Legitimate?
Lucy didn't hear anything else that William had to say.
It was over. Her life was over.
How was this real? How could Damien do this to her?
How could this…?
And then, Lucy remembered something. A conversation she had with Damien, once, a very long time ago.
They'd been sitting in bed after putting the kids to sleep. Damien had been flipping through a stack of reports while Lucy had been reading, even though she wasn't really paying attention to her book.
"Lucy," Damien said without looking up at Lucy. "How about coming back to work?"
Lucy frowned. "I have my hands full with the kids. And besides, the company has you."
He glanced at her with a smile on his face. He knew his wife, while she wasn't particularly lazy, she also hated working.
"But what if I want a vacation one day? Maybe for a year?"
Lucy smiled and tugged the folder out of his hands. "I want to focus on the kids. Why don't you just… I don't know… give it to someone you trust until Mateo's old enough to take over?"
Damien looked at her. "Someone I trust?"
"Yes," Lucy said as she positioned herself on his laps. "That way, when you're tired of living behind a desk, you can leave the company in able hands and when Mateo's old enough, he can take over without any stress. And I can keep living my life without trying to be a businesswoman."
He kissed her forehead. "Alright, I'll keep that in mind."
Now, as Lucy stood in front of her house with the words from that night echoing in her head, she couldn't help but wonder if Damien had actually taken her advice.
Lucy knew how extremely naive and kind Damien was, he didn't see Eleanor the way that she did. He trusted his mother, and accepted her even though she never showed him any love.
Lucy's eyes blurred. She took a step forward, then another, and then another. She couldn't really see, she just wanted to get inside her house and collapse onto the couch.
Had she just handed Eleanor the perfect excuse to take everything?
What was going to happen to her and her children now?
When did Damien make this move? Why would he make this move? Why wasn't this document brought forth initially? Why now?
Eleanor wanted everything, and now she had it. Thanks to one careless conversation years ago, Damien had handed over the keys to their entire world to his mother.
Knowing Damien, he had probably thought that his mother could help Lucy out with the company, but handing over her children to Eleanor? How could Damien do that?
Over the next few weeks, Lucy's life fell apart.
Eleanor moved fast, it was almost as if she'd been waiting for something like this to happen.
Within days, Eleanor had her lawyers file all the necessary paperwork to assume control of Damien's company, the trust, and even the house. Lucy found herself signing documents she didn't fully understand, mostly because the alternative was being dragged through a public court battle that she wasn't sure she could win. Mr. William Roth had suggested that she do whatever Eleanor wanted for now.
And Lucy had given up, she didn't know how else to fight. And most of all, she was losing her mind. She couldn't understand it, she'd been strong just a few days ago, and now, she just wanted to give up.
Xander didn't relent in his shameless effort to make Lucy his. Zayn tried to talk Lucy out of it but she was much too ashamed to face him. She'd been in his office, making big claims and now, it looked like she was stepping aside as she handed Eleanor the reins to everything.
It didn't take long for Xander and Eleanor to move in. The children were shaken up by this sudden change and sought solace in their mother.
The only problem was that, Lucy was sick. It started with a small headache, and slowly, it turned into something more serious. At first, she thought it was stress, and the suffocating presence of Eleanor and Xander under her roof. But with time, the pain began to spread throughout her body.
Mateo started to notice that she didn't finish her meals, and she was almost always out of it.
He couldn't explain what was wrong with his mother, he just knew that he came back from school one day and she was never the same.
Little Isla noticed it too, she knew that something was wrong, that her mother was broken. And so, she began climbing into her mother's lap daily, trying to "fix" her mother with kisses.
Just the way Lucy used to do for her.
Eleanor also noticed. She noticed that since her little visit that afternoon, Lucy became more docile, and she was growing concerned. But her concern wasn't for Lucy's health, instead, it was for the 'unstable environment' the children were living in. Eleanor believed that Lucy was becoming more unfit to care for the children as the days went by.
Lucy even overheard Eleanor on a call, where Eleanor was talking about Lucy's current unstable mental condition and how she was preparing papers.
Lucy couldn't understand anything. This whole thing started as a marriage proposal, she thought Xander wanted her because of the company but now that the company was practically theirs, Xander still refused to leave Lucy alone.
And Eleanor, Lucy had thought that Eleanor wanted the children for their inheritance, but even now, Eleanor still wanted the children.
And Lucy knew, she knew that she was being weak and cowardly. She knew that she could've tried to fight against the document Eleanor produced, but she didn't want to.
The whole case was draining her.
But what was draining her most of all was that, in a deep part of her mind, she couldn't help but deny that all of this, all of what was happening was her fault.
She was the one that suggested that Damien give the company to someone, she was the one that told Damien to reconnect with his family.
She was the one that came up with the business idea in the first place.