Chapter 13

AMBER'S POV
"What do you mean?" I could hear my heart beating wildly, I wondered if Mel could hear it too. It seemed like she could,
"I should be the one asking you that question, Amber. Did something else happen in that party that I don't know about?" she pointed a finger at me and I hurriedly withdrew. A whole lot of things happened that she didn't know about.
"Me..lissa, what are you going on about?" I stuttered and she gave me a look of warning. It was a bad idea to lie to Mel and I even sucked at it so I took a different approach and made an attempt to change the topic, "You were telling me about your fight with Ken. Did he hit you?" That got her attention but only for a bit,
"Don't you dare change the topic, Amber" How do I get out of this web? I hated lying to Melissa but I had a good reason for everything I have done till this point. So I countered,
"Mel, don't change the topic either. What did Ken do to you? You were supposed to be over at an hour thirty minutes max but it took you almost three hours" She looked like she was going to start crying all over again so I eased up a bit and repeated my question,
"Did he hit you, Melissa?" I saw her hesitate but then her shoulders slumped in resignation,
"He did" her voice was so low I had to strain my ears to hear her, "He slapped me across the face and shut the door in my face as he rolled his suitcase out of the room" She hiccupped and sighed
"It was just once though" She quickly added when she saw the look of utter horror on my face. I didn't even know what to say to her,
"Why didn't you tell me sooner? I would have.." She cut in before I could complete my statement,
"You can't be the hero all the time, Amber. You have issues of your own handling three kids all by yourself and besides I can handle my marriage" I couldn't hide the flash of hurt that masked my features.
Yes, she was right. It is her marriage, I am the unmarried mother of three children. It's not like I had any idea on how to settle issues that had to do with having a house or a matrimonial home. Mel noticed the hurt on my face before I could mask it,
"I didn't mean it like that, Amber" she quickly apologized but it was too late, the damage had been done.
My mum used to always tell me to mind the words I said in anger cause words could never be retrieved no matter how much you try and that was what had happened with Melissa.
"It's fine, Melissa. I won't interfere in your marriage any longer, you should get some rest. Goodnight" And that concluded our chat.
JAY'S POV
Eve seemed like she had no intentions to call it a night and honestly, I had exceeded my attention span. The flight from California to Los Angeles had taken hours and my initial plan was to just curl up in my bed and get a good night's sleep but instead I had found myself attending a party.
"It seems you're tired, I'll let you get some sleep and we can catch up some more tomorrow" I gave her a look which she either didn't catch up on or was just very good at ignoring.
The huge old fashioned clock in the hallway stroke midnight as I woke up the stairs to my room and to be honest, I wished I had strangled Eve. She had spent hours talking about things I wasn't even interested in knowing and then spent the rest of the time talking about her career and how famous and rich she had gotten. I couldn't stop myself from thinking about Amber Swift, she had wanted to be an actress just like Eve and I wondered if she got to finally fulfill her dreams.
No one was the same anymore, it had been a decade, change was most definitely expected but it wouldn't have hurt for things to still be a bit like old times. One of the most surprising changes was Melissa Hughes, that had gone from the sassiest girl in Oxford Oaks who attended any and every party to a mother of two adorable kids. Time really was moving fast for everyone but it seemed like it slowed down for me. Daniel too, apparently, my dude was as single and as much a player as I was, if not more.
"How did your talk with Eve go?" Mum asked as she poked her head out of her door. I smiled, mothers and poking around.
"Exhausting to be honest, I just want to take a bath and get my 10 hours of sleep" It wasn't the answer she was expecting but she wasn't going to push and I was grateful for that.
"Rise and shine, sleepyhead" the voice was accompanied by a huge stream of light and I thought I had momentarily gone blind as I groaned and stretched. It was morning.
"Noah, why do you do this everyday" What was with butlers and making you get up so early in the morning?
"It's 11 in the morning, Mr Harley. You have a meeting that's scheduled for 12 so I'd suggest you get up and go get ready" I tried to cover my head with the pillow but he dragged both the blankets and the pillows away and I swore to fire him. I thought I was going to get some time to myself before I paid a visit to the company but apparently, mum had other plans.
She had sworn to never allow any of the twins take over the company her husband had spent most of his life establishing. I felt bad for her though, it would really suck to know her only son whom she was doing everything so he would inherit the company, didn't even want to have anything to do with it.