A few minutes later, a big black car pulled up in front of the house. Cyril jumped out. When he saw his mother in that state, simply dressed, dusty, her face marked with pain, his heart tightened.
“Mama, why are you outside? Who spoke to you like this?”
She looked him in the eyes, her face grave. “I wanted to test your future wife, the one you talk about so much. I wanted to see if she had a good heart. I came without warning, dressed simply, and I waited. And she… she humiliated me, Cyril. She chased me away like a beggar.”
Cyril’s fists clenched. “What?”
“While your fiancée was insulting me, a young girl you fired welcomed me, protected me, and fed me. Her name is Mireille.”
Cyril took his mother by the hand, furious. “Come. You will not spend one more minute outside.”
He brought her into the house, ran water for her, served her food, but his mind was boiling. He had believed Émilie. He had rejected Mireille. And now his own mother had just been rejected by the woman he wanted to marry.
Cyril was sitting in the living room of his luxurious home. His mother was resting in her room after taking a shower and eating a little, but he could not calm down. His mind was burning. How could he have been so blind?
The front door flew open. Émilie walked in, all smiles, as if nothing had happened. She approached confidently, her heels clicking on the tiles. When she saw him, she said lightly, “Hello, baby. You won’t believe what happened today. A dirty old woman came here and said she was your mother. I almost had her arrested. People are going crazy, baby.”
She sat down on the couch and pulled out her phone to check her nails.
Cyril slowly lifted his eyes toward her. His look was no longer the same. It was dark, deep, icy.
“That old woman is my mother.”
Émilie froze. Her smile disappeared instantly. She stared at him with her mouth open.
“What?”
“You heard me. The woman you insulted and humiliated, the woman you called a beggar, is the woman who raised me, the only person in the world I will never allow anyone to disrespect.”
Émilie jumped to her feet in panic. “Cyril, no… I… I did not know.”
“Exactly. You did not know. And that is what makes it even worse. You showed your true face.”
Émilie tried to move closer to him. “Baby, I’m sorry. I did not mean to. I thought she was some crazy woman from the neighborhood.”
Cyril stepped back coldly. “It is not only to her that you lied. You lied to me too. You made up a story so I would fire an innocent employee. You manipulated the truth.”
Émilie clenched her fists. “It’s because I love you. I wanted to protect you. That girl disrespected you.”
“No, Émilie. It is you who disrespected everyone. My mother, me, the truth.”
He took a deep breath. “I cannot marry a woman this cruel.”
Émilie felt her world collapse. She screamed, “Cyril, you cannot do this to me after everything we’ve been through. You’re going to throw me away like an old shoe?”
“You threw yourself away, Émilie. Get out of my house immediately.”
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