stephan parked in front of the hotel. It was crowded with people in pretty dresses and dark suits, and they were slowly making their way inside to the main hall. There was a marble fountain, and several parked cars outside, and stephan stopped as close as he could to a red car. They got out, and stephan took parsley by the arm and introduced her to his mother, Hannah. It was her red car."Hello, my dear!" she said, flinging her arms around them both. "stephan, you look so handsome! And so pretty, parsley!" She smiled. Took a swig of wine."Are you already drunk?" Asked Stephan."No, not yet. A few wines, that's all." She waved at Norah, Dalton, and Valerie behind them, struggling with the car door. "The Schultz's. The perfect family." She said, as they finally joined them and kissed Norah and Dalton on the cheeks. "Thank you so much for coming. It wouldn't be the same without you."Norah blushed. "It's a pleasure."" She snorted and placed a steadying hand on Norah's shoulder as she l
stephan hissed into her ear, "you heard the man. We'd better get to it soon, eh? Was I thinking… tonight? If you're free, that is?"She elbowed him hard in the ribs, but he didn't back off. "Remember what happens if you mess this up for me. Be nice now, and later tonight, you can be as naughty as you like." He grinned so wide she worried his ears might drop in. She bit her bottom lip hard, so hard it drew blood. If Mr. Sterling didn't come soon, she knew, then she would have to sleep with his guy.Then, quickly, the room grew silent. It was like the oxygen had been sucked out of the room. A fork clattered; a mother silenced a child; a wine glass chimed. Then, shoes hoofing on the marble floor, growing louder, each stride resonating purpose.A man entered, tall and handsome in a charcoal grey suit. Chest out shoulders back, hands in pockets. Such elegance and confidence that he commanded the attention of everyone there. parsley's eyes fixed on him and realized that figure. It was Mr. S
parsley let out a guttural growl and gnashed out her words. "You! You who slept with my sisterstephan turned scarlet, his jaw clenched, and fists were clenched white. He was raised above his head, ready to strike, like a hammer on an anvil.parsley flinched. Waited for the blow to land… but it didn't come.Stephen's hand was frozen above his head, where it was locked in a vice-like grip. Stephen stared maniacally at his uncle, Ryan, whose jaw, wide and sharp like a spade edge, was clamped shut in a repressed rage."You would dare hit a woman in front of me." Not a question.stephan's temper quickly cooled; his shoulders dropped, and his mouth started to form words that sounded like an apology."Remember who I am, stephan, and know that she is now with me." He let go of stephan's arm and took parsley's hand, whispered to her, "Do you want to go back inside, or would you rather leave?"parsley shook to the core, felt she had no choice but to cling to his arm as he led her to the backse
You have the nerve to come back here? After running away with a man, just like your shameless mother!" Shouted Norah, livid, jumping out the sofa.Dalton, usually the diplomat, joined in, "Are you crazy, parsley? How could you sleep with stephan's uncle? Is there any misunderstanding? Just go and explain to stephan and old Sterling, and tell them it's nothing between you and Ryan."parsley clenched her fists. "No misunderstanding. stephan and I couldn't be together anymore."Norah pointed her finger at her, "Did you hear that? She really has a thick hide! Shameless thing! The same as her mother, who ran away from home, abandoning her daughter and her husband!""Stop it!" parsley stared at her aunt, "I'm not going to marry stephan, and I have the freedom to choose who I marry. And -let me be clear- stephan and I are over. That man, he has done things to me! Or are you just worried about your factory? Well, don't be. stephan won't dare do anything in fear of his uncle. Okay?"Dalton was
Sister, do you know him?" Asked the child, Tony, curiously.parsley nodded.More than "know," she thought to herself. She'd grown up with him in the orphanage, in the aftermath of her father's death. She cried, daily, sometimes in throat rattling sobs, other times a weak whimper, but always a sense of earth-shattering change taking place around her. Like she could not trust the walls around her, that they might fall away and reveal another, stranger reality she knew nothing of. For the first time in her life, she was alone, in every sense of the word, and she didn't know what to do.At first, she'd stayed in bed until the uncanniness of her own life, spinning in circles around her head, drove her up and out, if only to get away from the repeating dreams that haunted her. It was then that she met Kevin. A tall, boy with a mop of blonde hair. He sat next to her on a bench in the courtyard and showed her a picture he'd drawn. "Do you like it?" He held it up. It was her, smiling in a on
"It's okay. I'm sure you'll find your parents." Said parsley."I don' think I want to. Not anymore. I mean, they abandoned me, so, who's to say that, even if I did find them, that they would even want to know me? They didn't even bother contacting this place since leaving me here." He spread out his arms, from the tall brick wall to the playground. Then, he placed a hand on hers. "Savannah, everything okay?"parsley smiled. Kevin still understood her – could read her like a book, even as she actively tried to hide from him. He persisted. "Tell me, parsley, what happened?"So she let it out. At first, she wasn't sure how much to tell. She started with small things, like her life with her aunt and uncle, but soon she was moving onto bigger things, and she couldn't stop despite herself, like a dam that had just broken.She described her arranged marriage to stephan and how she'd been sent to another man's bed. And how she'd then discovered that he???d been having an affair with her cousi
it was midday when parsley arrived at her new apartment. It was high up on the thirty-first floor and looked out over the city to the sea. In the living room, it had a glass wall with long yellow drapes pulled open. And throughout, from the kitchen to the bathroom and bedroom, was a white marble floor. Her favorite part, though, was the balcony outside. It was wide and had a bench and chairs set out and southward facing to catch the sun. She sat there, warming herself, thinking about the past few days, and felt utterly detached from the world. Like she had done so long ago when her father died. And just like then, she cried.Two hours later, there was a knock at the door. It was a short man with thin, mousey brown hair and thin spectacles. "Where is Kevin?" She asked.Dan laughed, "He's busy at work. They're super busy right now bug-fixing for a release next month. All-hands-on-deck and all that.""You work in the same company, don't you?" said parsley. "So why is he busy and not you?
He stood upright, flung his head back, and laughed. "Yeah, maybe. Probably. But hey, you know, what's a billion dollars to us, eh?" he shook his head. "Sorry. It's like this. The Sterling Group is going to sue us, and I don't think it's a secret that we're going to be outgunned there. And that isn't even the immediate problem. The problem right now is that we can't even pay bail to get him out. The girl, Valerie, saw the whole thing and testified to keep him locked up in there. The whole thing's a bloody mess."Just as Kevin emerged from a wedged open green fire door, they sat down and cuffed to a table and chair bolted to the floor. He saw them and shot a scowl and Dan.Dan held up his hands "Don't you start giving me shit, she wouldn't take no for an answer."parsley looked at Kevin, and his eyes hollowed out by large black rings. Had he slept at all? She wanted desperately to reach over and hug him; tell him that he was an idiot and that she loved him for it. But she couldn't. Inst
It must be Stephan hacking Valerie with money so that she could afford to spend lavishly in HIMO, which was owned by the Sterling Group.parsley mocked herself as she thought of it. Her ex-fiancé must have gone about with Valerie for a long time, and even supported Valerie secretly, while she herself, his fiancée, had been like an outsider, knowing nothing at all.Valerie waved her hand to stop the clerks and came to parsley swaggeringly in a warlike gesture, and lowered her voice, "Hey, you broke up with Stephan, didn't you? Where's the money coming from that allows you to shop here? How can you afford a pair of socks here without your fiancé's help?"parsley said cynically, neither overbearing nor servile, "I had never made free with Stephan's money since I was with him, unlike someone, taking herself as a hooker, and blindly asking a man for money by selling her body, even to her future brother-in-law!"Red with anger, Valerie hadn't expected that parsley dared fight back, "you bla
HIMO was an industry owned by the Sterling Group.A man in suit and tie and a pair of rimless glasses came over to them, "You must be Miss Schultz. Come in, please."parsley paused."This is the general manager of the HIMO VIP service department, whose last name is Green." Mark said, resting a palm on Mr. Green's shoulder. "Miss Schultz, you can call Mr. Green for help at any time during your shopping."She took a deep breath, well, it seemed that she was not going shopping, but took whatever she liked from HIMO--Ryan's big wardrobe. Accompanied by Mark and Mr. Green, parsley walked into HIMO.Mr. Green took parsley to the women's wear department and stopped at MiuMiu's counter. He smiled kindly, "Mr. Sterling said that this brand is quite suitable for Miss Schultz."parsley nodded, "I'll go by myself. You must be very busy, and I don't want to bother you." Then she turned to Mark, "You too. I can do it myself.""Mr. Sterling told us to wait on you, Miss Schultz." Mark raised his eyeb
Ryan stood over her, a protective hand resting on her back. "Why are you still crying? I can give them more money to hit themselves if you want." He chuckled.She shrank away from him. He cut a lonely figure in the world, at once in but apart from it. His own family was tortured enough. How could he understand that she was crying because, at that moment, her only family in the world was gone?And that made her think of her father and mother, who she missed very much, making her cry even more.Dylan lowered himself to her high and fixed her gaze with his. "Enough." His voice was low, not pleasant - commanding, but softer. parsley looked at him tearfully, still could not control herself.Ryan knitted his brows impatiently, leaned down, and kissed her lips gently, and then he sucked at her lower lip.She froze and stared, and a few seconds later, she woke up and shoved him away, "You... What are you doing...""Still crying?" He lifted his hand and rubbed his mouth, wiping away the crysta
parsley clenched her hands, "Uncle, I... ""You can tell me, I already know. I saw the news this morning. They were talking about a girl and, even though there were no pictures, I know it must've been you. Am I right?" He didn't pause for an answer, instead of rushing on to praise him. "Mr. Sterling is really nice to you to take you out to a place like that." A glint sparkled in his eye, and an uneasy feeling grew in her stomach. Was it the tea?He nodded, quick to push the subject aside.Dalton continued, "parsley, since Mr. Sterling treats you well, I was wondering, can you do me a favor?"There, he said it. Her heart gave its last pulses as it sank, like a sunken submarine tumbling to the black-depths. She remembered what Ryan had said and hated him at that moment. Why did everyone know better than her? "What is it?" she said quietly."Well, I mentioned it before; I'm out of debt thanks to Stephan, but then you left him... Two days ago, some men came to our house and threatened to
Holy shit. People called this guy Mr. McDreamy? Why the hell did so many girls had a crush on him, she thought.These netizens were more interested in Ryan than in the "fresh meat" of the moment (her). Waiting for her to be dumped? Well, she would like to thank her cyber friends very much if that were ever to come true!She didn't care, not really. If anything, she felt bad for his fans. He was really not the man they made him out to be. What would they do if they know their McDreamy was a pervert? Then, an idea-parsley thought for a while and then entered the registration page.Um... Her nickname of the account would be…She rolled her eyes, and three words appeared under her slender fingers on the iPad, Super Pervert Sterling.Then, she commented after the news. "The woman is innocent! It's easy to know a man's face, but not his heart. How can you be sure that Ryan Sterling is as good as you think? Let me tell you, and he is a pervert!" After, parsley felt much better. She forked a
Kevin winced as a montage of images flashed across his vision, Ryan, hands rested on the back of her head, forcing her mouth down on him, choking her, Her beneath him, her nails raking his back, as he thrusts deep inside of her, parsley bent over a table, hands balled as he held her by the hips and thrusts, hard and fast into her, cumming across her back. As Ryan said, parsley was his pet... parsley, fearing Kevin's outburst, forced an easy smile, "Kevin, it's getting late. I think we should leave." She said, tugging at Ryan's arm. "Let's go, baby. The party is over." Ryan, holding her hand, nodded, and they walked straight towards the door.parsley was taken by Ryan to the hotel entrance. Ryan waved over a valet and gave him a ticket, and they waited for the car to arrive. She took the opportunity to withdraw her hand from his, stepped back and frowned at him. "Is it necessary to do these kinds of things?""You bet." He said.She took a deep breath, "Please, don't ruin Kevin's comp
Everyone gasped and were enthralled by what was happening on stage.It seemed obvious to Parsley and, she suspected, to everyone else, that the speaker had no clue what was going on between the two men either. He sank uneasily into the background, glanced around, bemused, and then slunk off stage. parsley wanted to laugh if it wasn't all oh so sad.She hoped Kevin wouldn't lose his temper. That would practically force Ryan, with his large ego, to come down hard on him.Finally, Kevin unclenched his fists and shook hands with Ryan and, gracefully but with some irony in his tone, said, "Mr. Sterling, you are taking your joke a little too far. Why not tell me in advance? Are you afraid of a disagreement?""No jokes, no surprises," Ryan said, diplomatically, dismissing Kevin's hidden barbs out of hand. Disappointed journalists started snapping pictures again, and they began to interview the two men for the details about their future relationship. After all, both of them were obviously ver
He noticed how her breasts swelled beneath the hugging fabric of the dress as if waiting for his caress. Though she had a sweet and round face, he was constantly surprised to be reminded her mature, her body was.He stared at her so viciously that she felt a little ashamed. She wanted to cover her breasts with her hands, but she dared not.He got up and walked over, moved his hands up to her head and pulled up her hair, and where his fingers touched her skin, she felt a tingle of the head, and she instinctively shrank back but found he only pulled out a necklace and put it on her neck."How can you wear an evening dress without jewelry?" He put back her hair after that.The necklace glimmered with a blue gem on the pendant.parsley hesitated, "This necklace... It must be very expensive."She hated taking anything from him and feeling like she owed her more than she already did. It was more leverage he had over her."It's nothing compared to the price I've paid for you." He lifted her f
He vowed that he would never have any relationship with the Smiths, let alone ask Mr. Smith for help. Therefore, he had always rejected his father's goodwill, and he believed that he could create his own world without relying on his backstabbing family.In fact, he did."Mr. Wills, if you don't leave, I'll call security." The secretary said with an emphatic pronunciation.Kevin loosened his fingers and, finally, turned away.The office door shut, Ryan stood with his hands in his trousers, his expression rather cold. It seemed that the relationship between parsley and Kevin was better than he thought. His mouth pressed into a hard line, he thought for a while and called in Mark.Mark immediately came in, "Sir."Ryan narrowed his eyes, "JK always wants the investment from the F&H Group, right?"Ryan remembered Mr. Wilson, the president of F&H Group, had mentioned it when they played golf together last month.Though JK had technology and innovation, it was a start-up company and required