I now had two men shadowing me everywhere I went. Everyone was a suspect, regardless of who it could possibly be connected to.Kol hadn’t had many partners and one was already dead. I highly doubted that high school crushes could some how spawn delusion psychopaths who thought it was perfectly okay to watch people in their houses and how on earth had they even avoided the cameras? All three of us, Kol, Josh and I had stayed up all night ransacking video footages of the company, the streets near and Kol’s house and found nothing. It was like this person was a ghost. A skilled ghost.I didn’t tell Thea or Charlie. They had too much to deal with. I couldn’t offload all that on them, plus, it was my problem. I’d deal with it.I’d temporarily moved in with Kol and we now went to work and back home together, fueling the rumours at work for anyone who noticed. Kol’s place was safer than mine in terms of security and definitely much cozier. Our fights had increased daily and we were both stre
“Where should we meet up?”“How about you come over and I make dinner? I happen to be an excellent cook.” We hadn’t been to each other’s spaces before and Charlie thought we would feel cozier if we met up at her place, which I realised wasn’t too far from Kol’s. A win-win situation.“Aren’t you very busy though?” Her being a doctor surely messed with her schedule. I’d seen videos of how over worked some of these medical staffers were, especially the nurses. How wrong I was.“Nope. I only work on Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays. Since I’m a plastic surgeon, my workdays are quite flexible.”“Oh.. okay.”“Does 6pm sound good to you?”“Sure.” All my exhaustion from the days work suddenly disappeared. I walked up to Kol’s office and knocked. There was no answer. I decided to open the door and wait for him.I walked to his floor-to-ceiling glass window and peered outside. I had never done that and even though I’d been in his office countless times, and there was an actual window, I felt like
"You didn't." My eyes narrowed at her."I'm sorry." She ran to open the door, revealing a slightly older man with a head full of dark hair. He looked way younger in person. "Dad!" She hugged him before letting him in."I smell chicken fried rice. You cooked?" I didn't miss the tone of surprise in his voice. She walked hand-in-hand with him to the kitchen. He hadn't seen me yet. He was more focused on their conversation. When I finally came into view, he stopped in his tracks, as if he couldn't believe his eyes. "How..." My brows drew into confusion.I looked at Charlie with panic in my eyes. He had the same green eyes as us and now they were filled with fear mixed with shock?"My God! Evelyn."My eyes widened in surprise. He'd mistaken me for his dead wife."Charlie? Can you please explain what's going on here?"I looked back at Charlie who had a sheepish expression on her face. I threw the napkin on the kitchen counter and folded my arms across my chest, anger evident on my face
“How about a vacation?” I looked up at Kol who was running his hands through my hair. I lifted my eyebrows quizzically. Kol wanted us to go on a vacation? Workaholic Kol?Things had been quite silent at work, especially with Jason. Too quiet even and though neither of us said it, but we waited for the other shoe to drop. Jason was not the type to sit back silently when he was ‘attacked’. “You have anywhere in mind?” My eyes closed as I breathed in his scent. His fingers moved wisps of hair away from my face and looked at me with love and a hint of mischief in his eyes.“I’m not telling.” I huffed. “So you’re kidnapping me then?” His deep chuckle vibrated through my skin and into my bones.“I wouldn’t call it kidnapping. More like surprising…”I rolled my eyes and lifted his shirt to reveal his well-toned abdominals. I moved my lips to his skin and his body tensed in response. If he thought I was going to do something s*xy, he was in for a big surprise.I brought out my tongue and
“This is insane. How is your place this big?”I looked around Thea’s house. The house she’d gotten in Naples had multiple rooms that she probably wouldn’t need but it was the aesthetics that blew me off. From outside, it looked just like a pristine-white mansion that covered over four thousand square feet but on getting inside, I couldn’t shut my mouth. It was like a splash of flavours. The arch ways had murals painted over them and some rooms had some kind of alt décor in some of them. You could get to a room and feel warm and you could get to another and feel hyped up enough to do some work because of the lively space.“Bro… I can’t even…” We’d just left her workspace from the tour and I could understand why her house was so huge. There was this really big room that could fit 20 of old room in it and there were fabrics upon fabrics strewn about with lots of machines I couldn’t even recognise.“Damn! How did you even manage our space? It seems like an ant compared to this.” I motione
I hadn’t seen Santonio since our arrival but I’d lost count of the number of guys I’d had to tell off in the last 30 minutes.“There’s this guy I’ve been seeing…” I moved my focus on my funny-looking drink to Thea who was on her third glass. Thea didn’t like to talk much about guys she saw because most of them were flings.‘This must be pretty serious.’ I thought to myself.“Oh really? Who’s he?”“I don’t know. Some guy who owns multiple businesses. It’s not that big a deal but I think I like him.”“Not that big a deal? I haven’t seen you like a guy in years.” She waved the matter off like it didn’t matter.“He texted me not quite long. He’s supposed to be here tonight.” She pouted. My brows shot up in surprise.“We’ve been talking online mostly. We’ve only seen a couple of times actually, when he has work here.”Long distance? Nah. It was a big deal. If there was someone who hated long distance relationships more than me, it was her. She slurped her drink until there was nothing in t
“Let her go.” The deadly calm in Kol’s voice scared me but seemed to have no effect on the drunken idiot who still had a tight grip on my wrist.“Who the f*ck are you?”“The man who will leave you unrecognisable if you don’t let my woman go.”Maybe it was the alcohol or the cold in the air but this stranger didn’t let go. Kol approached him with an almost silent stride. I tried to pull my wrist from his hold and begged him to let me go.Kol was much taller and more built than he was. Even if he was an expert fighter, he was drunk. I was doing him a favour.“Shut up b*tch.” Kol didn’t spend a lot of time talking. He let his fist do that. The first punch sent him doubling over, causing him to drop my hand to hold his stomach. Kol approached him again but I pulled him back.“Hey, I’m okay. Let’s just go.” I knew it took everything for Kol to leave him just like that. The man had refused to do as he asked and further insulted me.“Kol?” I saw his eyes narrow at the figure on the floor and
“What’s up with him?”“Okay, don’t take this the wrong way but I know him.” I gulped hard.“Why would I take that the wrong way. Of course you’d know him. I’d be surprised if you didn’t.” My eyes widened a fraction and then narrowed in confusion.“He told me he also does tech stuff. So, it’s plausible that you’ve met.” She clarified.“I don’t mean like that. Okay.” She put her popcorn aside, her attention fully on me.“Do you remember when I worked at Jaskey’s and I found out my boss cheated me?” Her eyes darkened as she remembered the event.“Yeah. I remember. I did say that if I found him, I’d beat him to pulp.”“Well, technically speaking, you have. Jace…” I shook my head.“Jason is my boss’s boss.”“What?” She cleaned her ears like she hadn’t heard right.“Are you f*cking serious right now?” I nodded my head in all seriousness.“But… he doesn’t seem like that kind of person.” Was she seriously defending him?“He’s not a good person Thea. Trust me, I know.” Thea sent me a sharp loo
EPILOGUE“Kol, this doesn’t look right.” Kol pulled the Christmas tree to the left again. I could see his veins about to pop as I shook my head. We’d been at it for almost 30 minutes straight and Kol was getting tired.“A little…” He groaned as he moved the tree a little to the right. There!“Perfect.” I huffed like I was the one doing all the work. Kol collapsed on the rug for a few minutes, probably thinking of new ways to most like strangle me and then stood up.“Baby, I’m sorry.” I kneaded his shoulders, his body relaxing under my touch.“It’s fine.” I placed a kiss on his back hoping to relieve his muscles but he turned rigid instead. I didn’t stop kissing his back though.“I think you should stop. Your dad will be coming over in a few hours and I would prefer the house smelling like hot chocolate and cookies.” He spun around to face me, grabbing my jaw.“Not wild s*x.” He always had a way of leaving me w*t and speechless every d*mn time.Now I wanted the whole place to smell like
“I cannot believe you woke up late. We should’ve left hours ago.” I smacked my forehead in exasperation.“You mean 30 minutes ago.”“You’re late. It’s all that matters.”Dimitri had an amused smile on his face as he watched Charlie and I bicker in the plane. They were all late, except for Kol and me. That was pretty much a given but Charlie was the latest of them all.“Can you too stop fighting so I can enjoy my champagne?” Josh was pouring a glass for Thea who had her sunglasses on, even in the plane, seemingly unbothered about everything.Both of them had been pissing me off.“What the f*ck is going on between both of you?”“They shagged.” Charlie pipped up beside me.“Ew! I cannot believe this.” My nose wrinkled in grossness.“Pay up.” Kol stretched out his hands. I now owed him a couple hundred dollars. Thea’s brows pinched together in confusion and sudden realisation.“They bet on us.” She pointed accusingly.“Why am I not surprised?” Josh glared at us, mainly at Kol.“How much?”
“Imagine having time to take care of your family because your app helps you work out your day effectively from just keeping track of what you do per time.”“We are in the age of health and lifestyle. An app that could sync up your life with routines that have been mastered by our app would make life so easier.” Everyone was paying rapt attention as I continued to speak.“For example, Miss Tina doesn’t usually work out but she syncs her app to her health. On Monday, she works out by 9, on Tuesday, she does the same. On Wednesday, she doesn’t work out at all. Maybe something else has her preoccupied at that moment.Our app notices these routines you have skipped throughout the day and reminds you at 9 that you haven’t worked out. You’re not forgetting anything and you’re not storing unnecessary data in you brain.”“It doesn’t just work with health, it works for anything that has a routine. Something you do every time. You don’t have any activity you’re forgetting because something is re
“How?” I couldn’t process my words. It was like I had entered a new realm where the sun had been replaced with fairy lights. Concrete had been replaced with soft grass that tickled my feet. I pried open strings of steams and walked into the space before me.“Was that…” Julia Michael’s song played in the background but this song felt different than when I first heard it. It felt like a lifeline, my lifeline. The song that had pulled me out of a wandering abyss at the hospital.I’d been so caught up in the beauty of the environment that I hadn’t noticed Kol in the centre of everything, standing right there. My eyes welled up with tears and my mouth felt very dry.I walked slowly to him and stopped where he stood.“Kol, what is all this?” I gestured to everything he’d set up. His hands found mine and squeezed.I looked up at him and my heart raced within its cage. There was a new emotion in his eyes I hadn’t seen before. Contentment. He seemed content with everything, his life. Gosh, I w
“Thea, meet Charlie. Charlie, meet Thea.” I motioned to both of them as we converged outside Thea’s new place. She’d moved into Charlie’s neighbourhood and thought we should all just meet at her place since she hadn’t been properly introduced to Charlie.Both of them smiled at each other and Thea being Thea just ran off her mouth.“You’re so pretty. D*mn. If I were into girls, I would lick you up.” I threw her a disgusted look. Some thoughts were better left as thoughts. Charlie didn’t mind though as her cheeks turned rosy.“Can we please go inside?” I rolled my eyes at both of them.We joked around for a few hours and I could tell that they would be fast friends. They were so similar in nature, both beautiful, fashionable and resilient, tough nuts to crack, but would defend what they thought was right with all they had.Thea looked at her phone surreptitiously and turned it off. She’d been acting edgy all day. Was she expecting a call from someone?“What is it?” I whispered beside he
We sat inside David's study. A room with wood that looked richer than my bank account. It probably was richer. The shelf behind him held so many books that had been considered priceless or just lost to most of the world.His house looked just as elegant as it did outside on the inside. The couches smelled of expensive leather and one could smell a citrus-cinnamon scent everywhere else.We all sat in the living room just staring at one another until Gerald came in to ask for what we'd eat, his stare at me unwavering. I shifted uncomfortably in my seat.We'd all echoed the same thing."No, thank you. I'm fine."When he saw no need for his services, he calmly left the room, sparing me a final glance before exiting the door.I didn't know where to start or how to David's face wasn't welcoming. He looked angry but he hadn't thrown me out yet. So, that counted for something.Instead of leading with a 'why the f*ck did you help me?', I asked something entirely different. "How long have you
I went up to the room and lay in bed, looking up at the ceiling but not noticing it.First I was shocked, then I was mad. Shortly after I was confused. Why?Kol walked on eggshells around me all night, not knowing how to handle the situation for once. I understood that there was no choice and he was the only option in that moment but why had he done it?I was under the impression that he hated me and that I should’ve died in place of his wife. He’d made that abundantly clear. If you asked me, I thought that was a very obvious opportunity for his wishes to be fulfilled.While I continued staring at the ceiling, Kol glanced at me surreptiously.“I’m sorry.” I turned my face to fully look at him.“I’m not mad at you. I would’ve done the same thing.” I would’ve. His life over any other thing. That would’ve been my choice too.“I’m just… honestly, I don’t really know how to feel.” I moved a lock of hair from his forehead and left my hand on his face, cupping his cheek.“That’s fine. If you
FIVE WEEKS LATERTori’s POV.“I swear, I’ll kill him if he tries to bring a spoon near me to feed me.” I hissed through my teeth.Thea chuckled beside me as she got the bath ready for me. I’d come back from the hospital and Kol had been treating me like I was made of glass, carrying me everywhere, spoon-feeding me, tucking me in bed.I was tired and he was slowly getting on my nerves. I’d thrown a fit when he’d demanded that I let him feed me. My arms were f*cking fine. I was fine. I still needed bed rest but I could do a few activities without groaning so loudly.“It is so weird to see Kol like this. I think it’s best if you just let him baby you. We don’t know when he’d go back to cold - no emotions Kol.” She was right but it was getting overbearing.I rolled my eyes at her.“I am serious about killing him though. He won’t go beyond holding my hands though.”“What else do you want him to do? He’s scared he might break you.” Her eyes glinted mischievously at me. I scrunched up my nos
Tori was awake. I couldn’t believe my eyes. The doctors couldn’t either.They were all shocked at her miraculous recovery. She could barely speak or move much. She still needed weeks of rest and medical care but she was awake. It was all that mattered.I watched her sleep and wake up, drink water when she was parched, cleaned her myself and then watched her some more for long hours.My phone rang, disrupting my new position as the room hawk and mother hen according to Thea who was asleep in a very uncomfortable position by the way.“How’s she?” Josh had also rushed over, dropping every other thing when he had heard she was awake but returned back to work shortly after.“She’s asleep.” He sighed deeply and then continued to talk some more about work. We were doing fine, thanks to Josh. The short period when Tori was almost lifeless, there were moments of reflection where I realised that not a lot actually mattered to me in the grand scheme of things. The grand scheme of things being sp