Bitter Sweet Chocolate

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© 2014 Sheila Sander. All rights reserved.

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All characters appearing in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

Published by AuthorHouse 05/12/2014

ISBN: 978-1-4969-7583-6 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4969-7601-7 (e)

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Contents

Acknowledgement

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Cover Copy

Acknowledgement

To my dearest daughter Angel, with all my love. You made me strong and gave me the courage to be who I am today. You are the best daughter a mother could hope for: happy, loving, and fun to be with. Thank you for your love and blessings!

And to all my friends all over the world.

•   Sheila Sander

Chapter One

S heila remembers the time she falls in love with Emily’s father. That handsome man with bright green eyes and dark brown hair. Sheila was in love with the moment she met him. She remembers the time that they promise each other to live their life together. The way he walks and talk attracted every woman who talks to him. He had some kind of a charm-handsome look any woman would be attracted to him.

Sheila thought of Dario, Hopefully he will survive the third operation after the accident he had almost one month ago. Will he live longer life? He deserve to be happy as we all wish. It was lots of work to convince Emily to visit her dad. Sheila remembers the long discussions she had with Emily.

Why do I have to see my father now? He did not care for me when I was little,—and when I needed my father. You are telling me to love him and forgive him now?

How can I love someone or build a relationship with who never exist in my life. He was all over the world, for other women, but not for me.

You!—You are the one who made me became who I’m today. If I was with him I would have landed up with drugs or alcohol. You spent all your life for me, You work hard and you grove me up. You were my mother as well as father. So, let me be with you and love you. Don’t ask me to go and see a strange man who is lying in the hospital. It’s not working. And I can’t do that

Emily—Listen, I’m not talking to you about a strange man, he is your biological father. I agree, you have the right to resent him by not being there for you when you were little. But he is your father and he needs you now. The only hope he has now is you! To see you and talk to you. You should give him a chance to get to know you.

Aha, get to know me? Now? At the age of eighteen? This is a bloody joke mom. Why don’t you mind your own business and leave me alone with this crap Emily pushed her chair loud and got up, opened the fridge and grabbed a bottle of milk and sat next to Sheila again.

Sheila was in her pajamas—sitting at the table with her coffee in hand. Her blackberry rings, she ignore the phone and talking to Emily in a very clam way.

Emily was angry and she has the right to be angry. That was very difficult situation for Sheila. She’s trying to make her one and only child meets her father after fourteen years.

It’s never too late to give someone a chance to get to know you. If you don’t give a chance how would you know? After all he is your father

Emily snaps at Sheila every time she started to talk about her father. Sheila tried convincing her to see her father at least for once. Since almost a month Sheila still trying her best without any success. Sheila had to do this in a very smart way. She knows how Emily is feeling and what she means. Emily’s father left her when she was four years old and all she has from her father is not the nice memories. How could she forgive him? How could she call him father?

One morning Emily came to Sheila’s bed and sat next to her. Good morning, Mom! I have a news for you Sheila sat on the bed. Yes, tell me!

Emily looked in to Sheila’s eyes. I will go to Zurich, and meet my father. But I wanted you to know, I’m doing this because of you. Not because of him, He is no one to me! Let me know when you are planning to travel to Zurich. But I wanted you to be there with me. I’m not going to meet him alone.

"Sure, I will come with you. How about in two weeks?

Ok, Let me know the details once you finalize the trip. I wanted to see Luna and Diana my friends as well. I will give them a call as well, I might stay with them in Zurich. I will let you know Emily grabbled the keys from the table left the house.

After two weeks Sheila packed her bags and sat in a flight with Emily to Zurich.

Sheila looked out the window of the plane and saw silver lines in the sky. It had been a long flight. Sheila looked at her wristwatch. She must have slept for at least five hours. Her daughter was sleeping next to her, and she was still listening to music on her earphones. Emily’s hand was next to Sheila. Emily was eighteen years old.

Sheila remembered when Emily was young. When she got on a flight, Emily always wanted to sit in business class. She used to say, Why can’t we sit there?

Sheila said, That’s expensive, my little angel. Put on your seatbelt now. Sheila promised herself that she would travel with Emily in business class someday.

Emily had a tough life when she was a little girl. Emily was one of the brightest kids in the school. When she was young, she always said that she wanted to be a pilot, but she changed her mind many times. She wanted to be a doctor, a nurse, and then a teacher. At the end, she made it to Harvard Business School and studied finance and economics.

When Emily was little, Sheila did not have that much money or any way to give her everything she wanted. She could not stay home and take care of her. Sheila had to work to take care of her little child. In second grade, Emily learned to come home and warm up her lunch and eat by herself. Sheila could not afford to hire a babysitter or to send Emily to school clubs. Sheila saved every single penny she could for Emily. She tried to give whatever she could to Emily to make her life easy and smooth. From the age of five, Emily grew up without a father at home.

In the end, Sheila made it! She managed to achieve her life goals. She got a good job and moved up the career ladder smoothly and steadily. Sheila could afford to travel with Emily in business class now. She could afford to send her child to Harvard now.

Sheila looked at Emily’s face. She was smart and pretty. Sheila knew Emily would do well in life. Emily had a black belt in karate and could play the guitar like a rock star.

Sheila had tears in her eyes. Had she done this all by herself? Fifteen years earlier, who would have thought that she would be sitting in business class with her daughter on a flight from the United States? Who would have thought that Sheila would do all these things to make her only child’s life better than her own life had been?

There were times when Sheila thought of taking both of their lives. There were times when Sheila could not see any path in front of her. There were times when Sheila walked until her legs were swollen or worked until her back ached.

They were traveling to Zurich to visit Emily’s father in the hospital. He had been ill for a while and had been admitted to the hospital after an accident. Sheila promised him over the phone that she would make sure that Emily visited him in the hospital.

Sheila never gave up her dream of treating her child like a princess. Sheila wanted to give Emily everything she could. She wanted to be a good mother and take care of her child as much as she could. Her dream was to see Emily graduate and get married.

Sheila knew that her dreams would come true! Sheila gave her full attention and care to Emily all the time. She never made her feel empty about her father.

Chapter Two

S heila was an attractive young woman with dark brown curly hair that fell over her shoulders. She was slim and small with light brown skin. Her big brown eyes made her look beautiful and innocent. She was twenty-three years old pretty young woman. She was a wonderful mixture of Asian and European.

Sheila was born in Asia, but her mother died in childbirth. She grew up with her grandparents. Her father got married again and had two other kids. Sheila was never welcomed into her father’s home. At the age of twelve, she recognized that she would never have the same relationship with her stepmother that she did with her paternal grandmother.

Sheila’s grandmother was kind and wise. She loved Sheila and treated as if she was her own daughter. She protects her and gave everything they could give to make her feel safe and secure. From the moment she felt that Sheila wasn’t being treated well by her stepmother, she took responsibility for her.

One day, her stepmother hit Sheila again, Sheila’s stepmother hit Sheila for whenever she’s angry at her. She would slap her, shake her and pinch her every time Sheila did not behave the way her stepmother wanted. Sheila had black marks and bruises all over her body.