The timing couldn’t be worse.
It’s like a guillotine is slowly severing my head.
Taking its time, it unhurriedly squeezes every drop of blood from my body.
Tonight it’s my birthday, and it already feels like I’ve aged a decade over these past two hours.
Why?
Why did it have to happen now?
What is life trying to tell me?
It’s not only that I’m slowly crumbling inside.
The ground is moving under me as if it’s trying to open up and swallow me whole.
I wish it could.
It would show me more mercy and more love than anyone in my life has ever shown.
Shaking my head in disbelief, I bring my glass to my mouth and empty it.
This thing is way bigger than I thought, and it might kill me in the end, but I’m ready to meet my fate.
11
LELANI
I can’t shakeoff this feeling that my world as I know it is about to come to a swift end.
Even without my family’s shenanigans, tonight would’ve been as dramatic and filled with unexpected events as always.
Still, with their vicious plotting as a backstory, everything becomes more consequential, more hurtful.
More shocking.
My eyes hover over Callum’s face, collecting evidence for the case I’m building against him in my head.
Why did he have to stay in our family after my mother’s death?
Why?
Why does he even have to play a role in this story when my family, as the chess masters that they are, have made several moves to secure more power for themselves by trading me away?
What is their plan after all?
Are they positioning my future husband and me against this man?
Callum O’Hara is at the helm of our empire as we speak. Perhaps not formally, but he is.
While Giorgio runs the businesses in the background, Callum is the deterrent for anyone thinking of messing with my family.
Is that not enough?
Who is threatening our family that he has to take proactive steps and forge another alliance?
The way I see it, Giorgio is operating a multi-front war, securing as much leverage as he can.
