Chapter 104: I Wish You Could Be With Me

An untameable uproar spread across Neville like wildfire. The image of the country’s golden man had crumbled, but not only that, the rising starlet everyone adored was going down along with it.

Celine had promised herself that she wouldn’t let Lilian or Ian get away with what they did. If it hadn’t been for that, her image back then wouldn’t have been ruined. She felt no guilt when she saw Lilian now being dragged through the mud.

[How heartless! She slept with her own sister’s fiancee? I still can’t believe it.]

[You better believe it because that is who Lilian Roberts is, I have been trying to uncover her true colors for years now but I never had enough evidence. She looks like a dainty flower but her heart is black, after she insulted me at an event when I had just asked her for an autograph, I’ve hated her since then. Behind the scenes she clings to the men in the industry to carry her career along, which one of her movies can stand alone without sponsors? She can barely act well.]

[I agree, her acting skills are mid, but she is a kind person. We see her doing all this charity work, maybe she isn’t a terrible person.]

[A girl who sleeps with her own sister’s boyfriend isn’t terrible? Then what is she, a saint?]

[People were out here insulting Celine Roberts for the same thing a few years ago, and now they’re here aiming for Lilian Roberts this time. I think the one truly at fault is that Ian Rode, I can’t believe I used to be a fan of his, he’s such a fake!]

[He is nothing but disgusting and cheap, how could he toy with two sisters for his own disgusting desires? Now he’s trying to act like a victim, some men are worse than dogs!]

[I used to be Lilian’s fan but I can’t believe she could actually do something like that to her own sister. I will never be able to support her again after this, the more I think about it, the more I find myself hating her.]

Such mixed opinions spread across comments on social media. And like a fragile house of cards, Lilian’s career started to fall apart one after the other. A week later, Lilian was said to have collapsed.

An image of her, fragile and pale was displayed on every television station and online. She seemed to struggle to sit up in the hospital bed but forced herself to do so anyway, looking up into the camera with tear filled eyes.

“I’m being accused of something I didn’t do, and it breaks my heart. Celine ran away from home just like she ran away from the wedding, but none of us her family members ever knew why she left. I don’t know who’s lying in this whole thing, I don’t know if Celine was aware that Mr Rode would accuse me of something this… disgusting but, I’ve always loved Celine, she’s my only sister.” A tear slid down her pale face.

Looking this sick and exhausted yet still speaking with such fervent emotion would tug at some people’s heartstrings, especially when Lilian was this tenderly beautiful, making people feel the urge to protect her.

She quickly wiped her tears as if she didn’t mean to cry nor let anyone see her tears, but more still spilled out as she looked straight into the camera. “I don’t know if you’re watching this Celine, but I want you to know that I love you as my sister, I always will. You might have left home, turned your back on your whole family but I will never turn my back on you. I’ve been waiting everyday for the past five years till the day you decide to come back home. Please, come home Celine, that is all I want.”

The cameras cut off at this point leaving people with lingering mystery.

’Impressive, at least she has learned to cry on cue.’ Celine thought, then completely ignored the little charade to clear her reputation. She should have anticipated that Lilian would do such a thing, since Ian had no evidence of his claim, he merely ruined his own reputation, but Lilian’s could still be saved if she denied it and showed the world that she was just a girl, a loving, innocent girl who deserved sympathy.

“But it won’t be my game if you can get off this so easily.” Celine smirked to herself. She made a call to someone to confirm something,

“Are you sure Lilian is going to audition for The Stars We Steal?” Celine asked immediately.

“I’m sure. She always goes to auditions for show, but the truth is she has already been picked as the female lead even before then. I don’t know how she does it but she knows how to pull her strings.”

The Stars We Steal was a sci-fi, romance movie with a very huge budget, it was estimated to be the coming year’s blockbuster hit and of course the most famous female star would be playing it’s lead. Over these few years, it seemed Lilian had built her own connections, but Celine wanted to watch it all shatter.

*****

A few days later, Greenview hotel was abuzz, everyone was fully busy making preparations for the upcoming company anniversary celebration.

It was the Grayson Corp’s tenth anniversary, fully marking the fact that Tristan had started his own company ten years ago, and now it had reached this level of success. This year’s anniversary celebration was going to be even bigger.

Celine was also busy with a few things, she had gone on a meeting this morning in Tristan’s place as he was said to have gone somewhere mysterious. For the past week, her interaction with Tristan whenever she came into the company had been strictly professional. He hadn’t tried to speak to her about anything else other than work and Celine preferred it that way, at least then she wouldn’t have a reason to keep thinking about him. But then she would find herself questioning why she had spoken to him so rudely that night, he was probably angry about that, was that why he was being so cold lately?

Wait, what did she care if he was angry with her or not, it shouldn’t bother her at all?

Celine stopped to buy some flowers after heading out of the meeting, though she was supposed to go to Greenview hotel to oversee some of the preparations for the anniversary party, today was an important day for her and there was something she had to do first before going back to work.

Celine drove into the cemetery, heading into the columbarium where a long curved wall lined with several memorial niches stood along the right side of the wall. Each niche contained framed photographs, small decorations and personal items, many having fresh and artificial flowers as well. Celine always brought flowers whenever she came here, so by the time she reached her mother’s memorial niche, the flowers had somewhat wilted.

Even when she wasn’t in the country, she paid someone to bring fresh flowers every other day.

“Hello, Mom.” There was a bitter smile on her face as she gazed into the face of the woman on the photograph. There was a great similarity in their features, everyone always told her she looked a lot like her Mom than her Dad, and for some reason that made her feel better.

Timothy Roberts was not worthy enough as a father, she was glad she looked nothing like him.

She wiped the tears threatening to spill and cleared off the wilted flowers replacing them with the fresh white daisies she bought, they were her mother’s favorite. Whenever she thought about where her mother would be right now she imagined her happily dwelling in a daisy garden, among the flowers she loved the most.

Celine caressed her mother’s picture. “Did you know Mom, I left home…a long time ago and I was never going back, but I don’t have memories of you anywhere else. Whenever I think about you, I see you tending to the flowers in the garden, making me chocolate pudding in the kitchen, singing to me as I fall asleep, I miss that Mom, I miss you.”

Celine’s heart constricted painfully.

She wished fate hadn’t been so cruel as to have taken her mother away so soon, but some things couldn’t be changed but they could be rectified.

Unknown to her there was someone at the other side of the memorial wall, that person had his eyes closed, his palm flattened against the glass of a memorial niche as if to feel some warmth from the chilly glass, separated from Celine by a wall.

The woman’s soft, teary voice had floated into his ears and his eyes were slowly peeled open, hazel and stormy as recognition lit up in them.

What was she doing here? Tristan thought.

It couldn’t be mistaken, it was her voice he’d heard just now, but he never thought that her mother’s memories were here as well. He knew she had lost her mother a long time ago, and the pain of that, he couldn’t be more familiar with.

“I wish I was brave enough to fight for you sooner, I wish I had seen it sooner. That man never deserved you, and I promise you I will get back every single thing you worked hard for…”

Tristan’s eyes softened a fraction without him even realizing it. Perhaps everyone had a thorn hidden in their heart, it would continue to hurt and nothing would soothe it, that was the pain of loss.

“My life has changed, so much. I wish you would be here, I always do. I wish things never changed, I wish I still had you…”

Tristan’s fingers trembled against the glass.

’…I wish things never changed, I wish I still had you…’ for some reason, those words struck him in the chest. Somewhere inside his heart, there had once been a wish like that. But wishes can’t come true, they never did.

“I wish you could be with me, I wish you could be here to see your grandkids and…”

Celine’s soft words of confession to her mother came to a halt when the sound of something falling to the floor suddenly came from the other side of the wall, her words immediately halted.

What was that?

It sounded like something fell?

Celine knew that the only people here were those grieving for lost loved ones, so she didn’t think too much about it. Her lips were about to move, to keep speaking to her mother because it always healed her heart whenever she did, but a dark voice suddenly came out of nowhere.

“What did you just say?”

Celine froze, her brows pulling together in a frown as she lifted her head. A man had emerged from behind the memorial wall, probably from the other side but what was more surprising was the man’s identity.

What was he doing here?

“Grandkids, did you just say grandkids?”

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