lanie glanced at the man sitting opposite her and arched a brow. "So, are we just going to sit here glaring at our coffees, or is there sothing more you’d like to get off your chest? About why you wanted to et here?"
Max exhaled slowly at that as his fingers tightened around his cup, "Honestly, lanie, I’d rather glare at my coffee than have this conversation with anyone. It really should be between...
"Do both. Keep glaring at your coffee and start by telling how Madam Emma Pierce suddenly turned into your older sister. Different surnas, no resemblance that I can see, it doesn’t add up. As for it being between her and Adam, you know that is impossible"
For a mont, Max just looked at her, with an unreadable expression and continued, " Fine. The thing is... I was adopted when I was very young. By that ti, Emma had already moved out of her parents’ house. They were stuck in what you might call the empty nest phase, and I suppose loneliness played a part in their decision."
"My parents had been close friends of theirs, and when my parents died suddenly, Emma’s family stepped in. They offered to take in, to give a ho."
He paused and gave her a look at the irony of it. Adam too had been taken in at a young age and yet, his and Adam’s experiences were vastly different.
But, he continued, "What none of us realized back then was that their daughter who’d apparently left the small village for her studies, had built an entirely separate life in the city."
"She’d gotten married and even had a child. She never ca back to the village, not once, not even for visits. The only connection she maintained was the money she occasionally sent back."
That was Emma’s way of silencing the guilt, I think. Money was easier to give than her ti. She despised being reminded of where she ca from. To her, the village was a mark of sha. She never wanted anyone to know she was once just a... ’village bumpkin’."
lanie stayed quiet as Max continued, "I think, Adam was about four when everything fell apart. "Our mother fell sick- very very sick. Desperate, he clung to the hope that Emma, his daughter in the city, would step up and fulfill so duty as a daughter."
"He uprooted all of us, sold everything he had and brought us into the city to search for her. And when he did find her... imagine his shock. The girl he had once raised so proudly had erased the very life she ca from. She had a new na, a new family, and no place for us in her world."
"He didn’t take it well. You can probably guess. He’d already arranged a marriage for her with soone she was supposed to return ho for and who was waiting for her. He had built his hopes and plans around that promise, and finding out she had chosen her own path in secret... it was like betrayal layered upon betrayal. His pride couldn’t stomach it. His anger that day... I still rember it."
Max’s jaw tightened and said," For all his virtues, he was not an easy man. Very orthodox in his thinking and not the type to accept defeat... After finding her and realizing the life she had carved out for herself, he refused to accept the truth and wanted to drag her back ho."
"Back to the marriage he had arranged. Back to the role she was supposed to play as a dutiful daughter he had raised. He thought if he forced her to return, if he reminded her of her duty, she would yield."
He let out a breath, shaking his head. "But Emma... she was unwilling. She had already tasted the city life, already shed the skin of the village girl she used to be. And no matter how much he shouted, no matter how much he reminded her of the man waiting back ho, she wasn’t going to step back into that life. For once, she stood her ground"
"But if she stood her ground then..." lanie tapered off. Why did she run away?
"See, around that ti, Adam’s father hit a rough patch," Max continued. "So kind of financial setback that left him constantly away, working, searching for ways to keep things afloat. He wasn’t around much"
"And our mother- she was already slipping, her health deteriorating day by day. With her mother at death’s door, her father pressuring her, guilt weighing on every breath she took... Emma couldn’t handle it. She couldn’t face Adam’s father and explain so she did the one thing she knew-she ran. Left everything behind, left him behind. Hoping that once she returned to the village, her parents would be willing to understand her."
"Instead, they guilted her into marrying that man in the village. Her father was quite pleased that she had listened to him and promised her that she would have a good life..."
Max gave a bitter smile then," Her life turned into a prison and a hell. And even though she had planned to return, she never could. By the ti the man she had been tied to died and she was able to return, Adam had already gone missing."
"She only found him when he was thrown out of the Collins house after the conspiracy. That too because he looks like his father. But, by that ti, he’d already been hating her."
"Emma... after her husband’s death, she did well in business and even helped raise . When she ca to ... and begged to go to Adam’s side... I couldn’t say no..."
lanie sighed as she heard the story. It was tragic and if true, it ant that Emma Pierce had not wanted to abandon Adam. Things had just turned out that way...
"I’ll talk to Adam..."
Max nodded but then continued pointedly, "Just talk to him and get his hard head to understand that so that he doesn’d do sothing foolish."
However, even as he said it, he did not hold out much hope for it... which is why, he was going for his next appointnt. His back up plan.
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