Chapter 157 - Cecilia Aldrich

"I missed you so much, Mom." Benjamin spoke up as he engulfed a woman, who was in her early forties, in a bear hug. 

"I missed you too, my pumpkin." The woman added, returning the hug. 

"You need to stop calling me that. I am no longer a kid, Mom." 

"You will always be a kid for me." The woman replied before letting go of him. 

"Dad wanted to come as well but he was busy." Benjamin spoke up, giving her a sad smile.

"Yeah, yeah. I know." The woman replied to him, patting his shoulder.

"Take Mom's luggage and put it in the car." Benjamin ordered the driver who was standing behind him.

"Welcome back, Madam." The driver greeted her, which was acknowledged by a nod, before taking her luggage and carrying it out to the car.

"You want to eat at home or we can go out if you want to." Benjamin asked her, placing an arm over her shoulder as they walked out of the airport.

"I am too tired to go out. Just ask the cook to make something light for me." She added before getting inside the car. 

"Sure, I will call Aunt Mary." He replied before joining her in the car. He took out his phone and dialed the housekeeper's number.

The woman turned to look out of the tinted window as the car rolled out of the parking lot. Though she was forty, she didn't look a year older than thirty. Her smooth, fair skin were free of all those wrinkles which a woman of her age should have. Her black hair were let down, framing her face. The was little to no make up over her face, her lips were tinted with a nude lip color. Her feline eyes looked sharp as she gazed out of the window. The way she sat with her back straight and her shoulders pushed back slightly, depicted how audacious of a personality she had. It was instilled in her since her childhood. She was brought up this way, to always held her head high up in the air because she was Cecilia Aldrich, the only daughter of the Aldrich family.

Her marriage to James was just an affiliation between the two families, it wasn't out of love. She didn't even meet him in person before their engagement ceremony. She was regretting it now, agreeing to her parents' wishes. She was regretting not listening to Ethan, her childhood friend and James' cousin. He had warned her that James wasn't good for her, but she didn't listen to him. She should have, she should have listened to him and put her foot down on the matter. 

Even after all these years, their marriage was still just for show. She knew that he still slept around like before, but decided to turn a blind eye to it. She would have let that place way back if it wasn't for her only son. She didn't want him to grow up in a broken family. 

"How was your trip Mom?" Benjamin's voice interrupted her thoughts. 

"It was good. Dad said he misses you a lot. You should go and pay him a visit." She replied to him.

"I miss him too. I wanted to go with you so badly but you know how things have been at the company." He added. "But they are going to get better now that we have signed a contract with the Levinson's Corp." 

"You did what?" She asked him, not believing her ears.

Benjamin chuckled as he looked at her baffled expression before he explained it to her. 

After listening to him, she slowly nodded her head but she still had some doubts lingering in her mind. Why would Adam Levinson do it? She took out her phone from her purse and texted her company's Vice President, asking him to look deep into the matter. 

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"Thank you Mary for the lunch. I will go and rest now." After getting done with her lunch she headed upstairs to her room. She had transformed one of the guest rooms in her own after getting fed up of his husband's drinking habit. 

She had changed into some comfortable clothes before lunch after taking a shower. Lying down on the bed, she picked up her phone and dialled a number. He picked up after the first ring, just like always. 

"You are back." She heard his voice coming through the phone's speaker. "You should have informed me, I could have picked you up." 

Hearing his gruff voice brought a smile on her lips. "Benjamin picked me up." She replied.

She heard him hum in response. "I missed you bossing me around Cecilia." There was a longing in his voice with which was all to familiar with. She knew he fancied her, but never voiced it out directly because she was a married woman. 

'And I missed bossing you around.' She thought to herself but didn't voice it out. She knew it would only make things difficult for her. 

"I saw your text. You had something important to tell me." She asked him after staying quiet for a while. 

"She's in Berlin, acting as the personal assistant of Adam Levinson." He replied to her making her get up from the bed with a jolt. 

"What did you say?" She asked him.

"You heard me right. And I don't think that she being his assistant and your so called husband's company getting a contract from his company is a coincidence. Especially combined with the fact that Stella is his girlfriend." He explained it to her.

"What!" Cecilia was having a shock for the nth time since she had landed. 

After getting her thoughts straight, she cleared her throat and spoke into the phone's speaker. "Zach?" She called his name softly for the first time.

"Yes?" 

"Get the papers for my divorce ready as soon as possible." She spoke softly, totally opposite of her usual self.

"Yes, Ma'am." He replied before disconnecting the call. She could her happiness in his voice and shook her head sideways.

She wanted to leave James after Benjamin had taken over the Vice President's role. The only thing which was making her stay back at this hell hole was her niece, Stella Martin. She had been looking for her all these years. She was confused as why didn't Ethan and Rosaline choose James and her to be her guardians in case anything happens to them. James was after all Stella's only uncle, and she would have treated her as her own daughter, even better than that. And she was sure that Ethan knew that as well. Then why did he do that. Why would he leave the business he had worked so hard for in the hands of his cousin.

All these questions had driven her crazy all these years. Now, she can finally get the answers to them and pursue her own happiness. She smiled looking at the name popping on her phone's screen. She wasn't worried for Stella that much now because she knew that she was safe as long as Adam was by her side.