Stolen Identity: Mute Heiress

Chapter 157: Actively Move On

Inside her room, Emily’s lips wobbled and her eyes burned with unshed tears and before she could stop them, the tears came — hot and fast.

She tried to keep quiet, tried to muffle her sobs, but the weight in her chest had grown too heavy. Each tear carried pieces of pain she thought she had buried long ago, but it was all back — just like that.

She wrapped her arms around her knees and rocked herself gently, her breath hiccuping as flashes of the past returned like sharp arrows to her chest.

She had first met Callan at the orphanage home where her Dad celebrated her seventh year birthday.

He had been mean and almost ruined the party because he was mad that his mother had abandoned him. She had not held his actions against him because she was sorry for him.

She had wanted to see him again and had pleaded with her father to let her visit the orphanage again, and then he had taken her there. She had met him again, and he had not been very mean. He had even smiled at her and that was when she realized she had a crush on him.

The next time she had seen him again had been when her father’s best friend brought him to the house and introduced him as his adoptive son.

She had been happy then, thinking that he was closer now and she could see him more often without needing to go to the orphanage home.

They had attended the same school, and even though he was older than her and ahead of her in class, she remembered the way her heart used to race whenever he was near or she saw him from afar.

She remembered the silly daydreams. The hopeful looks. The shy smiles. The prayers she whispered at night, asking God to help him notice her — not as his little cousin as he liked to call her, but as a girl.

And then when she was fourteen she had kissed him. She had been so happy when she was told he was back from college. That had been the longest she had gone without seeing him, and so when she hurried to his room to see him and saw him fast asleep and looking so handsome, she had kissed him.

That soft, innocent kiss had been her everything.

She had thought it would be sweet. Thought he would understand even if she didn’t expect him to love her immediately. She was a late bloomer and didn’t have the feminine features that might attract a college kid of his age, but at least she had thought he would see her heart.

But instead... he had shoved her. Called her stupid.

And then he’d brought a very pretty and curvy girl home the very next day just to show her she wasn’t good enough for him.

But even that had not taught her stupid treacherous heart to stop caring for the heartless jerk. That had not taught her to have a little self respect for herself and let him be.

She had forgiven him even though he didn’t ask to be forgiven. She had moved on as though nothing happened.

And then six years ago, Mari had convinced her to make the move. Mari had always known how she felt about Callan from the beginning.

”Give it a shot. You never can tell how he feels about you if you don’t lay it out. It’s the mature thing to do. You know guys are not very smart. Females are smarter. If we don’t spell things out, they can stay clueless forever,” Mari had said, urging her to take the bold step.

And so she had flown all the way to his school to surprise him on his twenty fourth birthday.

Emily pressed her palms to her face, her shoulders shaking harder now as she recalled how she had given herself to him so shamelessly.

The shame of that moment never really left her. And now, here they were again.

She had thought she was over it all, considering how hard she had fought to forget, but seeing how much it still hurt, and how raw the wound seemed, she didn’t know what to do.

The sound of her phone vibrating against the nightstand caught her attention. She wiped her face quickly and stood up, reaching for it.

It was her Mom. Her biological mother. If she couldn’t talk with Mari, at least she could speak with her mother.

Her chest clenched as she received the call. ”Mom?” Her voice cracked.

”Em?” Her mother’s voice was warm and soft. A voice Emily hadn’t heard in weeks, but one that warmed her heart.

Emily tried to speak but couldn’t. Her throat closed up.

”Sweetheart, are you okay?” Her mother asked, concerned. ”I called to know if you arrived in Husla safely... but Em, are you okay? Why are you crying?”

Emily sank onto the bed. ”I’m not okay,” she whispered, her voice breaking again. ”I just— I don’t know why I came here.”

”Oh, darling...” Sharon’s voice became even gentler. ”Talk to me. What happened? Why are you crying?”

”I’m so stupid,” Emily muttered, her words tumbling out. ”I shouldn’t have agreed to this. I don’t know why I thought I could face him. Maybe a stupid part of me is still interested in him, I don’t know. He hasn’t changed. He’s still the same.”

Sharon was quiet for a second. Then asked, ”I take it you are talking about Callan?”

”Yes. I don’t know why I listened to Dad and came here,” she said again, her tears slipping faster. ”He just lets all these women walk into his life— and into his bed. I’m so stupid to still be feeling this hurt by it.”

Mari and her biological mother were the only two people she had been able to confide in about her feelings for Callan.

She loved her stepmom and would have told her about it, but her stepmom and Callan’s adoptive mom were sisters, and she was worried that they might frown at her feelings for Callan even though she did not see anything wrong in it since they weren’t related by blood.

”You are not stupid, darling,” Sharon said firmly. ”Don’t ever call yourself that again. Do you hear me?”

Emily sniffled. ”But it hurts, Mom. It hurts so bad. Like my heart can’t breathe.”

”Oh, darling...” Sharon’s voice trembled slightly, like she was holding back tears of her own. ”You have every right to feel this way. You loved him once. Deeply. That kind of wound doesn’t heal easily. But you’re not stupid. If anyone is stupid, it is Callan.”

”I hate him so much,” Emily whispered.

”No, sweetheart,” her mother said gently. ”You don’t. You want to. And maybe you should. But you don’t. Not yet. And you shouldn’t, anyway. Don’t go from love to hate. It’s better you’re indifferent.”

Emily closed her eyes. ”I thought I was over him,” she said in a broken voice. ”I really did.”

”You will be,” Sharon whispered. ”One day, I promise, you’ll look back at this night and it won’t hurt like this. The ache will fade. But until then, let yourself cry. Let it out. You don’t have to hold it in.”

”I don’t know what to do,” Emily murmured.

”Breathe with me, okay? Breathe, baby. One breath at a time.”

Emily closed her eyes and leaned back against the headboard of the bed. Her mother’s voice in her ear felt like a warm blanket. She followed her breathing, slow and steady.

”Feel better? How about a little yoga exercise?” She asked, and Emily’s lips twitched in spite of herself.

”Are you offering me your services for free, ma’am?” Emily asked in Hindi.

Her mother was a Yogini and an Ayurvedic Vaidya. Nineteen years ago she had left the country to study Ayurvedic medicine in India, and had ended up falling in love with one of her lecturers, and gotten married there.

She wasn’t big on motherhood and didn’t want to have any more kids. So she had married a man who didn’t want to have any kids either.

Emily was grateful for that seeing how her Dad and second mom had given her five younger ones. At her age of twenty-six she had a four year old little brother. One she adored anyway.

”I can tell you feel better,” Sharon said, a smile in her voice. ”Why don’t you tell me exactly what happened to trigger you?”

Emily sighed softly before going on to tell her all about the assault from his girlfriend and how she had handled the situation. ”How am I supposed to survive under the same roof with him, Mom? Six months?” She asked when she finished.

”Hm. You know what I think, darling? I think it’s time for you to go into a relationship. You’re a beautiful, brilliant young lady. Why are you single? Go out, meet someone nice and slowly get Callan out of your mind. Maybe he’s still occupying a space in your heart because you’ve not put someone else there. Actively try to move on...”

”But I’ve not met anyone I like enough to date,” Emily cut in.

”Well, you can learn to like them slowly as long as you’re honest with them. Put it on your list of things to do before you leave Husla. Callan should see you in a relationship. Let him watch you be with someone else for a change. Okay?”

”Are you asking me to make him jealous?” Emily asked thoughtfully.

”No. It has nothing to do with him. I’m saying focus on you. Coexist with him as you would with an annoying colleague. It doesn’t have to be more than that,” her mother said, and Emily sighed.

”Alright. Thanks, mom. I’ll do just that. My regards to Kiaan. I love you,” Emily said, and she sighed softly as they hung up the call.

She was going to actively move on now. This was the last tears she was going to ever shed because of Callan.