The moment Melanie entered the Collins' Mansion, she was swiftly escorted through the long hallway to where Sir Collins was waiting. He stood as she approached, then reached out and took her hand in both of his, giving it a pat.
"Melanie, child. Are you doing okay? I want to apologize to you, but the truth is—I don't even know where to begin. Both my grandsons have wronged you, and for that, I take full responsibility. I am the one who is responsible for everything! If only..." He broke off, and then sighed and continued for a moment," But don't you worry. Bringing Saira back into all this—that was my doing, and I'll be the one to deal with it."
Melanie held his gaze for a moment, then slowly and gingerly extracted her hand from his grasp. She didn't say anything right away.
Instead, her eyes drifted past him—toward the sitting area behind him where, seated on the edge of the couch with her hands in her lap and her head bowed, was Saira Vaughn. She didn't look up. Didn't say a word. Just sat there, silent and still.
"And how do you intend to deal with it?" Melanie asked slowly.
Sir Robert Collins sighed and then asked her," I think I will leave that to you. But first you need to understand the history and everything between Saira and Adam. Just like I don't want to wrong you, I cannot let this girl suffer as either. She has been my loyal assistant for so long, she is like a granddaughter to me."
Melanie raised an eyebrow at that and sat down to where the man indicated.
Once seated, Robert Collins gave her a tired look and sighed, "I thought Adam had changed. That he was devoted to you now. This was the only reason that I let Saira return. If I had known that bringing her back would cause such a storm, I would never have..."
Melanie looked at him keenly and nodded. It seems finally, she was going to be told the 'long' story that Adam had mentioned.
Sir Robert let out another long and tired sigh and continued," Saira and Adam grew up together after Adam was brought home. Saira's mother was Adam's nanny." He hesitated then and then cocked his head and looked at her," I don't know if Adam has told you about his parents?"
"Only that his father died when he was young and then he was adopted by Grandma." Melanie said, without letting the old man know the other details that Adam had told her about.
Robert nodded," Yes. Adam was the grandson of a friend and when he was orphaned, my sweet wife brought him home. But of course the two of us were already too old to bring up a child so we gave her care to our son and his wife since they already had Spencer who was of same age. Anyway, we had hoped that things would be easier for her, but as you know, my daughter in law was not very happy with having another child forced on her. So, she left his care to Saira's mother who was a kind hearted woman."
"Anyway, the woman helped raise Adam as her own son and even encouraged Saira to play with him. This... caused Adam to become clingy to them."
"Even so, we thought nothing of it and thought that it was good he had a good influence in his life. But things changed when Saira and Adam were older. Adam developed... romantic feelings for Saira."
"Of course as a young woman, even though she had reservations about Adam, she agreed to date him. After that..."
Sir Robert Collins paused this time and turned to look at Saira who was now finally looking up at them, her eyes shining, as she said," Let me continue from here, Sir Collins. I know... how ashamed you are of..."
But Sir Roberts shook his head and said," My shame has nothing on your pain."
However, Saira shook her head and said softly," It is my story to share." She turned to look at Melanie then and said slowly," Initially, I was happy. Adam was my best friend since childhood. So, even though our relationship was changed, I thought that we could be happy. But then, things started to change."
"Adam got more and more possessive as days passed. Earlier he used to not like me talking to boys as he always thought that they were trying to take me away from him. So, to appease him I stopped talking to boys. Then slowly, he started to hate having to share me with girl friends also and would always prepare something for me whenever I mentioned needig to go out with them. If it was a friends' birthday party, Adam would have some romantic date scheduled for us which would over run and cause me to miss the party."
"I didn't even realise when I'd lost all friends after I began dating him. Even then, I was happy to just be with him... I knew there were rumors about me being a gold digger for going after him. After all, he was a part of the Collins' family. And to add to that, he was a star student appreciated by everyone. So, there were many envious. I did not let anything bother me because for me, Adam was indeed enough... Until..."
She sighed then and looked at her," There are many downsides to being a popular student. Many girls were willing to throw themselves at him. But he remained loyal to me. I was so proud of that. However, he soon started to force me to get close to him. He would invade my space, try to get physical and when I refused, he'd get angry and sarcastic."
"That is when our relationship started to change. Gone were the happy and peaceful days and now, we were always ending up fighting. I started to dread spending time with him and we had our biggest ever argument one night when he invited me to a hotel room and forced himself on me."