Unexpected 86

Chapter 86
At the mansion
Upon arriving at the mansion, Amanda was glad to see that some of Ryland’s family members had already arrived at their home, namely Ryland’s father and mother. The pair were patiently waiting for them to arrive home and as soon as Ryland. and Amanda walked in, Ryland’s mother ran towards Amanda to hold her in her embrace. With everything that had been going wrong, Amnada needed her mother in-law;s loving embrace to help her get over the terrible experience that had occured outside of Ryland’s office with the reporters pushing her around. Once her mother in-law het go of her and looked intoher eyes, all Amanda was was pure love towards her.
Not longer after, her father-in-law also came to hug her while assuring Amanda that all would be all right before he pulled his son aside, and the two went away to have further conversation with one another. Amanda and her mother in-law opted to sit down on the couch, before her mother in-law briefly grabbed a glass of water for her to drink, which she took.
Not long after, Ryland along with his father walked back into the living room again, and now the four of them were seated in the living room in utter silence. Silent, no one bothered to ask Amanda about her experience, fearful that she might increase her traumatic experience. The front door came open, three lawyers walked in, including Ryland’s lawyer…or ex laywer that is.
Ryland’s pupils grew wide as he could not believe that the very same lawyer that he fired a few weeks ago had showed up at his house again. Unfortunately for him, no one had known that he had fired the laywer a few weeks earlier. He was smiling and greeting Ryland’s parents, and acting as if everything was okay.
$
Amanda’s eyes locked in with the lawyer immediately but she had nothing but hate for the man who had gone out of his way to make sure that Ryland and Amanda were to separate. She hated seeing the lawyer, and she saw him as nothing but a disease in her home.
“Good afternoon, everyone. I can see we are all stressed, but I can assure you that I’m here and everything will be okay.” The lawyer responded before turning to his two assistants and ordering something from them before turning back to the family and clasping his hands together, signaling that he was about ready to begin his work.
Amanda watched silently as the men walked away from them and began conversing on ways to turn the narrative around, but Amanda was still not comfortable with having the lawyer near her new found family.
“Are you okay?” Ryland’s mother asked Amanda who simply smiled at her mother-in-law and without using words, she indicated that she was okay. Amanda tried opening her mouth to speak but she closed it, there was no need for her to tell her mother in-law how the layer had tried ruining the relationship between Amanda and Ryland.
Some hours went by, and the men were still deep in conversation. Amanda’s mother-in-law took it upon herself to prepare dinner for everyone while Amanda walked outside in the garden, looking at the wonderful scenery. She had always enjoyed the scenary of the garden, but now that everything was out of control with Sofie, she could no longer see the beauty of the garden that she wanted to admire.
“Isn’t the garden beautiful?” Amanda quickly shut her eyes as she heard the familiar voice from behind her. She knew very well that this was no one other than the lawyer who came to do nothing but to disturb her tranquility. She did not want to look at him, but she could feel the lawyer walking up and standing besides her, only then was Amanda forced to opened her eyes and turn her attention to him.
“Yes, the garden was beautiful until you stepped out here to disturb me.” Amanda responded quite venomously, but her response did not annoy the lawyer; instead, he looked thrilled that she was a fireball.
“I can see you’ve grown quite confident. I admire that about you. But one thing I do not admire is that you’re not very smart.” He told her, and Amanda took his response as nothing less than an insult.
“You don’t even know me that well to assume
I am not smart,” she fired back, but none of her remarks bothered the lawyer but he did look Amanda with the look of utter disgust. One could even say that he was appauled by her presence.
“Amanda,you might think I do not know you, but I can assure you, I know you’re very well. I also remember warning you
1/3
6
55%
Chapter 86
about the kind of man that Ryland is, but you do not listen,”
+5
“Shut up! I said, shut up!” Amanda yelled at him, pointing her index finger directly at the lawyer’s face. She hated that he was accusing her husband of publicly cheating on her and impregnating another woman.
“You can be as angry at me as you want Amanda, but I know this family more than you think you you know them.” He told her, and somehow deep down inside Amanda there was a part of her that wanted to believe the lawyer, but she quickly snapped out of it, realizing what a dangerous man he was.
“If you believe that Ryland is so guilty, then why are you defending him? Why are you trying to switch the narrative so that the world could believe that he’s innocent of this crime?” Amanda asked the lawyer, but he was surprised by the smile on the lawyer’s lips.
“Amanda I’m a lawyer, and as a lawyer, I get paid to do this kind of thing; in fact, I get paid millions to defend guilty. I can assure you that Ryland is guilty, but you’re too stubborn to see that. I don’t blame you, because you’re one of these poor girls who believe that a rich, handsome man will ever fall in love with a poor woman like you. I’m sorry to burst your bubble, my love, but this is not a fairy tale, and you are not Cinderella who gets the prince at the end, “he told her, and his words were as cold as ice.
“So, in other words, you are a greedy man?” Amanda asked him
“Of course, I am a greedy man. Amanda. How else do you think I built up this empire that is my law firm? I love money and Ryland loves women. If you do not believe me, why don’t you ask him yourself,” he dared Amanda while looking into his eyes. Just then, Amanda desperatly wanted to respond to him, but just as she was about to open her mouth and challenge the lawyer, she stopped. Seeing that Amanda had nothing more to say to him, the lawyer walked away, leaving Amanda in the garden to think about what he had said to her.
Amanda walked around the garden with her mind filled with questions as she picked apart every memory in her mind regarding her husband and thinking of when Ryland could have had an opportunity to cheat or if he had even cheated on her.
“Amanda, stop doing this to yourself” She told herself aloud.
“Doing what to yourself?: she quickly turned around, only to see that it was Ryland standing there looking stressed, and a small part of Amanda felt bad that he was being dragged into the mud with regards to Sofie.
“No, it’s nothing. I was just thinking a lot that’s al,”l Amanda responded, but even as she tried to appear happy, she could not fool Ryland as he knew her too well. She watched as he reached for her hands before looking into her eyes.
“I promise you, after all this is over, everything is going to be okay. All this nonsense in the media will die down, and I will clear my name.” Ryland promised her, and even though he promised Amanda, she could still feel that there was no assurance in his promise.
In the short time that Amanda had gotten to know Sofie, she was quick to learn that Sofie was not a woman to play with, and she always got what she wanted, when she wanted, and ruining people’s reputations was not a thing that concerned her.
Amanda’s heart beat loudly against her chest. Her lips mumbled, but there were no clear words coming out of her mouth, which left Ryland completely confused by her behavior.
“What are you trying to say? You are the sun, and you are very concerned by Amanda’s behavior.
“Ryland, I know that there’s a lot going on today, but I need to know something from you,” she told him nervously with her palm sweating.
“Of course, my love, you can ask me anything, and I will answer you,” He responded before lowering his head and kissing her hand lightly. Arnanda felt saddened sword and hurt because she was about to ask Ryland a question that would either
make them or break them at that moment.
“I want you to tell me the truth: are you respondable for Sofie’s pregnancy?” She asked, just then, Ryland let g of Amanda’s
2/3
14:55 Thu, Oct 10
Chapter 86
hands and looked into her eyes, shocked that she could ask such a question from him.
3/3