WEEKS LATER
“Ugh, I don’t see a reason why we should be having another ball when it is close to the end of the season. This should be the last one.” Nora groaned as she hit her nail repeatedly with the glass in her hand.
Lily smiled at her statement and looked around the room before turning back to Nora.
“It might not be that bad.” Lily replied and shrugged, which earned an eye roll and a scoff from Nora.
“Of course, you enjoy everything.” Nora scoffed and turned to the dance floor. They both stared at the couples dancing. It was the second to the last ball of the season and it was organised by Lydia’s parents.
It’s been weeks and everything has been going great for everyone. There wasn’t any drama, everyone was happy.
Lily has been having the best life, Axel treats her well and gives her everything she wants before she asks.
It wasn’t the life she dreamed of but it was better, being Axel’s wife was everything.
Lily saw Axel’s step mother talking to some women but Mrs. McCall wasn’t with her. Curiously, she turned to Nora.
“Hey, have you seen Mrs. McCall today?” She asked.
“Oh, you mean your mum?” Nora asked back with a smirk and Lily glared at her. She knows how much Lily hated referring to Mrs. McCall as her mother and she wanted to tease her a little.
“Oh my God, you look cute when you are mad.” Nora chuckled and Lily rolled her eyes.
“Well, I heard that they get barely invited to anything ever since the news of Malia lying about her pregnancy went around. Mr. McCall has also loosed lots of his investors, his hope to become a billionaire has gone down the drain.” Nora explained and Lily nodded.
“Oh, that’s bad, I feel sorry for them.” She replied and Nora gave her a look before rolling her eyes.
“You feel bad for them after everything they have done to you?” Nora asked and she shrugged.
“Of course.” She replied.
“You are too kind. I also heard they might be here.” Nora added.
“Really? How?”
“Since Lydia and Malia are friends, they would get invited and also, and Susan would help too.” Nora answered and Lily nodded.
“Then I better find my husband before anything happens again.” Lily replied and Nora chuckled. She dropped the glass in her hand and smiled at Nora before walking away.
Lily walked around the room slowly and searched around for Axel, she hadn’t seen him since they arrived at the ball together. He left with Max to go talk to some people.
She kept looking around but didn’t see him. In the process of searching for Axel, she got engaged in a conversation with strangers who knew her as Mrs. Blackwell but had no idea who they were.
After searching for minutes and couldn’t find him, she felt pressed and decided to use the bathroom. She asked one of the maids around where the bathroom was, the ball was being hosted at Lydia’s parent’s mansion.
Of course, no other mansion in the city looked better than the Blackwells but theirs were also cool.
“Go down this hallway, take a turn. The first door by your right.” The maid explained and Lily smiled at her.
“Thank you.” She replied and walked down the hallway. As she got deeper into the quiet hallway, the music coming from the party faded.
Lily brought out her phone and decided to text Axel. She sent him a text asking where he was and waited for his reply but got none.
She sighed and looked up from her phone, she realised she was at the end of the hallway already so she took the right turn.
She found the bathroom and walked into it. It was empty.
She used it and in minutes, she was done, she washed her hands and walked out of the room.
She checked her phone again to see if she got any reply from Axel but she didn’t. She sighed and headed towards the party.
Out of the blue, she felt someone pull her hair and she yelped. The person pushed her roughly to the wall and she hit the back of her head on it.
Lily hissed in pain and opened her eyes properly to see it was Mrs. McCall.
“Mum?” She called in shock and before she could blink, Mrs. McCall slapped her across the face and her eyes widened in shock.
Lily placed her hand on her cheek as she stared at the woman burning with rage in her presence.
“You, you ruined everything.” She said angrily and all Lily did was stare at her.
“Do you think you have won? Do you think it’s all good now for you? What happened was just a little thing and it can’t get me out of the way. I will do anything to see you fall.” She said with an irritated expression on her face. The hatred in her eyes was so obvious.
Lily didn’t say anything, she couldn’t do anything too. She couldn’t hit her mother, she was also too shocked and heartbroken to do anything.
“Listen to me, Lily.” She said and moved closer to her then pulled her hair, Lily shut her eyes and whimpered in pain.
“Listen well. It is either you get a divorce with Axel or I will tell everyone you met him through a one-night stand. I might not be a billionaire yet but trust me, I have the power to make the news spread like wildfire. You have got a week.” She threatened and let go of Lily’s hair.
She stared at her with disgust and kissed her teeth.
“I curse the day I gave birth to you.” She said and gave her one last look before walking away.
Lily blinked and the tears she was holding rolled down her cheeks, she cried silently as she ran her hands through her hair to fix it. Her head hurt and she moaned in pain.
She suddenly heard footsteps and she turned towards the dark path of the hallway and saw someone walking toward her.
She recognised who it was immediately, she could recognise him anywhere she saw him. It was Axel.
She hurriedly wiped her tears and fixed her hair, she ignored the pain she felt at the back of her head too.
He got closer to her and she could see him clearly, he stood in front of her and she smiled at him.
“Hey.” She called and he smirked.
“My little Lilyana. Always trying to hide her pain.” He muttered and took a step closer to her.
“Wha… what are you talking about?” She asked and drew her brows together.
Axel slowly raised his hand and touched the back of her head, she bit her lip and fought the urge to groan in pain.
Axel knew she wasn’t ready to show she was hurt so he applied pressure with his grip and she winced in pain.
“There you go.” He said and withdrew his hand.
Lily was surprised he knew her head hurt, did he see what happened? If he really did see what happened, he would have walked up to her mother and did something but he didn’t, which meant he didn’t see it.
But at the same time, she was confused about how he knew about the head injury.
“How did… ”
“Why didn’t you say anything?” He cut her off with his question and she furrowed her brows.
“Huh?”
“I watched. I watched her hit you, I watched her pull your hair and I watched her threaten you.” He said and Lily gasped in disbelief.
“And you didn’t do anything?” She asked with her voice trembling.
“Oh, trust me. It took a lot to not put a bullet in her skull but she is your mother and also, you need to learn to stand up for yourself. You can’t just let people mess with you, what if I am not there?”
“But you are always there. You were there, why didn’t you do anything about it?” Lily asked and she started to cry.
“Who said I am not going to do anything about it?”