024 Bad News

"Dad she's leaving!" Lily whined. "Why is Eden leaving?" she shook her father who was sitting down still processing what Eden had told them.

He couldn't believe she was leaving them, it felt like a cold hand had wrapped around his heart. He suddenly felt his age, old and tired.

"I-I don't know," Frederick replied completely shaken at the news that his eldest daughter was leaving the family home.

He had planned to take out loans in her name and have her completely audit the company record for free. He had thought she would be so happy to become the CEO that she would let him do anything.

That didn't seem to be the case anymore.

"Gertrude! Gertrude!" he called for the head maid. It wasn't long before he heard her footsteps entering the corner and heading out of the kitchen.

Gertrude always looked prim and proper whenever he called on her. The elegant maid never had a hair out of place whenever she needed to do her duties to the house.

"Eden just informed me that she is moving out! Did you have any knowledge of this, I know she tells you everything,"

"No sir, no knowledge at all," Gertrude said dryly. "But I am glad she will be moving into the next stage of her life as a young woman,"

"Ben!, Ben!" Frederick called.

The driver rushed in, panting at the sudden calls. He was sweating, with his uniform unbuttoned showing he was in the middle of putting on his clothes when he had been summoned.

"Sir, what is it? Is it an emergency?" Ben asked in alarm, he had the car keys in his hand, ready to drive anyone who might need help to the hospital.

Frederick scoffed.

"You took Eden to a Realtor's office yesterday is that correct?"

"Yes sir?" Ben replied confused. He stood up straight, sensing he was about to be ruthlessly questioned by his irate employer.

"Why would you do that without my consent?"

"I don't understand sir," Ben said. "Miss Lily goes out without informing you as well, should Miss Eden be treated any differently? If so I was simply not aware," Ben replied cooly.

Gertrude hid her smirk behind a cough, shooting Fredrick a deadpan expression when he tried to say otherwise.

He couldn't admit openly that he mistreated his daughter and he could not especially admit to himself that his treatment of her all these years had been wrong.

"Did you find out where she would be renting an apartment,"

"No, sir, they took the Realtor's car and I didn't follow," Ben said, neglecting to mention that Rose was also with Eden.

Ben wasn't blind, like the rest of the staff he was not oblivious to the way Eden was treated by her own father and he refused to stand for it.

From a young age, he would take Eden and Lily to school, dropping them off and picking them up. That was when he began noticing the disturbing pattern.

Mr. Marshall would always appear at Lily's events, dance recitals, piano recitals, and graduations while Eden was left by herself.

While Frederick deluded himself into thinking the staff did not know of his treatment towards Eden, they were more observant than he thought.

"Miss Lily, will you be going out today?" Ben asked the young woman who had been sitting quietly.

"I'm not sure, ugh," Lily frowned, picking up her phone to check through her socials.

She lifted her eye briefly to catch the expressions exchanged by Gertrude and Ben. The two of them shook their head subtly at her, donning frowns of disappointment.

'I bet they never look at Eden like that,' Lily thought sadly.

----------

Eden picked up her phone and decided to call Daniel herself, it was weird for him to go a single day without calling her. She hadn't heard from him since the night of the retirement party.

She dialed the number and put the speaker to her ear, waiting patiently for the call to connect. It rang for only a second before the call declined.

"Huh?"

Eden tried again, knowing Daniel should have been on break at the office by now, so he could afford to answer her call.

The call was declined again.

'Hey is something going on babe?' Eden texted him.

It took a minute before he replied but the words broke her heart into a million pieces.

'Mom doesn't think we should see each other anymore,' Daniel wrote back.

"What?" Eden gasped staring at her cracked screen.

She read the words over and over again, trying to make sense of the words. Of why Daniel would act this way.

Eden looked at the ring on her finger, the one Daniel had bought when he proposed. It was a sterling silver band with three small gems inlaid around it, diamond, ruby, and sapphire. It was such a beautiful and unique ring they had purchased it right away.

Eden felt like she had received a punch to the gut, the wind was knocked out of her lungs and she just had to sit down on her bed.

A single tear slid down her cheek as she wondered why this was happening to her.

She read the text one more time and finally understood what had gone wrong.

His mother.

Daniel was almost perfect, he was kind, caring, and looked past other people's appearance to see the best in them. He knew how to set people up to achieve greatness all the while being their cheerleader and a passionate one at that.

His only weakness.

He was absolutely spineless when it came to his mother's wishes.

Eden shook her head, the weight of her heart finally becoming too much for her. She bawled, sobbing into her pillow with all her strength.

She had thought he would fight for their love, they had been together for two years and it had all ended in an instant.

Over a text, because he was too much of a coward to pick up her call.

'You're a coward, come and pick up your ring,' Eden texted and slammed her phone on the nightstand.