All The Wrong Reason Episode 26

🌸 ALL THE WRONG REASONS🌸
🌹EPISODE TWENTY-SIX🌹

Adrienne went to Yuan’s house. She told him that she let
Justin go.
“You must be out of your freaking mind!” Yuan said
crossly.

“I have to do this, Yuan,” she said sadly. “I love him.”
“Then why the hell did you let him go?!”
“I don’t want his mother to fall into deep depression! I
don’t want her to get hurt. I don’t want to ruin his perfect
family. I never had that! And I wanted it for him. I don’t want
him to feel guilty if something happened to his Mom or his
Dad. He will never be happy with me this way.”
“Do you think he will be happy without you?”
Adrienne sighed. She knows Justin felt devastated with
her decision to let him go, too. But he had to fix things with
his parents. And the only way she could do that is if she
gave him up.

“Maybe someday, Yuan,” she said in a sad voice. “If
we were really meant for each other, he will find his way
back to me.”
“And you’re going to wait until that happens? How
long will that take? You’ll hold off your life hoping he will
come back?”
She shook her head. “I’m still young, Yuan. I’ll just let
things flow into my life. A year or two, maybe by then he will
have figured out if it’s working or not. If by then he’s happy
then I would move on.”
“This is plain stupidity!” Yuan said.
“It’s also called unselfishness,” Adrienne argued. “And
I needed to give him that chance. I love him too much to
hold him back from what’s really out there for him. I can’t bear the burden of him being disowned by his own family
because of me. He would never be happy like that.”
Her phone beeped. She stared at it nervously when
she saw Justin’s name on the screen.
Justin: You talked about that parallel universe. You
didn’t mention one thing: Reality. Because in reality, you
know this isn’t for good, right, Adrienne? I will use this
chance you gave me to convince my parents that they have
to let me go. And when they do, be ready to answer my
question for real. I love you very, very much, Miss Miller.
Hold on to that, while you’re waiting for me to set things
right.

Tears rolled down Adrienne’s cheeks. She missed him
already. But she knew she couldn’t turn back. She couldn’t
go running back to him. He wasn’t strong enough to let her
go. She had to be the strong and firm one. She had to be
the one to stand by what is right this time. If she left it up to
Justin, she knew that he would rather lock themselves in his
apartment and make love to her all day.
It took all her strength not to answer Justin’s message.
He had to move on. She had to set him free. So she didn’t
answer. She brought the phone to her l-ips and k-ssed the
screen, closing her eyes, thinking that it was his l-ips she
k-ssed instead.

Suddenly her phone rang and she almost dropped it.
She looked at the screen nervously and saw her mother’s
number on it.
“Hello.”
“You told us that you would come home to explain
yourself. Well, it’s been weeks and you still haven’t shown
your face here!” she said in a demanding tone.
“I’m sorry Mom. I got caught up with a lot of work.”
“It’s Saturday. Are you working today?”
“No.”
“Then I suggest you pay us a visit.” Then she hung up.

Adrienne gro-ned. “God, kill me now!”
“Monster Mom?” Yuan asked.
Adrienne nodded.
“Go. We’ll come with you. I’ll call Jill. This time, you
need reinforcements!” Yuan said.
“Yuan…I just…broke up with Justin!” Adrienne
murmured. “I can’t face my parents. It’s going to be like
pain after pain after pain.”
“Well, Justin’s off fighting his own battle. I suggest you
fight yours. This might do you good for a change. You
know… one pain lessens the other. The more heartaches
your mother gives you, the more distracted you will be
about your breakup with Justin.”
Yuan did have a point. And Adrienne realized that she
can’t put off fixing her own life while waiting for Justin’s fate
to turn around. Maybe if he came back to her, they’d both
be free of excess baggage and everything would flow
smoothly.
“Are you sure you want to come with me?” Adrienne
asked.
“Yes,” Yuan replied, sending a text message to Jill.
“You need us to be there. I just sharpened my nails at the
salon. Who knows? Maybe Kim will need a little facial
m-ssage.”
Adrienne didn’t bother going back to her apartment.

She still had enough clothes left in Yuan’s place from the
last time she crashed with him. Within half an hour, they
were all in the airport checking in.
Adrienne still felt like floating in the air. She continued
staring into space, barely listening to what Jill and Yuan were
talking about. She was reminiscing all the good moments
she had with Justin. From the first moment they met, to the
times they spent together in their own world when she kept
him a secret, to the time he beat up Troy for her, to their
reconciliation at the beach… to the time he first told her he
loved her and that last night, when he asked her to marry
him.

You’re a fox!
She couldn’t stop thinking about those words over and
over again. And now, more than ever, she longed to hear
him whisper those words again.
Tears started rolling down her cheeks without her
even knowing it. She wanted to call him so badly, to hear
his voice again. But she knew she couldn’t. She promised
to make it easy for him. Calling him and taking it all back
wouldn’t solve his problem. And in her heart, she knew it
was the right thing to do. No matter how painful.
Jill and Yuan checked in to a hotel while Adrienne went
to her parents’ house.
It had been months since she went home. She felt a
sense of familiarity as the cab entered her neighborhood.
She instructed the taxi to stop in front of a maroon colored
three-floor house.
Kimberly’s pretty face was the first one that greeted
her when she opened the door.
“Oh, you’re here,” she said. She looked behind her
and found that Adrienne was alone. “So, where’s the
hotshot boyfriend? Gone too soon?”
She gripped her bag tightly and prevented herself
from swinging it on Kim’s face.
“He’s a busy man, Kimberly,” she murmured.

Somehow, she couldn’t bring herself to admit to her sister
that her relationsh¡p with Justin just might be over. She
could hærdly admit it to herself.
She stepped in,side the house and immediately heard
noises in the living room.
“I didn’t know you were having a party,” Adrienne
said.
“I didn’t know you were invited,” Kimberly responded,
giving her a fake smile.
When she stepped in,side, she found that Troy and his
wh0le family were there with his parents.

Oh shit!
Immediately, the room fell quiet. They all stared at her
in surprise. Troy looked like he saw a ghost. His mother,
however, looked like she saw an insect she wanted to squish
with her boot.
“Hello,” she greeted them.
There was silence. Then her father went to her and
gave her a hug.
“I missed you, sweetheart.” He may have embraced
her, but Adrienne felt so unwelcome and scrutinized.
How she wished she brought Justin with her. But she
didn’t think she’ll be bringing him to any of her family
gatherings in a long while.
“I missed you too, Dad,” she replied to him.

She pulled away from her father and walked over to
her Mom and gave her a peck on the cheek.
Then she bravely looked at Troy’s family. “Good day,
Mr. and Mrs. Williams.” Then she gave Troy a slight nod.
She turned to her father and told him she’ll just go
freshen up in her bedroom.
When she got in,side her bedroom, she found that it
was a mess. Almost all of her stuff was in boxes. They were
marked with her name. Even her bed only had the mattress,
no pillows and no bedspreads.
She wondered who did this, and why. Maybe when
Troy’s family left, she would ask her parents about what
happened.

She took some clothes from her bag and changed into
a yellow floral dress that ended nicely above her knees.
Then she tied her hair in a half-pony.
She took one last look at her disastrous room before
going back to the living room. She nearly entered the living
room when suddenly she heard her mother and Troy’s
talking on the other side of the wall.
“Well, I am just so glad that Troy finally came to his
senses and went after Kimberly! I mean…I don’t know what he was thinking going for Adrienne.” She recognized Troy’s
mother’s voice.
“Well, I have always wanted Troy to end up with Kim. I
knew Adrienne would embarrass me at one point in time. I
just never imagined it would end up in a brawl between her
new boyfriend and Troy.”
Adrienne stood behind the wall and listened to the
older women’s conversation. She was concealed by the door
in front of her and the two women have no idea that their
conversation was no longer private.
“I cannot believe that your daughter was cheating on
my boy, Marina,” Mrs. Williams said.
“Well…I tried, Betty. I tried to raise her like Kim. But
she really got a bad set of genes. She didn’t get that from
our side of the family. She’s given me problems ever since.”
“But you’re lucky, Kimberly is such a good daughter.

My boy is happy to have Kim as his girlfriend now. I was
afraid Adrienne was going to be my daughter-in-law. I didn’t
want to say this to you before, but I was really worried. Just
imagine! She was sleeping with somebody else behind my
son’s back?”
Tears pooled in Adrienne’s eyes. How could they talk
about her like that? Didn’t they know that Troy and Kim were
cheating on her all this time? And how could her own
mother talk about her like this?
“Oh, I’m sure Kimberly will make a better wife than
Adrienne would ever be. Troy and Kimberly look fantastic
together. With Adrienne…I worry about the grandchildren
she would give you.”
“I worry, too. Well, with Adrienne I will always be
worrying if I’m really looking at my own grandchildren or
someone else’s.” Mrs. Williams gave out a shrill laugh.

Adrienne expected her mother to defend her. But her
mother only laughed, too.
She wasn’t a slut! She wasn’t sleeping around! What
is wrong with Troy’s mother? What lies did her mother and her sister feed her head about her?
Suddenly, Adrienne felt a hand creep around her wa-ist
and somebody pulled her from behind. She quickly spun
around and found Troy looking down at her, pulling her
towards him. His eyes were teary.
She pushed him away.

“Let me go, Troy!” she hissed sharply.
“Oh, my Adrienne,” he said. “I’m so sorry!”
Adrienne pushed him away. But Troy was quick to pull
her to him, trying to hug her.
“I’m sorry, Adrienne,” he kept saying. “I know…I can’t
compete with your new boyfriend but if you only give me a
chance…I would make you happier than he ever will.”
“No, Troy! Let go!” She pushed him again, gathering
all her strength.
“What are you two doing?” Adrienne heard a shrill
voice behind Troy, with made her pause. It made Troy pause,
too.
Adrienne looked behind Troy and found Kimberly
staring at them angrily. She pushed Troy once again and he
no longer forced himself on her. She gave him another slap
on the face.

“I said, let me go!” she said to him angrily. “What the
hell is wrong with you?!”
Suddenly, the elders rushed from the living room to
the corridor to see what the commotion was about.
“What is going on here?” her mother asked, looking at
her crossly.
“Troy…” his mother started.
“Mom! Adrienne was trying to sed-ce Troy! I saw him
pushing her away but she was forcing him to k-ss her,” Kim
said.
“What?!” Adrienne couldn’t believe what Kimberly
said.

She stared back at her mother and Mrs. Williams who
looked at her disapprovingly.
“You believe her?” Adrienne asked them.
“Why would she lie?” her mother asked her back. “And
what else could be the explanation for it?”
“Troy was forcing me!”
“Come on, Adrienne, we all know you’ve always been
easy. Why? Is your boyfriend busy humping somebody else
so you decided to steal mine this time?” Kimberly asked
venomously.

She stared at Kimberly’s pretty little face and all she
saw was… red. Blood red.
She didn’t breathe. She didn’t even think! Nobody saw
it coming. Nobody even thought it was possible at all.
All these years of being patient with her sister,
tolerating her in making her life miserable, all the days of
bottled up pain and anger just exploded in a few seconds.
Suddenly, Adrienne no longer stood on Troy’s side.
She was beside her sister and grabbing the thing that she
had always dreamed of pulling: Kimberly’s hair.

“Aaaaahh!” Kim scre-med in pain. Kim started flinging
her arms and Adrienne managed to get hold of one of them
and she twisted it behind Kim.
Wow! My sister is a wimp!
“I am so sick and tired of your lies!” she said to her
angrily. “I never did anything to you! You kept lying about
me! Why don’t you tell everybody how I found out about
you and Troy at the beach? Huh?! Tell them how you were
f-cking my boyfriend behind my back! How the two of you
have been cheating on me all this time!”
Her mother gasped. Then she was quick to come to
Kim’s rescue. “Kim is a V-rgin!”
“V-rgin her ass!” Adrienne released her sister and
pushed her to Troy. Troy caught her. Kim’s face was tear-
stricken and she looked positively scared of Adrienne.

Adrienne turned to Troy. “What did I ever do to you? You
were cheating on me! I found you having s€× with my own
sister…during the weekend getaway you planned for us!
And when I broke up with you, you got drunk and beat me
up! Did you tell them that? Did any of you know that Troy
has a bad temper with women? He sliced up my lip pretty
badly… after sleeping with Kimberly!”
“Is this true?” Troy’s father asked him, unable to
believe what she just said about their son.
Troy stared at the floor. And then he nodded.

“Oh my God,” Troy’s mother breathed.
“I’m not some slut like you think, Mrs. Williams,” she
said to Troy’s mother. “I didn’t love your son. And I wanted
to break up with him and at least remain his friend. But
would you be friends with some guy who cheated on you
with your own sister and beat you up after?”
Mrs. Williams shook her head slightly.
Adrienne looked at Troy once again. “What were you
thinking, forcing me just now? I pushed you away and told
you to let me go! You wouldn’t let go. What did you want?”
Troy took a deep breath. “A chance, Adrienne,” he
replied. “A chance to make things right between us. It’s
always been you I wanted. I made a mistake.” He turned to
Kim. “I’m sorry, Kim. I tried. I tried to fall in love with you.
But I can’t. I still love your sister.”
Kim looked like she didn’t know what hit her. She
expected Troy to take her side on this one.
“Are you happy now?” Kim turned to Adrienne. “Are
you happy making my life miserable?”
Before Adrienne could talk, the doorbell rang. Her
mother opened the door and two police officers entered the
house.

“Her! That girl! Get that girl!” her mother said
pointing at her. “She physically assaulted my daughter.
We’re going to file a case against her and make sure she
stays in jail!”
Adrienne stared back at her mother, in pure shock.

“Mom?”
Somehow, she remembered when she was young how
she held her in her arms and sang her to sleep. She could
hærdly believe that this was the same woman. What did she
ever do to her?
“Marina!” her father shouted. “You can’t do this!”
Even Troy’s parents were shocked. Sure, her mother
can just reprimand her or say nasty things to her, but to
have her arrested?
“Marina, she’s still your daughter!” Troy’s father said.
“I don’t have a violent daughter! She’s crazy! If she
doesn’t belong in jail, then maybe a mental institution would
fix her.”

Adrienne stared at her father. “Dad?” Tears poured
from her eyes as she felt the police officers take her arms
and cuffed her hands behind her.
“Marina, stop this!” her father pleaded. “My daughter
cannot be jailed!”
“My daughter cannot be battered by that crazy girl!
She’s out of control. She shouldn’t be let out in the streets!”
“Marina, you are overreacting!” her father said angrily.
Tears kept pouring from Adrienne’s cheeks and she
wanted to curl in a ball in one corner. She realized that her
mother didn’t just not love her. Her mother hated her. And
she couldn’t understand why. She couldn’t understand what
she did to make her mother loathe her with so much
passion.

***
“I love you, Mommy. Happy Mothers’ day!” She
remembered her eight-year-old self, bringing home a
bouquet of roses for her mother. She was the only one in the
family who remembered that it was Mothers’ Day right then.
Her mother stared at the roses for a while and then
placed them on the kitchen table. “Thank you…sweetie.”
Then she leaned down and k-ssed her forehead lightly.
It wasn’t special, and she barely saw the appreciation
on her face, but it was one of those rare moments that
Adrienne got a little bit of affection from her mother.
All her life, she was trying to win her approval.
Whenever she came home, Kim would jump into her arms
and she would k-ss her all over the face. Then Adrienne
would look at her mother expectantly and she would… just
ruffle her hair.
When Kim got her period, her mother was all
supportive, telling her what to do. When Adrienne got her
period, her mother couldn’t care less and told her to search
the internet about it.

Now…her mother called the police to have her
arrested. And for what? A simple hair-pulling? Kim didn’t
even have a scratch on her. But her mother was hell-bent on
making sure she pays for this—behind bars! Her father tried
to reason with her mother but she knew he would never win.
Her father showed her some affection. But it always seemed
like he feared what her mother would say or do to him.

Adrienne stayed in a cell for a couple of hours while
her father tried to convince her mother to stop this
craziness. Unless her mother came to her senses and saw
how petty this was, she would drop the charges. But as of
the moment, she’s in for assault causing physical injuries. If
Adrienne really knew Kim and her Mom, they would go for
attempted homicide.
Oh God! What did I do to deserve all this? What did I
do to deserve the parents that I have now?
She knew her friends were somewhere outside, trying
to do what they could to convince her mother to find some
sensibility or lucidity. But she knew for sure how stubborn
the woman could be.
She sat on a bench and noticed that the chair had
some markings on them. She saw some scribbles, some
names. Maybe they were done by some kids who got to
spend a day or a night in the detention cell like her. Maybe for petty crimes too. Like shoplifting. Stealing c-ndoms and
bubble gums. And now her: a completely justified and long
overdue hair-pulling escapade.
She smiled in spite of herself. She wondered what
Justin would say if she told him about this.

He will be mad, for sure. But he would admire her for
standing up against Kim, for not allowing Kim to keep
trampling on her over and over.
Kim’s been doing that to me my entire life. It’s high
time Kim gets scared of me.
“Miller.” Adrienne heard a policewoman call her.
She stood up and followed her outside.
“Somebody posted bail,” the desk sergeant told her.
“But your mother still seems keen on filing charges.” He
shook his head, and looked at her apologetically.
No surprises there!
Of course, it was her precious Kimberly she hurt. Plus,
she ratted Kim out in front of Troy’s parents. Her mother
must be seriously pissed.
At least my father posted bail!
She found her parents waiting for her. So was Kim…

also known as ‘the victim.’ Her friends stood on one side
throwing daggers at Kimberly. Troy and his parents sat in
one corner.
“What is she doing out? Why is she out?” her mother
asked upon seeing her free.
“She posted bail, ma’am.”
“Bail?” her mother echoed. “We didn’t post bail.”
The policewoman rolled her eyes at her mother. “Well,
somebody did!” Then she turned to Adrienne and asked her
to sign a paper and handed over her stuff, which only
included her phone and her wallet.
“Did you bail her out?” her mother asked her father.

“No,” her father said. “You wouldn’t let me!”
“So, who posted bail?” Kim asked, turning to her
friends.
“We would have, but we didn’t have enough cash on
us,” Yuan said in an annoyed tone.
“Marina, I’m begging you! Shut up! And stop this!” It
was probably the first time she saw her father angry at her
mother.

Her mother took a step closer to her and looked at her
contemptuously. “How dare you hurt my little baby like that?
You ungrateful snake! I raised you! I let you share my home!
And this is what you do to me in return?”
Adrienne didn’t recognize the woman in front of her
anymore. She was so angry at Adrienne, she even looked
possessed. Without warning, she raised her hand and hit
Adrienne solidly across the cheek.
Adrienne didn’t duck, she didn’t even try to block her
mother’s slap. She was too broken, too confused to think
about anything else. And she thought she could use the
physical pain to alleviate the emotional one she felt.

She staggered backwards from the force of her
mother’s slap. Her father immediately grabbed her mother
to prevent her from hitting Adrienne again. Only then did
Adrienne realize that somebody had caught her. Somebody
held her, kept her warm, and kept her away from her
mother… kept her safe from further attacks.
“Let me go! Let me go!” her mother scre-med.
Yuan and Jill gasped. They stood frozen on their
places.

“Marina, get a hold of yourself!” her father said
angrily, still struggling to restrain her. “You’re in a police
station for crying out loud! You can get arrested for assault!”
Adrienne finally looked up at the person who had
caught her, and shielded her from her mother’s attacks.
She found herself staring at a familiar pair of
aquamarine eyes. Adrienne thought that his eyes were more
striking than usual. She saw a hint of emotion there. It took
her a moment to recognize what it was… fury!

GUESS WHO ?