Taming Mr. Cold And Arrogant

I woke up the next morning a bit late, so I immediately rushed to the bathroom and did my morning routine. 

I pulled a cotton shorts and a baby pink lose shirt. I just left my hair down on my shoulders as I don't have time to dry it. 

After checking the time from my phone, I immediately went out of my room... I mean, his room and I ran into the kitchen hoping to see Daniel drinking coffee or eating breakfast

But to my great disappointment, I didn't see him in the kitchen, instead, I found Nanay Emily making pancakes with chocolate syrup. She gave me a warm smile when she noticed me standing at the door. 

"Good morning, Sophia!" She said smiling widely as she walked towards my direction. 

"Good morning, Nanay Emily." I returned her smile but I can't help but ask about Daniel. "H-Have you seen Daniel? He told me last night we will talk today."

"Ohh... he already left for work."

"He left?"

My eyes widened and I didn't notice my voice rose a little that made her step backwards in shock. "What time did he leave?"

"Uhm, I think before six o'clock---"

"Six o'clock?" My voice rose again. "But usually he left for work before seven."

"Yeah, but he said he has an urgent meeting, so he has to go to the office early to get ready."

"Forgodsake, Daniel Kelley!" I gritted my teeth and tapped my forehead in frustration. "I'm sure you did it on purpose! Argh! You're such an arrogant asshole!"

I continued to babble, forgetting her presence in front of me. 

"Oh! I-I'm sorry, Nanay!" I bit my lower lip, giving her an awkward smile. 

"It's okay." She said taking my hands. "I missed you, Anak."

"I missed you too, Nanay Emily."

We hugged each other for a while before she gestured me to sit down and eat the breakfast that she prepared for me. 

"How are you, Sophia?"

My hand stopped in mid-air when I heard her question. 

"I'm fine, Nanay." I shrugged. "Why don't you eat with me?" I tried trying to change the subject. 

"Oh, that's all for you. I have already eaten my breakfast earlier."

I just nodded and continued to eat the delicious pancakes while she was just watching me. And then I smiled when I remembered that I hadn't told her about what happened in the last few weeks when I wasn't here. 

"I went to Seattle two weeks ago." I said putting down the mug of coffee. 

"What did you do in Seattle?" She asked in confusion. 

"I went to my Mom's house and talked to her."

"Ohh... what happened then, did she tell you the reason why she left you when you were young?"

I nodded and took a deep breath as smiled at her. She eagerly waited to my story and even though I was hurt and disappointed by what my Dad had done to my Mom sixteen years ago, I'm still happy to find out that I have a brother. A younger brother to love and to protect. A brother that I wished to have when I was young. And, of course, the forgiveness I finally gave to my Mom, that I should have given to her the time we met in Amador. 

"I'm happy to hear that you have already forgiven your mother and that you have a baby brother."

"Yeah, thank you." I chuckled and shook my head when I suddenly remembered my brother. He's also stubborn like me. "Actually, Nanay, he doesn't want me to call him baby brother."

She also laughed and paused as she held my hands. 

"I'm so glad that you're happy, Anak. I don't know exactly what you have been through, but I'm happy that you already found forgiveness for your mother."

"I missed her, Nanay. I missed her so much and I love her, that because of it, I was afraid to talk to her. I was afraid of knowing her reason, that maybe she left me because she doesn't love me anymore."

"That's not true! A mother's heart is always with her children even when she closed her eyes and even when her child couldn't remember her at all. She always wanted the last piece of pie."

"Yeah, you're right. And I realized that unconditional love can only found in your mother's arms and I was so stupid that I didn't realized that I should have searched for her."

She wiped away the tears using her hand, that I didn't know I had while talking. 

"It's okay, at least you're now okay and you have already forgiven her." She paused and she smiled at me. "Forgiveness is not for the person who hurt you, but it's your gift to yourself."

"Thank you so much, Nanay Emily."

And I was about to hug her when we heard a squeal from the door. 

"Aunt Belle!"

We both turned around only to find Dino running towards us. 

"Dino!" We both said in unison as I immediately get on my knees and spread my arms to hug him. 

"I missed you, Aunt Belle." He said kissing my cheeks. 

"I missed you too, Dino." I hugged him and peppered him kisses all over his chubby face that made him giggle. "What are you doing here?"

"Wrong question!"

I furrowed my eyebrows when someone answered for him. But I got up and grinned when I saw Rian and Alex standing in the doorway. 

"Rian. Alex."

"Where have you been these past few weeks?"

I can't help but chuckled when she raised an eyebrow and passed her daughter to her husband. 

"I was so worried about you!" She said narrowing her eyes but hugged me eventually. "I missed you, Belle."

"I missed you, too." I hugged her back. "What are you doing here and how did you know about---"

"How did we know what happened? It's because you didn't answer my calls, so I just called my stubborn brother and asked him what happened between you two."

"Ohh..." I said nodding. "And how did you know I'm here? Don't tell me, you asked your brother again?"

"Nope! It was he who called me last night and told me you came back! You came home!" And she hugged me again, but she whispered something in my ear that made me bite my lip. "I'm sorry for what happened. Believe me, I also tried to explain to him that he was wrong and Joseph was lying but he didn't---"

"Did he tell you about it?"

She nodded and before I could open my mouth, my mother-in-law came squealing and lunged at me. 

"Oh, my God, sweety, you made us worry!"

"Mom! How did you know I'm here?"

"Your husband called me this morning, so I rushed here to see you. Are you okay?"

"I'm fine, Mom."

She smiled at me before pulling me into a hug. 

~~~~~~~°~~~~~~~°~~~~~~~°~~~~~~~°

"What?"

I straightened my seat when they asked me in unison, Mom, Rian, Alex and Nanay Emily, after informing them that I had asked Daniel for a divorce petition. 

"Well, whether we like or not, this is just a fake marriage. A marriage of convenience and it happened just because of an agreement."

I sighed as I continued. 

"He already had the project from their European Investors and the KI Corporation has achieved the most prestigious award in business industry, which is the top-grossing company in California. And he made it clear from the very beginning that he will immediately file a divorce papers, the moment his Investors have signed the contract with them."

I shook my head as I gave them a half-hearted smile. 

"So, there's no reason for us to continue this agreement. I'm willing to take the blame, I cheated, I was just a gold digger, I didn't love him and just his money, just to make the court granted our petition. The sooner the better."

"No!"

We all turned to Rian as she suddenly screamed and glared at me. 

"You can't do that, Belle, it's unfair for you. And you can't file a petition! You can't divorce my brother!"

"Arrianna Angela!"

"Baby!"

Alex and Mom said in unison. 

"He loves you, Belle."

Rian said that left me speechless for a few seconds before I found myself laughing in front of them. 

"It's true! He loves you, Belle, and I know he was just jealous of Joseph!"

I really wanted to tell her that I had already heard that lines from Bryan, but I just shook my head and continued laughing at what she said. 

"No, Rian, he's not jealous and I'm sure he's not in love with me. Because to love is to understand the people or the person you love, knowing their weaknesses and not judging them easily. And most of all, knowing their flaws and accepting who they are. And that is love, Rian, not jumping into conclusion without knowing the whole part of the story."

They looked at me but nobody uttered a word except Nanay Emily. 

"Who is Joseph?"

We all shared a look before I managed to answer her question. 

"Uhm... h-he was ex Nanay Emily."

"Ex?"

"Ex-fiance."

"Ohh..." She said nodding. 

And after that, we all turned into silence. 

"Why doesn't everyone talk? What happened?"

But we can't help but burst out laughing when Dino stood in the middle and looked at us one by one. 

"We just want to be quiet for a while to save our energy from talking."

"Huh?" He asked me in confusion as he scratched the back of his head. 

Actually, I was also confused as to why I said those words, for all the reasons that I could give him. 

I just pulled him into my l.a.p and hugged him tightly, blinking away the tears that formed around my eyes. 

I will miss every one of them when the court granted our divorce petition. They all became my family for almost nine months of being Daniel's 'fake' wife.