The Heiress Is Back!

“I already excused you to your teacher, honey,” Leah told Phoebe.

They were currently watching a movie when Leah suddenly blurted that out.

With that, Phoebe’s attention was now all on her mother. She got so curious about it because this was the very first time that her mother asked her to be absent from school. “Why, mom?” she politely asked.

Leah looked at her, too. “We need to go somewhere, Phoebe,” she answered.

Phoebe’s brows met. “Where?”

Leah placed her left hand on Phoebe’s right hand. “You’ll know soon, honey.”

Phoebe almost had not slept thinking of where they would go tomorrow. She had a weird feeling about it. She also noticed that her mother had been acting strangely these past few days. She became more caring and industrious than before. She was stopping her and advising her to have a rest since her cough had not still healed. But her mother would always tell her that she could handle it. And that she was feeling better as days passed by.

But she could not fully believe her because she could hear her continuous coughing every night. She was just waiting for her to tell her what really the problem was since she kept on denying everything whenever she was asking.

“Good morning, Phoebe! Time to wake up now.”

She was awakened by her mother’s soft voice. A smile immediately formed on her lips when she felt her mother’s hug. “Good morning, too, mom,” she greeted with a hoarse voice.

Leah chuckled while adoring her daughter’s cuteness. She even weakly slapped her butt and said, “Wake up now, Phoebe. Sunshine’s saying hi already.”

Phoebe groaned. “I’m still sleepy, mom. Five minutes more please?” she requested.

“Fine. Five minutes more and you’ll wake up, okay? We’ll have our breakfast when you go downstairs.”

Phoebe smiled with her eyes closed. “Thanks, mom. I love you.”

“I love you, too, sweetie.”

As promised, Phoebe spent another five minutes sleeping. And after that, she woke up and went downstairs to have breakfast.

“I’ve already prepared the clothes that you will wear for our trip later,” Leah informed her after she swallowed her food.

“Thank you, mom. But can you already tell me where we are going today? I kinda feel a bit anxious about it,” she confessed.

Leah shook her head with a curve on her lips. “It’s a great place where you will love. I promise,” she answered.

Uncontent of her mother’s response, Phoebe still felt a bit relieved because of it. She believed everything that her mother would say. She would not say that if she did not mean it.

After having breakfast, the mother and daughter were already prepared before they left their house. They rode a cab to the bus terminal.

Brenn City.

That was what was written on the bus that they were going to ride on.

Phoebe’s forehead creased while trying to remember where she heard about Brenn City. And when she could not recall it, she took out her phone and searched about the place.

Brenn City was the capital of the country they were living in. And it was known to be the richest city in the country. It was a city of innovation and modernization.

“Mom, what are we going to do in Brenn City?” She could not help but to ask.

But her mother did not answer her question. Instead, she handed her a travel pillow. “Use this. It will be a long trip. You can sleep also if you want,” she responded, far from the response that Phoebe was expecting.

Phoebe sighed in defeat and took the travel pillow. She would just sleep since her mother had no intention of telling her until they got there.

***

“Amelia…”

Amelia immediately wiped her tears before she faced the person who called her. “Henry…” she called him back with a broken voice. She was trying to suppress her tears, but she could not stop it. She ran towards her husband and threw herself to him for a hug. She cried so hard in his arms.

Henry bit his lower lips. His heart clenched in pain while hearing his wife’s cries.

Even after eighteen years, Amelia was still longing for her lost child. God knew how much they tried to search for their child that Leah took away from them before. But there were no leads that they could find. Now, they were just hoping that Leah would be eaten by her conscience and return their child to them.

“Hush now, honey,” Henry tried to calm her down.

But Amelia wagged her head. As much as she wanted to calm herself down, she could not. She was this weak when it came to their lost child. She was still b;aming herself for asking Henry that time to have their wedding anniversary on the island. If only she just chose to celebrate it at home or in a fine dining restaurant, maybe they would not have lost their child.

“I-I’m sorry, Henry. I-Im really sorry. This is all my fault,” she whispered repeatedly.

Henry ran his fingers through her hair. “Don’t blame yourself for this, Amelia. Nobody wanted for this to happen,” he comforted her.

Amelia lifted up her head to look at her husband’s face. “I’m so sorry for adding up to your worries. I know that you’re having a hard time in the company, yet I’m still here, mourning for our child.”

Henry shook his head and cupped her face. “I am not mad, Amelia. I don’t care if you decided to stay at home instead of working in the company. But I don’t want you to keep on blaming yourself and stressing yourself because of a thing that you never wanted to happen.”

What Amelia said was true. He was really having a hard time handling the company as of the moment. Sales of their company had been so bad that he needed to borrow money to cover that up to prevent the investors from withdrawing their investments in their company. And until now, he was still finding money to fill that hole. And he did not know how long it would take for him to keep doing that. He was anxious that the company that they worked hard to build for decades would vanish in just a snap because of this issue.

Their moment was interrupted with a sudden knock on the door. “Ma’am, sir?”

Amelia pulled away from the hug and wiped her tears.

Henry, on the other hand, waited for his wife to fix herself before finally opening the door.

Behind the door was one of the maids.

“What?” Henry asked her.

“Someone’s looking for the both of you, Mr. and Mrs. Thompson,” the maid answered politely.

Henry’s brows furrowed. He could not remember any of his business partners telling him for a visit today. “Who is it?” he asked the maid.

“She told me she’s Leah.”

The maid’s response made the couple’s heart stop from beating for a moment.

“L-Leah?”

Was she the Leah that they were looking for for years?

***

Phoebe almost felt dizzy while roaming her eyes around the mansion that they just entered. “This house is so big. Who’s house is this, mom?” She turned to ask her mother.

But before she could answer, sounds of footsteps caught their attention.

There she saw a man in a corporate attire and a sophisticated lady in a black dress beside him walking downstairs. She felt her jaw drop while staring at them.

They looked like a king and a queen in corporate attire!

Leah, on the other hand, was stunned while looking at the couple who used to be her bosses. Her palms were sweaty and cold. She could not even move from her place. It was like her feet were glued on the floor.

“Please have a seat,” Henry formally offered.

Phoebe felt uncomfortable for the stares that man and woman, in front of them, were giving her. She had already avoided their gazes, but she could still feel that their eyes were not leaving her.

Leah could feel the tension between the Thompson couple and Phoebe. That was why she faked a cough to get the couple’s attention.

“Leah,” Amelia called her. Bitterness was evident in her voice.

And that made Leah feel guilty and embarrassed. “M-Mrs. Thompson…”

“Where have you been hiding all these years?” Amelia was trying to be casual. But she could not help herself. All the questions and hatred that she was feeling towards their former maid dominated her being.

Leah fisted her hands, finding the courage to answer all the pending questions that they would throw her.

And after a moment of silence, everyone gasped in shock when Leah suddenly knelt down the floor. “I-I apologize for all the wrongs that I’ve done to you. I apologize for taking your daughter away from you for years. I am deeply sorry,” she cried.

Amelia cried, too, while seeing Leah asking for forgiveness. While Henry was tapping her wife’s back. He could not also hide his disappointment towards the former maid.

“How could you do that to us, Leah? We gave you everything you asked for. But why did you run away with our child? Do you know how heartbroken I was and I am still for what you did? We’ve been so good to you, yet…” Amelia could not continue what she was about to say because her heart was already clenching in pain. “Y-You know… how much we long for a child…”

Lead nodded her head while still crying. She knew. And she knew that it was all her fault. “I’m sorry, Mr. and Mrs. Thompson. I was just carried away because I lost my only daughter at that time. And I was blaming you for it. That was why I escaped with the baby in my womb. But believe me, I regretted it all long ago!”

“But why didn’t you return my child?! You’ve been hiding her from us for eighteen years!” Amelia exclaimed. Her eyes were firing with anger.

Leah looked down at the floor. “B-Because I’ve learned to love her as my own,” she almost whispered. Then she raised her head once again. “And I know that’s selfish–”

Amelia cut her off with a hard slap. “You are beyond selfish, Leah! You took all the years that we could have been a parent to our child because of your selfishness–”

Phoebe, who was puzzled at their conversation, interrupted them after she saw the lady slap her mother. “Please don’t hurt my mom! Why are you hurting her? You can talk to her calmly without laying a hand on her! She’s already apologizing to you for what she did wrong!” She bravely defended her mother. Even if she still could not understand what was happening, she still found the courage to fight for her mom.

Amelia and Henry’s attention was shifted to the young lady beside Leah.

“I-Is she our daughter?” Henry was the first one to ask since Amelia was stunned. Although they kept on eyeing her for a while, they still needed confirmation for their thoughts.

Leah sniffed before she glanced at Phoebe, who had a crumpled face, then she nodded her head. “Y-Yes. She’s your daughter,” she confessed the truth.

Amelia immediately stood up and went to hug Phoebe. But Phoebe pushed her away.

Phoebe sharply looked at Leah. “What are you talking about, mom?!” she exclaimed.

Leah crawled towards her and reached her face. “Listen to me, Phoebe. Amelia and Henry Thompson…” She glanced at the couple before returning her gaze to Phoebe. “T-They are your real p-parents.”