Chapter 2 Allison

- Allison's POV "No Mom, I told you, love is over and that's that." I lie, looking into my mother's eyes. The truth is that I want to shout that I've been betrayed, but the shame and humiliation I feel is so great that I simply prefer to keep all the pain to myself. My mother crosses her arms and moves her head sideways, squinting her eyes; she's no fool, but she's not going to get anything out of me. "All right, Allison! All right! If that's what you want I can't do anything about it, but you should know that your father and I are disappointed in you, in our family no one has ever split up and it hurts my heart to see you leaving behind Stephan who I consider a son, your father is sad and hurt, you know how fond we are of Stephan, you know that his parents are in shock and that your uncles, cousins and even your sister think you've gone mad, but if that's the way you want it at least have courage and face all this! Stop hiding in that room and get out there, because the daughter I raised is not the cowardly woman I see in front of me." When she finishes speaking, I feel as if I've been punched in the stomach, but I can't even open my mouth, I just feel a lump in my throat and I want to cry. She looks at me angrily as if I've done something very wrong, I feel like the day I broke her favorite vase, and I was only 7 at the time. "I'm sorry, Mom, but I'm not going to change my mind," I say quietly, feeling destroyed. She just gives me a look as if she can't believe what's happening and turns to open the door. "Go into the bathroom and look in the mirror Allison, I don't know what's happened to you, but this..." "This isn't a Clark thing, this isn't the girl I've been carrying around inside me for nine months and raising for all these years." She says, visibly disappointed, and closes the door. Unable to hold it in, I just let the tears fall and sit down on the floor, cringing a little. Nobody knows how humiliated I feel, nobody knows how disgusted and indignant I feel for not realizing it, for simply having lived a lie without realizing it. It's been four days since I caught my husband on all fours in our bed giving his ass to a man, and so far, I haven't said a word about it to anyone, I'm in shock, but I think I'll tell you a little of my story so that everyone understands how I got here. I was born in New Jersey and my life wasn't bad or painful at all, my parents are Italian and they're the best people I've ever met. Mom has always been a cheerful and active woman. After she married Dad, she dedicated her life to caring for the house and helping out at the church orphanage we attended. Besides being a volunteer and a member of the church, she has always had an active voice within the orphanage, working alongside the nuns taking care of the little angels who are abandoned by their parents. My mother is one of those people who seem tireless and my father is no exception. He inherited his grandfather's small Metallurgy company and in 20 years of hard work has managed to transform it into one of the most reputable and respected companies in the world. Dad, like Mom, is a humorous man who radiates energy wherever he goes, today he's 55 and we joke that he's a lean crown, Dad looks great and is handsome for his age, my mother is jealous of him, their love is beautiful to see, the two of them make a beautiful couple and I've always seen them as an example, they're living proof that soul mates exist, and that there are lifelong loves. My father raised me and my sister Jennifer like two little princesses, there are only two of us daughters and he has always done what we wanted, he has always been a present and loving father and I am very proud to say that Mr. Lorenzo Clark is my father. My sister Jennifer is a year younger than me and has always been present in my life, she has always been my playmate and friend, we have always been like one flesh and blood and we only grew apart a little when we went to college, after all, I studied Business Administration, while she studied Pedagogy at another college. Jennifer is now 22 and teaches at a nursery school. She got married three years ago to Enrico who manages her father's bakeries, who is a good friend of my father's. Enrico was always at home and he and Jennifer fell in love very early on, everyone approved of the marriage and it's been a year since Enrico discovered a health problem and is undergoing treatment so that they can get pregnant. My father's dream is to have grandchildren and I hope that Jennifer gets pregnant soon, because, in the current circumstances, I don't know if I'm going to trust any man enough to have a child. As it's just me and Jennifer, I've kind of taken the lead, understanding that I'm the one who's going to look after the company in the future, and to be able to do that properly, Dad said I had to know everything about the metalwork. I agreed with him and spent three years observing and understanding everything I needed to understand, I only went to work at the company's headquarters in my last year at university and I love what I do. I like going to factories and traveling to see if everything is working as it should, some people say I'm the female version of Dad in business and I love hearing that, I'm only 23 and I understand that I still have a lot to learn about everything, but I feel I'm going the right way. Now let's talk about my personal life, I've always been a bit shy and I've never been able to express myself as well as I wanted to, I was a chubby child. I never cared about it until I was a teenager, when I was 14, I fell in love for the first time, the boy was cute and he was even a friend, but one day playing truth or dare he said that he would never be with me because I was fat. Yes, he said that, he said I was nice, but that it would never happen and that shit hurt me a lot, in a way I kept the disappointment to myself and laughed about it, everyone laughed and I laughed and so for them, the situation passed, but it kept hammering away inside me, I started to feel ashamed of myself and just focused on other things. While my friends were kissing me on the lips and staying over, I didn't do anything. I didn't have my first kiss until I was 16 with a boy who was taking French lessons at the same school as me. Jennifer said at the time that the boy was ugly and, frankly, he wasn't beautiful, but he was nice and I was very realistic about things, my body didn't follow the standards imposed by the media and society and I understood at the time that it would be difficult for a beautiful boy to want something with me. I know that anyone who is or has ever been chubby knows what I'm talking about, no matter how dressed up and smelling nice I was, I felt insecure, I put it in my head that I wouldn't have the best or the worst and I had to settle for the middle ground. After spending a week with the boy, he moved to another city and I never saw him again. Then high school ended and I only kissed again in college, I was in my second year and there was going to be a party, so I dressed up and went to the party to suffer one of the biggest disappointments of my life. The party was taking place on the college campus and I was so happy to have been invited, I was at the party chatting with some classmates and having a beer when Ethan came up to me, he asked me to talk in the backyard and I thought it was really strange, he was handsome and very popular at the college, he was a member of the baseball team and an important member of the campus administration, he had never spoken to me, and I didn't even go outside with him thinking that something was going to happen, in fact when I went with him, I swear I was ready to be embarrassed, as Dad was very jealous I thought he had picked me up from the party. Here in the United States, it's common for people to move to a college campus or move out on their own when they turn 18, but I didn't do either, I continued to live with my parents, and since Dad didn't want to let me go to the party I thought Ethan was calling me because my dad was looking for me, but I was wrong, very wrong.