Chapter 12
From a young age, Delilah always found herself at the center of her friends‘ playful jests whenever she brought her daughter around her besties. They would tease her incessantly, scrutinizing her and her daughter’s faces, joking suggesting that maybe there had been a mix–up at the hospital because the child bore no resemblance to her.
It wasn’t as though her daughter wasn’t attractive. Quite the contrary. All of Delilah’s children had been cherubic in their youth. Yet Summer, when compared with her older brothers, seemed remarkably plain, compounded by the fact that both Delilah and her husband were exceptionally good–looking. This only fueled further teasing from her friends.
As Delilah reminisced, there was a painful truth to those playful words. Shaking off her wandering thoughts, she softly called out. “Mira.”
Mirabella’s expression remained as impassive as ever, lacking the excitement one might expect upon seeing one’s birth parents. She merely nodded a polite greeting.
Seeing Mirabella’s frosty demeanor, Summer quickly jumped in to explain, “Mom, Mira just got back from the countryside. She might need some time to get used to everything again.”
Delilah had encountered Mirabella a few months prior and had sensed her withdrawn nature. So, while she felt a twinge of disappointment that Mirabella didn’t call her ‘mom,‘ she wasn’t particularly surprised. After all being mistakenly switched at birth and raised by the Gilbert family in a quaint town before returning to her biological family was bound to require an adjustment period. Patience was key.
Delilah couldn’t help but cast a complicated glance at Summer, with a fleeting shadow crossing her face. She quickly masked it with an indifferent smile. “Summer, you’ve been such a dear, going to the airport to fetch Mira. It’s getting late, and your biological parents must be wondering about you. They’ll be upset if they know you’re here.”
She paused, then turned to her eldest son. “Emmitt, would you mind taking Ms. Summer home?”
The shift from ‘Summer‘ to ‘Ms. Summer‘ flushed Summer’s cheeks with embarrassment. She opened her mouth to protest. “Mom…”
Delilah looked at Summer with a hidden ache but didn’t let it show. Collecting her thoughts, Delilah’s smile seemed to grow more distant. She cut Summer off before she could say anything. “From now on, it might be best if you address me as Ms. Delilah.”
Mirabella’s eyebrows raised slightly in surprise.
Delilah carried herself with an air of grace and composure. Although she was in her fifties, she looked no more than in her thirties, with barely a wrinkle to betray her age. Despite her smile, there was an undeniable strength in her demeanor- a commanding presence rarely seen in ordinary women.
Mirabella watched thoughtfully, her gaze introspective.
Feeling a deep sense of humiliation, Summer bit her lip as her eyes misted over. Her face seemed,to bear the weight of a great injustice. She couldn’t understand how the woman who had once doted on her could suddenly become so cutting, all because her biological daughter had returned. If that was the case, it seemed a cruel hypocrisy. Summer felt deceived.
The atmosphere grew tense and awkward.
“Cough, cough,” Shawn, who had been silent, cleared his throat and spoke up. “Emmitt, please take Summer home.” His words, meant to break the ice, only seemed to heighten the discomfort.
Emmitt nodded in agreement, though he didn’t understand why his parents wouldn’t let Summer stay. He didn’t ask any questions- after all, she was now considered the heiress to the illustrious Gilbert family, a status not to be taken lightly, and the Gilberts were known to be a tough crowd.
