3 Gemma

Two months after the annual meeting, Jane was as busy as ever and the elders gave her additional responsibilities as her father was expected to be in full health and get back to work after a month and they didn't want him to have a heavy workload after recovering from his illness. She'll also soon resume her post as Vice President for Finance.

During this period, she usually worked from home under the guise that she was still recuperating from the wound on her leg. She was fine now but a scar was left because the wound was too deep and it took a long time before it was taken care of.

It was inconvenient but no one in the family objected as they all knew she was truly wounded and knew what happened that led to that injury.

It was good that the illegitimate child of the President was someone capable and somehow made it through the meeting without giving out a clue that something was amiss. If it was known at the time, the family would've been involved in one big scandal as the case would be opened and their family would be under public scrutiny. What's more terrifying was she has the shareholders' support as they trust her capabilities. The woman right now has too good a reputation it was alarming.

In reality, acting like that was easy for someone like Jane who was raised alone by her mother, Gemma, until she was 8 years old when her father suddenly came to their little apartment and convinced her mother to live with the Smiths. She was also well prepared as she always brought with her all sorts of medicine and emergency stuff as she was used to the pettiness of her half siblings.

The time she spent in their old home, Gemma taught her how to act as she was an actress herself, though she wasn't really famous and was only getting unimpressive roles even though she had an impressive background in theater. Jane still didn't know at the time that this happened because of the pressures from the Smith family.

She remembered how happy her mother was when she mimics her well, when she sings for her, the blooming smile she had when she gets a perfect score on all her tests and just the way she looked at her like she was life's best gift the her mother; how her mother worked multiple jobs just to provide her the materials she needed to learn different languages as she was very interested in learning them when she was young. She remembered taking an interest in it when she was 5 and saw her mother struggling to learn a language because of a role she got. This resulted to her learning 7 languages when she was only 6 years old thanks to her photographic memory.

Thinking back at it now, their everyday life was hard, she was forced to learn different things to help her mom but she thought that that was really the happiest and most carefree years of her life; when her smiles were all genuine and she wasn't as twisted as she was now. Her childhood was also the only reason she let Sam be her friend until they grew up even though she always felt like the guy was using her most of the time.

It was only because she knew him when she was still living with her mother that she let him feel like he's in her inner circle but it seems that her sentiments were for naught. Truth be told, after hearing the investigations, she felt cold inside.

Jane only pushed the elders to let her work at home because she really didn't want to see any of the members of that family as she was reminded of their cruelty when she thought of her mother.

Her warm and loving mother who only wanted to give what was best for her. They just didn't realize that their life wouldn't be better with the Smiths as they were only caged by them to not let others know of this mistake.

She really was too powerless and couldn't do anything to protect her mother 8 years ago when she suddenly was told that her mother was suffering from severe depression, had lung cancer and was already confined in the hospital. They wouldn't even let them meet each other until Jane agreed to work for the company but they still limited to let them meet once every two months.

She didn't know the reason they made her work was because her existence was made known to everyone and her father wouldn't let anyone think they were hiding her from the world but is nurturing her because she was a genius. God knows the only nurturing she got was bullying from all the other kids in the family. Their claim wasn't unfounded though as she really did skipped a lot of grades and was already in college at that time.

If she knew her method of trying to get out of the family as fast as she could would put her on the limelight and endanger her mother's safety, she probably wouldn't have skipped all those grades no matter how boring it was for her.

It only made it harder to live as people expected a lot from her that when she made lots of mistakes at the beginning, she would often be scolded and everyone made her feel like she was nothing. That was when she made a vow to prove everyone they were wrong.

Now that she's proven her worth and is becoming a steady threat to her half siblings, nobody even dares to slight her in the family. She really didn't know if she would laugh or cry as this was both a blessing and a curse. It felt wonderful to be successful but nothing could truly make her heart move anymore.

The thing that really broke her even with the level of success and validation she's been having is that her mom is gone. The most precious existence for her that drove her to push herself to her limits so that everyone would look at her, see her brilliance and inherit what his father had was now gone and the way she left was too abrupt, it was fishy.

It goes without saying that it has something to do with the Smiths. Now the only thing keeping her from leaving this hellhole was to have easier access to information regarding her mother's death. And she would rather suffer her whole life and go to the fight for the succession if it meant that she'll get to the bottom of what happened to her mother.

Pleasing people was also getting easier now that she could attract all the bees and butterflies. She's practically in a reverse position from when she just started but deep inside she felt emptier.

Jane was getting lost in her own dark thoughts as she was on the treadmill. Her breathing getting more erratic, her mood was getting heavier as she ran for more than 3 hours now.

It was then that Mia rushed to her and tried to snap her out of her reverie.

"Jane, stop please!"

"Mistress!"

"President!"

"Look at me. It's Mia. Mia's here to see you President."

"Jane please stop running."

"You're going to hurt yourself please stop."

Jane acted like she was air and continued running and Mia doesn't have the guts to stop her as she knows how violent if she tried to stop the machine herself.

"Jane.. please listen to me. Your hurting yourself again. Just stop please I'm begging you." Mia's voice was getting hoarse from all shouting, pleading and crying.

Jane continued running with that same empty look in her eyes ever since her mother died.

Mia's tears came crashing down. She looked at the date again.

February 24. It was Gemma's birthday.

She then looked at her boss and braced herself. "You're making Gemma sad!" she shouted at her three times, her voice getting louder as she finished the same sentence.

It was only then that Jane stopped running, turned off the machine, went down and faced her looking confused.

Mia's heart plummeted when she saw her like that. She stilled her heart and tried to stop crying as she led Jane outside the room to the sofa in the living room dried her off with a towel, her voice slightly shaking as she said, "Hurt yourself more and Gemma would be sad. Do you want to be a disobedient daughter?"

Jane then looked around for a while and then faced Mia once again.

"Mia? W-what happened to my mom? Is she here?" she asked, her voice full of worry.

Mia hugged her tightly, her hands shaking as she softly patted her head, her other hand on Jane's back as she eased her. "shh.. Mia's here. Everything's going to be fine. Mia's here."

Jane's eyes dimmed once again and suddenly burried her head on Mia's shoulder, her whole body suddenly shuddering.