Marry My Billionaire Second Husband - Chapter 81

Chapter 81: The Next Step
Emmeline slammed the door of her room, sinking to the floor as she hugged her knees. A scream tore through her throat, and sobs threatened to overwhelm her frail figure. All she could see in her mind’s eye was the vision of Matteo and Amelia, standing side by side, with him holding onto her waist with love in his eyes.

How could everything have gone to shit in such a short time? Not only had that skank Amelia gotten Matteo’s love, but she had somehow managed to become a Hawthorne heiress at the same time too!

She was effectively as powerful as Emmeline now― no, Amelia was actually more powerful, since she was older. Not to mention she looked just like her missing Aunt Elaine, who was Horace Hawthorne’s favorite child.

Emmeline howled into her hands as though she was nothing more than a wounded animal. Her fingers scratched her cheeks. No, no, no! Amelia had everything now!

A knock came at the door.

“Leave me!” Emmeline screamed, her voice hoarse.

She hadn’t even realized she had screamed so much. The last thing she wanted was to see another person unless that person was delivering Amelia Kentwood’s bloodied body to her doorstep like a cat delivering a dead small bird to its owner.

“Emmeline? Emmeline, open up. It’s me, Kelsie,” Kelsie’s voice echoed from the other end pleadingly. “Please? I’m worried about you.”

Emmeline paused, breathing heavily through her nose. That’s right, she thought to herself. She wasn’t completely alone in the world. She still had her best friend. She got up shakily and wiped her face clean with her palms, before slowly opening the door.

Kelsie barreled in, engulfing her in a hug. “Emmeline! Are you okay? Oh no― what happened to your face?” she asked worriedly, holding onto Emmeline’s cheeks like they were priceless jewels, caressing them tenderly with her fingers.

Emmeline’s lower lip wobbled, and a dam broke inside her.

She bawled loudly, uncaring of how ugly she looked as tears and snot streamed down her face. Unknown to her, Kelsie’s face had twisted with disgust, but she kept her arms wrapped around Emmeline, rubbing comforting circles around her back.

“It’s okay… calm down… ”

“I can’t!” Emmeline wailed. “She has Matteo! And now she has Grandpa too!”

“You also have your grandfather,” Kelsie said. “Her becoming part of your family doesn’t mean your grandfather loves you any less. You’re still his first granddaughter!”

“No, Kelsie, he doesn’t love me anymore!” Emmeline sniffled. “You saw how he shielded Amelia in front of everyone while scolding me! He already favored her even before he knew she was his granddaughter, all because she looked like Aunt Elaine. Now that she’s in the house, I won’t have a place inside it anymore!”

“No, no, that’s ridiculous,” Kelsie declared, holding Emmeline’s shoulders firmly so she could speak some sense into her friend.

She needed Emmeline to be angry and vengeful, not this sad pathetic crying wreck.

“Emmeline, you’ve been the Hawthorne heiress since you were born. You’ve been trained for this all your life. This is your birthright,” she said, her eyes glowing with pride. “No one suits this more than you. Do you believe that Amelia Kentwood, from some backwater part of the country can possibly rub shoulders with our circle of people? She’d stick her foot in her mouth and offend everyone in a split second!”

“But she’s now a Hawthorne! They wouldn’t dare to do anything to her! That bitch has my grandfather wrapped around her little finger!” Emmeline pointed out.

Kelsie sighed. It was a pity that Emmeline was so prone to stupidity. Luckily, she had Kelsie to help her with her many inadequacies.

“She had only been a Hawthorne for a few hours,” Kelsie said dismissively. “You have years of experience on her. Your parents will definitely support you over her. All you have to do is to prove to everyone that you’re the real deal, that you’re the better heiress, and everyone else will come flocking back to you.”

“Really?” Emmeline blinked hopefully.

“Of course! It’ll be easy too. Her reputation is so stained within our circles, even Matteo’s support can’t wash it clean.”

At the mention of Matteo’s name, Emmeline let out a little sob. The fairytale wedding she had been planning since she was a girl had vanished into a puff of smoke. But she couldn’t deny that Kelsie’s words had done a great deal in cheering her up.

“You’re right, Kelsie. Thanks for the talk,” Emmeline said. “I feel a lot better now.”

“Good,” Kelsie smirked victoriously. “Now, how about we start brainstorming about ways to ruin her?”

A wicked glint entered Emmeline’s eyes. “Oh, I’d love nothing better.”

***

Meanwhile, Amelia, Matteo, and Ronan were back at Ronan’s apartment. Matteo would want nothing more than to spirit Amelia back to his apartment, but all her belongings were still at Ronan’s place.

More importantly, her father was still there, and he looked none too happy about Matteo’s presence in his daughter’s life. In fact, he seemed to have stronger feelings about Matteo’s return than he did about his daughter suddenly becoming part of the Hawthorne family!

“Dad, did you already know who Mom was before you married her?” Amelia asked suspiciously, crossing her arms as she glared at her father. He was all too calm about the announcement.

The three other men, sensing that it was a conversation meant for only the two of them, hastily made their way to another room to ‘pack’.

Her father pretended to stare at the chessboard, where he had been playing chess with Dimitri. But Amelia continued to glare, and eventually, he looked up and gave her a sheepish smile.

“Well, yes. However, I did not know who she was when we were dating. Only when things started getting serious, that she finally spilled the beans.”

He tapped on his chin. “Come to think of it, I must have been blind to miss the signs. She was always wearing funny outfits as though she was trying to disguise herself. There was once she even pretended to be a janitor!”

As he spoke about his wife, he couldn’t help the nostalgic smile that bloomed on his lips.

“Dad, seriously?” Amelia had more questions than answers. “But why… if Mom belonged to such a grand family… and if Horace― I mean, Grandfather loved her so much, why did they let her die?”