empire that I broke my back building up from the ground…" she raises her voice for the entire house to hear.

"…this along the way has eaten up your soul." Amy sneers. "I don't fucking want to be a Raudenfeld then. That name is a fucking curse. I can't live because of you."

"Your dad would have wanted you to lead that empire because he started this whole thing because of you." Amy's mother says, "How can you be such an ingrate!" she yells.

"I'm an ingrate!" Amy yells.

"Yes, that's what you are – an ingrate. You are nothing but a pest who doesn't know how to appreciate things in life. I am trying to give you the perfect future that your father has broken his back trying to build for you. And here you are, trying to throw everything away because of some floozy you've just met." She yells.

"Is that what you think of me?" Amy asks with her voice on the verge of breaking any minute.

"Yes, I do. I do and every time that I look at you, you are not the daughter that I would have wanted to give birth to. You are weak, irresponsible, and immoral. You know what?" She breathes, "As of now Amy Raudenfeld-Cooper, you are disinherited. I am granting you your wish. You no longer have to live with the name. You are not fit to carry it."

"Now hold on a minute," I recover from my temporary silent state. I can't believe she is saying all of this to her own daughter, "You can't talk to your daughter like that."

"You still blame me for his death, don't you?" Amy says.

What? Whose death?

Amy's mother says nothing. She doesn't try to deny what Amy just said. She just looks on with the cold expression on her face.

"You still do. I'm sorry mom. I'm sorry. I only wanted to see him." Amy pleads. The tears were now rushing down her face like rain, "I am really sorry."

Amy's mother does nothing and just walks away, "Whether you are sorry or not, he is dead now. You killed him." She enters the study and slams the door. Then, she peeks her head out, "And don't even think of going to that condo of yours." Then she slams the door again.

Amy falls down on the ground in my arms, breaking down crying all the tears that she has in her. I have never thought that she could cry like that. Amy didn't look like a person who could cry like that to me. I hold her tight, allowing her to cry as much as she wants.

"Karma," she cries, "It hurts."

I tighten my embrace around her, "Everything is going to be alright. You are fine. You hear me. You are fine." I try to calm her down.

She shakes her head, "Take me Karma, please take me to your house. I want to eat your mother's soufflé."

That's the closest thing that she has to a mother's affection.

I bring her up to her feet and I do as she says. I bring her to my mother's house. My mother saw her and I told her about everything. As always, my mother has been kind and receiving and offered shelter at our house. She told Amy that she could stay as long as she wants. I asked mom to make her soufflé because, that's all Amy has been mumbling about during the entire car ride to my house. My mother quickly agreed and went to make Amy some. I brought Amy up to my room and I took off her shoes. I tell her to lie down since she must be tired and that I would come back to check up on her.

"Stay with me please…" she softly sobs on my pillow. "Stay with me."

I lie down on her right side on the bed. We both were just looking up at the ceiling. I take quick glances her way every now and then just to check if she is sleeping. But, she doesn't move her eyes. She just looks up at the ceiling, not saying anything. I wanted to ask her what she is thinking about. I just wanted to know what was going through her mind. I really wanted to know. Is Amy's dad dead? I thought she said that he left her mother not that he died. Well, there's more ways than one for someone to leave someone; I guess this is one. I wish I knew way more than that. Why is Amy's mother holding it against her? Why would a mother ever make a child feels this way? When she broke down in my arms like that, I wanted to die. I could never tolerate seeing her like this again, I don't think I'd be able to handle. It was as if she was crumbling right in front of me. Everything just fell down, all of the protection that she had built around her for years now just crumbled down in millions of pieces right in front of me.

"You are probably wondering about what my mom said." Amy breaks me away from my thoughts.

I look her way to find her still staring straight up the ceiling, "What?"

She sighs, "About earlier, during my mother's fights, you are probably wondering what my mom said about me right?"

"It is OK. Amy, we don't have to talk about it." I say.

She breaks her eyes away from the ceiling and gazes at me, "I want to talk about it. I have held it in for so long now, I think I am about to choke."

I say nothing.

"During our date, you asked me a question. About why my mother is so distant from me…" she begins, "Well, I told you that there was an accident. It was my dad's death." She closes her eyes, "It is my fault that he died. My mother's right, I killed him."

I touch her arms, "Amy, how can you say something like that."

"Because, it is true. If I didn't call him, if I didn't, he would still be here." The tears start making their way down her face again.

My mother knocks on the door and Amy quickly wipes her eyes of the tears. "Girls, I got the soufflé ready. I thought you guys would want to eat it upstairs, so I brought it for you."

I get off the bed to open the door for my mom, "Thanks mom." I kiss her cheek, then I take the soufflé from her hands.

My mom enters the room and walks over to Amy, "Amy, I'll make you as much soufflé as you want. You are welcome to stay here as long as you want." She gently takes Amy in her arms and leaves right after that.

I give Amy her soufflé. She sits up and starts enjoying the sweet treats. "Amy, if you don't mind me asking, what do you mean if you didn't call him that he would still be here?"

She looks up from her soufflé to stare up at me, "Well, on my sixth birthday, I was having a small birthday party and I wanted my dad to be here. He was always on leave, going far away for business trips so I missed him a lot. I made sure to call my dad a few months in advance, so that he wouldn't miss my birthday that year and that he brings me his doughnuts. My dad was a great cook and his doughnuts were my favorite. I always wanted him to cook my breakfast because I knew he would make me the doughnuts."

So, that's why she loves doughnuts so much.

"My dad always left me the last piece of doughnuts before he leaves to go to work or on his way to a long business trip. My mom and him were not on the greatest terms back then, I remember but they had affection for each other. And those were the times when my mother's smiles were not so poignant and deceiving. She used to smile for real and she even showed me affection, we used to be close. And it was on that morning, when we received the news, on my sixth birthday that my dad had died in a plane crash that she changed on me." She starts to cry louder now, "I had called him the night before just to remind him and making sure that he was coming. Apparently, in a rush the next morning, he didn't let the company of his private jet finish filling up the airplane tank with the amount of oil needed."

I am visioning a six year old Amy having to live her father's death at such a young age on her birthday. I feel my heart twisting into a tight knot that's not going to be easy to untie. I can't help but cry as she breaks down again in my arms. I feel my heart bleeding as I feel her tears running along my shoulders. "Amy, it is not your fault."

"Yes, it is. People can't be honest with me enough to tell me the truth but I know. I know that it is my fault. I killed my own dad. I am a bad person Karma, why are you being so nice to me?" She cries out.

Because I love you, I wanted to say but I know it is not the right time. "Amy, I can't treat you any less than a human being just because you wanted to spend your sixth birthday with your dad."

"I shouldn't have called him. I really shouldn't have called him." She says, still sobbing on my shoulders. The tears were now making their way into her soufflé.

The self-hatred with which Amy now spoke to me twisted the knife further into my heart. I couldn't stand seeing her like this. I really hated it. The Amy Raudenfeld-Cooper that proposed to me and brought me in her mansion and acted as if the world was within her hands is now being the most vulnerable being that I've ever seen. I can't believe that I am the one seeing her like that. I am seeing her heart a little bit deeper now.

I take her face in my hand, "Amy, listen to me. You did not kill your father. What do you want me to say to you? That you did?"

She nods, "Yes, tell me the truth."

I sigh, "Fine," I slowly push her away from me to look at her straight in the eyes, "Yes Amy, you killed your father. You shouldn't have called him the night before your birthday to make sure that he was coming." I say.

"You see, was that so hard?" she shrugs, obviously hurt by the truth that she asked to be told.

"He also did not love you enough to make you happy. He did not love you enough to bring you the doughnuts that he knows that you love eating. Your dad had better things to do than to show up at a birthday that was not even that big of a deal. You would have had a lot more birthdays that he could have shown up to but you wanted him to show up at that birthday instead. And now, he is not showing up at anyone of your birthdays because, yes, Amy, you killed him out of your own selfishness." I say.

She keeps crying, "I am a terrible person."

I continue, "You killed him for loving him too much to make it so important that he takes part in one of the most privilege moment of someone's life, your own birthday. You committed the crime of loving your dad too much. You killed him. You refused to realize that you were just an innocent child with a selfish heart. One thing you need to know is that every child is selfish Amy. That's what makes them one of the greatest joys of life. You don't live for yourself when you are grown, you live for a child. And you dad lived for you and while living for you, he may have also died for you. Your dad loved you Amy and your crime was to kill him with your own innocent selfishness." I cup her chin in between my thumb and my index fingers, "You killed him with love Amy."

She says nothing. We just stare at each other for what feels like hours. Her crying has slowly subsided and she is now calmer than she was earlier. I found myself leaning in closer and to my surprise, she does too. The moment is ruined with her phone ringing.

She quickly picks it up, "Hello…Lauren? You are here? You flew in this morning…no, I don't live at the house anymore…I'm no longer your sister either…Antoine told you everything? I am at Karma's house…Ok," She hangs up.

"It was Lauren?" I ask.

"Yes, she was on her way home when everything happened. Antoine told her everything. And she also had a big fight with my mother along with her father. She's coming over right now." She explains.

"Does she know where I live?"

"She has a tracker on my phone." She says.

"You knew?" I frown. Lauren said that Amy didn't know about that.

"I'm not stupid. I had my phone checked as soon as she left after her marriage." She says.

Maybe I should do the same too. What if my phone is also tracked?

"Yes, I put a tracker on your phone too; just in case you were wondering." She grins.

I should have known.

A few moments later, Amy and I were just enjoying mom's soufflé when Lauren was shown up here to my room by my mom.

"Amy, you can go back to the mansion or the condo, whichever place you want to go back to. Your mother is rethinking her drastic decision to kick you out of a house that is just as much yours as it is hers." Lauren says.

Amy looks at me, "Can you come back with me?"

"Amy, I don't think that I should." I say.

"Not to the mansion but to the condo. I don't want to go live with my mother again." She says.

I look up at Lauren who gives the pleading look again. How could I say no to her after everything that I've just discovered about Amy? I can't leave her now, even if I wanted to. "Alright, I'll go live with you at the condo."

She smiles.

"But, no more of your women running in and out of the condo." I say.

Lauren nods her head up and down quickly, agreeing with what I said.

Amy looks up, "Fine, no more women, I promise."