Chapter 53
“I came to find you in City A and discovered you were in prison. Through the help of a friend, you were saved” Eduardo explained.
His parents had gone emotional already because of the sight of their lost but found daughter. He needed to explain things to her.
Camilla looked from one person to another. Somehow, she felt she looked like the woman. Are these people her real family?
“Are you telling me we are related or something?” Camilla asked. She was trying to suppress the fury that is growing in her heart. She wants her last question answered before she would know what to do or say.
“We are Camilla, I am.. your… mother” Susan announced and that was when Camilla frowned. Her mother? like seriously the woman who gave birth to her?
“What nonsense is going on here? I can’t remember having a mother that looks like you. I grew up all my life knowing only a foster mother. What the heck are you talking about?” Camilla frowned.
She was already stepping out of bed. She can’t stand this nonsense utterances. How can some people gather around her and say she’s their family?
All these while she had grown and suffered, no one came to find her. The humiliation and rejection in the society, none of them shared in it with her.
Only for one day, they came and said things like brother, mother and soon they would say father and sister as well.
“We are your parents Camilla. There’s a lot you need to know. But the most important thing here is that we found you and you are coming home to us” Steve Anderson declared.
“I don’t know you. I don’t want any damn fucking family who didn’t know how I survived till this day. Who raised me and how I ended up in that prison where you claimed you came to rescue me.
I would advise that you go and find your daughter. I am not the one you seek. It’s all a mix up. I don’t have a family” Camilla declared, standing on her feet.
She looked and couldn’t find a flop or slippers hence she stood bare footed and seemed to be looking for something.
“We are your family and your birth parents. It wasn’t a mistake when I said we found you” Steve Anderson calmly answered.
This wasn’t going to be easy, he knows. She had grown all her life without a family and suddenly she saw them. She can’t just come running into their arms and jubilating.
“I have no family. If I do, I won’t grow up being referred to as the girl picked up from the dung hill. I won’t be referred to as a product of mistaken pregnancy. I wouldn’t have been called a fellow without identity and no history.
I was put up for adoption but no one was ready to take me except my poor foster parents. They took me in and gave me a family.
I couldn’t even be with the man I love because I have no identity and my parents are poor. Now you come and say you are my family and expect me to believe you?
Where were you when all this happened to me? You didn’t remember you have a daughter that you gave birth to? You let me suffer. Why are you just coming to find me after I have been convicted and sent to jail despite being innocent?…” Camilla went on, describing all she’s been through and finally yelled at them.
She said she hates them all. She would rather return to prison than allow herself to be cajoled to believe the false family she just got.
She didn’t seem to find what she was looking for and was going to walk past them through the door when Luke held her.
He is a man but cannot hide his emotions. His eyes had gone red at the words of his sister. Everyone was dazed and quiet after she finished talking.
She really had been through a lot in her twenty two years of life. They didn’t know about her and when they did, she was not found in the entire City B despite everything that Eduardo did to find her.
Camilla wanted to fling off Luke’s hand, holding her wrist but couldn’t. She raised her head to look at his face and saw red moist eyes.
“Sister” Luke muttered and Camilla stood staring at him. Susan Anderson had resumed her sobbing. But this time, it was profuse and none of them could take it that she was sobbing.
Hasn’t she sobbed enough? What was her sin? Why should she be experiencing this when she knows next to nothing about what happened to her.
“I grew up to be told my sister died at birth. How much I cherish it that I saw you, all of us are seeing you alive. And you have no idea how our lives have become complete now..” Luke said and Camilla snared.
“I have long outgrown being sweet tongued. So let go of me” Camilla yelled and forcefully pulled herself off Luke’s grip.
“Would you for once listen to mother? Doesn’t her tears mean anything to you, Camilla? I may not know everything about the story, but you should at least hear her out.
No mother in her right senses would throw away her baby. For what reason. I beg you please, listen to mum and Dad’s version of the story” Jenny coaxed, clasping her hands together.
Before Camilla couldn’t act or say anything, Eduardo said:
” Mum had sobbed all these years because of you. First she was told her baby died when she was born. She spent years, sobbing the death of a child who actually was still living.
Then we got to know that you didn’t die. You were stolen away from her when you were born. And to cover up the fact that you went missing, they lied to her that you had died.
She sobbed and almost cried her eyes out that her baby was still living and yet separated from her. You have no idea how she had looked forward to this day.
I found you at the verge of death and rescued you. Gave you my blood to keep you alive until we arrived here. When we got here, there was still a thin line between life and death and the doctors struggled to rescue you and your unborn baby.
Mum sobbed more. Afraid that she might lose you for real this time. But thank goodness, you survived, you were saved and Luke gave you his blood as well.
Only for you to make mum sob now, the tears of rejection over a child she finally found and still alive. That’s meanness. You are mean if you really rejected her.
You should ask us what happened. Why were you abandoned and grew up in a country that is not yours? How you ended up there.
We all love you. We didn’t know you were alive all these years, father would have gone in search of you even if I was still young to do that.
But we didn’t know. And when we did, we searched for you everywhere in this country. Did a compatibility test for many women of your age bracket. But you were not found.
None of them match with our genes. Only recently we discovered that you were in City B and I came to find you. How is that our fault?
Why would you blame your parents and say you hate and reject them? You almost died Camilla. If there wasn’t a quick intervention, you would have died and your unborn baby would not have seen the light of this life.
Please, forgive us. Everything you’ve lost, you will get it back. Please Camilla” Eduardo pleaded.
Camilla started sobbing. Why was she unlucky in this life? She was actually stolen from her parents.
Eduardo went to her and hugged her. Initially, Camilla was not hugging him back but soon, she did, she placed her head on his broad chest and sobbed more.
Susan quickly came over, and said “move away Eduardo”. It made everyone smile as Eduardo gave way and let Susan Anderson stand, staring at her daughter.
The two women were sobbing. Standing and staring at each other. It’s like a drama, a show. Others stood and watched who would take the first move.
Camilla’s eyes were cloudy. She was standing before her mother. She sees her face in hers. As she saw her mother’s teary eyes, she didn’t know when she uttered “mother”
That was all Susan wanted to hear. She opened her arms and Camilla walked into those outspread arms and hugged her. The mother and daughter pair sobbed on each other’s shoulders.
“I missed your love, mother” Camilla whispered and Susan said she missed her more. They remained like that for quite some minutes before Steve Anderson coughed slightly.
“Will I ever get the chance to hug my own daughter?” He jokingly asked and everyone laughed. Camilla also laughed and pulled away from her mother.
” Father” she said and walked past her mother and went to her father. It was a happy time together in the hospital. She then hugged Eduardo and Jenny before Luke.
She said she wants to go home and Eduardo said he would see the doctor already. Camilla perceived that her family was rich and knew, she would return no more to that prison
Two hours later, the doctor confirmed that Camilla was fine. She was discharged and a new dress was bought for her to change into.
She has a lot of questions to ask but would ask as time goes on. She already knew that Jenny was her sister in-law, Eduardo’s wife.
As she changed into another dress, she seemed to feel as if her life was going to make a positive and upward move henceforth.
It’s like those expensive clothes that Rodrigo usually bought for her. She walked out of the hospital, holding hands with Luke.
They were like boyfriend and girlfriend. But it appears Luke was the older one among them both. As for Eduardo, it was too obvious, he was the eldest.
She was dazed when she saw the latest edition of a black Maybeach. The chauffeur stepped out and bowed before them as he held the door for them to get in.
Camilla was gradually taking it in. Her family is wealthy. She didn’t even if Rodrigo had this edition of Maybach. But he does have the type of the car in his garage.
Camilla sat between her both parents. Each of them seem to want her by their side. As they went, she kept looking at the street, such a beautiful country.
Her country, where she truly belonged. “You will have all the time in the world to tour the city. To have all your questions answered and enjoy the beauty and affluence of the young miss of Anderson’s family” Susan Anderson said, taking Camilla’s hand and giving it a soft squeeze.
Camilla smiled. But her amazement reached the climax when they arrived at the Anderson’s Mansion. She can’t explain the beauty of it.
So much splendour. She had always thought the glass house of the Anderson family was the best ever. But her parents Mansion was the best.
The decor was top notch. Its structure was like a paradise with all the servants ball dressed in uniform. Everyone seemed to know what he or she should do and they left no lapses behind.
The vast compound was grown with different flowers and the air around the house was freshen. As her parents alright from the car and the chauffeur was to drive the car to the garage, she stood admiring the external part of the house.
Eduardo and Jenny arrived as well and Luke also drove in. Camilla walked in along with her parents. The interior part of the building left her speechless.
The sofa, the chandelier, the decorations and the kind of floor of the house made her dazed. She can’t believe it. Even the glass house doesn’t have so much Beauty as this.
“This is your home now, Camilla,” Eduardo declared, coming over and placing his hand around her shoulders. The days of imprisonment were over and a new era had begun in her life.
The next day, Rodrigo was in his office. Joel was giving him information about how far the investigation had gone. The police had no report about Camilla’s whereabouts nor did his own bodyguards find out anything.
He was worried. Three days have passed and no news about Camilla’s whereabouts. What exactly is happening? Where can she possibly have hidden that to days she cannot be uncovered?
Or had she died indeed? No, his Camilla cannot die just like that. And even if she commits suicide, at least there would be a corpse to proof her death.
His men investigated and informed him that Sara knew nothing about it. She was also trying to find out about her daughter’s whereabouts.
Halfway through Joel’s report, Rodrigo’s door was pushed open and he was surprised when he looked at the direction of the door, he saw Sara standing there in fury.
The last time she came into his office, she received the greatest humiliation of her life. Emma treated her badly. But that morning, Rodrigo just stared at her and said nothing.
Two securities officials dashed in after her to pull her out but Rodrigo raised his hand and the securities left.
Joel stood and looked at Sara. Of course he had been seeing her often. In Fact, he had gone to console her the day before about her daughter missing.
But the Sara he was looking at that moment, was a wounded woman. The one who’s daughter’s disappearance had made her look dejected.
“So you are really not going to throw me out or treat me like Jared? Where is that spoiled arrogant thing you called your fiance, aren’t you going to call her out to slap me again?” Sara mock.
Joel squinted. What is Sara saying? Emma slapped her in Rodrigo’s office? How can he allow such a thing to happen in his presence?
Sarah could pass for a mother to Emma. That was really unfair on Rodrigo’s part. He did a lot of damnable things all in the name of Revenge
Meanwhile, Sara continued “oh you can’t do that again right? Of course you won’t be able to do it again after all, you have achieved your goal.
You have finally killed her secretly right? You murdered Camilla and makes it appear as if she went missing. You can deceive the whole world, but you will never be able to deceive Jared and I.
Now that you have taken your revenge and murdered her, tell me what you gained. What good did it do to you to kill the woman who loved you?
Your wealth is your pride and the reason why you cease to be human and considerate. You have riches and can afford whatever money can buy.
But there’s something you will never be able to buy, and you know what that is, love. Those who throw away love and only use their brains to decide mischief and wickedness, may never find such love again.
No matter how much you hold in your hands you will never find love Rodrigo. No one would be willing to sell it to you and besides you don’t have the currency to buy love.
Go to the ends of the Earth, you won’t find it. Go to the depth of the sea and the deepest part of hell, you won’t find it. You know why, love came to you but you threw it off and trampled it.
We may be poor and have nothing, but we value truth and love. We know what bond and ties mean and my daughter, till the moment you killed her, she was the best daughter anyone could have.
She rather went to jail than to see me died or Jared tortured. She sacrificed so much for those she loved. And I applaud her bravery.
It’s unfortunate that she met a man like you. But it was my fault, I should be blamed because I told her to go with you, that you are a good man.
But I didn’t know I only succeeded in tethering my own daughter to her killer. But Karma will judge you Rodrigo if truly, Camilla was a prostitute that you picked up to satisfy your sexual desires.
You say such words to a woman who is pregnant with your child. Camilla was pregnant and she was going to tell you about it. She wanted to announce it to you when you return, saying you would be happy. If you don’t believe, find out more at the Ocean Hospital.
But what happened, Jared and I were kidnapped. We were tortured and the video of it was shown to Camilla, she was threathened to do according to what they ordered her to do.
I am certain she can’t stand it. She did what she did because she was trying to save Jared and I from our untimely end…”Sara was not done when Mirabel walked in and stood, listening to what Sara was saying.Copyright Nôv/el/Dra/ma.Org.
“The last thing Camilla will ever do in this life is to hurt you Rodrigo. You don’t even know the character of the woman you called your girlfriend. You think all those things done were true, that Camilla did that?
Jared came to tell you what happened but you let your men tortured him to unconciousness. I will never forgive you for what you did to my children Rodrigo Campbell.
You destroyed our house, demolished my little coffee shop and said those words about Camilla. You let my daughter go to jail with your child in her belly and you think even in death, you will be forgiven?
You ended it when you murdered her. It’s alright. She will rest but you will never get away with it. If she never meant you any harm, you will know no peace again Rodrigo and everyone who caused my daughter’s untimely end, will never get away with it.
Karma will judge you all. You will seek love but it will be far away from you. The blood of my daughter and your own unborn child will judge. And lastly, you can inform your sweetheart to come over and slap me again…”Sara declared and gave Rodrigo a stare that contained a killing intent before she turned and walked out.
Rodrigo’s office was as quiet as a graveyard after Sara left. Even Mirabel, who didn’t hear a thing about the beginning of Sara’s words, felt a cold shiver run through her blood when she said karma will judge Rodrigo.
She knew her brother went the extreme with his revenge against Camilla. Now, Camilla’s mother thinks he murdered her daughter.
Joel stood and didn’t say anything. He knew it. Something wasn’t right back then. The Camilla he knew wouldn’t do anything of the things she said to Rodrigo.
He tried to warn him but he was too arrogant to listen. Only he knows the right thing. Every other person is not wise. He only has Monopoly of knowledge.
He must find out if truly Camilla was pregnant. He wouldn’t let anyone see her in jail. Maybe if he didn’t place a ban on it, he would have been able to see her and discovered she was pregnant.
But he wouldn’t. He let Camilla suddenly disappear without the knowledge whether she was dead or not. How can he forgive himself if truly that woman was dead and his child died along with her.
“Do you know anything about Camilla’s disappearance and you are not saying it?” Mirabel aaked. From the way her brother went about it, she can’t really trust him not to do that.