Chapter Eighteen

Third Person Pov "You know Anita, having you here in my house after so many years of seeing you as nothing but an enemy feels very wrong and I hate it," Rebecca said as she watched her long-time enemy taking a seat on the sofa. The fact that Anita was in her home for the first time in almost thirty years made her a feel a little nostalgic but she was quick to push back the feeling when she remembered that Anita was nothing but a selfish witch and that even when she thought they were friends, Anita had never considered Rebecca as a friend but rather, Rebecca, to her, was simply a sidekick that she expected to always live in her shadow. "You're making it seem like I want to be here Rebecca. The only reason I showed up here is that you and I have a common goal that we need to achieve and since I can't exactly invite you to my place, I decided to show up here instead. Just putting it out there that you should not for one second think that I'm here because I like being here because there's absolutely nothing special about this place," Anita responded and Rebecca rolled her eyes. "There is no need for you to get defensive Anita. So now tell me, why exactly are you here and what is this common goal that we supposedly have to achieve together?" Rebecca asked. "Are you asking because you don't know or are you trying to pretend like you don't know why I would come all the way here? You do realise that your daughter and my son are still in a relationship and as it seems, they both have no intention of leaving each other anytime soon which means that we need to find a way to ruin their relationship so that things don't end up getting complicated," Anita responded and Rebecca sighed. "I don't know if I've told you this before, but I don't exactly have a very close relationship with my daughter Gabriella and she's not going to listen to me should I tell her to end her relationship with your son. On the other hand, I thought that you would have a much better relationship with your son and I expected him to listen to you since you always bragged about how well behaved and how obedient your children were," Rebecca responded in a somewhat mocking tone and Anita scoffed. "Don't try to get on my nerves Rebecca because now is not the time for us to argue with each other. I've already tried speaking to my son several times but he has refused to listen to me and I have your daughter to blame for that because never has my son refused to do anything that I ask. You know very well that we cannot allow them to continue with their relationship because it's only going to end up making things difficult for us and we cannot afford for that to happen," Anita responded and although Rebecca found it amusing that Gabriella created a dent in Anita's relationship with her son, she still knew that Anita had a point. Should the relationship between Gabriella and Liam keep going the way it's going, they might end up getting married and if that should happen, that means that the secrets that Anita and Rebecca have tried so hard to bury over the years could get exposed and that would only make their lives much difficult and it would also ruin their relationship with their children permanently. "As much as I'm enjoying the fact that you can you longer brag about having your son wrapped around your fingers, I still very much agree with you but the problem now is, how exactly are we going to stop two grown adults from being in love? They're certainly not going to listen to anything that we say to them which means we'll have to come up with a more confirmed way of getting them away from each other and making sure that their relationship turns very sour," Rebecca responded. "So how are we going to do that? I've already thought of a lot of things that we could do but I don't want to put my son in any sort of danger or put him in a situation where he would be completely heartbroken, which is why I'm thinking of a more confirmed way of breaking them up that isn't going to affect them for too long," Anita said. The truth is, the idea that she had previously was getting rid of Gabriella for good, which meant killing her but she realised that would only make things a lot messier for her and she wasn't exactly in the right state of mind to be dealing with how to cover up a murder case. She also did not want any more problems with Rebecca because she knew that Rebecca would probably assume that she was the one responsible for her daughter's death and the last person she wanted to have any kind of heated confrontation with was Rebecca. "You know that there is an ongoing case with my daughter right now and if she ends up getting arrested and confirmed as guilty, that would ruin their relationship and it would be a good thing for both of us because then you have your son back under your clutches and I wouldn't have to deal with that annoying brat for a very long time," Rebecca stated and Anita couldn't help but furrow her brows in confusion. She knew that Rebecca was very selfish and also very wicked but she did not expect that she would be so wicked even to her child. The fact that she was completely fine with her daughter going to jail was beyond her and she couldn't help but wonder what exactly Gabriella could have done to make Rebecca hate her so much to the point where she wouldn't mind her going to jail. "I'm aware that I'm in no place to ask you this but I'm really curious to know because I just can't wrap my head around the thought. What exactly did Gabriella ever do to you that you don't even seem to care that she's been accused of attempted murder and that she could end up going to jail? I mean, I have every reason to hate her because she came between my son and me and I don't appreciate the fact that she's standing in my way but what reason do you have to hate your child?" Anita asked, genuinely curious to know. "I doubt you and I are close enough to have such conversations concerning our children and the only thing that is even bringing us together right now is the fact that your son and my daughter are in a relationship and we need to separate them if we want our secret to remain as a secret but other than that, you do not have the right to question me in any way and I will also refrain from questioning you or trying to pry into your personal life," Rebecca responded, visibly displeased that Anita dared to question her. She disliked it completely when people asked her questions that did not concern them especially when it boils down to the relationship that she has with both her daughters. A lot of people knew that she favoured Gabrielle over Gabriella and she has been asked several times why she treated Gabriella the way she treated her and each time she was asked, she had made sure to always put anyone that asked her such a question in their place because she didn't appreciate nosy people who couldn't mind their business. "I'm not exactly asking because I care but as an old friend, I just want you to know that there is no secret in this industry, especially for people like us that are well known and you should realise that everyone around you is very much aware that you treat your second daughter Gabriella very horribly and they're also aware that you favour and condoned Gabrielle's attitude even when it might end up putting you in serious trouble," "I'm not trying to judge you or anything because I understand that a parent can always have a favourite child but I don't think that it is right of you to make it too obvious to the world that you hate one of your daughters because that only makes you look like a bad mother and although people may not at your face, they don't respect you as a mother and a lot of people don't like Gabrielle," Anita told her honestly and author Rebecca was upset with her words, she couldn't help but see some sense in it. She was aware that a lot of people didn't like Gabrielle because Gabrielle was pretty much like her in terms of being arrogant and rude and before the entire incident that happened with Gabriella recently, most people used to prefer Gabriella over Gabrielle because Gabriella was seen as the nicer twin. Rebecca knew all of this but that didn't stop her from supporting Gabrielle because she believed strongly that Gabriella was too much of a weakling and that Gabrielle was the only one that could make sure that Elite fashion would always remain a successful brand. She also didn't like Gabriella because of how similar she was to her father and Rebecca still despised Derek very much especially after he had cheated on her with Anita and even went as far as having a child with her. Most of the anger that she exhibited towards Gabriella was because Gabriella reminded her so much of Derek and she was disgusted by the similarities between them. "I honestly don't care what anyone else has to say because I'm the only one that understands my reasons and I don't need to explain myself to people that don't matter. Anyways, I think it's better for us to just not speak about each other's personal lives because neither one of us has any right to," Rebecca replied. "Let's just focus on what we are going to do to separate our children and speaking of separating the kids, what do you think is going to happen if any one of them finds out that you have a child for my late husband because I'm starting to think that this secret that we're trying so hard to cover up, will soon be exposed and I think that instead of trying to avoid it, we should be thinking of a way handle it should in case we are unable to avoid it forever," Rebecca added with a sly smile as she knew very well that Anita had more to lose than she did.