Chapter 289 The Power Of Love
I lowered my head and fell silent. Josephine’s motive was now clear as day: she merely wanted to remind me of my inferiority compared to their family.
“This is but one example of the differences between you and Michael. You come from different worlds and naturally possess different tastes. Even if you get married, you’ll struggle to cope with each other’s lifestyle habits. Michael has never had to worry about putting food on the table for a day in his life while you’re used to your rural ways. Your marriage is doomed from the start.”
I remained silent. Her deceptively calm tone worsened instead of soothing the sting of her words.
I would be blind not to notice the stark difference between our lifestyles. Still, I believed that love transcended all borders in class and status.
Josephine may have succeeded in humiliating me and reminding me of the differences in our social standing, but that did not mean she had convinced me to give up on my relationship with Michael.
“With all due respect, Mrs. Shaw, Michael and I may occasionally run into such problems in the future, but I’m confident that our love for one another will trump these differences,” I delivered my line earnestly and met Josephine’s gaze.
I had made my stance clear; I would never leave Michael, no matter what Josephine said. I love him, and I want to spend the rest of my life with him.
She fumed at my determination. Her angry stare seemed to have lasted an eternity before she eventually said, “Ms. Garcia, are you telling me that you won’t leave Michael?”
Josephine had dropped all pretense of acting civil toward me. Evidently, my obstinance was driving her mad and she had no qualms about baring her claws now.
I was surprised at how quickly her attitude soured. Still, I was not about to give in. I nodded my head and said, “Yes. I’m going to be with Michael regardless of what anyone else thinks. The only person who can convince me to leave him is himself.”
Being with Michael meant putting up with both the good times and the bad. I swore to myself that I would never leave him unless he initiated the breakup himself.
Josephine’s rage intensified. I could tell that her patience with me had run dry.
“Ms. Garcia, I was going to spare you your dignity, but it looks like I was overly concerned for your wellbeing.”
Her tone seemed to have chilled several degrees.
I scrunched my brows in confusion. My gut instinct told me that things were about to take a turn for the worse.
Josephine rummaged in her purse that was sitting on the chair beside her. A couple of seconds later, she pulled out some photos and tossed them on the table between us.
The photos were of Justin and me at a café two days ago. One of them was a replica of the photo Michael had received.
I was dumbfounded and turned to look at Josephine. Why does she have so many photos?
“Ms. Garcia, you must be familiar with these photos. The man in these photos is your ex-boyfriend, Justin Xenakis.”
Josephine must have taken my shock as a sign of guilt. So eager was she to manufacture an illicit relationship between Justin and me.
I immediately explained, “Mrs. Shaw, you must be mistaken. Justin and I haven’t been in a relationship for ages and we will never be involved with one another again.”
I did not want Josephine’s impression of me to sink even further thanks to a misunderstanding.
“You’re not involved? Then how did these photos come about? Ms. Garcia, it seems like you have many enemies. This morning, I received an anonymous e-mail containing these very photos.”
Josephine stubbornly refused to believe my explanation. She’s probably already made up her mind about my relationship with Justin.
“Mrs. Shaw, things are not what you imagine. I’m no longer involved with Justin. Michael investigated his matter himself and he traced the photos back to Emma.”
I suddenly recalled Michael telling me that Emma had a hand in Justin contacting me out of the blue. Hopefully, she believes me now.
Instead of being convinced, Josephine was infuriated at my audacity to pin the blame on Emma.
“Ms. Garcia, you’re shrewder than I thought. How could you push the blame onto Emma at such a time? If it weren’t for you, Emma would’ve been my daughter-in-law a long time ago!”
She had never forgiven me for ruining Michael’s wedding. She has never wanted anyone other than Emma to be her daughter-in-law; I was never in the running. She’s probably still hoping for them to reconcile. My marriage with Michael is throwing a wrench in her plans.
I felt increasingly dejected at Josephine’s stubborn desire to make Emma her daughter-in-law. Still, I bit my tongue and made a last-ditch attempt to appeal to her acceptance.
“Everything I’ve said is the truth, Mrs. Shaw. If you don’t believe me, you can talk to Michael or run your own investigation. You’ll see that I have no need to lie to you. I’m innocent.”
I was a bit hesitant about throwing out that line about running an investigation, but I did not think it would be too difficult given Josephine’s ample resources.
Alas, she was too fixated on the idea of welcoming her precious Emma into the family. She was never going to blame Emma for her involvement in the first place.
“I don’t need to investigate this matter. So what if Emma’s involved? It doesn’t cancel out the fact that these photos are real. What makes you think I’ll believe your show of innocence?”
Ah, so she knew that Emma was behind this. She’s not above playing dirty tricks to force me to leave Michael.
“Mrs. Shaw, I don’t need your trust. I’m satisfied as long as Michael believes me.”
Josephine’s earlier words had been the final nail in the coffin. I now understood that nothing I said would change her mind. She was never going to look at these photos objectively in the first place and that everything was a ploy to paint me as a cheater.
Frankly, I found her behavior disdainful. I would have upped and left if she was not Michael’s mom.
