[Book 2] What If

Chapter 33

"Darren."

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"Mom!! Are you freaking serious!?"

Ellie exclaimed as soon as she heard the man's name. She stood up from her seat as she smashes her hands on the table, startling everyone on the room except from her mother.

"Hey bunny, calm down. We are still in the dining table." Eleazar tries to calm his daughter down.

El took her seat back with exasperated face. She couldn't believe what she just heard from her own mother.

Rebecca waited for her daughter to be seated once again as she continued speaking.

"When did I ever kid around? It's already settled. You and Darren are to marry the soonest."

Ellie could no longer repress her emotions. Her beautiful face shows how angry and how hurt she is with her mother's decision.

"Have you guys already forgotten how that man left me broken two years ago?!" El said as tears have started to form on her eyes.

Darren was her ex-boyfriend. He was her last relationship before she joined The Voice Philippines. She could still vividly remember how the man broke up with her citing their irreconcilable differences. Ellie was already engaged to Darren before, but the latter backed down right before their wedding.

It took Ellie almost a year for her to move on from the hurt she felt when the man left her. It was her admiration and love for Lea that actually made her life normalize again. After their breakup, El went back to the Philippines and just focused on writing and living independently making herself busy just to forget the man. It was then, that the young woman had the opportunity to spend her days fangirling for the Broadway Star.

And with all the things she were able to experience with The Voice, it actually made Ellie forget that past easily.

But right now, it seems that fate has been playing with her all along. The man she hardly tried to forget, the same man who left her hanging and broken, the man who torn her world apart before, is the same man that her mother would like for her to marry.

She could understand their want to have her settle down, but to have Darren be her groom is so much unacceptable. Ellie couldn't fathom the thought of seeing Darren's face once again.

"Oh for Christ's sake. Of course we knew what happened between the two of you. That's why we actually let you play around here in the Philippines all along, so for you to get over it and move on!" Her mother replied.

"Then if you knew how that man hurt me before, how come you'd still like for me to marry him!?"

"We have already talked to Darren and to his family. He wasn't just ready the last time. But now they even agreed to sign the papers just in case."