Chapter 31: Alone

Two weeks had passed since she was officially terminated by Lightstar Entertainment. Celine rarely left her apartment, whenever she needed to go out she would be in a heavy disguise keeping her face concealed.

Many people had taken to the internet to shower insults on her, all her social media accounts were constantly being flooded by hate comments and long paragraphs from former fans who were apparently heavily disappointed in her.

Celine turned off her phone to avoid the notifications at some point while she did that, she missed several calls and texts from Natalia who had been trying to contact her but she had kept herself isolated from anyone trying to reach her.

She had received countless threatening texts from her father, who continued to emphasize the fact that she needed to go apologize to Ian who might still be willing to take her back.

Celine had scoffed at that. The only thing Ian wanted at this point was to tarnish her reputation just to prove to her that he could do and get whatever he wanted, and if he didn’t get what he wanted, he would ruin it.

Celine knew her father was a selfish man, but the insistent messages and threats he sent to her just so he could get her to cave to his desires shocked her. Those texts stood jarring in her message history.

Saturday, 10:44AM

[You ungrateful brat, how dare you bring such humiliation to our family?I could have been proud to call you my daughter, we could have formed a connection with the Rode family! I am so disappointed in you Celine. If you don’t make your way back home and apologize to Ian, I will cut off all ties with you. Don’t even think you can associate yourself with the Roberts family again!]

Yesterday, 12:22PM

[You have proven to me that you are a useless child by running away from that wedding, and you just made it even more evident by ignoring my messages. You are my blood, but don’t you dare think I can’t do anything to you. You very well know what I’m capable of, come back home before the sun sets today or you’ll regret ever being born as I already regret ever participating in conceiving a child like you.]

Those messages, they had led her to tears…crippled her from the inside out. She couldn’t sense a single thing from his texts other than utter and absolute hatred.

Why…?

Why did she have to be unfortunate enough to be born to a parent who despised her this much? Was she the problem? Was she that unlovable that her own father didn’t grow any affections for her?

Everytime she got his message, it would send her into a spiral where she would question her own worth and feel even more lonely.

Today, Celine felt especially exhausted and burdened by the weight of all the emotions she had been carrying.

She walked into the bathroom to brush her teeth after waking up and stopped short at her own reflection. Her hair was frizzy and dry, she had dark circles under her eyes due to lack of sleep. She often woke up really late at night due to nightmares that frightened her enough into deciding to stay awake for the rest of the night.

’Coward.’ the voice in her head scolded and she suddenly felt herself go weak.

Yes, she was indeed a coward. Running away from everything and everyone.

She slid down against the sink her eyes stinging with a sharp pain, she had cried through the night but her eyes welling up again now made it hurt even more because her eyes were sore.

For the past two weeks she had tried to push every misfortune that had befallen her to the back but it always creeped up to her, she had been trying to live a normal life, trying not to dwell on the chaos surrounding her name in this moment, but she knew she was just taking the easy way out.

’If it hurts too much, I won’t think about it. If it hurts too much, I’ll pretend it isn’t happening.’ She told herself.

That was the defense mechanism her mind came up with, she avoided all the calls from Elise, avoided the calls from Natalia as well. She didn’t have many people who genuinely cared for her, but the few who did she was running away from them.

It was just that…she didn’t know how to face the people who cared about her as the disappointment she had now become.

And the ones she couldn’t run away from, like her father’s messages ended up breaking and shattering her heart in two everytime.

Celine curled into herself and bit her lips forcing the sobs down, shutting in her emotions. During this past week, whenever something bothered her emotionally, she felt it twice as much as she would on her normal days. It was as if her mind had an amplifier that heightened her emotions ten times more than they actually were which made her more exhausted, both physically and mentally. It felt like the rushing of hormones during her period but this time even twice as much.

She thought back to two weeks ago when Lightstar Entertainment had officially dropped her as an artiste. The fire of loneliness had consumed her from that very day.

She could remember the light of hope that had lit up in her when she had thought that it was Tristan who brought her home.

She had run out of her penthouse at the time even if she knew it was too late and she might not catch him, she had still gone outside looking out at the open roads searchingly but she never saw who she was looking for.

For a moment she thought maybe…he didn’t forget that night, maybe he didn’t forget her.

When she went back inside, she had spoken to the receptionist who had said,

“You came back a few hours ago, you were alone and you looked a bit sick so I offered to help you up into your unit.” The receptionist had informed her.

The young receptionist was a young girl who looked to be in her twenties, she always displayed a kind smile which might be due to the profession but she had an innocent face and a warm disposition, Celine didn’t peg her to be someone who would lie.

Till today, Celine hadn’t figured out how she had gone back home on her own and why she couldn’t remember what happened and how she had been able to get herself home that day.

It was a mystery Celine had thought about for hours but had been unable to come up with answers.

She had even allowed herself to entertain thoughts of the receptionist having lied to her for some reason, but then if someone else had brought her home, there was no way they would have been able to know her passcode into her unit and it would be absolutely impossible to break in with all the strict security measures she had employed in her apartment.

Pushing herself up despite the emotional exhaustion, Celine walked out of the bathroom like a soulless person. She stopped short when her computer screen suddenly lit up at her desk and several text icons popped up. Since she had switched off her phone, her computer displayed the texts she might have received on her phone.

Celine moved towards the desk intending to switch it off when her eyes fell on the name icon of who had just texted her.

[Ian]

She froze, her heartbeat jumping into a frenzy.

She hadn’t thought about Ian for a while now because he hadn’t tried to contact her or find her, she thought he aimed to ruin her quietly now that he could no longer have her.

Instead of switching off her computer, Celine found herself clicking on his text.

Something inside her subconsciously feared Ian, but she realized that all the hurt and damage he could cause her, he had already done so, why should she continue to allow herself feel fear just from seeing his name.

[Where are you hiding Celine, I want to see how you’re taking my little gift to you. Right now, your face will never appear on another screen again, I’ve made sure of that, but it’s no fun punishing someone without seeing the hurt on their face. Come out Celine, or I’ll surely have you flushed out of your hiding place. Don’t think I don’t know how to find your little hiding crib.]

Celine’s fingers tightened around the edge of the table.

[I’m not done with you yet, I want you begging me on your knees. I can stop all the hate going on about you, I can make it all stop, but you have to come to me first. You know, I was kind of looking forward to our wedding night, you remained a virgin till marriage right? I won’t mind your virginity as an apology for how you made me look like a total idiot standing at the altar while my bride ran away leaving me all alone. Give me what I want and maybe I’ll make all of this nightmare go away, I know you’re scared and all alone right now, you need me by your side. If you refuse me…you know I can do way worse.]

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep