#partnineteen

When Luke learned of the existence of his now adult daughter, he knew that he would have missed out on many things in her life and that he would never be able to experience them with her. Her first smiles, her first joys, her first moments of pride when she came home from school with good grades...

But when she arrived in the evening, looking completely devastated, accompanied by Daph and Elli, there was something he never imagined he would witness: her first heartbreak. And as he did his best to comfort her while she cried in his arms, he just wished that this had never happened to his baby.

END OF PART NINETEEN

Once the class is over, Elli takes Erica aside, determined to finally talk to her. She lets him do so, curious to see what exactly he wants. But when he puts his arm around her, she gently pulls away, realising that it is more than time to set the record straight.

He doesn't really know why, but Erica's presence makes him particularly nervous, to the point where he blurts out one stupid thing after another. But Erica smiles at him and places her hand on his cheek, while he raises an eyebrow, waiting for her response with an eagerness that is unusual for him.

And the more she takes her time, the more Elli spirals, feeling like he already ruined everything. So Erica takes a step forward and kisses her cheek gently. She wants to see where this leads, but above all she wants to take her time and not rush things, as she cares too much about their friendship.

When Isa discovers the scene, she doesn't know whether the urge to vomit or scream comes first. She knew there was a risk of this happening when she decided for a break, especially with Emma spending the entire shoot clinging to him, but she couldn't believe her intuition could be so accurate.

Jasp tries to hold her back, to explain the situation to her, but even though nothing happened, Isa still feels like she has been betrayed twice, by her husband and by one of her closest friends. And the more Jasper tries to reassure her as he caresses her cheek, the more his words ring false to her.

Her decision is made as she finally meets his gaze. She had already planned to leave home for a while, but now she has to rush her plans because she can barely hold his gaze without wanting to cry. All she asks is that he lets her go before they hurt each other even more. Jasper watches Isa leave, powerless in the face of the pain he has just caused his wife, until he hears a weary sigh behind him. Clenching his fists and holding back his anger as much as possible, Jasper simply asks him to fuck off as quickly as possible.

CHAPTER TWO : The concert

Elliot has barely woken up when his phone starts vibrating non-stop, with a little too much excitement. He grumbles and scrolls through his friends' messages. A concert, tonight? Well, it's time to get out of bed if he has to discuss this with his parents this morning…

Once she left, the discussion resumed naturally, but Victor would be lying if he said he had been following what was going on. 𝙒𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙛𝙪𝙘𝙠 𝙟𝙪𝙨𝙩 𝙝𝙖𝙥𝙥𝙚𝙣𝙚𝙙? Now that he had a second to think about it, he knew why the name Sanford Marsh was more than familiar to him, that girl, years ago…

She isn't surprised when he finally, impassively, asks her for a divorce. Her ears ringing, Emma is seething with anger. He wants a divorce? Fine. But Emma isn't going to play fair. There is no way she is going to let him, or even Venessa if she was behind this, win. She can't help but roll her eyes, as he obviously put all the blame on her as he always tends to do lately. As if she should have been perfect when everyone else was determined to ruin her life.

She remembers perfectly the first day when cracks began to appear. Naito arrived furious, having learned what happened with Aria. She was surprised to learn that the woman she had seen as a mother figure had continued to give lessons to HER daughter behind her back, and now Naito was shouting at her.

But Emma explained her point of view to Naito, she had always been successful with him. He sometimes protected his daughter more than her, she had persuaded him that nothing was her fault. And even though he had forgiven her quickly, he had refused to let Erica stop taking lessons from Aria.

But once the cracks start to appear, it's hard to go back. And as time went on, she felt Naito slipping away from her, choosing to believe Erica over her more and more, and no longer giving her the chance to explain herself.

CHAPTER NINE : In Emma's mind

For as long as she could remember, Emma had always dreamed of being an actress. Even as a little girl in her bedroom, everything had been carefully chosen and decorated, from posters of her favourite films to reproductions of costumes she hoped to wear on set one day. She had worked hard for this since her early teens, with her mother always pushing her to do more, sometimes too much.

But little by little, she had done it, she had succeeded. A beautiful villa in the hills above Del Sol, which she had paid for herself, a loving husband, two beautiful children. She had built her dream life, the one she read about in the glossy magazines at the foot of her bed. Red carpets and film shoots were now part of her everyday life. And yet, even this morning, Emma felt that 𝙨𝙤𝙢𝙚𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙬𝙖𝙨 𝙬𝙧𝙤𝙣𝙜 𝙞𝙣 𝙝𝙚𝙧 𝙡𝙞𝙛𝙚.