"Where's she?!" A woman's loud voice was heard in the house, the minute she entered.
The maids were the first one to hear her harsh scary voice and rushed to the entrance to see the woman, her husband and daughters. Before the maids could greet the woman, she shouted, "Where is the stupid woman who thinks this house is hers?!" Her voice sounded so violent that the maids flinched on behalf of their boss, madam Giselle.
Giselle was shakened in her room when she heard her mother-in-law's voice. This made her leave her room to go and meet the raging woman and hear her reason for barging into her house and making noise.
However, Giselle met her on the way to the living room and made eye contact with her. "Moth…" a slap landed on her face before she could call out to the woman.
"I'm not your mother!" The woman yelled at her, grabbed her hand and led her back to her room.
The slap Giselle received wasn't what hurt her so. It was the way the woman had hated her from the beginning that hurt her deeply. When she received the slap she asked herself why she was hated by everyone around her, even the man she married.
The woman pushed Giselle to the floor in her room, went to her closet and found a large traveling bag. "He has been ready to divorce you, so pack your things and leave this house!" Grabbing her clothes and roughly placing it in the traveling bag, the woman said.
Giselle was too stunned to speak. "I regret…" she remembered the words Nolan said to her that night and slowly realized the betrayal.
"I don't know what you've done to my son but I'm very sure you did something. Tell me, did you kill him?!" Grabbing Giselle by the collar, she asked violently.
"No, why would I kill the man I love?"
She was hit again by the woman. "How could you say you love him when you can't even produce a child for him?!"
Almost bursting in tears, Giselle thought to herself, 'I cannot get myself pregnant. Your son never touched me so how was I going to produce a baby when he never did his part?'
Giselle's heart was crushed. No, her heart had been crushed ever since she was forced to replace her sister as Nolan's bride five years ago. Her sister had an accident and was said to be in a coma but because of Giselle's father selfish purpose, he offered Giselle to the Banks family and they accepted her only to torture her.
Giselle was used to receiving slaps on the face by her mother-in-law that it no longer hurt on the outside but on the inside. She wanted to be loved by her husband, her husband's family and her family but they just couldn't give her that much. She was like an outcast in both families.
The next moment, Giselle was forced to carry her bag to the living room. There she found out that her family had joined. For a moment she hoped they'd defend her.
"Giselle," her mother rushed to her looking so concerned.
'Mom, please stay with me,' looking desperately into her mother's eyes she said. She wanted a hug from her mother and wanted to tell her about how hurt she was by everything and cry deeply in her arms.
"Talk to me, Giselle. I'm your mother. Please tell us where Nolan is. We've tracked everything and this place was his last seen. Did you do something to him? Talk to me, Giselle. You can trust me." Her mother looked so convincing that even if Giselle really did something, she'd speak and forget the repercussions.
"Do you really think I'd do anything to the man I love, Mom?" Tears dropped from her eyes nonstop as if it had been piling up.
"I don't think so. Sometimes, we can do things out of rage and pain and…"
"He was here, Mom. He cooked for me and spent time with me for the first time. We slept in the same bed for the first time and when I woke up, I didn't find him. I thought he had gone again like he used to but…" Giselle wasn't given the chance to continue speaking.
"Just tell the truth, Giselle. You did something to him!"
Giselle was utterly surprised. As she looked at her mother, she cried bitterly because she couldn't believe her mother suspected her of a crime.
"Why don't you believe me?" She whispered because her heart was feeling lost and weak. She lost the energy she needed to defend herself.
"You are just not telling the truth." And just like that, they all turned against her.
Then they urged her to sign the annulment file. It felt as though they were stoning her as she stood between them.
The lawyer explained that Mr Banks had prepared for divorce a month ago and requested that he'd decide when to divorce his wife but now that he's missing and…
"Get on with it," Nolan's mother interrupted him.
"Giselle is promised a few million dollars," the lawyer declared.
"Why would he give you this much? Have you been threatening my son?!" Nolan's mother accused her once more.
"It was Mr Banks' declaration," the lawyers uttered.
They had no choice but to comply with Nolan's decision to give Giselle that much.
After signing the documents, Giselle was pushed out of the house with her bag that didn't contain 5% of her things.
She stood in front of the mansion with a blank mind. 'It's over,' something said in her head and then she moved from that spot.
The next moment her phone beeped and she saw that her account was credited with a sum of two million dollars. She ignored it as if it was a little amount of money.
She called a cab and entered with her luggage. She was divorced, disowned and trashed by everyone except her best friend who she stayed away from because she had grown to be lonely lately.
In the cab, she dialed her best friend's phone number. Farida answered almost immediately.
"What's up, my baby!" Giselle loved her cheerful voice.
"I'm coming to your apartment," Giselle's voice sounded unalive.
"Is something wrong? Are you sick?"
"No," Giselle tried not to cry. "I just need you so much at this moment."
"You are welcome anytime. I'll cook something delicious for you. You can get drinks when you are around my side," Farida knew something was up so she wanted to talk to her friend while they were having lunch.