章 63: Ch-62

Trigger Warning: Brief mentions of depression, toxic relationships, self-harm, addiction, and abuse. Read at your own risk if you are easily triggered.

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Carla Armitage, née Wallace, felt cheated. Everything good in her life had been taken away from her. Her chance at a good job, her husband, money, luxury, and most importantly, her freedom.

It all started seventeen years ago. Frank Armitage was her secret boyfriend and ethics professor. She never expected to get pregnant with his child during her final year. She would have had a quick abortion and everything would have been swept under the rug, but unfortunately, her medical report was accidentally mailed to her home address, and her religious mother begged her not to do it.

When Carla disagreed with her mother, the older Wallace woman hired a private detective to find out who her boyfriend was, and then she accosted Frank to take responsibility. While Frank may have been many things, irresponsible he was not. He convinced Carla not to get an abortion. To prevent Frank from being fired from his job, Carla dropped out, citing some personal reasons, and the two married in secret from their university friends.

Then Carla had a miscarriage.

Everything fell apart like a house of cards. That was the first time Carla went into depression. It was only thanks to Frank that she was able to get back on her feet. Despite the situation they had been left in, Frank didn't abandon her, and for that, she would always love him, even if he was no longer in the world of living. He got her appointments with the best therapists, and everything eventually returned to normal. Or as normal as their life of compromise could be. Because that's what Frank always was for her: a compromise.

Carla completed her degree from a distance university and found a job. But life was boring at best. So of course she caught Frank having an affair with another of his students, right in their bedroom.

She did the sensible thing by getting a divorce lawyer, only for life to throw a new problem in her way. She found out she was pregnant again. When Frank found out about their then-unborn son, he literally begged her to give their relationship another try. After a lot of sessions of couples therapy and an intervention by Carla's mother, she agreed to give their relationship another try. That brought forth the perfectly beautiful boy who was named Troy by Frank. But for some reason, Carla couldn't bring herself to even look at Troy for his first year. She didn't feel happy with anything in her life. All she wanted to do was curl up in her bed and cry. She didn't like visits from her relatives or friends, she was irritable, and the worst part of all, Troy hated her as soon as he was born. She could just feel it in her bones.

Her therapist termed her situation to be postpartum depression, which new mothers face many times. By the time Carla was better, it was too late. Frank had taken a lot of his off days to take care of Troy, so by the time Carla got better, Troy and Frank were each other's favorites.

Then tragedy hit twice in quick succession. Carla's mother died in a freak car crash, and Frank was diagnosed with terminal pancreatic cancer with barely any time left to live. Having lost her mother already, Carla couldn't lose Frank as well. So she took him to the best doctors available in the UK. Traditional medicine was ineffective for Frank, so one of the doctors suggested an experimental treatment. But there was a catch.

The treatment was unproven, thus any costs would not be covered by the NHS. It was a very steep price, but Carla begged her husband to go through with it for their family's sake. If the costs weren't enough, Frank had to leave his job as well because he was too sick to teach students. The experimental treatment didn't work after some initial progress, and Frank died on Christmas Eve of 1994.

Losing everyone important to her, Carla didn't have a reason to live anymore. Once, she had parked her car on a bridge, told Troy to stay put, and walked over to the edge of the bridge, only to hear…

"Mum!" Troy had called out from the car. "Can we have spaghetti for dinner? I'll cook if you want."

Without even realizing it, Troy stopped her from doing what she had intended to. She walked back to the car, got in, and drove to the nearest general store so she could buy spaghetti for Troy to cook.

From then on, she and Troy had a tacit understanding of sorts. He would cook for the two of them whenever she was feeling low, or she had had a little too much to drink, or she had some friends over earlier. So basically, most of the time. It may sound bad, but Troy was an excellent cook, and he loved doing it. At least as long as Carla praised his meals, which she did. Mostly. Or at least she did in her head. Troy understood that too. Maybe? Some details were unclear to her.

What she did clearly remember was how much she loved scotch. Scotsmen may be wild, but they could make some really good liquor.

She doesn't remember what happened next exactly, but from what little she could gather, she had had some friends over when Troy had decided to ruin it all, leaving their tacit understanding behind. So she punished him like any good parent should. One thing led to another, and soon Carla was sent off to prison for abusing Troy. As if! It was he who should have been imprisoned. Or so she had thought at that moment.

She was assigned a public defender, who took a good look at her, and then arranged a meeting with a psychologist. After a lot of therapy sessions, the psychologist concluded that she was suffering from severe mental trauma and she should be tried for neglect at best, and not the sexual abuse that the prosecutor was aiming for. In the end, her jail sentence wasn't long, just two weeks, but she was on probation for two years with mandatory therapy sessions. She also lost custodial rights to Troy.

Her new therapist was good, and she started getting better. When she did, she realized how much of a bitch she was to Troy, and she felt a deep pain knowing that they weren't together only because of her behavior.

Then, Troy became an actor and started doing well. Not just well, but great. So much so, that he was even getting big awards like Golden Globes, BAFTAs, and even an Oscar. What hurt her a lot was that he thanked a lot of useless people in his speech, but he didn't so much as mention her or even Frank, whom he used to love so much as a kid. Where did all that love go? Did it just evaporate? No, it had been smartly converted by… them. Steve and Kathy Kloves, who had asked her to sign over Troy's custody when she was still under probation. She didn't have any choice at the time, so she did what she had to do. But now they were reaping money off of her son as if he was an egg-laying goose. She scoured the news for every item even remotely concerning Troy, and what she found painted a terrible picture.

Troy had discovered the diamond in the rough called [Harry Potter], which earned the Kloves family hundreds of millions of pounds from just the first film. Had Troy been living with her still, some of that money would be rightfully hers, so she felt it fair that she should ask for a portion of it.

At least that's what she thought they would do when a lawyer Gordon Crohn approached her. He was one of those new lawyers who wanted to make a name for himself by taking a high-profile case pro bono. He told her how he had done some research on Troy and the traces lead back to her. That man had also talked her out of asking for a settlement, and instead aiming for Troy's custody.

In his words, "Why are you settling for only a small amount when you can have the full goose to yourself?"

They had worked a lot of hours on the case before deciding the angle they would use to attack Troy's adoptive parents. His first film: [Sex Education]. It sounded a little farfetched, but it was their best bet at the moment. And it worked. At least initially it did. A lot of people were speaking against the Kloveses. Not everyone, but many were. Carla's portrayal in the media as a recovering mental patient was much better than the Kloves couple. She was hoping to sway public opinion in her favor as much as possible so that her case would be accepted in court.

And then the Kloveses launched their biggest nuke: Troy.

The 12-year-old gave one interview and single-handedly turned everyone against her. Not just some people. Absolutely everyone. They were calling it the most sensational interview of the 21st century, or something along those lines. Even those reporters who had reserved their opinions earlier were now speaking out in favor of Troy's adoptive parents and against Carla.

"Troy Armitage gives an explosive interview on the 'Morning Show with Richard and Anita' about his adoption and what he thinks about his adoptive parents' critics. Here are a few clips from that interview," a middle-aged lady was saying.

The video then cuts to show different quotes from Troy and how he absolutely demolished Richard and Anita on their own show.

"This live interview was watched by more than 15 million people in the UK alone and a further 20 million people since then. There were broadcasts in the United States and the rest of the world, where it is estimated that hundreds of millions of people have watched this interview. I can understand people's curiosity about the interview. Troy Armitage has raised some very valid points, after all. Here, I'll raise a few more: Why is this even a matter to be discussed by the media when the court legally granted Troy's custody to his adoptive parents? Moreover, no one can disagree that if he had not been adopted by people already working in the film industry, Troy would probably not even be an actor today, let alone Harry Potter. It would be such a great loss to the nation and the world if Troy's talent hadn't been discovered by his parents. Finally, no court would send a child to a mother he clearly despises. So any effort by Carla Armitage in that regard is futile.

In other news, Malcolm Gerrie, the producer of this year's BAFTA, has withdrawn the police report he had filed against Russell Crowe who…"

Carla had stopped listening by now. The reporter was right. She would never get Troy's custody when he so clearly despises her and loves his adoptive parents. In hindsight, maybe she shouldn't have attacked the Kloves couple so harshly and should have been a little more tactful.

That day, when she was out buying groceries for the week, a woman walked beside her. Carla didn't think much of it until the woman turned to her and spat in her face.

"You deserve that and so much worse, you furniture. How dare you attack such a sweet boy like Troy and his equally good parents?" The woman snarled in Carla's face.

Carla looked around to see if there would be someone who would take her side, but where she looked, everyone was giving her the evil eye. Her eyes watered, and she knew that she couldn't continue her shopping in that store, so she quickly turned around and left the place.

That day, wherever she went, there was always someone somewhere who recognized her and told her how much they hated her.

"You ruined everything for Troy!"

"You selfish shit! This is the lowest I have seen anyone behave."

"Why didn't you kill yourself, you bitch?"

In the end, she just went home and ordered takeout. The next day, she did the only thing that made sense to her. She called her lawyer.

"You can't be serious, Carla?" he asked incredulously.

"I am. Tell them that I'm willing to take my case back and issue a public apology if they withdraw their own case of defamation against me, and let me meet Troy face-to-face for just one day."

"You are making a huge mistake, Carla," he warned. "Not only your life but even my career is at stake with this case."

"It's not," she stated calmly. "Legally you're bound to give them my terms. So either do it or quit. I'll happily name-drop you in my next interview if you do the latter. Let's see how good of a career you have left then."

The lawyer disconnected the call, and Carla could only wait.

It didn't take long for the Kloves couple to agree to her terms, but instead of a full-day meeting, as she had expected, they had agreed to just one hour. Even in that one hour, Troy had the right to leave early if she said or did anything to upset him.

Here's to hoping Troy is at least a little reasonable.

ring

Carla rushed up to her door and opened it quickly to see a pre-teen boy and a middle-aged man standing at her door. When her eyes met Troy's, she rushed forward to hug him, but he smoothly sidestepped her.

"Don't," he warned. "I don't like being touched by people I don't like."

Carla wanted to say a lot of things, but she knew that she had made a grave mistake and she had to make amends, so she simply nodded and opened the door fully to let Troy in. What she was not expecting was for the older man to follow in uninvited.

"He's Roger. My security guy. Don't mind him," Troy explained the presence of the man before taking in the new apartment Carla was staying at. "This place is better than the last one. Do you still have sex in the hall or maybe in the kitchen?"

"Troy," Roger warned in a husky voice, with a dangerous tint to it.

"Sorry," Troy apologized half-heartedly.

"No," Carla interrupted. "I'm sorry. Now I know better, that what I did back then was wrong. So wrong. I didn't have this meeting today to try to convince you to do anything. I just wanted to apologize for all my behavior till now. Be it when you were little or even more recently."

She witnessed Troy's expressions change infinitesimally every moment from sadness to disbelief to confusion, before finally settling on rage.

"You can't do that!" Troy almost shouted at her. "You can't just apologize and expect me to forget everything. Do you know how many nights I cried myself to sleep blaming myself for something that was not even my fault? Or how many trust issues you gave me, probably for the rest of my life? Or how I would always see sex as this evil thing, all because of you."

Carla didn't have words to say to her son, so she did something she was not expecting to do. She went down on her knees and bent forward, touching her forehead on Troy's super expensive shoes. She believed the term was kowtow.

"I'm so sorry, son. You don't have to forgive me, but I would like it a lot if you did. If you don't, I'll understand that as well." She raised her head to look at her son hopefully.

Troy nervously looked up at his bodyguard, who shrugged, not knowing what to do either.

"Oh, get up from the floor and stop embarrassing yourself," Troy grumbled after a few moments when Carla didn't get up.

Carla got up partially on her knees and asked, "So do you forgive me?"

"No," Troy shook his head. "Before I make that decision, I need to know everything. Don't leave anything out. I'm mature enough to know all the gory details. Is that doable for you?"

"Anything for you, son," Carla promised before getting up to her feet and walking over to the sofa set, motioning Troy and Roger to take a seat each.

She took a deep breath before launching into her story, "It all started seventeen years ago…"

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AN: I am not trying to redeem Carla Armitage, but I personally feel that no human being is bad in their own eyes. Thus I have tried to show that here.