I was pregnant, and my own mother looked at me and said, “You might as well be a prostitute and earn some money. ”
I had finally scraped together enough to pay my student loans and rent. I worked four jobs to survive. I thought I was finally getting ahead.
Then I checked my account and the money was gone. Three thousand dollars, vanished. I asked my mother, Laura, if she had taken it. “Yeah, I got Peter a new iPhone.
”
“That was my rent. How could you do this? ”
“Excuse me? I brought you into this world.
You’ll have to pay for that for the rest of your life. ”
My landlady gave me three days to come up with the money. In desperation, I took a job at the Celestial Club, a playground for the rich. That’s where I saw him again.
William Norman. He was the man who had stopped a couple of guys from harassing me on the street weeks earlier. A gentleman. My friend Belle laughed at me when I mentioned him.
“Get real, Belle. Someone like that would never get involved with someone like you. ”
That night at the club, his friend Jason pushed me toward him. “Hey, sweetheart.
Show William what you’re made of. ”
William walked out. I got fired. His mother, Cecilia, had other plans.
She offered me ten thousand dollars to take William to a hotel and spend the night with him. My rent was due and I was desperate. I took the money. Only three thousand of it, to pay my rent.
The next morning, William told me the night was consensual and I could contact Davis for payment. He thought I was just like everyone else. I found out I was pregnant. Twins.
The doctors told me the father was William Norman. My mother tried to force me to get an abortion. She locked me in a room with a doctor. “Get rid of this bastard or both of you get out of my house.
”
But I told the truth to anyone who would listen. I said William Norman was the father of my babies. My mother laughed. So did Peter.
They thought I was lying. They dragged me to an abortion clinic anyway. “William Norman is the father of my children. If you kill them, he won’t let you get away with it.
”
They covered my mouth and held me down. William came. He found me just in time. He took me to the Norman Mansion, and my grandmother-in-law-to-be, Elizabeth, welcomed me.
She was overjoyed about the twins. She treated me like family, buying me clothes, jewelry, and everything I could ever want. I asked for one thing: to go back to work. I needed to feel grounded.
William agreed and gave me a card with thirty million dollars on it. I didn’t want to take it, but he insisted it was a condition to work. At my new job, I ran into Caroline, my old college bully. She worked there.
“Aren’t those earrings the latest limited edition from Chanel? They’re not fake, are they? You sugar babying some old man? ”
She and Cecilia, William’s mother and her friend, made my life miserable.
They made me clean toilets. They accused me of stealing jewelry. They tried to strip me in front of the entire company. William found out.
He destroyed the Madison family’s stock. He forced Cecilia to apologize. I wanted to press charges against everyone who had helped humiliate me. William made sure they all faced consequences.
Then, William proposed. With the Florentine diamond, a ring that had been missing for over a century. He did it on a live stream, in front of the entire world, to prove he loved me. Elizabeth declared me the one and only daughter-in-law of the Norman family.
Caroline and Cecilia didn’t give up. They dug up dirt about my mother. They got the media to ambush me outside the hospital. They broadcast live, calling me a prostitute, a gold digger, and a liar.
My mother, Laura, called me. She said she was dying and wanted to see me one last time. I went to her. It was a trap.
Cecilia was there with her. They tied me up and told me they were going to kill my babies. “You’re a bastard child. You belong in the trash.
You’ll never find happiness. ”
I told them William would find me. I had left him a message. William came.
He saved me, but I was critically injured. I went into surgery right after they found me. I was in a coma for six months. When I woke up, William was by my side.
My babies were safe, but Laura, Cecilia, and Caroline were all in jail. Laura’s sentence was up to me. “She’s crossed the line,” I told William. “She’s hurt me time and time again.
She must pay for what she did. ”
William said Laura wanted to see me one last time. I agreed to go. “So, you’re alive.
Thank God. Can you bail me out? I’m really fed up with this place. ”
“Laura,” I said.
“Prison is exactly where you belong. ”
“You’re a monster. How can you be so cold? I am your blood mother.
”
“You taught me one thing over the years,” I said. “Not everyone is fit to be a mother. Enjoy the rest of your life in prison. ”
I walked out, leaving my mother behind.
The babies were coming. William held my hand. Our twins, a boy and a girl, were born healthy. My little princess looked just like me.
William smiled. “Belle, look at our little princess. She looks so much like you.
”
I looked at my family, at the man who had saved me, and I knew that I had finally found my way home.
