The Heiress

26- I won't think any differently

Hudson's confession on everything he knew consumed Mercedes's mind for days, making it hard for her to keep her mind from focusing on what she needed to do at work, which caused her to make mistakes with the hotels' cash flow numbers. Something she's never screwed up before. The more she thought about how she insisted to Hudson nothing that was recently going on ever happened when her grandfather was alive was wrong. It was happening. She just never put two and two together. It only started making sense to her after thinking about how Elon quit sending her to his hotels to fix what was happening. And the reasoning was because of Hudson and what he admitted to her grandfather of what was going on.

Elon knew what the Bradley's were up to, and he was protecting Mercedes from them trying to harm her. She always assumed the issues stopped, but she now realizes they never did. Elon purposely kept her out of the loop of what was going on, not wanting to scare her. And she now remembers him leaving on those random trips, with his excuses that he was making surprise visits to his hotels to make sure everything was running smoothly.

Mercedes was also bothered with how she left Hudson the night of his admissions. After Hudson confessed to everything and confessing his love to her, she felt confused, angry, and betrayed. She was not just feeling crossed by Hudson, but by her grandfather as well. She was also confused about her feelings for Hudson. Before his confession, she was falling hard for him. She also felt she was falling in love with him. What upset her was that she mentioned that she was afraid of another man breaking her heart, which he claimed he wouldn't do. But he did. Mercedes's heart was utterly ruined by Hudson that night.

As she sat in her room, thinking of Hudson, his family, as well as what her family is trying to do to her, she cried, ignoring all phone calls and text messages from Hudson and Alona. She also dismissed the employees who knocked on her door. All she wanted was to be alone, not to be bothered, and space to think about where her life is heading.

Mercedes sat on the bed, staring out the window and at the blue sky, asking her grandfather to guide her in the right direction. She also apologized for all the bad things she put him through over the years. Mercedes felt guilty. The problems she's dealing with now she finally remembered were also going on before Elon passed away. It made her think this was his payback to her. Thinking this was his way to get Mercedes to open her eyes even further. Making her think harder about her surroundings and make her understand who she's allowing into her life, whether they're good or worse for her. Was Hudson good or bad for her, with her also wondering if Alona was good or bad for her?

Then, she remembered Elon loved Alona and how he thought of her as his grandchild. She also thought about Hudson admitting to working with Elon and how her grandfather called Hudson when she took off to Antigua. That itself told her Elon wants Hudson in her life, but another thought ran through her mind. Why? What was he hoping to happen between them? Was it love? Was it friendship? Or was it that he only wanted Hudson to continue protecting Mercedes from Hudson's family, as well as hers? And to help keep her away from Noah?

She flopped backward on the bed and sighed as she looked at the ceiling, mumbling, "If you knew about Noah, why didn't you fire him? Were you the real reason Noah quit calling me, even though he found out he was having a baby? Or, did you allow Noah to continue working for you, so Hudson and I could keep better tabs on him and see what he was up to with Sterling?"

She groaned; ugh...

The next thought that ran through Mercedes's mind was how Hudson apologized to her before anything was admitted to her, wanting her to know how sorry he was if he ever were to hurt her in some way and that what he did if he were to, it caused her a broken heart.

Mercedes rolled her head to the side, and when her eyes locked to the Manila envelope, she still hadn't opened that her grandfather left her, her lips twisted. Using her elbows, she pushed herself up, and just as she headed to the table to grab the envelope, there was a knock at the door.