Chapter 17 - Chapter 17

Some time had passed since the family dinner on Friday, Carter had been avoiding any shareholders meetings at the advice of his mother and older brother - rather than avoiding the meeting it was more like Carter was avoiding Mr. Bell.

Well, at least until today, Ms. Abbot had arranged to meet with Angela with Carter and Gavin present, she wanted everyone to be there to be sure that everything that needed to be said would be said, she wanted the truth to be out in the open, and she wanted to make sure Carter gave a proper apology to Angela for dragging out the relationship when he didn't have any feelings left for her.

Carter just wanted to get through the day and get to the meeting with Angela, he was nervous and unfocused, but he tried his best to be serious about his work, Daniel could tell, so he tried his best to help Carter with the work that was left.

When their work day came to an end, Carter and Daniel headed out, Lisa told them that she would pick up Andrea from daycare and take care of her while the two headed to Ms. Abbot's house to have the talk with Angela, it was a first for them not to stop at the daycare before heading home or anywhere, so it felt quite odd, and the car felt somewhat empty since Andrea wasn't with them.

As they got closer to the residence, Daniel could tell Carter was getting more and more nervous about everything.

"Carter, everything will work out, I am sure everything will go as it should, and we will find out what exactly is going on with this situation, and you can end the engagement and free both of you from all this" Daniel tried to reassure Carter.

"But what if I break the engagement and her father blames her for it? What if he gets upset with her? It is clear he wants our company and clearly using her is his only option of getting a chance of doing that, he didn't care that she was his daughter he used her to get to the company, so how will he react if we broke things off?" Carter said. Daniel had thought about it quite a bit since Friday, clearly, Mr. Bell didn't care much for his daughter if he was willing to use her to get a company.

When they arrived at the Abbot residence they parked and headed in together, it was no surprise that they found Gavin and Ms. Abbot already having a chat with Angela probably trying to make her comfortable, Daniel wasn't sure if he really should be there, this was a family matter to deal with but Ms. Abbot had insisted that he joined them since he found out about her cheating.

They were all laughing, but the moment Angela spotted Carter and Daniel her smile dropped, and she just looked away, they couldn't tell if she was furious or if it was because she felt guilty about her actions.

The two joined them in the living room and the atmosphere changed completely, things became a lot more serious since Angela wasn't actually sure why she was there and suddenly her fiancé, his secretary, brother, and his mother were there with her, and she could tell something was going on.

"Angela, I heard something recently, and I think we should have a talk about it. Gavin, do you still have the recording with you" Ms. Abbot asked her oldest son, he nodded and took out his phone, and played the recording.

Angela went pale as she listened to it, she didn't think anyone heard them, and now she was sitting in front of the person who was talked about.

"It's not like that" Angela tried to state but Ms. Abbot wasn't having it.

"Then how is it, Angela? Do you think my ears are messing with me or something? That is clearly your father who's speaking to you, I may be old Angie, but I am not deaf, and neither am I stupid" Ms. Abbot told her and Angela stayed silent for a bit.

"I didn't want to do it" Angela finally spoke up, "I didn't want to lead Carter on and I didn't want to do this to your family, Ms. Abbot, but I had no choice but to do it," Angela said softly, she looked around the room, her eyes hardly meeting those around her.

"Then tell me why you went along with your father's plan," Ms. Abbot said in a soft yet warm tone.

"I did something a few years ago and well my father is using it against me," Angela said, but she could tell everyone wanted context on what exactly happened. "I got pregnant a few years ago, about a year before I met Carter, and my father didn't know, I was abroad at the time so when I returned I came back with a baby, and my father was obviously quite upset about it, but I loved my child so much I couldn't give them up for adoption, so my father agreed that I could keep him, so he is actually being raised as my younger brother, my father told me if I didn't do this he would send my child away... I am not even allowed to live in our main house or really see my son all that much until I get married to Carter" she explained, and even though Ms. Abbot was already appalled by Mr. Bell's actions; she felt physically sick just hearing what he was doing to his daughter - it was quite upsetting for everyone to hear.

"I see, if we could help you get out of that situation - both you and your son - would you take it, Angela?" Gavin asked and Angela nodded instantly.

"Yes please, I don't want this anymore, I reconnected with my son's father but when he found out I was still with Carter he was upset and cut ties with me," Angela said, and it rang a bell with Daniel and Carter, Daniel took out his phone and selected his recording.

"Is this the baby's father?" Daniel asked and Angela listened to the recording and nodded when it ended, she looked from Daniel to Carter with a guilty look.

"I am sorry Carter... I am really sorry for everything" She said softly on the verge of tears.

"It's okay, I wasn't any better, I am sorry I dragged you along for such a long time, I really did love you at the beginning Angela, but I slowly fell out of love, but I didn't want to disappoint my mother by ending our relationship, so I just went with it and when people started asking when we would be getting married it was obvious I should probably propose, and I guess my fear kept me dragging you along mindlessly without thinking about how you would feel in the situation" Carter apologized, there was a bit of silence.

"It's okay, I wasn't honest either just how you used me eventually to not disappoint my mother, I ended up using you in my own way without even telling you what was going on... and Daniel," She said as she looked at Daniel with a small smile, "I am so sorry for everything, whenever my dad saw you so close with Carter he kept telling me Carter would end up leaving me and that if the relationship with Carter ended he would send my son away, and it became so constant that I started taking out my anger on you since I didn't know what else to do or how to handle anything, and then I saw you with Andrea and I just somewhat lost it, just thinking you could have her with you whenever and that Carter was helping you and here I was having my son call me sister it was so upsetting... and frustrating" Angela apologize.

Daniel and Carter could tell her apologies were sincere and that there was no malice behind her words, they felt a little bad for Angela, Daniel counted it, and it turned out Angela's son was already around 9 years old, and he still didn't know the truth behind it and Angela could hardly see him, just the thought that he grew that much, and she couldn't see him much in that time was quite upsetting for Daniel.

"We will help both your son and you Angela, and we will take your father down for his actions as well, you can be sure about that much," Ms. Abbot said as she took Angela's hand.

The tense atmosphere was now slowly replaced with a hint of sadness and thankfulness.