Signing her fate
Signing her fate
Leo sat beside Mia and held her hand under the table as a from of support to her and Mia really needed it. She didn't know how she would have been able to do all of this without Leo. In fact, without Leo, she wouldn't have been here. She probably would have been working her ass off somewhere while her pay would be cut in half eventually because most rich people were naturally wicked.
Mia tried not to look at her mother who was sitting opposite her. Her mother hadn't bothered to call her to know how she was doing the entire time. Maybe she had done the right thing by cutting all ties with her.
"Welcome to my round table. I was inspired by King Arthur." Mr Timothy said with a smile as he looked at all of them one by one.
"We do not care if Merlin inspired you. Just go straight to the point. We have other things to do." Leo said impatiently making the two lawyers and Mia laugh a bit despite being very tensed.
"So.. are you both really dating now? You denied it the last time." Mr Timothy asked Mia, totally ignoring Leo's comment.
"Mr Timothy. The young man needs to leave so let's hurry up." Linda said with a small smile.
He was paying up over a hundred thousand. She didn't want him to change his mind because of Mr Timothy's incessant questions. Where were they going to start from if he changed his mind?
Mia looked at her with a straight face after she finished speaking. It was as if this woman right here wasn't her mother. She just didn't recognize her.
Linda still looked the same. She wore a loose green pant and faded black top which was almost turning into grey. Her hair was in a bun and she looked like she had aged more since the last time Mia saw her.
"Alright. Let's go straight to the point." Mr Timothy said and cleared his throat before turning to his lawyer to bring out some documents from his briefcase.
"As much as I would have loved for Mia– who I love so much to become my daughter in-law, I guess it's also a good thing that I will be having my complete money today. And it's all thanks to a King." Mr Timothy said before looking at Leo who was scowling at him.
From the moment Leo heard that he had planned to take Mia as a wife for his son, he had hated him with passion and finally meeting him now, he couldn't just hide his hatred for him.
His lawyer handed the documents to Mr Timothy who then handed it over to Mr Charles as the lawyer to take a look at it.
Leo waited for Mr Charles to study everything and after a lot of minutes passed, Mr Charles patiently explained the details to Leo, Mia and Linda.
It was too bad the state allowed things like this. It was crazy. Mia thought as her hands fisted while Leo squeezed her hand to let her know he was still with her.
If she ever found herself in politics, she was going to make sure to move a motion for this thing to be scrapped.
"Everything is perfectly understood." Leo nodded before turning to look at Mr Timothy.
"I believe if the whole debt is paid, then you would never appear before them again."
"Of course! I have other important things to do. You just have to pay the Hundred and fifty thousand...."
"A hundred and fifty?" Mia was the first to speak up before Linda could.
"Yes.. didn't you hear it when the lawyer mentioned it earlier?"
"What the hell do you think you are doing? The money isn't even up to a hundred thousand bucks? I know it's close to, but not up to. Why are you saying it's a hundred and fifty? Is this fun to you?"
"It's okay Mia." Leo turned to look at her.
He didn't want her to say a word. All he wanted was for her to be quiet while he handled everything for her and she returned home as a free lady. He couldn't wait for that moment.
"Mr Timothy. Are you playing games right now? We have been paying up. The money left is only nine hundred and eighty three thousand. How did it suddenly spike up like that?" Linda asked, looking really angry.
"This is business Mrs Lucas. If only your dumb daughter didn't just sign the papers without reading the terms properly.... but why would she? When she already planned to run away. Tsk. How useless."
"Stop it!" Linda said angrily.
"No, he won't!" Mia snapped at her mother. Surprising all of them around the table especially Linda.
"He won't stop it because he is correct. Imagine if I had been the one who did this. Would you still sit here and defend me?" Mia asked before laughing dryly.
"For years... four good years. I lived like a slave. I worked so hard. But you never missed a chance to call me names. But you can still sit here and defend Mary? Don't even make me get angry right now." Mia said in a really dark and threatening voice that surprised Leo.
"She messed up. I know she did! But she was young and naive, and people make mistakes. She is your sister! You—"
"Shut. The. Hell. Up!" Leo said as he tried to contain his temper. His words were very clear and powerful and it made her mouth clamp up immediately.
"I can't believe this. I just cannot believe someone like you is a mother. I'm sorry to ask this but... are you insane?" He asked as he looked at Linda's face keenly.
"When you were younger, did you take a lot of drugs that messed with your brain? Mia is your daughter for goodness!" He said and hit the table which made all of their bodies jump involuntarily.
He wasn't one to insult his elders, but he just couldn't help it right now especially seeing Mia at the verge of tears.
"She is the daughter who had been with you all these years and slaved herself away. Do you know all you've made her go through? Do you know how she's been living? Do you know the kind of jobs she took up just to send money to an ungrateful soul like you?" He asked and remembered the day at the amusement park when he was asked to come save Mickey mouse and realised that the Mickey mouse was Mia Lucas.
"Mary was young and naive? A girl who was in her twenties already? Can you even listen to yourself and tell me if you are making sense right now?"
Leo never would have believed there was a mother like this. He had a question he wanted to ask her. A question he really wanted to hear the answer to. And he had asked Mia one time..
"I know this sounds crazy, but do you think maybe... she isn't your real mother?" He had asked Mia during one of their dinner hangouts inside the kitchen.
Mia had looked at him with a straight face before sighing. "I... don't know. But I want to believe she is."
"Why? She doesn't treat you well. She treats Mary better and—"
"Honestly, I have thought about it." She cut in.
"Any normal person would have had that same thought. But... I'm not sure I'm ready for those kind of dramas. I don't want to ask her that question and find out that maybe my birth parents were even worse. I just.. don't want my life to become more complicated than this. So I really do not want to raise that topic at all. Until I am sure I am ready for it."
He understood her. And because he did, he wasn't going to ask Linda that question. Especially not in front of strangers.
"With or without you Linda, Mia is going to do just great. And you are going to regret it. I promise you."
Leo said before asking for the documents. Even though Mary wasn't there, so far her mother was there and had signed the first documents, there wouldn't be any problems.
He passed it first to Linda who signed it with shaky hands and teary eyes.
Mia sat there stiffly. She didn't want to say or do anything because she felt she might break down from either sadness or gratitude towards Leo.
Everyone on the table signed the documents except Mia.
This was crazy. People were always signing her fate. Just like Mary and her mother had done.
When Mia returned home with Leo that evening, she went straight into her room and buried her head on her pillow as she cried the tears of freedom.
She felt like a huge load had just been lifted off her shoulders. After four years, she was finally free.
Leo smiled sadly as he stood by her door without bothering to go in.