By Friday night, a week after my coffee date with Arden, my mother had asked if anything was wrong.

Oh, everything was wrong.

I wanted to tell her that. But you see, my mother had her fair share of problems that I didn't want to add up to. Raising me by herself and working overtime to provide food on the table and for my education was already taxing on her end.

How disappointing that her daughter chose her reputation, her peaceful life, in exchange of people getting the treatment they didn't deserve.

Because ladies and gentlemen, I stopped seeing Arden. I broke off my connections with him. I went back to being that same old Elise Hale who was nothing but a puppet of Hannah Morret.

My mother didn't raise me like this, but sadly, this was how I turned out to be.

And as much as I wanted to blame society, I had no one else to blame but myself for allowing it.