Rewind

by Mariam Alaa

  There’s a great difference between what we want and what we need so even if dealing with my parents is the last thing I want to do, it’s the most thing I need to get over with.

  Silence is the only resonance in the darkness, but, like we all know, nothing lasts forever. After a few minutes of my first and last knock, the brown wooden door is suddenly pulled open, and I’m met with my brother’s confused golden-specked blue irises darting from me to Adam to Lexi and back to me.

  “Evangeline?” My brother’s confusion morphs into evident surprise when he asks with his eyebrows raised in disbelief. “What are you doing here?”

  Forcefully, I swallow back the lump that was stuck in the middle of my throat, put aside my hurt, and pull the ends of my mouth into a sarcastic smile as I respond, “Well, it’s been a while you know? Am I still allowed inside, or will we continue this conversation out here?”

  His eyes shift to Adam and Lexi, and he clenches his jaw before offering a small stiff nod. Taking a few steps back, he pulls the door open even more, giving us further space to enter. Just as my feet hit the parquet of the floor, a loud voice echoes in the house.

  “Trevor, hurry up! Dinner’s getting cold, and I’m not heating the food again. What’s taking you so long?” My mother asks, taking a few several steps from the dining room to the door.

  She appears in my line of sight with a horrified expression on her face once she spots me. “Evangeline?”

  “Hey, mom.” I give her a curt nod.

  She calls out my dad’s name to ‘hurry up and look who’s here’ before slowly striding forward with her arms open. Even though I didn’t return back her hug, I didn’t have it in me to shrug her arms off of me which made me realise how much I really missed her.

  “We missed you, honey.” She releases me, eyeing me softly.

  Before I was about to unconsciously reply to her that I missed them too, dad’s voice rang out in disbelief, saving me from displaying to them that I was thinking about them a lot when I wasn’t here with them.

  “Evangeline? What are you doing here?”

  I roll my eyes, annoyed that that’s all they’ve got to tell me. My dad’s eyes travel away from my figure to Adam’s and Lexi’s figures, and they turn a darker shade with a glint of fury swirling in them.

  “What the hell are you doing here?” He yells at Adam, looking him with such a burning rage as if he’s the one wrong mistake that’s blocking my father’s success before turning to Lexi accusingly. “And you? How dare you show up at my house after what you did?”

  Rage starts pulsing through my veins at how wrongly rude my father is to the people who matter to me the most. Just before I was about to bite back, the doorbell rings and since the door was already open, the remaining Sandersons, in all their glory, walk in like they own the damn place. Ignoring the puzzlement flashing through my parents’ and the Sandersons’ eyes, I direct my glare at a certain blond with piercing jade eyes whose name starts with an A.

  Oblivious to what emotions my eyes are demonstrating, I only hope the betrayal and hurt are well secured because under no conditions am I going to waste any tears on that inhumane being.

  “Gabriel, what are you doing here?” My father asks.

  Gabriel steps further into the house followed by Adrien and his wife- Gina- before replying confidently, “My secretary informed me about an email you sent me in order to meet up today at your house at eight pm and although my wife and I have a business-related flight tomorrow morning, I decided to come since you claimed it was urgent.”

  Apparently, Gabriel hasn’t spotted Adam up until this moment. His eyes roam around the faces present in the room, and once his gaze falls on his son, millions of emotions flash across his eyes, but they disappear as fast as they came because that’s just how Gabriel is- emotionless, or maybe that’s how he likes people labelling him as.

  “Why are you here, Adam?” Gina asks surprised.

  “Hello to you to Gina.” He nods stiffly before clenching his fist tightly, averting his eyes to his father and saying, “Gabriel.”

  Suddenly, the temperature in the room dropped severely, and the tension in the room became very tight. Lexi’s the only person looking unaffectedly normal which kind of made her seem out of place, but I’m the one who dragged her along with me to end her dilemmas with my parents and brother. Despite how I was well aware that Adam’s parents disowned him, I didn’t think thoroughly of how much difficult it might be for them to be trapped under the same roof.

  What was I thinking?

  Did I truly believe that the minute Gabriel lays his eyes on his son for the first time in five years he’ll pull him into a fatherly hug and apologize for his unfair fatherly behaviour, claiming that he deserves better than them?

  Who was I kidding?

  Gabriel is the last person on Earth that thinks things through when it comes to anything out of his business world, but what about Gina? Here she is looking like she might faint any upcoming minute at the sight of her son, yet she’s still standing still- fixed in her place like a statue. Chains to her husband’s orders have her fight the urge to get down on her knees and beg for her son’s forgiveness. I can see it. Everyone can see it.

  Her soul is like an open book that everyone can peek into except for one person- Gabriel.

  My father’s confusion is what breaks the ice. “Wait- wait a minute; what email? I didn’t send anything.”

  “I did.” I admit.

  “You mean you hacked into my account and emailed Gabriel?” My father’s jaw drops.

  I simply nod.

  “Why would you do that?” Both Gabriel and my father ask at the same time.

  “Okay.” I take a slow breath before I calmly tell them, “I know the truth, okay? We are no longer immature teenagers, so we are going to sit down and have a civil conversation like adults. This is why I set you up.”

  My dad spits out the words like they’re venom, “What conversation are we having? As far as I remember you are the one who left this house on her own terms just because her best friend was so envious of how she’s getting married before her that she decided to destroy your life with a bunch of sick lies you believed!”

  I have to say that my father is one hell of an actor.

  Too bad he didn’t sign up for a trial in Hollywood.

  “Stop it, dad!” My voice starts getting louder as I continue, “I know the truth now, so stop denying it. I’m here to talk things out with you, mom, Gabriel and Gina okay? I came here to tell you that I know about the contract you signed with Gabriel; I know that you pushed Adrien into Oxford just to make me fall for him, and I know that you took advantage of my memory loss.”

  Their reactions says it all really.

  Gabriel is expressionless, but he didn’t ace covering his emotions fast enough, for I spotted this spark of fury passing through his body. On the other hand, my dad’s anger is crystal clear since he always found it difficult to control his emotions. Adrien’s eyes widened an inch or so before offering me his annoying careless smirk. My mom and Gina, however, looked like they wanted to either run away and hide or bury themselves alive.

  My mom lays a hand on her chest as if in severe pain, and a few tears slip onto her cheeks as she whispers softly, “Evie, I know that what we did was wrong. It was stu—”

  She’s interrupted by my dad. “We didn’t do anything wrong.”

  Gabriel supports my father’s statement as he says, “Listen to your father, Evangeline. Whatever wrong you think we did, which we didn’t, is for the sole reason for both a better life and your happiness.”

  “What better life? Are you living the best days of your life, Gabriel? Is this how your life is ‘better’? By disowning your son because you couldn’t watch him marry the woman he loved? And what happiness? Are you that delusional? Do you really think forcing me to marry someone I don’t have feelings for counts for my ‘happine—”

  My dad gives my mom a warning look as if asking her to ‘shut u
p’ before he interrupts me. “Don’t do this again, Evangeline. Whatever this bitch and that jerk have told you and whatever lies they’ve laid out in front of you, just please don’t do this. You’re our daughter. Don’t tell me that you’re buying your friends’ word over your family’s!”

  “Stop disrespecting them, or I leave for good, and you’ll never hear from me again!” My chest vibrates in anger, and I force myself to control my rage a little bit as I say, “If it’s anyone’s word I’m buying, father, it’s Evelyn’s.”

  “What do you mean?” Gabriel’s eyes questions in bewilderment.

  “What she means,” Lexi starts to explain, “Is that I gave her Evelyn’s diary, so she could learn from Evelyn the truth.”

  “What diary?” My father’s eyebrows furrow.

  “The diary you didn’t know existed: Evelyn’s diary. Her whole life is in there, so I pulled it out from its hiding spot in Evelyn’s room before you burned her stuff and decided to move from Liverpool to London. It’s amazing, isn’t it?” She lets out a humourless chuckle as she clarifies, “You spent the last five years threatening me not to open my mouth only for Evangeline to finally learn the truth from herself.”

  Trevor’s fists shake as if holding himself from punching her, and his actions cause nothing but merely hurt me. Why would my brother side with my parents’ side on this? Is it a simple hatred he secretly has for Adam, or has my father tricked him into believing that living in a much greater luxury than what we already have is better than leaving your sister find her true love on her own?

  Trevor takes a threatening step towards her and before he snarls out a curse, Lexi steps in his direction, reducing the little distance already existing between them, and my eyes widen in disbelief when she punches him right in the jaw.

  Within three seconds, Lexi managed to have the spotlights on her.

  Giving me a sneaky smile, which no one caught but me, she looks at Trevor’s flabbergasted yet painful expression as he massages his bruising jaw before she mutters, “You, Trevor, are the biggest asshole of them all. I’ve literally grown up with you, and other than the fact that you so blindly supported your parents’ decisions on corrupting your sister’s life, you didn’t even give me a chance to fix it. In my chest, your torments still exist because you never stopped with the threats, and somehow you didn’t only lose your sister, but you lost me as well. You were like this brother I’ve never had ever since we were young, and, now, your image of a fancier life has led you to losing the two closest people you had. Just know that your decisions came at the expense of losing us because even if you’re ever forgiven, there will still be this tiny gap you broke in our hearts. Now that it’s all out, I’m out of here.”

  Lexi walks over to me, pulls me into a hug, whispers how she’ll now cross ‘punching someone’ off of her bucket list, and tells me that she’ll head home because there’s just ‘too much drama in the air’ for her taste.

  Trevor’s eyes switch its glance from Lexi’s retrieving back to me, and I catch the defeated look in them, and that’s all that mattered to me right now. Seeing the apology in my brother’s eyes, I feel like this is the first step towards fixing our relationship. My father, nonetheless, ruined the spark of hope that bloomed in me by opening his mouth.

  “How do you know that this diary your friend gave you isn’t something twisted she created to turn your wrath on us?” He crosses his arms over his chest with daring eyes.

  “Are you insinuating that Lexi wrote what I read to trick me into hating you?” I grit my teeth.

  Fury, at its highest, started swelling in my chest and just before I continue offering my father a piece of my mind, my mom looks at me with defeated eyes as she softly says, “There’s no need to deny anything anymore, George. Stop beating around the bush. If she knows the truth, I may as well start begging her for forgiveness, even though it was your call- your mistake.” Her eyes, which are tainted with sadness, avert to my dad as she continues, “I’m not willing to lose my daughter again, George. You may as well start picking sides. The success of your business or the love of your daughter.”

  A small bud of love bloomed a little bit for my mom as she spoke, and the hope that was just buried started replanting itself in my chest.

  “You know it’s not that easy.” My father seethes with a blood-boiling voice.

  My father shares a look with Gabriel who starts explaining, “This contract was signed in a courthouse. When we signed it, we agreed to the terms and conditions that would follow if one of the contract’s partners disregarded it in any way. If one were to ever deny this contract, they would have to pay the other agreeing partner half his fortune; otherwise, they’ll end up in jail.”

  Even though my eyes widened in terror at this new piece of information, that I was oblivious about, hurt stabbed my chest like a knife at a certain question. A question that I suddenly feel I now know the answer to.

  Is your daughter not worth half your fortune?

  Looking around the room, Adam, Adrien, Gina and Trevor’s eyes mirrored mine, which got me thinking that maybe I’m not the only one who didn’t know about this. Mom is the only person in the room who seems to have known about the consequences of not fulfilling the statement of the contract. Well, it’s either that or she’s not fazed by Gabriel’s words.

  “Wait.” I shake my head slightly trying to understand before I ask, “Are you saying that if you don’t want to abide by the contract’s statement and Gabriel does, you either pay him half of what you own, or you end up behind bars?”

  My father, with a clenched jaw, nods, confirming that I got it right from his explanation.

  “I don’t care anymore, George. She’s our daughter! Do not let your recklessness as a teenager, and your infatuation with sharing Gabriel’s success blind you into losing your family in the process. It’s not like we don’t have enough money. We’ll not be as rich as Gabriel, but we will still have millions that will secure our lives even after you pay. Just do what you have to do because I’m not sacrificing my daughter for the sake of your company. I may have been a fool to believe you once with all your blabbers on a luxurious life, but I don’t care anymore. If I have to choose between losing all I have, turning into a beggar in the streets or losing my daughter, I’ll choose to be a beggar. That’s how much I’m willing to sacrifice to have her in my arms, and that’s how much I’m willing to sacrifice for her happiness.”

  “I agree with mom, dad. Back then when you signed this contract with Gabriel, it was for the sole reason of avoiding complications and developing your companies even more but look at you now. You no longer need each other’s help, and there are no more problems between your companies. You no longer need to feel obliged to stick up to the contract,” Trevor speaks out, defending me for the first time.

  I guess I’ll have to thank Lexi for the punch, seeing as her physical knock to his jaw mentally knocked some sense into my brother.

  He offers me a soft smile which I return before his attention goes back to our father as he says, “What if both of you agree to throw the contract behind your backs as if nothing has ever happened? In this case, both partners would agree to disregard the contract as if it was never signed, and Evangeline and Adrien will be free from each other.”

  “If Gabriel’s willing to do this, I don’t mind.” My father responds coolly as if we’re talking about the weather.

  We all look at Gabriel, awaiting his response. His eyes travel from Adam to Adrien to Gina to my mom to me and lastly to my dad before he confidently says, “I’m willing to disregard it if you pay me half your fortune.”

  My mind hasn’t even gotten the chance to fully register what he had just said because as soon as the words came out of his mouth, Adam’s fist collided with his face. Gasps coming from both my mom and Gina hit my ears, while Trevor and my father seemed weirdly satisfied with Adam’s action as if they wanted to have the honours to do it themselves. Adrien, on the other hand, strolled over to where his brother
and father were and pushed Adam slightly to back off from Gabriel.

  Adam shrugs Adrien’s arms off of him as if they were some sort of a contagious disease before adamantly saying, “Listen here, Gabriel. You will free Evangeline and Adrien from the contract right now or so God help me! Don’t forget that I was your son once, and I know some things that I shouldn’t know. If it were ever to be posted in the news, the illegal side-businesses you deal with, that would surely ruin Gabriel Sanderson’s reputation, wouldn’t it?”

  Gabriel’s hand hasn’t left his bleeding, broken nose.

  His eyes widened in shock at Adam’s words, yet the bastard has still got the audacity to smirk daringly. “Don’t forget who you’re talking to, boy. You’d be surprised what money can do. Unless you want to end up in prison for dealing drugs, you’ll keep your mo—”

  “Have you lost your mind?” Gina yells for the first time, her eyes widened in disbelief at what Gabriel’s insinuating he can do. “You’d wrongfully accuse your son for dealing drugs just to keep him quiet about your illegal drug selling? When has this started? And since when do you know about this?”

  Adam looks saddened by his mother’s apparent stress as he honestly replies, “Five years ago-just after our accident by a few days.”

  Gabriel was about to reply when an idea lights up in my mind, so I cut him off with a smile. “I have a deal Gabriel.”

  “And what would that be?” He rolls his eyes; his disinterest apparent.

  “If you, in any ways, are concerned for the slightest bit about Adrien ending up in jail, you’ll free me from this contract,” I say confidently, watching Adrien’s confused eyes widen in fear as the realisation hits him.

  Finally, he realised that I know what he did.

  “What are you talking about?” My father questions.

  “I’m talking about this.” I pull out a video tape from my beige Michael Kors handbag, giving Adam a grateful smile, for he is the one who gave it to Lexi to hand it to me a few days ago.