Page 69 of Dr. Billionaire's Fake Marriage

"I am on no one's side here, Troy," my brother answers. "I am on the family's side, putting the family interest at heart and nothing more," Henry continues.

I hope he will stop talking now, "The weight of this family rests on your shoulders, bro. It has always been that way since we were kids. You should get it together and do as Mom says."

"Yes," I reply, "it has been like this since we were kids. Maybe it is time to make it different." I start to walk off, but I turn back to Henry. "Maybe this is the time for me to be a little bit selfish, don't you think? I am not resting until I find Camile and make her return home."

I leave Henry's house and head to Mother's mansion. The empty passenger seat of my car terrifies me, and the thought of never having Camile sit in it again is scary.

I am more terrified to go back to an empty house — a house devoid of Camile's presence.

I picture Camile rolling down the car window, allowing her hair to be blown by the cold evening wind.She was perfect.She is perfect, I correct myself.

I can't bring myself to think of her in the past. She is still in my life, and I want to keep it that way.

I stop the car when I get to Mother’s garage. The maids point to the balcony when I demand to find my mother.

“Well, isn’t it Troy Robinson, my very own son?” Mother says as she pours herself a glass of wine. She is sitting the balcony, looking up at the sky in the evening breeze. “I never thought you’d willingly walk into this house since all the drama you put together at the hospital.”

"Mom." I bend to observe her. "Where is Camile? Please tell me where she is."

Mother is shocked; she searches my eyes and listens to me beg her for Camile's location. "You are gone, aren't you?" She sounds terrified, as if she has just discovered my worst sickness. "You are long gone; is there nothing I can do to bring you back to me?"

"What are you talking about, Mom?"

My mother heaves a sigh. “You are helplessly in love with Camile,” she says. “There is nothing I can do that will make you stop looking for her, is there?”

I shake my head. "I don't know what you are talking about, Mom," I retort. "I just want to see Camile, I just want to hold her, and I beg you to tell me where she is."

“I don’t know where she is,” she asserts. “I only threatened her to leave you. I don’t know where she went.”

I exhale, standing up and looking down at her. "Did you pay her off?"

Mother chuckles, "Pay her? No! That girl is stubborn; I wonder how you so easily won her heart." She continues, "She wouldn't take a dime even when I offered it."

“What do you threaten her with?” I ask.

"You." She smiles and sips her wine. "She loves you, Troy. I never thought she would leave because of you."

“What did you threaten to do to me?”

"I told her I'd strip you of your position at the hospital," she says. "I told her I'd put Henry in your place and make you lose your relevance. All she had to do was disappear into the thin air."

My heart sinks as I hear my mother speak. She speaks without emotion, and it scares me to know she is my mother.

I motion to leave, but she stops me. "Troy," she says, "I underestimated you both. You and Camile have gone against all odds to prove you are meant for each other. I am sorry I tried to pull you two apart."

"Your apology is useless until I find Camile Howard," I say. "You are right; I am not stopping until I find her."

I dash out of Mother's mansion and return home. My million-dollar apartment is as empty as I imagined it would be.

I can't believe I had been living here alone for years, but today, all I see is a house without Camile and decorations that remind me of her.

I think of our times together, the meals she cooked with me, the songs we sang, and the bed we shared. Six months was a short time to fall in love with my junior surgeon at the hospital.

Six months was a short time to want to marry someone for life. But here I am, unable to think of anything else but the girl I once disliked.

The girl I never welcomed in my mother's home whenever she came around. "Fuck!" I whisper to myself, holding myself back from punching the wall.

I try to put the puzzle pieces together. If my mother called Camile when I was with Henry, it only means she is somewhere not far away. She wouldn’t have a job yet; the only place she would go was where she had always wanted to be - her father's house.

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