Plastic diamonds - Marjorie's backstory.

Chapter 13

Reece stared at Marjorie for a second. Struggling to think of what to say. "Right... Is there more to this?"

Marjorie shrugged. "I want to tell you about my past, but I don't even know where to start." She slightly laughed. "So read about it." She then pulled the lid off the box, everything in there was stacked neatly in piles.

Reece looked down in the box, his eyes immediately fixed on the photos in there. "Awww, It's you!" He smiled. "Can I?" He gestured towards the box, wanting to see the pictures. Marjorie nodded and smiled. He picked up the pile of pictures and slowly flicked through them. Marjorie moved to sit next to Reece, resting her head on his shoulder. One picture stood out to Reece. "Who are they?" He asked.

Marjorie took the picture into her hands. "That's my dad. And then that was his girlfriend, and those are her two daughters." She pointed at the people in the picture. Her finger slowly drifted away from the happy family smiling and hugging each other in the middle. "And then that's me." She said, her finger pointing off to the side.

Just by looking at the picture, Reece could immediately tell how she was treated by her father. Seeing her being pushed off to the side made his heartache. "Did you like your dad?" He asked.

Marjorie took a second to respond. "I don't know." She responded. "All he wanted was a happy family, but i'm guessing me alone didn't give that to him. I think that was the last time I saw him before he passed away."

Reece moved Marjorie to sit in between his legs, he kissed the side of her forehead and rested his chin on her head. "Marjorie, i'm so sorry. That's awful." He said to her, taking the picture out of her hand and placing it on the floor.

"It's fine." She said. "To be honest, you'll notice me being pushed to the side a lot in pictures." She then reached back into the box and pulled out cut pieces of newspapers. "That." She pointed. "Is the Van Goulds."

Reece took the piece of paper out of Marjorie's hand. "Which one's your mum?" He asked. Marjorie pointed to the woman in the centre of the picture. She was tall, brunette, with a very classy outfit. "That's her." She said. "She's gorgeous, but people are blinded by her beauty."

"Blinded by her beauty?" He questioned.

"She's a horrible person. She only cares about herself." She started. "She used to put me down a lot. Every time I had an achievement, she used to put me down until I was either crying, or until she made it clear that she was better than me."

Reece was shocked, he never expected all this to happened to Marjorie. She was such an openly confident woman, he would have never assumed this is was she went through as a child. But yet again, it makes sense how she became such a strong and independent woman, and he was proud she did all that herself. "That's awful. What about your stepdad, what was he like? Which one did your mum marry?" He asked.

Marjorie pointed at the guy standing next to her mother in the picture, he was taller than her mother, raven hair, wearing a suit. "That's him. Howard."

Reece's eyes widened. "Your mother is married to Howard Van Gould?!" Reece's shocked tone caused Marjorie to laugh. "How?!"

Marjorie shrugged. "Like I said, people are blinded by her beauty." She started flicking through more old newspapers articles. "I hated being part of the Van Goulds. Everything was so public, sometimes I felt as if I had no privacy. But everything they were showing in public, was not the case behind closed doors."

"What was Howard like to you?" He asked.

"To be honest, I never had a full conversation with him." She said. "He was so drawn into his own businesses, he never really had shown that he had time for me."

Reece thought to himself for a second, a huge wave of realisation hitting him. "Wait, did you ever go to the Knight nursery halloween ball?" He asked her.

"Nope. Never, I wasn't allowed out on halloween." She said. "Not that i'm complaining, rich people are so snobby." She quickly realised what she said and slightly laughed, she looked up at Reece. "No offence." She said, causing him to laugh.

Reece raised his eyebrows. "None taken, I don't think i'm a snobby rich." He said, and Marjorie shook her head. "No, you're not. You're a nice rich man." She smiled.

Reece laughed and reached back into the box, pulling out one of Marjorie's diaries. "You have so many diaries in here, and every page is full." He said, slowly flicking through the pages.

"I didn't have anyone to talk to, so I used to write everything down, get everything off my chest." She picked up another diary in the box, she opened the first page and started reading the first paragraph. She slowly leaned back and relaxed into Reece's chest. He put the diary down and wrapped his arms around her waist. "I was horribly bullied in school."

"That's terrible, my love." His heartaches for Marjorie, learning about her childhood was unexpected for him. He thinks that Marjorie deserves the world, she's come so far to where she is now. "Did anyone do anything about it."

"Nope." She quickly replied. "I cried to my mum, she told me it was my fault. I told the teachers, and they said 'those students would never do that.' No one believed me."

Reece didn't know what to say, all he could do was hold Marjorie as tight as he possibly could. Marjorie spoke up again. "I try not think about all the things they used to say to me, but it doesn't work. There's always a voice in my head, repeating all the words they said to me, and it won't go away." Marjorie felt a huge weight off her chest as she told Reece that.

Reece shook his head. "I'm so sorry, Marjorie." He took the diary out of her hand and placed it on the floor.

"Don't be." She said. "The last thing I want is for you to feel sorry for me, I just want to let it all go, but my head won't let me."

"Marjorie, can I be honest with you?" He asked. Marjorie hummed in response, waiting for him to speak. "I think the reason you can't let everything go is because you bottle everything up, I mean, this is a huge step, you telling me about your childhood. Do you feel lighter in a way?"

Marjorie stayed silent, processing everything Reece was saying. However Reece didn't say anything until Marjorie decided to answer his question. "A little bit, yeah."

"That's a great start, my love." He squeezed her hand, letting her know that he will forever be behind her during all this. "If i'm being honest, this box clearly holds a lot of bad memories for you."

"I know.." She said quietly. "I want to move on."

"So then start by getting rid of this." He placed his hand on the box. "Having this box nearby is a constant reminder of what you went through, if you want to move on, you need to let it go."

Marjorie sighed. She knew Reece was right. "You're right. I think it's time to get rid of this." She then picked up all the items laying on the floor, slowly taking one last look at everything. It angered her, realising that these people, who didn't even care about her, were holding her back. And Reece was right, it's time to let go.

"I can go throw it away for you, if you want." He asked, kissing the side of her head. He was so proud of her.

Marjorie took a second to reply. "No." She bluntly said. "I want no trace of this box."

Reece raised an eyebrow, not quite sure at what Marjorie was trying to suggest. "Gorgeous, i'm not following." He said.

Marjorie shook her head. "I don't wanna throw it away and then 'forget' about it, I want to watch every single memory slowly burn away."

Reece's eyes slightly widened, not expecting this side of Marjorie. "You want me to go start a fire?" He asked.

Marjorie moved forward and turned back to look at Reece, she slightly smirked. "If you don't mind."

Reece was impressed by her change in attitude. He smiled and jokingly replied with "yes boss." Causing Marjorie to laugh. He loved her laugh. Reece then stood up and headed outside to start the fire.

Marjorie stayed inside for a few minutes, taking a look inside the box one last time, realising that this box was filled with bad memories. Before she shut the lid, something caught her eye. It was an envelope, it was sealed with a letter inside. She picked it up.

It was titled 'to my future boyfriend.'