CHAPTER 15 – CHARLOTTE AND FELICITY
“I want to have a try first,”
“No! Me first!”
“Arggh you two are grown adults yet you act like children!”
“No, we don’t!”
Mackenzie looked in front of her with a smile while watching her two best friends fight for who should first taste the food Miss Beatrice had made to celebrate her recovery.
“Anyway, Mackenzie is to taste the food first. I made all of these for her.”
“But she can’t possibly eat them all now, can she? Besides, she has recovered; you should care about us too!”
“Oh don’t be jealous now you two. If any of you happen to fall ill, I’ll make you food you can try first.”
“That’s not cool, Miss Beatrice.”
A slightly tall woman with a gigantic frame stood in front of Mackenzie, handing her a plate filled with fish sticks. “Please have a taste, Mackenzie,”
“Thank you,” Mackenzie grabbed a fish stick and took a bite. As she did, her eyes lighted up and her lips curved upwards into a smile.
“It’s great isn’t it?” Beatrice asked with a content smile.
“Yeah, it is,” Mackenzie answered with a grateful smile.
Miss Beatrice right here was a short-haired brunette woman and she was quite gifted in the right areas. Her face did not match her loud personality- She had an innocent disposition and her jean blue eyes and sulky lips accentuated that quality of hers.
“Now the rest of you can try the fish sticks,” Beatrice placed the plate on the table and the girls hovered over it.
“Seriously Beatrice, why must you treat me like them? I didn’t even complain!” Mackenzie’s father complained, fanning himself with his hand in boredom.
They were sitting outside under the shade of an oak tree and the table contained several delicious treats. Nearby were children who chased each other for fun.
Mackenzie loved this scene so much. The greens of the land, the trees, the food, her father, her best friends.
Her best friends…
Before leaving North Dakota with Jeffrey, she had two best friends.
Charlotte and Felicity.
Charlotte was the feisty and fearless one but she had a good heart, even though her bluntness had a way of pushing people away. With a pair of light brown eyes and blonde hair, she had a way of sneaking into the male’s hearts.
Felicity was a gentle, kind, and receptive woman with a sort of angelic beauty and presence. She had long brown hair in contrast to her mother, Beatrice who had short hair- and a pair of light blue eyes that was eye-catching to every man she’d ever met.
Felicity was the total opposite of her loud mother, but it couldn’t be helped. She lost her father at a young age and in order not to worry her mother, she learned to keep in her difficulties. She was self-sacrificial as well. She didn’t mind losing things to help other people and that was her downfall sometimes.
Charlotte and Felicity went ahead to pick fish sticks and eat them.
Back then, Mackenzie didn’t care about the history she had with her friends because of her newfound love so she did not hesitate to wreck their friendship, the most stupid thing she had done.
Thankfully, when she came back to North Dakota with her father, she could reunite with them. Although it was hard at first and Charlotte didn’t want anything to do with her, Felicity had heard her out and successfully convinced Charlotte. Ever since then, they didn’t leave her side. “Everyone makes mistakes at least once in their lifetime.” Felicity had said.
Mackenzie was grateful for the opportunity to be with her family and friends again. It had been so hard living alone with Jeffrey in Greensville – It was so suffocating and she was on her guard all the time because of her mother-in-law.
Mackenzie almost wanted to cry from excess happiness.
Her heart was whole again thanks to her family and friends. It was idiotic of her to trade them away for a life of wealth and fame. But at least now that she knew better, she would never make the same mistake again.
Mackenzie looked to the side and watched her now-excited father getting fed some food by Beatrice.
She smiled and headed over to the table with her friends.
“Don’t they look quite like a couple?” Mackenzie whispered to them.
“They kinda do but Fel’s mother looks like she’d crush your dad in bed so I don’t recommend it,” Charlotte said with a mouthful of fish.
“Stop talking about that so freely,” Felicity said softly, her cheeks turning bright pink.
“Charlotte!” A voice called from a nearby distance.
On hearing the voice, Charlotte shoved more food in her mouth before running to the man in the distance holding what seemed to be a package.
“Who do you think that is?” Mackenzie asked Felicity.
When Charlotte came back she was holding what seemed to be a package.
“What’s that?” Felicity asked.
“A collection of the latest deeds that go on in the city,”
“Oh,”
Mackenzie remembered that Charlotte had always been interested in city life and her biggest dream was to go there, but since she couldn’t due to several reasons, she indulged in buying several magazines and newspapers to savor the dream.
Mackenzie felt a bit bad about that and made a mental note to tell Charlotte interesting things about Greenville later.
“What did you get?” Felicity asked as she crouched down to help Charlotte unpack her package.
“The latest news on hot billionaire model Mclaus,” Felicity murmured, as she ran her fingers through the magazine in her hand.
“Oh my God, Mackenzie!” Charlotte cried and both Felicity and Mackenzie scooted over to take a look at what Charlotte was panicking over.
And it was quite something.
Mackenzie swallowed nervously as her sight became attuned to the familiar face that sat so princely on the magazine cover.
“Mackenzie, tell me, this is your brother-in-law, isn’t he?!”
“Yes,” Mackenzie answered.
“That’s crazy! You’re so lucky! How can you have such beautiful in-laws?! I’ve seen pictures of his wife as well. Those two are a power couple.”
“Let’s see if there’s an article about the interview,” Felicity said and Charlotte hurriedly proceeded to flip the pages.
“Oh, there’s one here!” Charlotte excitedly screamed.
Felicity proceeded to read out the content of the interview and Mackenzie simply listened but did not pay enough attention until she heard the last part where the interviewer asked Chase about Selene and his response was ‘she’s everything I could ever ask for.’
For some reason, that statement made her so uncomfortable that she had to excuse herself from the girls and go back to the table of food to distract herself.
Charlotte and Felicity immediately noticed her discomfort and went to her.
“Didn’t you say that it was your husband and mother-in-law that gave you a hard time in Greensville? Why does it seem like there’s an unspoken story that happened between you and Chase?”
Mackenzie stiffened at Charlotte’s outburst but soon calmed herself.
After reuniting with Charlotte and Felicity weeks ago, she’d told them what she went through with Jeffrey and her mother-in-law but she never mentioned a thing about Chase. How could she? It was simply embarrassing. And now that she was pregnant – Although she hadn’t told her friends yet- She wanted to move forward and leave the past in the past.
Chase was happy with Selene now; Jeffrey was probably cheating on her with some woman. So she decided that she wanted to cut ties with the Axford family and focus on doing something with her life.
“Guys, there is no unspoken story about me and my brother-in-law, I didn’t even see him that much. We’re strangers. It just feels weird seeing him in a popular magazine. He’s a bigger deal than I thought,” Mackenzie said, maintaining a poker face.This text is property of Nô/velD/rama.Org.
Thankfully, her friends seemed to buy it.
“You don’t know how to make use of good opportunities, Kenzie,” Charlotte sighed disappointed.
“By the way, I have something to say,” Mackenzie decided to change the topic.
After getting the attention of both of her best friends, she said, “I want to divorce Jeffrey,”
“Well, duh! You should divorce his ass after everything he did to you! You’re just twenty-four, you can still find true love and all of that stuff.”
“Do you think you can divorce him, Mackenzie?” Felicity asked, causing Mackenzie’s heart to beat fast in her chest.
That question made her rethink many things at once but she was quick to decide. “I’m going to at least try,”
“Okay, then I’ll support you,” Felicity said with a caring smile.
Charlotte in turn scoffed and put her arms around Mackenzie, “Don’t mind Felicity, she always says the gloomiest things. This time I’m going to support you in divorcing Jeffrey so it’ll be super easy!”
Mackenzie smiled, “Thank you, Charl, and you too, Felicity.” She said while putting each of her arms around Charlotte’s and Felicity’s waist.
“Hold on,” Charlotte said with disgruntled, “Why are you saying thank you to Felicity as well?!”