Eight years agoLuna ran a nervous hand down her sequin gown. The material was a finer one than she had ever felt pressed against her body in all her life, so when she realized she was running her sweaty palms on it, she immediately stopped. She stood on the entrance to the hall, where the party was already in full swing. Jake Kierney had only just dropped her off at the mansion a few hours ago, and a few hours after that, she’d gotten the call from Moira Lake. She’d told her a personal stylist was going to be coming to the house to help her get dressed for a party, she’d instructed her to be ready for the stylist and for her first night as Justin’s wife.Luna had been staggered to hear the news for a couple of reasons. One, she’d thought she was going to be introduced as Justin’s girlfriend first, or fiancée. And then after that, after they’d shared a few moments in public and in the spotlight, and everybody had adjusted to the idea of the two of them as a couple, then they’d be
Present“You had such hatred for me even right from the start,” Luna said to Justin.They were still facing each other other, the table between them.“All you heard was my name,” she continued, “and your voice changed. Did you think I don’t hear the change in your voice the moment you heard my name, Justin?”Even now, the memory hurt, Luna realized. Justin had the decency to look chagrined this time.“You don’t know why my voice changed that night,” he said, glancing away from Luna.“No, I don’t,” Luna agreed. “But what I do know is that night was not an exception, like you think it was. Sure, we were starting to vibe before I mentioned my name, but that was a brief moment. It could have been an exception, you made it not so. You, Justin, not me.”“And I said I had my reasons,” Justin said.Luna opened her mouth to reply him, but stopped when the music pulsing through the speakers was interrupted by someone on stage.“I would like to call on Miss Luna Jones, CEO of Green-ish
Luna downed another glass of champagne as she looked around the hall. It seemed like her little spar with Justin had cleared her head of the little buzz she had felt from the two other glasses she had downed earlier.“Damn you, Justin,” she muttered to herself. The man had taken almost everything from her, now he was taking away her ability to get drunk? Where in the world was that even fair?But then again, the world wasn’t fair now, was it? Luna let out a breath, placing her empty glass back on the table. If the world was fair, she wouldn’t be going through a world of hurt as she tried to get back at her ex-husband and his mother for ruining her life all those years ago now, would she? If the world was fair, she wouldn’t even be hurt in the first place. If the world was fair, she would have been loved by Justin, and she would have been happily married to him. If the world was fair-“Luna,” a voice said from behind her.Now what? Luna asked herself silently. She rolled her eyes
What the hell am I still doing here? Luna paced the empty compound behind the hall moments later as the question pounded in her head.All through the party, ninety five percent of the people she’d met had hurt her in one way or the other. There was the woman who had made her life a living hell and humiliated her family multiple times, the man who had pretended to be her friend but had actually been a spy for the same woman. The ‘friend’ who had been nothing but a manipulator who demeaned her with her cleverly constructed words presented as compliments. Luna let out a breath, she continued pacing. Or was it the man whom she had loved, carried his child in her and felt the life they’d both created, and who all he’d ever done was to repay her with hatred.What the hell was she doing here? What the hell was she doing at all, getting mixed up with Justin again. Haven’t the past taught her anything at all? Was the humiliation she went through in her marriage to Justin not enough? Was th
“You’re still here?” Logan asked as Luna walked back into the hall. Luna stopped by his table, she picked up the champagne flute on it and downed its contents in one gulp.“Yep,” she turned to Logan and gave him a dry smile, “it’s like I want to deliberately punish myself, you know?”Logan smiled, the crease by his eyebrows showed, reminding Luna of how she always loved to see him smile. She had never seen that crease on Justin’s face, because he has never smiled. At least not that she knew of, and definitely not to her.“I’d be the first person to say my family’s not easy,” Logan said. “I’ve always admired your fairness and grace when talking about Justin and Moira to other people, considering they’re the two people who made your life miserable for years.”Luna shrugged and gave a wry smile. “Well, if I had said negative things about them, I surely would have paid for it in tenfold now, wouldn’t I? It would definitely find a way to come back and affect me, she always found a wa
Matt pulled up in the front of the hall, Luna got into the car and he drove off again. “How was the party?” Matt asked as he merged with the city’s traffic.Luna knew he was only asking as a courtesy, so she managed to drum up a smile for him.“It was nice,” she said.Matt nodded. “Good.”Luna gave him another managed smile, Matt continued driving, in silence. Luna rubbed two fingers on her forehead, there was a slight headache already brewing there. There was a dull pounding in her head too, but Luna knew that was the aftermath of the glasses of champagne she had downed at the party. And she was tired, not so much physically, but mentally. She was tired in her soul. Her heart was sick, she rubbed a hand over her chest where her heart was, there was a stinging pain there and she didn’t know what to do about it.She thought she had passed that phase. She thought she’d passed the phase where Moira’s words could still get to her and hurt her, she thought she’d passed the stage
A hour later, Luna walked out of her room and into the living room as she heard banging. Her brows furrowed as she stared at the front door, someone was pounding loudly at it from outside. Where was Rahim? she wondered. Rahim was her head of security for her house, and anyone who ever wanted to gain access to her would always have to go through him. And anyone who wanted access this late rarely got through, except it was an emergency.An emergency. Oh God, Luna thought instantly, an emergency, alarm filling her as her mind immediately went to her mother and sister. The thought propelled her to move towards the door, as she neared it, she heard voices. They were arguing, she realized as she got even closer, their voice were muted through the door but she could tell they were arguing.Luna opened the door, and the alarm and fear that had been in her head did a rude three-sixty into shock as she saw who was standing there. Justin. Rahim stood next to him, obviously trying to make
Justin’s hands framed her face as he kissed her. His fingers spread over her cheeks, his palms cupped her chin and jutted it forward as he deepened the kiss. And Luna’s heart just pounded against her ribs.Luna had been certain she wouldn’t be missing Justin ever again when she came back into his life. She had been certain because not only had she told herself, as a rule, that she wasn’t going to get entangled with Justin romantically ever again, but she had also planned to move on in the most permanent way possible from him.And now he was kissing her. He was kissing her, and she was feeling all sorts of things. Passion, desire, heat, pulsing energy, consuming fire. All was rolling through her in maximum intensity, all at once, and her heart was pounding fast in her chest.Her head, the loud roar in it was like the headache she had nursed all through the ride home from the party till she went to bed. After taking a painkiller before bed, the headache has started to subside when sh
“I want to say thank you to everyone for coming,” Logan said into the microphone. The gala had been going on for hours now, it was starting to wind down, towards the end. He was giving his speech as Chairman of Lake Industries. “This would not have been successful without you all,” he continued. “I consider you all family, but I would like to thank my family, the one that I made. Both my sons, Justin and Brian, I am proud of you both. This Gala would not have been successful without you both, I love you.” He raised a toast towards Justin and Brian. “And to the ladies who stood by their side, and not just stood, but did their part in making this a success, Luna and Ashley,” he raised his glass towards Luna and Ashley, he smiled, “I love you. You are the best additions this family could have ever asked for, and my sons are lucky to have you in their lives.” He paused. “Love makes the world go around, without it, we would be lost, and I am glad that you four have found your way to ea
Luna stood in front of the full-length mirror, she placed a hand over her bump, and stared at her image. She smiled as she felt Justin’s arms wrap around her midsection. She leaned back and rested her head on Justin’s chest, she sighed as he started nibbling on her neck. “Can’t we just stay in and not go?” she asked, tilting her neck even better for Justin’s mouth to have access. Justin stopped nibbling, he looked at the mirror, meeting her eyes. “You are a witch,” he murmured. Luna laughed. “What? It’s just a suggestion,” she said, trying to look innocent. “Yeah, a suggestion that you know I am one hundred percent for,” Justin replied. “Hell, I suggested it an hour ago, and what did you say?” Luna closed her eyes. “We really should go,” she echoed her own answer. “That’s right,” Justin murmured, his mouth already muffled against the side of her neck again. Luna sighed, she twined her fingers with Justin’s on her stomach. “I was an idiot,” she murmured. Justin ma
Present. Now Luna was mad. When the article was released, while they were preparing for the press conference, during the press conference, Luna had been sick all through. But now that the press conference was over, she was mad. She had kept her calm all through the press conference. Even when the questions had turned personal and her answers had left her a little hard to breathe, Luna had kept her calm. Rita had arrived just few seconds after the press conference started, she had stood behind the interviewers, facing Luna. And she had been showing her markers with her hands, thumbs up when she was doing good and stuff like that. That had helped to keep her calm, that, and the solid presence of Justin behind her. He had stood behind her chair, no word, no interruptions, just the occasional squeeze of her shoulder. Quiet support, and steady, even gentle, backing. And then Moira had walked in. The press conference had been nearing its end by then, Luna had watched as Rita had f
Flashback Luna sat on the sofa in the living room, staring at nothing. Moira was in front of her, pacing and reprimanding her about something. Luna wasn’t sure what, she hadn’t been listening when Moira started, she wasn’t listening now, and she simply just didn’t care. She didn’t have the energy to care, she barely had the energy to be seating here as she was. She just wanted to lie down. For the past two weeks now, that was all she had been wanting to do. Just lie down, preferably in a dark quiet corner, but at this point, she would take anything she could get. But she wanted to lie down, pull a thick, dark cover over her head, and just go to sleep. She wanted to sleep, and go on sleeping, she wanted to sleep for a long period of time. And whenever she thought of the concept of waking up from that sleep, she didn’t like it. Her heart sunk at the thought of waking up, and having to face all of this again. If she woke up, she had to sit up, she had to stand, she had to walk, she
The next day, the whole issue with Honor took a back seat in Luna’s mind as she found herself with an entirely different, and bigger, situation on her hands. Another article was leaked, this one about her father. It dug up the old news about her father, and the issue he had with Lake Industries, the debacle that had brought Luna to New York and to Justin. The article was all about rehashing what her father did, how he ‘betrayed’ Lake Industries for a handout, and how he disappeared from the grid because of his shame. His name, face and story were plastered all over the news article. Even her mother and sister were not left out, Mira and Ashley’s faces and names were printed in it too. Feeling sick about it all, Luna pressed a hand to her stomach, she stood still, trying to get in a deep breath. She was at home, people were in the house, Justin had called an emergency press conference immediately the news had hit the media. Camera men and their crew were moving about the living
“I really needed that,” Luna said two hours later, as she and Justin walked back into the studio. Justin wiggled his eyebrows at her. “Which part?” Luna laughed, she swatted his arm playfully. “The food and nice view part, you pervert.” Justin shrugged. “Hey, you sounded like you enjoyed the other part very much too when we were doing it.” Luna laughed again, she shook her head. “You’re an idiot.” “An idiot you were screaming his name,” Justin leaned down and whispered into her ear. Luna looked up at him, her eyes widening. “Justin!” Somebody cleared their throat behind them, Justin and Luna both turned at the same time to look. The smile and teasing glint in her eyes were still there when Luna’s eyes met Honor’s. “Honor,” she said, startled. She sobered up immediately, Honor looked at Luna, like she focused on her like she was determined to act as though Justin was not there. Luna felt the freeze, but somehow she felt like Honor’s acknowledgement of her was not part
One week later. Luna rubbed the kinks out of her neck, she had been stuck going through things that needed to be put in place for the Gala, all morning. All week too. Ever since Honor pulled her company out of the Gala event, there had been slacks in the work that needed to be done. Both in the parts that Honor had taken up to do, and in the aspects that her company had been taking care of. The fashion aspect. “These are really good,” Luna commented, looking at the design sketches that had been left by Honor and her company before she left. “Yeah,” Temperance, the assistant working with Luna on deciding the fashion angle for the Gala, said beside her. “Miss Kosarin and her people really worked hard on it, they worked almost round the clock too. It was like there was some competition or something.” Luna knew better that Temperance just what she was saying. From the first day they had met, she and Honor had both known there was going to be a competition between them. They had
Present. Luna and Justin were both in Justin’s car, they were driving after Honor. After her announcement, Honor had dropped the mic and immediately left the party. Moira had been livid, she hadn’t shown it, of course, or at least not in an explosive way. She hadn’t screamed or shouted, or done anything of the sort. Even in the face of what someone like Moira would probably term the greatest betrayal of all time, she still hadn’t lost control. She hadn’t shown her anger to the guests or given them a show that they could go talk about to the blogs. No matter her personal feelings towards Moira, Luna had had to admit that she found that impressive. But even with her composure, Luna had known she was angry. In fact, it had been very obvious to her, and no doubt to her family members too. She saw the look Justin, Logan and even Brian, had exchanged when it happened. The vein that had popped out on Moira’s forehead had been the first tell, followed by the twitching at the corner of
Flashback. “So you’re saying there’s nothing you can do?” Brandon asked the lawyer. Luna was in her room, the room she shared with Justin, although ‘shared’ was a strong word for how much time Justin actually spent in the room with her these days. Luna shook her head to shake off those thoughts, thinking about the ever increasing distance between she and Justin for the past month would only just make her depressed. And she didn’t have the time or head space for that. She refocused her attention on the matter at hand. She was in the room, her mother and father were on a call with her, Luna stared at their faces on the laptops screen. A man was seated beside her, Carl James, her lawyer. He was a low budget lawyer, the type she had been able to afford on her own, hers and her parents, that is. She couldn’t tap into the generous money Justin kept depositing into her account almost every day. And she couldn’t do that because she couldn’t very well use his money to hire a lawyer who