The Heiress' Revenge

Chapter 199: You’re A Fool

Dante’s POV

My mother, by now, is sick and tired of me. She can’t seem to believe anything I’ve told her about Ariana still being alive, and it’s annoyingly frustrating.

"Mum, please," I said, my voice shaking. "You have to listen to me, Ariana is alive. I saw her, I touched her... She’s working as a maid in the Anderson mansion. She’s been there for two years."

My mother didn’t move.

She just stared at me with those cold, calculating eyes. "You saw a woman who looks like Ariana. You saw a woman who has similar features that triggered your grief, your guilt, and your desperation. That doesn’t mean she’s Ariana; that means you need help."

I slammed my hand on her desk, causing the sound to echo in the quiet room. "I don’t need help! I just need you to believe me. I need you to trust me that I know my wife, I know her face, she’s the one I’m telling you. I’m begging you. Please. Just listen."

Mum stood up. "You’re asking me to cancel a wedding that was supposed to happen two days ago, but due to your madness, it didn’t, causing me to reschedule it to tomorrow... I can’t do that to the family of the bride, not when we’re this close to becoming one. You’re asking me to embarrass myself in front of everyone we know. All because you think you saw your dead wife working as a maid?"

I walked up to her standing behind her. I reached out to touch her shoulder.

She flinched, pulling away.

"Mum, please, I’m not crazy or imagining things. I held her... I swear to you she’s the one! It’s my Ariana, the mother of my kids."

My mother turned to face me. "Your children have already lost their mother once. They have spent two years healing. They have spent two years learning to live without her. They have spent two years accepting that she is never coming back, and now you want to drag them through that again? You want to give them false hope? You want to make them believe that their dead mother is alive just because you saw a woman who looks like her?"

I felt the tears come, but I blinked them back. "It’s not false hope. It’s the truth, and I know that, if you just trust me on this one... there’s just more to it that we don’t know, and it’s only Ariana that can answer that."

My mother shook her head and walked back to her desk. "Even if you’re right. Even if that woman is Ariana. She has been hiding for two years, letting you grieve. She has been letting your children cry for her. She has been letting everyone believe she was dead. That is not the action of a woman who wants to be found. That is the action of a woman who wants to disappear."

I sank into the chair across from her, putting my head in my hands as the tears came. "I don’t care why she left. I don’t care why she hid. I don’t care what she was running from. I just need her to be here with me, I want her in my life... back in my life, whatever it is, we can talk it out."

My mother’s voice softened. "Dante, look at me."

I looked up. Her eyes were sad. Tired. "I know you’re hurting, I know you miss her. I know you would give anything to have her back, but she’s gone, and you have to accept that. You have to move on."

"I can’t accept it, I won’t accept it, not when I know she’s out there, not when I’m certain that that woman is my wife... my Ariana."

My mother stood up. She walked to stand beside me. "And what about Natasha? What about the engagement? What about the wedding that is supposed to happen tomorrow?"

I turned to face her. "I’m not marrying Natasha. I’m not marrying anyone, not when Ariana is still alive, not when there’s a chance to bring her home. You can cancel the wedding and tell everyone it’s off. I don’t care about the embarrassment, I don’t care about the scandal. I just care about finding my wife."

My mother’s face hardened. "You’re throwing away everything for a ghost."

"She’s not a ghost." My voice was loud. "She’s my wife, the mother of my children, and the love of my life... I will not let her go again, not without a fight."

My mother stepped back. Her eyes were cold. "If you don’t marry Natasha tomorrow, I will take everything, the company, money, houses, everything, and you will be left with nothing. You will be destitute."

"You would do that? You would take everything from me because I refuse to marry a woman I don’t love?"

My mother nodded. Her voice was steady. "I’ve given you everything. I’ve sacrificed everything for you, and I’m not about to let you distort your life again for someone that’s already dead."

I laughed in a bitter sound. "You think I care about the money? You think I care about the company? You think I care about any of it? I would give it all away, every penny, possession, and asset... all of it, just to have her back."

My mother’s face softened. "You’re a fool, Dante. A lovesick, foolish, pathetic man, and I’m done trying to save you."

She walked to the door and paused, looking back at me. "The wedding is tomorrow. You will be there, and you will marry Natasha, or you will lose everything. That is my final offer."

She walked out.

The door slammed behind her.