The Richman - Foreign Woman
Christabell tried to contact her husband. She stood on the balcony of her room on the second floor of the house that faced the gate. While waiting for the phone to pick up, she saw something that happened at the gate. There's the bodyguard seems like arguing with someone there. She decided to end the call and walk into the room control to see what happened in the gate clearly from the CCTV monitors.
She looked shocked while watching the monitors, there was a woman who stood in front of the bodyguard and seems like arguing with them, then suddenly that woman bowed her head and drop her body to the ground to beg the bodyguard for something.
Christabell still remembered the face of that woman. That woman followed her when Christabell, Zoey, and Andrianna walked around the nearest park a few days ago. Christabell swallowed hard, she almost decided to ignore them and let the bodyguard did what they have to. But when she saw that the bodyguards being cruel to that woman and that woman looked helpless, she ran out of the room control and went down the stairs. She was going to the gate to make sure what happened there.
Christabell quickened her pace when she saw the woman fall to the ground after being pushed roughly by one of the bodyguards. But she tried to get up and keep breaking in until two people grabbed her hard.
"Stop!" Shouted Christabell and the two bodyguards exchanged glances before one turned towards Christabell. "Madame, you should not come near." He said.
"Let her explain the purpose of her arrival." Christabell looked at the bodyguard and confirmed her sentence.
"But Mr. Anthony ordered ..." One of the bodyguards tried to explain to Christabell, but Christabell raised her hand not wanting to hear the bodyguard's explanation at all. "I'll explain to Richard, let her talk." Christabell has once again asserted her authority in the house as hostess.
"Who are you and what do you want?" Christabell asked firmly to the middle-aged woman.
That woman teary while saw Christabell eyes, she looked trembled but still tried to answer the question, "I just wanted to see you." The woman replied softly.
"Why do you want to see me? We don't know each other." Christabell said.
That woman smiled sourly, "You may don't know me, but I know you." She answered.
Like a puzzle that demands to be solved. Christabell felt that she had to speak privately with that middle-aged woman to find out what riddle she was playing.
"Let her in." Said Christabell.
"But Mr. Richard forbids you from accepting foreign visitors, madame." A bodyguard tried to forbid Christabell from speaking privately with the woman.
"I'm the lady of the house, so you know that my authority is the same as Richard Anthony, my husband. You have to do as I say." Said Christabell.
"We'll check it out first before letting her in." the bodyguards still have to put the safety of their employer first.
"You can check it out if you think you need to," Christabell replied. She surrendered after all arguments with her bodyguards, she waited for the woman to be searched and when it was not proven that she was carrying a firearm or a sharp weapon, the bodyguard allowed her to enter with Christabell. Of course, still with the escort of one of them.
"You can also stay close to us while we talk to make sure that everything goes well," Christabell said while they entered the house.
"Please have a seat," Christabell said. "And wait for a moment, I'll be right back." Christabell turned her face from that woman to the bodyguard who stood a few meters from where the woman was sitting. Bodyguard nodded as a sign he understood that Christabell had asked him to closely watch the woman as she left the area for a few moments.
The middle-aged woman sat on the sofa while Christabell left her and went to Adrianna's room. She met Zoey and talk to her whispered, "Don't go anywhere, make sure that Adrianna stays asleep and quiet. Whatever happened outside, stay in the room with my baby." Christabell made sure that Zoey knew what she means. That young girl nodded although her face turned pale.
After confirming that the baby was safe and still asleep, Christabell returned to the living room. He met the woman and intended to solve the riddle right away, wasting no time. Of course, after he told the bodyguard not to tell Richard about this incident.
Christabell sat facing the woman anxiously. She still guessed what she wanted from her or her family. Since she married Richard Anthony, so many bad things have come to their lives, and it has left a certain trauma for Christabell. And now that all the troubles she had been through, appeared this mysterious woman.
Christabell sighed heavily, while looking deeply at the woman, he asked, "Now you can talk, tell me all about you and what you really want. Don't ramble because I don't like it." Christabell said firmly.
The middle-aged woman with the brown clear eyes stared at Christabell teary, "I'm Layla Stone." Said the woman with the trembled voice as if she tried to control her inside emotion.
Instantly Cristabell's heart stopped beating. She remembers an old letter that she accidentally found in the drawer of the orphanage mother. The letter was written by a woman named Layla. But the orphanage mother never wanted to admit whether the letter was from her birth mother or another baby's mother.
The woman took a worn envelope from her bag and handed it to Christabell, but Christabell did not immediately accept the envelope. Layla placed it on the table and waited for Christabell to read it.
Christabell considered for a moment before reached for the envelope and opened it. Sure enough, the envelope contained a letter that she had read at the orphanage years ago. Apart from the letter, there is an old, worn photo of a woman who was holding her newborn baby in a hospital. The woman looks young and her face is very similar to Layla's.
Christabell's heart suddenly pounded after she managed to find consciousness again. "Are you…?" She asked interrupted as if she couldn't finish the sentence.
"Yes…" She nodded. Christabell, who heard that answer, grabbed her chest, as if suddenly her chest became tight, for some reason the moment she had been expecting and what had happened before her eyes made her feel this confused.
"I can't believe it." Christabell got up from where she was sitting and walked away. "It's Impossible."
"I came back to the Orphanage and asked about you." The middle-aged woman spoke tremblingly. "Let me tell you that past story, and what is the reason I left you at the orphanage. Not to defend me, just so you know what the reason is."
Christabell didn't want to listen, but the middle-aged woman gave her no space. She started telling stories and dragging Christabell into those times. It was as if she had been present and witnessed all that the middle-aged woman had told her.