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"Keep your heels, head and standards high."
Coco Chanel
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Jules
CEO of Roberts Cooperation, Ralph Roberts, has confessed to releasing to the press an intimate video of Jules Lee and Jace Sanchez. The incident is said to have happened seven years ago when Jules and Jace were, however briefly, together. Due to a feud between Roberts and Jules, the latter decided to make public a private relationship of seven years ago. According to Roberts, he deeply regrets his actions and hopes that Jules Lee can forgive him.
For minutes unending, I sit dumbfounded, finding it hard to believe what I just heard.
Ralph Roberts? Confessing? Apologizing?
Unbelievable!
Incredible!
Implausible!
Infea...
Zzzzzzzz
The vibration of my mobile device stops me from going further into the pool of vocabulary. But before I could answer the call, J.Lo's On the floor fills my ears. On the screen of the buzzing phone is Nikita, my secretary, while on the ringing phone's screen is my mom. Seeing her name and contact, i can't help but recall how she didn't talk to me for a week after the video of me kissing Jace surfaced.
She probably thought it was cool to defend her friend without listening to her daughter's side of the story.
But I can't blame her. After all, Dad married her at a tender age of eighteen and had, until his death, shut her from the rest of the world and controlled every aspect of her life to the extent that she couldn't even take a drop of water without him giving her the go-ahead.
An unsummoned thought suddenly takes residence in my mind.
Will she live now that he's gone?
I decide to pick her call before Nikita's.
"I'm sorry," she says before I could even make any utterance. "I should have listened to your side of the story but I.. I just.."
"It's completely fine, Mom. I understand," I lie because I simply cannot understand why any mother would choose to blame her own daughter without even making the least effort to understand her.
"Thank you, daughter," she says and goes silent. Having no idea what else to say to her, I stay silent too.
"Um.. I guess I should hang up now," she says with an uneasy laugh.
"Okay. Bye."
Even before I drop the phone onto my laps, series of thoughts begin to fill my head.
Why didn't I ask her how she was doing, if she needed me and if Dad's forever absence wasn't taking an unbearable toll on her?
Gosh, I feel like smashing my head against something, preferably my pillow. I mean, I just behaved exactly like someone whose character I loathed.
I just behaved like my late dad.
Immediately I realize this, I pick up my phone to call her back only for my second phone to start ringing again. I take a look at the caller ID. It is Nikita again.
Curious as to why she keeps on calling me, I tap the "answer" button.
"Hello, Nikita."
"Miss Lee!"
I could feel the excitement in her voice and this is when it all clicks into place: she has either seen or heard the news that Ralph Roberts confessed to releasing the video which almost led to my defamation.
YOU ARE READING
Rich, Famous and Partnerless
ChickLit"Do you think it's the money?" Jules asks, keenly staring at Metisha and I. "I think it's the fame," Metisha answers, taking another slice of cake with a look of disinterest in her eyes. "I think it's both," I say, in a tone of finality that makes t...
