37
Chapter Thirty Seven
When Lucas got to Tyra’s apartment building, he recognized Amanda’s car in the basement parking lot right away.
As he got closer with his car, he saw that she was in the driver’s seat. Parking his car next to hers, he alighted and walked over to hers.
Through the window, he could see that she was crying, sniffling into a tissue. He gunned straight for the passenger side and tried to open the door. It gave way and he slid into the seat, eyes on her distressed face.
“Amanda, what’s wrong?” he asked, cradling one side of her face with his hand and turning her to face him. His other hand lifted to wipe away wetness beneath her left eye.
She dropped her eyes and shook her head, crumpling the tissue in her hand and dumping it in a mini trash bin placed in the cup holder.
“You said you got the video, right?” he asked.
She nodded.
“Have you talked to her?”
Another nod.
He caressed his fingers down her temple. “What did she say? Did she hurt you?”
She shook her head.
“What happened? Please tell me, I hate to see you like this.”
Amanda took a shaky breath, then reached for the console.
“Water?” he asked, beating her to it and opening the compartment.
“Yes, thanks,” she said, her voice hoarse. He unscrewed a bottle of water and handed it to her, then waited. When she handed the bottle back, she said, “She did it for revenge.”
Lucas frowned, capping the bottle and putting it away. “What? Revenge?”
Amanda nodded. “Apparently, my father and your father got hers murdered.”
His grown deepened. “Wait, what?”
“She said they used to be business partners. He went down for some fraud they committed, then they planned to have him killed in prison. Then they abandoned her mother. So she was trying to ruin both our families to get back.”
“But isn’t her father Mr. Okello?”
“No, that’s her stepfather. I had no idea until today.”
“Was she telling the truth?”
“I don’t think she was lying. She has been pretending to be my friend for years just to get a chance to ruin me and my family.” She took another shaky breath and tipped her head back. “God, I can’t believe I didn’t notice.”
Lucas rubbed the back of her hand softly with his. “Don’t blame yourself. Some people are just so good at hiding their true selves.”
Like her father.
Every time he thought was a good time to tell her the truth about her family, something else came up. But he couldn’t keep stalling when Charles could do something to her at any moment.
Amanda let out a hollow laugh. “I don’t know what to think anymore. My own father didn’t want to lend me money to save my reputation, and my best friend turned out to be a vengeful bitch. It feels like I’ve been living a lie all this time.”
Lucas could only imagine how she was feeling. She seemed to be faced with betrayal every turn she took. First with her fiancé. Then her best friend. And soon, she was going to find out the real truth behind her father refusing to help her. He wished he could change all of those realities so she wouldn’t have to hurt so much.
She exhaled through her mouth. “Anyway, the nightmare is over. I don’t have to fork out millions and I have the video now. It’s all good.” She lifted her eyes to him. “I’ll tell you later about how everything happened, but I have to go now.”
“Go where?”
“My grandmother called a while back,” she told him. “She wants me to go see her. She said it’s urgent.”
“Your grandmother?”
“Helena. My mother’s mum.”
“Oh.”
She nodded. “Yeah. I haven’t seen her in a while.”
“Is she good to you?”
“Who? Gran? People say my father spoiled me, but he doesn’t compare to her.” A soft smile touched her lips. “She would have given me the money to pay off the blackmailer in a second. But how would I explain to her that I kind of lost the inheritance she handed me just a few years back?”
Lucas swallowed. Would she end up losing her gran too once the truth was out? “I’m sure she would understand. You were just a daughter who trusted her father.”
She sighed. “Yeah.”
“Are you okay to drive? I can take you. Where does she live?”
Amanda shook her head. “Don’t worry about me, I’ll be fine. It’s just a thirty-minute drive.”
“I want to see you right after you get back,” he told her. He had to tell her.
She smiled, then leaned in to give him a peck on the lips. “I’ll come to you.”
The Bolton family’s house was a huge, 7-bedroom mansion sitting in the middle of a 10-acre estate and surrounded by thick gardens. It was one of the most relaxing places Amanda knew. Every time she drove into the estate, she felt like she had stepped into another world. It was a nice feeling. Almost felt as if everything was right in her life.
The housekeeper let her in, then let her know that Helena was waiting on her in the living room.
The first thing Amanda noticed when she saw her grandmother was that she was sitting on a wheelchair.
Her smile dropping, she hurried to her. “Grandma! What is this? Why are you on a wheelchair?”
The elderly woman waved a hand in dismissal, a smile appearing on her face. “It’s nothing. I can walk, I promise. The doctor’s being too much.” With that, she pushed herself to her feet and Amanda reached out, letting her grab her hand.
Helena patted her hand gently and led her towards the dining area. “I have a little stiffness in my back. The doctor said I shouldn’t walk around so much.”
“I didn’t know you were sick!”
“I’m not,” she claimed. “I’m only using that thing for a few weeks.”
Amanda couldn’t help but be worried. Her grandmother had always been an energetic woman. She had led the family business until five years ago when at seventy eight, she let her eldest son take over as the chairperson. To her, she considered stepping back at that point early retirement. And nobody could argue because even at that age, she had been as active as she had been in the years she took over everything after her husband died two decades earlier.
“I’ll stay with you over New Years,” Amanda told her, helping her into a chair at the dining table. “It’s been a while since we spent some time together.”
“Don’t you have a company to run? Where will you find the time to mind an old woman?” her grandmother teased.
Amanda wasn’t going to point out that no, she actually wasn’t running much of a company at the moment.
Instead, she gave her a wink. “I’ll find my ways.”
After dinner, the two sat by the fireplace in the living room, having tea.
“Your grandfather and I always wanted to give you something when you turned thirty,” Helena began, her frail fingers wrapping around a porcelain tea cup and lifting it to her lips.
Amanda smiled. “I’m not that old yet, gran.”
Her grandmother chuckled and placed her cup back on a saucer. “Still, you’ve grown so fast.” Her eyes flitted to Amanda. “I remember clearly the day I first held you. To anyone else, you were a small, helpless baby. But to us, you were the only thing that kept our hearts from breaking apart completely when we lost Adeline.”
Amanda felt a thickness build up in her throat. “Gran—”
Helena heaved a sigh. “Your mother would be so proud of you,” she said. “You grew up so well, which I think is quite a feat given the house you grew up in.”
Her maternal grandmother had never once pretended to like Charles, so Amanda knew exactly what she meant by that. However, she wasn’t sure about her mother being proud of her. The only thing she had been good at the past year or so was ruining everything she had worked so hard for.
Helena reached for her tea again. Wrapping her hands around the porcelain, she fixed her gaze on Amanda. “You’re not thirty yet, but I feel this is the best time to give it to you.”
“Give me what, exactly?”
“The food company.”
Amanda stared at her grandmother, speechless, for a few seconds. Then, gathering her wits, she asked? “What?”
“The food company,” Helena repeated. “It was meant to be yours when you turned thirty.”
“But… But…” Amanda stood up from her chair and paced. “Gran, that’s one of your biggest companies.”
Helena took a sip of tea and nodded. “Yes. And it was always meant for Adeline, since the beginning. So, it belongs to you.”
Amanda shook her head. “No, that’s… That’s… You already gave me her inheritance.”
“These are two different things,” Helena stated. “Your uncles got their share of the Group too. When I give you the food company, you’ll own 70 percent. It’ll be up to you whether to keep it with the Bolton Group or not.”
Amanda couldn’t believe what was happening. Bolton Group owned a lot of companies, and their food production company was one of the most robust and most profitable. It was way bigger, many times more worth than her fashion company. It wasn’t the kind of company she expected to own in the blink of an eye. And she didn’t think she deserved it. She had done a fine job of losing control over a startup fashion company. What would she do with a giant business?
“My lawyers will make an appointment with you tomorrow,” Helena continued, as if unaware of the disbelief her granddaughter was battling. “I want everything settled as soon as possible.” Placing her tea cup down, she braced her palms on the arms of her chair and tried to get up. Amanda rushed over to help her. When she straightened, Helena grasped her arms tightly, her eyes holding Amanda’s. “I just want you to promise me something, Amanda.”
Amanda swallowed. “Anything, gran.”
“I don’t care if you keep it in our family group or not. But, I don’t want it to become a Lemaiyan company.” Her bony fingers squeezed Amanda’s forearm. “Do you understand?”
“Yes,” Amanda replied. “I understand.”
