Evelyn Rivera didn’t care, instead, she lashed at her daughter. “How dare you?” She fumed, stepping closer. “How dare you accuse me in this manner?”
Her husband tried to hold her back, the last thing he wanted was for his wife to do something she would regret. It seemed like she was close to hitting their eldest daughter in public.
“Accuse you?” June was perplexed.
It seemed like her mother had bought into the business of an actress.
“Why would I accuse my mother?” She blinked, “Am I still permitted to call you that? Seeing you want me dead?”
Evelyn stilled at her daughter’s words. She could feel the gazes of people on her, looking curiously and waiting for an answer. If she didn’t clear this up, there would be trouble.
Immediately, she fell to the ground and forced tears out of her eyes. “How can you accuse me unjustly? Why would I want to kill my own child?”
June wasn’t moved, but April came to the rescue, falling to the ground by her mother as she put up her best act yet.
“Mother! Please! Don’t cry! This is all my fault. If I hadn’t agreed to marry Brother Ethan after she ran away, this wouldn’t be happening.” April’s cheeks were now stained with tears. “Sister! If you want to vent your anger on anyone, vent it on me!”
June couldn’t believe her eyes. It was a mystery how they always tried to make things to be about her cheating ex-husband. She couldn’t even remember the last time she thought of the idiot.
Murmurs spread and soon enough, hateful words were getting hurled at June.
“Such a terrible woman! She has no heart!”
“Get her out of here already! Her callousness is over the top!”
“Such a shameless woman! Bringing shame to the Rivera family name!”
“Disgraceful! No wonder she was kicked out of the prestigious Lontoc family!”
June looked around and laughed. “April Rivera. You sure know how to put up a good act.”
“Who says I am interested in this poor man? I am already married to the best man on planet Earth! Why would I care for peasants?”
“Liar!” Her mother said, getting on her feet. “After many months of running away with a strange man, you come back here to cause a scene? How terrible can you be?” Tears streamed down her eyes. “Did I not raise you well? What did I do wrong that you turned up so bad? You even… you even brought your father to an early grave.”
“Are you trying to kill me too?”
June couldn’t be bothered with the theatrics. Instead, she looked over to Ethan who had not stopped looking at her since she came out to congratulate them.
“I hope you have a happy marriage, Ethan. I hope she bares you many children after destroying my chances.” She looked over at all of them. “This is my formal announcement. I will definitely pay you all in the same coin. You just wait.”
After saying her piece, she turned around and made to leave, only to be dragged back by her mother who sent a thunderous slap to her face-shocking everyone.
Thomas stepped up, ready to act but June sent him a firm look. “Remember today, Mother. Because I will make you regret it.”
With that, June left the party, headed straight for her car while the others watched with star-struck looks on their faces, shell-shocked at everything that played out before them.
April looked at her party, one she painstakingly prepared on her own to make an announcement that would change the course of things. Her sister had ruined everything.
Upset, she rushed out of the place, with Ethan and her mother calling after her. Safe to say the party was ended. June Rivera had singlehandedly ended the party.
…
Later that night, At the Rivera Mansion. Ethan and April had returned to the Rivera house despite Ethan’s reservations.
“I don’t understand, mother! How is she alive?” April said, gripping her hair as she paced around her mother’s office.
“This is a disaster! If sister gets talking, I will be ruined. We will be ruined. I don’t want to go to prison!”
Evelyn Rivera remained silent. “Don’t say such nonsense! You did not do anything! If there is anyone that would be going to prison then it should be her! She killed her father after all. It’s only fitting that she goes to prison! She killed my husband! She is the reason I am a widow today. The reason you don’t have a father.”
April was tired of her mother’s delusions. “No one would arrest June for going missing as a child and forcing her father to die of a heart attack, mother! You are not a widow! You are already married to Anthonio!”
“I don’t care! June is nothing. That is why you have to commence with the next phase of the plan, that way, you can become more powerful and silence her!”
….
June, Lucy and Thomas drove through the busy streets of South City.
The atmosphere was chilly with June wearing a cloudy look on her face. Not a word has been spoken since they began their journey back up until they came to the hospital where Lucy was dropped off with a promise to talk later.
Thomas drove the car to the house while June thought about everything that had happened to her. Seeing her family this night reopened the wounds in her heart that were barely healed.
She hadn’t made a move to investigate the matter of her murder attempt, and much more than ever, she was ready to begin the process. She picked up her phone and wrote a text to Lucy.
She was going to hire a private investigator to find out what happened to the footage in the hospital from the time of her attempted murder to the day she was wheeled out of the place.
Doctor Carson had told her it was because she wasn’t safe and in that moment, she figured there must have been a reason for that, which made her decide to seek him out first thing in the morning.
The car stopped and June was brought out of her reverie. She shot a questioning brow to Thomas who replied to her silent question.
“We are here.”
She had been so caught up in her thoughts that she didn’t notice they were back home and Luis was standing at the front door, waiting for her return.
The sight of her little prince eroded a bit of pain from her heart and she got out of the car. “Did you wait too long, baby?” She asked when she got to him.
Luis didn’t know how to explain that he was asking his father to go bring her back ten minutes after she left. He opted for a nod instead.
As though recognising the hurt in her heart, the little one interlaced his fingers with hers and they walked inside the house together. Rafael was seated in front of the television.
June corked a brow as it was unlike him. He was always holed up in his office at this time. “Back already?” Rafe said without bothering to look at her.
One look at the dining table and the maids that lingered, and June felt a wave of guilt. “Were you waiting for me?”
“I wanted to eat dinner with Auntie!” Luis said, dragging June along. “I forgot to feed Auntie before she left.”
June let herself be directed to the place by his little hands. Soon enough, they were all seated and getting served a late dinner.
“You were waiting for me?” June asked again, this time, to her husband.
“I don’t like eating alone.”
An obvious lie. June opened her mouth to call him out when knocks came from the door. “I’ll get it!” She said instead and got up on her feet.
Luis glared at his dad, who rolled his eyes as they waited for June’s return.
June opened the door and stilled at the sight that greeted her.
“Who are you?” A female voice said, looking her over with a frown that grew by the minute.