Chapter 2 Ticket To Revenge

Christina felt like she was being sucked into a dark hole, into never ending misery that would continue to eat at her soul as she watched the scene unfolding before her.

Sitting in the living room within the Blakewood family mansion was Layla, the very woman who'd ruined her marriage, she looked weak and helpless but she was crowded around by the whole Blakewood family.

The words her mother just said kept repeating in her head.

'We found our long lost daughter.'

No one looked at Christina, no one paid her any attention, Justin shoved past her and headed towards Layla hugging her tightly.

"We should have found you sooner. From now on I'll do everything to take care of you, I'm your big brother."

Christina could still remember how much she longed for this exact attention from her brother, how much she'd wanted him to call her his little sister, but everytime he reminded her that she wasn't his sister, she was adopted as a replacement for his biological sister who was lost.

George Blakewood was always a strict man, he had never smiled at Christina but she had done everything in the past to impress him. From changing her major in college from design to business, to living her life innocently sheltered.

She had been adopted as a replacement to a long lost child and she had wished and prayed they'd find their child if it made them happy.

Layla raised her head to look at Christina with tear filled eyes.

"You hurt me and killed my unborn child, but I forgive you. You have kept my family happy all these years when I wasn't with them, for that I forgive you." Layla's voice was soft and warm like the soothing and forgiving spring breeze. Anyone who heard her would feel their hearts ache for her, she looked pained yet magnanimous enough to forgive someone who'd wronged her for the sake of her family.

George Blakewood's face became even colder and more stern. When Christina walked in he'd been sitting next to Layla holding her hand with a doting look in his eyes, the kind of look he'd never given Christina, this time he stood like a father who was ready to fight for justice for his daughter.

"I am disappointed in you." He faced Christina with a controlled fury, "I never raised you to be a vengeful and heartless woman, this family raised you to be a respectable woman but you proved that you are not my blood, you do not belong to this family. If it weren't for this incident and if Justin hadn't donated blood to Layla out of kindness, we would never have known that she was our daughter. Leave now!"

His every word cut and shattered her heart. Christina wanted to cry to him and hug him, she wanted to call him Dad and remind him of the twenty three years she'd lived as his daughter, the twenty three years she'd served and never disobeyed him, the twenty three years she'd upheld his family name, and those three years she'd worked in the company and managed to secure deals worth millions all just to make him proud.

Did those years mean nothing to him?

Christina's tear filled eyes shifted to Beatrice who looked away guiltily not meeting her eyes. George had never showed her affection but Beatrice had been at least warm to her.

"Mom..." She called, but Beatrice further turned away.

"You almost killed my daughter, the girl I gave birth to. I've always had one daughter, and now that I've found her there's no need for you to come back here again."

Christina could barely catch her breath, it felt as if it had been sucked right out of her.

"Why are you all talking to her so gently? This girl has always been a nuisance to this household." Justin suddenly snapped as if he could no longer continue to hold in his annoyance, he turned to Christina with blazing eyes, "You...get out of here! We've had enough of your hypocrisy, if Layla didn't beg me to let go, I would have sent you to fucking prison for what you did. You managed to kill an innocent unborn child because of your jealousy. Get out!"

Christina stared at the people she's called family all her life with pure hurt.

For over twenty years she was a formal family member, and in a day she had become a stranger.

Christina hadn't even gotten to say a word to them, she hadn't gotten to share her pain with the people she thought would understand her but she was sent away so heartlessly.

Perhaps she'd lingered too long, hoping they would realize that she had loved them all her life, she had loved them as family, hoping they would embrace her... Justin cursed viciously and rushed towards her. He grabbed her arm and began to pull her out with him, he didn't stop roughly pulling her until he shoved her out of the Blakewood mansion gates till she fell into the small puddle of mud from the rain.

"From this day on, never say your name with the Blakewood's." The steel gates shut to her face and she crumbled, broken, utterly shattered and destroyed.

The heavens were cruel, fate was incredibly cruel, it should have taken her life first before taking everything away from her. Her husband, her family and everything she was...was completely gone.

***

A heavy knock pounded against the doors of a private apartment on the fourth highest floor in the apartment complex. No matter how much the beautiful young woman standing outside the door knocked, no one answered from the inside.

Her brows furrowed in concern, "Why isn't she answering?" She wondered to herself before an idea struck her and she keyed in the password to the apartment and the door clicked open.

When she entered the plain looking living space looked desolate and empty, dark and oozing with heavy loneliness.

"Is she trying to kill herself?" Veronica Scott muttered to herself and hurried into the bedroom, she found the frail looking figure curled in bed vulnerably and felt her heart ache slightly.

"Alright, stop wallowing Chrissy, get up." Vera called for her friend but there was no answer. If it weren't for the small movement from the woman on the bed as she curled deeper into her sheets, one would think only a helpless heap of cloth laid there.

Vera walked into the room and yanked open the curtains letting bright sunlight spill into the room, the woman on the bed winced.

"Vera please pull the curtains back." She spoke for the first time in a long time since she's holed herself into this apartment.

What was the point in life when all was lost, what was the point in life when one had become completely useless and disregarded?

"I will not watch you do this to yourself Chrissy, this isn't you."

Christina finally sat up in bed, her wavy brown hair looked messy and disheveled, her once beautiful grey eyes were hollow, despite the fact that she'd been laying in bed, she hadn't slept at all.

"Oh dear." Vera rushed to hug her friend who looked completely different from who she actually was. The once beautiful woman looked completely worn.

Christina couldn't lock in her emotions any longer, she broke down and cried in her friend's arms.

"That bastard! How could he do this to you? You aren't even fully divorced yet but he's fooling around after kicking you out of a house you helped him buy?" Vera could feel her friend's pain as if it were her own.

Vera had been out of the country on a modelling contract and only returned a few days ago only to hear that two months ago Christina had been kicked out of the Blakewood family because they found their real daughter. The Blakewoods blacklisted her from high society as a punishment. When Vera had ran to her friend's house, she was shocked to find out James had actually kicked her out.

It was true that people would never appreciate something when they had it. Vera was witness to everything Christina had done for James. The ones he knew about and the ones he didn't.

Christina cried brokenly making Vera feel painfully miserable as well.

"He should pay for what he did to you, screw the Blakewood family and screw James. They all don't deserve you. Where is the Chrissy I've always known? Why are you letting that scumbag husband of yours get away with treating you like trash?"

Christina pulled away from the hug looking weary, "I'm just so tired... I'm tired of this pain and I'm tired of everything."

"Then do what the old Chrissy would have done. The one you locked away just to fit into the little box that blasted Blakewood family carved for you, the box James carved for you. Fight back!" Vera said with fervor and determination in her eyes.

"I don't know how to be that girl anymore. I already let her go, I let her go to submit to my family and my husband."

"I know just how you can find her again." Vera said with a smirk.

"How?"

"By planning the perfect revenge that will make James realize he is the biggest idiot to walk this earth. Do to him exactly what he did to you."

A little bit of light returned to Christina's eyes.

Vera was right.

It was pointless making sacrifices for people who never saw your worth, when they push you to the floor do not let them win, throw it back at the them and watch them crumble too, only then can she be happy again.

"You're right Vera, James broke me, I will do the exact same thing to him."

"Awesome, but...how are you going to do that?"

Christina thought for a while without replying, when Vera moved on the bed she accidentally sat on the remote which turned on the television in the room.

A handsome man was shown walking through the airport, he wore dark glasses and black clothes that made him look like a dangerous male model.

"CEO of X groups, Lorian Axton has returned to Swan city after five years of absence he is finally back. Everyone believes that his return is the start of an incoming revolution."

"Him." Christina suddenly said, "He is the ticket to my revenge."

When Vera looked at the TV screen her mouth parted in shock.

"Lorian Axton? Your husband's best friend?"