29. Elizabeth
As I lay on my bed, unable to push back the memories of yesterday with Will, I let out a loud yawn, my cheeks still flushed with excitement. Who would have thought that I, who was adamant about ending things with Will and his contract relationship, would find myself actually getting married to him?
I love you, Elizabeth.
I blushed hard again as I thought of the moment he had first said those words. You couldn’t help replaying them in my head every minute; it still felt like a dream.
Lost in my thoughts, I heard my phone ring, indicating that I had a message. Picking it up from the side table, I saw it was from Will.
Oh, Elizabeth! This man is going to be the end of you. I chuckled to myself as I opened the message and read the sweet morning note he had left for me. My heart danced at his words as I typed back a response before finally forcing myself out of bed.
As much as I wanted to sleep in, watch romantic movies, and just savor this new moment, I had work to catch up on.
Yesterday, I was supposed to do some fabric shopping, but with Will around, we spent the day wrapped in each other’s arms, watching shows and eating. As I looked at myself in the mirror, I began to wonder what this meant for us—although it shouldn’t be a challenge since the public already thought we were getting married. All we had to do was carry on with our plans as usual, starting our fresh journey together.
Lost in my thoughts, I was brought back to reality by the sound of my phone ringing. Checking the caller ID, I recognized it immediately as a representative of one of the clients I had spoken with last week. Eagerly, I dropped the napkin in my hand and picked up the phone, anxious to hear what they had to say.
“Hello, good morning,” I spoke softly as I confirmed it was me on the call.
I listened intently as he began to share some information, eventually concluding with, “After much consideration, we are pleased to inform you that we would like to be a part of this project. We have sent over the contract to be signed and reverted via email. Please let us know if you have any questions. Thank you very much.”
I remained in shock, even after I responded thank you. I still could not believe my ears. It wasn’t until the call ended and I checked my mailbox that it sank in.
“Oh my god!” I said out loud as I read through the contract. The amount of money they were willing to invest was double what I had expected. As I looked at the mailbox again, I instantly knew that it was time to call Lydia over.
“Thank you, God,” I said from the depths of my heart. Everything was finally falling into place, and it felt surreal.
Hurriedly dialing Lydia on my phone, I placed her on speaker right before she picked up.
“Girl! Guess what?”
“What is it?” Lydia asked curiously.
“You’re going to have to come over! But just so you know, I just got my first major investor!”
“Oh my God! I’m coming over now!”
I let out a laugh as she ended the call. I hurriedly went in to freshen up before her arrival, and just as I expected, she came in a few minutes after I was done dressing.
“Now, what were you saying over the phone?”
“I just got the call this morning to check my mail, and I met the contract there waiting patiently to be signed.”
“Well, have you?”
“Not yet, Lydia, calm down. My lawyer has to go through it first. I can’t believe this. Everything is coming together, Lydia! This is so good. I mean, I’m so happy!”
“Me too, and it’s all because of you. Thank you very much, Lydia. I don’t know how I would have done all of this without you.”
“What do you mean? This is on you, Liz. All you.”
I held Lydia’s hand tightly and then embraced her warmly, overflowing with gratitude for her support through the years. I never could have asked or wished for a better best friend because she was the best friend a person could ever ask for.
“I love you so much, Lydia.”
“I love you too. So now, how are we celebrating this win? We have to go out, Liz. We have not done that in a long time.”
“You’re right on that one. You know what? Let me hurriedly call Will and tell him about the contract. Then we can pick out a spot to go and—”
“Wait! Hold up!” Lydia stopped me in the middle of my sentence, confusing me further as to what the issue was.
“What’s the issue?”
“Did you just say ‘Will’?” she asked.
At first, I didn’t understand why she was asking until it occurred to me that I had not yet told her all about yesterday.
“Oh, oh, that’s true . . . umm . . .”
“What are you not telling me, Liz?” Lydia asked curiously.
“I’m sorry, I had forgotten to talk to you about it.”
“About what?”
I looked at Lydia and then wore a soft smile on my face as I thought of the best way to put this. “Will and I are back together,” I said, looking away to avoid eye contact.
“Whoa! Praise the heavens! But when did this happen? Last I checked two days ago, you both still weren’t on talking terms.”
“Well, a few things happened yesterday, and that led to me being his fiancée.”
“Wait, let me get this straight. Did you just say ‘fiancée’? I thought you were done with the contract and all.”
“This time, it’s for real, Lydia.”
“What? You’re both getting married, and you didn’t think to inform me directly?”
As I observed her reaction, I realized that although she wasn’t upset, informing her should have been my initial priority.
“I’m sorry, Lydia. We spent the rest of the day together, and you know I was just so carried away by the moment that it did not occur to me to call and talk about it.”
“I see. But are you sure this is what you want? I know how hurt you have been in the past few days, Liz, and I don’t want to see history repeat itself.”
“I promise you, I’m fine. Way better than ever.” I held her hand, reassuring her that I was confident in my decision.
“That means we are actually going to be a family for real now! Oh my god! Congratulations, Liz!”
We both let out a loud laugh as we hugged each other tightly.
“So does that mean we have a real wedding to plan?”
“Well, something like that,” I said, laughing as I watched her squeal in so much excitement.
“Finally! Will is letting someone in! Oh my god, this is good news.” Lydia paused before briefly adding, “You know, I used to worry that Will would end up a wealthy loner because he never let anyone in. Never! But now that he has you, I’m so glad because I know both of you and I believe you’re perfect for each other.”
“Thank you so much, Lydia. You know this would have been impossible without you. I love you so much!”
“I love you too, Liz! Congratulations! Now we have even more reasons to celebrate! What do you say we go out?”
“I’m all in!”
After a few minutes of dressing up, responding to a few other emails, and reaching out to a few individuals, Lydia and I were ready to move.
As we stepped out onto the streets, enjoying the beautiful warm weather, we finally settled to do a bit of shopping before heading to our restaurant. However, as we strolled, I could not help but notice that people were looking at me.
“Lydia, is it just me, or are people staring at us?” I asked to be sure it wasn’t in my head.
Lydia looked around and saw that people were indeed staring and pointing at us, particularly at me.
“Do I look weird? Is there something off?”
“No, not at all.”
“Then, why are people looking and pointing fingers?” I asked, confused as to what was going on.
Unable to handle it, we resorted to hiding ourselves in a restaurant while figuring out what the issue was.
“Am I trending or something? One would think I’m some celebrity with the way they are staring.”
“Well, you’re dating my brother. Expect to become the most admired, loved, and hated woman in the city.”
I rolled my eyes at what she said, especially because it was a reality.
“Hold on,” Lydia said as she paused while reading something off her phone.
“What is it, Lydia? You’re bothering me with that expression on your face.”
“There is an article going around.”
“About?” I asked with curiosity, feeling my heart rate gradually increase.
“Will. It says he cheated on you.”
“I don’t get it. Why will there be an article about Will cheating on me?” I asked as I took Lydia’s phone from her to read what she was reading.
As I read the article, I could not help but feel hurt, confused, and overwhelmed with questions. “Who wrote this article?” I asked.
“An online blogger.”
I immediately picked up my phone and dialed Will’s number.
“Babe . . .” he answered.
“What’s with the article all around? What’s going on?” I asked.
“I’m sorry, it’s the lady from the other night. She is behind all of this.”
I sighed, wondering why she was taking such actions. Articles like these had the potential to ruin a person’s reputation, relationships, and even their career.
“Don’t worry. My team is already working hard enough to ensure she doesn’t get away with this. But are you okay, though?”
“Not you worrying about me right now.”
“Of course I will. There are a lot of people saying all sorts of things online. I just don’t want it getting to you, okay?”
“I’m all right, trust me, and I’m with Lydia, so I’ll be good.”
“All right then. I’ll talk to you later.”
On that note, he ended the call, leaving me curious about people’s opinions. As I scrolled through the comment section while Lydia ordered for both of us, I now understood why Will made the statement he did. One would think Will should be at the receiving end of it all, but I just could not fathom how and why I was being dragged into the mud. It now made sense why people were staring and pointing at me. As I read one of the comments, I felt an ache in my heart as if it had been pierced. Lydia could tell my facial expression had changed.
“What’s wrong?”
I remained silent as I read through a lot more comments.
I can’t blame Will for cheating. Have you seen the girl he is engaged to?
I can bet being engaged to such a woman is enough to push one to the edge of cheating.
She should probably work on that face of hers. Then maybe she would be able to keep a man like Will.
Honestly, I don’t know what he sees in her compared to the other beautiful women he could have. This needs to be looked into.
I swallowed the lump in my throat and looked away from the phone and Lydia, staring out of the closest window.
“Elizabeth, you know you shouldn’t be reading those comments. None of them matter.”
“Hmmm . . .” I replied, with no words to say.
“Elizabeth?”
“Yes?” I responded while forcing a smile on my face and, at the same time, trying to make sure it looked very much natural.
How else was I supposed to react? No one wanted to read comments like that from people. It just told me what I needed to know. The public was not at all in support of what Will and I shared.
Although a part of me understood the importance of not caring about what people say, I still could not pretend that everything was fine and that I felt all right. It was painful to witness people saying such terrible things about me. To think that I should be the victim here, the one who did nothing wrong but was cheated on. But, as expected, the world never seemed to reason in the appropriate way. Now, they had managed to make me the problem in the equation, and to be honest, I had no words to say.
The moment I saw the waiter approaching us with food, I could not be happier. This was a way for me to evade the thoughts of all that was going on and just focus on filling up my belly. My only prayer was that all of these issues didn’t get to affect the business.
“Thank you,” I said politely as I pulled my plate of food closer to myself, digging into the plate of fries.
In no time, we were done, and we went back home, the journey being silent all through with nothing much to say. All of the excitement with which I started the morning was gone.
“Elizabeth!” Lydia pulled me into a corner all of a sudden, confusing me even further.
“What! Why did you do that?”
“Look ahead.”
I looked in the direction she pointed—toward my apartment building. But the building itself wasn’t the problem. It was the swarm of reporters gathered there that worried her.
“So now I can’t go into my own house?”
“Let me book us a taxi. We can go to my place and stay there for a bit while we try to sort all of this out.”
I let out a sigh as I wondered how the events of the day seemed to suddenly turn around. It was as though life was really keen on not seeing me happy and excited for once. That was my only explanation as to why every time something good seemed to want to emerge, a negative event always had to take the lead. This seemed like a pattern, and to be honest, it was getting exhausting.
“Come on, let’s go to my place.”
I followed Lydia’s lead, getting into the taxi and just looking out the window as we drove over to her house. Unlike my one-bedroom apartment, Lydia lived in a spacious house all by herself, with four ensuite bedrooms. I mean, what else would you expect when both your father and brother are billionaires? The luxury naturally trickles down.
Settling onto her couch, I wondered what was going to happen next. Was this how life would be as Will’s wife? Filled with drama and controversies, with online critics undermining my confidence at every turn. Was I truly ready for what lay ahead?
I had been so caught up in my emotions that I never really considered the significant impact marrying someone like Will would have on my life. Today’s events make it evident that being married to a man of such wealth and influence is clearly a big deal.
“Yes, she is with me,” I heard Lydia say, and I could already guess that she was on the phone with Will.
Letting out a sigh, I picked up my phone and deleted all my social media apps. With the notifications constantly bombarding my phone, I guess I could use a break from all the noise and just focus on myself for a while. I needed to ensure I was ready for the journey ahead with Will—the life of an ordinary girl marrying a billionaire.