Rebecca’s POVThe moment I stepped out of the Disco Nightlife, I didn’t leave immediately. Instead, I stayed back, hidden in the shadows, eager to see Gabriel’s expression when he realized there was no way to turn things around. The person he’d planned to make his brand ambassador was now mine, and there was no way for him to buy his loyalty.I smirked. About twenty minutes later, Gabriel emerged from the nightlife. His shoulders slumped, his face a mask of defeat. He looked lost, drowning in his thoughts.I watched him walk to his car, his movements heavy with frustration. First, he kicked his tires and screamed, his voice echoing in the quiet night. Then, as if in a fit of rage, he slammed his fists against the car’s bonnet, like it was his opponent in a boxing ring.“F**k!” he yelled, the raw frustration of a man unraveling before my eyes.Money can make or break a man. When he has it and spends it freely, he feels powerful, feeding his ego. But when the money stops flowing and all
Rebecca’s POV The first light of morning felt so refreshing when you knew that you had done something to put the one who used to put your heart at peril for something he might never recover from. But there was still a possibility that he’d recovered and I was about to make it more certain that he never did. I was about to make his life worse than it already was. I’d taken my elegant bath, and my makeup artists had perfectly styled me to look like the noble lady I was. Now, Natasha was with me, and we were about to do something new. “What do you think about this?” Natasha showed me her screen and I pondered staring at a building for a while. This was a fashion store adjacent to Moretti shoes on one of the popular landmarks in our city. The fashion store was said to have filed for bankruptcy because Moretti Shoes sent it out of business over a decade ago. Ever since then, their sales plummeted largely to the extent that they did not have any more sales, not even one unit sale in th
Gabriel’s POV“What the hell?” I exclaimed, my voice trembling as I stared at the screen.“Is this a sign?” My chest tightened, my heart pounding.“Am I being punished by the universe? Why? Why is my life crumbling, unravelling, and spiralling into chaos—all in a single moment?”"Maybe... maybe I need to confess to a priest.” The thought clawed its way into my mind—a desperate plea for redemption. “Maybe his faith might persuade God to forgive me?” I whispered, clinging to the idea as if it were my last lifeline.No one knew this, but I worked so hard—too hard—to make sure Diana’s Fashion Store went bankrupt over the past two decades. It was me. I was the one who planted false rumours, tarnishing their name in the media under an anonymous guise. That’s why customers abandoned her and came to me instead.It worked flawlessly. For years, I thrived. And now, after all this time, she managed to reopen her store and compete with me when I was going through a bad phase in my business and ge
Emmanuella's POV I saw him with my side eyes as he peeped into my phone. Scoff!I got it, he was trying to know if I already had a police officer's phone number and if I was planning to report him.“Alas, baby boy!” I thought to myself as I smirked. “Today is not that day I shall let your rat off to the cat.” I thought again. Just then, when I saw that his eyes were not on my phone screen again. I went into my archived messages and started texting. “Hey Roy” I texted, “Hey Emma” he replied. Roy was someone I met just a few weeks ago in one of the parties I was invited to and since then, we have been getting close. “What are you doing tonight?” I texted. “Nothing, just gonna N*****x and chill I guess?” he replied. Then I smiled into my screen as if he could see my face right through his phone. “Can I come?” I replied. And as though he expected this message, “sure. I mean, if you want to?” he sent with a smiling and love emoji at the same time. And that was it, that was all I
Gabriel’s POVWhen she got out of bed and went to the bathroom, I caught a faint smirk on her face. It was subtle but unmistakable. She was up to something—something involving me. I clenched my jaw as the bathroom door clicked shut. That look wasn’t innocent. It was calculated, a silent taunt. And I could not help but wonder what her game was.She spent an eternity in there, the sound of water running grating on my nerves. When she finally emerged, she wore that pink gown—the one that clung to her curves and made me think of the times we’d fucked in the office. Back then, she was irresistible. Now, she was just a haunting shadow of my mistake.Her voice cut through my thoughts. “Enjoying the view, Gabriel?”I snapped out of it and folded my arms. “Are you going out?”She paused by the dresser, giving me a sideways glance. “Well, doesn’t it look like it?”Her smirk returned, daring me to respond. But I didn’t. Instead, I watched her grab her purse and head toward the door.When the do
Gabriel's POV If life had been different, if I were the happy husband with a happy wife, I would be home right now, sleeping soundly in our bed. But life wasn’t different, and here I was. As confusion swirled in my head, I answered Lawyer David’s suggestion with urgency. “Can we meet now?” I asked, not minding what it was by the time. David hesitated. “Uh… now? Well, okay… ” In the background, I heard a woman’s voice, Lola, David’s wife. “You’re not going anywhere, David. It’s midnight!” Of course. Which happy wife would let her husband leave their bed for someone else at this hour? Her resistance was understandable, but I couldn’t wait. “I have to go, love. I’ll be back soon,” David reassured her before returning to me. “St. Louis Café. Now.” The call ended, and I didn’t waste a second. Grabbing my keys, I headed to my car. Waiting any longer wasn’t an option, not when my life felt like it was crumbling by the second. ***When David arrived at the café, his eyebrows lifted sl
Rebecca’s POVA new gossip had surfaced on the internet, spreading quickly across a blog site and then picked up by others.I was still awake, sitting on the couch with Natasha as we binge-watched a K-drama on Netflix when my phone buzzed with a notification.“Gabriel Moretti now a laughingstock?” the headline read. Instantly, I was curious.I showed my phone to Natasha, and she immediately got the same notification on her own device.Both of us were intrigued, so we clicked the link and opened the article.“Gabriel Moretti, one of Madena's millionaires, humiliated himself at St. Luis Café earlier today. Sources say he was stumbling drunk after downing several bottles of beer alone. Could this be a sign of depression, or is he just a reckless man who no longer cares about his reputation? Let’s dive into the details.”Under the post, there was a division line, and another post began.“Recently, we saw the fashion store, The Authentic Authentics, next to Moretti Shoes, reopening with a
Gabriel’s POV“Authentic Authentics got a partnership with Valentines Conglomerate?” My eyes widened as I watched the vice president of the Valentines Conglomerate shake hands with Diana.“Is Rebecca getting back at me?” I muttered, recalling the moment I saw her leaving Chris Bruno’s VIP room that night, her smirk lingering in my memory.“This can’t be a coincidence,” I said, pacing around the room.Problems piled up around me like a landslide, and I didn’t know which to tackle first. As I thought about Rebecca, another thought about Emmanuella stabbed through my mind. I sank into the chair. My head felt as if it were filled with lead. If I claimed to have control over my life, I’d be lying. I was lost, desperate for someone to lead me to clarity. But who could be that guide?This was Madena, a place where nobody had time for anyone else’s problems. There was no sense of community. If you were lucky enough to marry a decent partner, you might have companionship. But if you were fooli
Cassian’s POV Immediately our lips touched, and that I saw her lean back like we had done something we shouldn’t out of the blue, out of the emotions that poured out of our discussion, I felt a wave of uncertainty. “I am sorry,” I quickly said. I didn’t want to lose her. Even when I wanted to pursue a relationship with her, I wanted it to start up slowly, making sure she fully accepted me before I properly asked her out so that I wouldn’t receive the same "No" of an answer I got back in college. “It’s okay,” she said the instant I apologized. Then I saw her hold my hands again. She looked at my lips and leaned slowly closer. “The truth is,” she whispered as she was coming closer, “We would have been a perfect match,” she said in a whisper. Hence, she kissed me right on the lips. This was like a prayer answered for me. It was like I had just hit a jackpot. And how could the most beautiful woman on earth kiss me and I wouldn’t kiss her in return? I kissed her back, burying my han
Rebecca’s POV Cassian just asked me the question that sent me back to my past. The question rang a bell. I didn’t know why it did, but it did anyway.Could it be because the question was asked by someone whom I rejected because of this very Gabriel?It shot me to the day we had our wedding—how we read our vows and promised each other never to be separated until death did us part.This same question shot me to our wedding night—how we had made love and kissed each other until morning.The memories clung to me, but I forced myself back to the present. I blinked, shaking off the thoughts.“I don’t want to talk about it, please,” I said to him, and I saw the way he nodded his head gently.He looked as if he understood where my pain was coming from, as if he could relate so well—so well that it meant he had also gone through the same fate.I felt somehow that I rejected him an explanation for his harmless question, especially because he understood it just as much as I wanted to avoid it.
Cassian’s POV I walked into the classroom in the hope of teaching my newly admitted student and going back out of there just the way I have always done in the past. Lecturing was fun, yeah right? But at the same time, it was tiring. And most tiring when you have to teach three classes in a day.I heaved out a sigh as I walked through the class entrance door. Then I lifted my head, gazing to the front of the class, the podium, and all of the students' heads. As I was moving my gaze back onto my feet, my eyes stopped as they landed on this particular lady’s head, or should I say hair? The hair color, the crispness to which the head stood on the neck, the way the gentle, beautiful fingers touched gently on her cheeks like the beautiful princess of Persia—it all reminded me of one lady. Rebecca.Back in college, she was everything I wanted to be with. And why this? Her gentle voice when she talked, her beautiful, attractive physique, the way her waist moved when she walked like she was t
Rebecca’s POVCassian was a man I met back in college. He was the top boy whom all the ladies on campus wanted back then—except me, because, of course, I was with Gabriel. He was fucking handsome, and girls flocked around him every now and then, wanting to be his girl. But how ironic—he didn’t want any of them. He only wanted me.We weren’t in the same department back then, but that didn’t stop him. He would come from his department, which was the Department of Project Management, just to watch us and stare at me from a distance. It was something I noticed often, but I never truly acknowledged it until he finally expressed his feelings for me.Back then, I loved Gabriel too much to even consider anyone else. When Cassian confessed, I told him I was with someone else and that it couldn’t work between us. And being a man who valued his self-respect, he backed off. He stopped talking to me ever since, merely waving from afar anytime we crossed paths.At first, I felt offended by his sudd
Rebecca’s POVIt’s been three months since Micah’s sentencing, yet the knowledge still feels fresh, as if the verdict was just announced yesterday. Michel has also been struggling with PTSD. Anytime she is in the kitchen and hears one of the male employees enter—whether to pick something up or deliver a message—she immediately tenses. Her first reaction is always to grab a knife, pointing it instinctively at whoever stands before her.No one blames her. We all understand that healing takes time. According to the doctor, this is the moment when she needs the most support, and I’m determined to be there for her every step of the way.Despite everything, life moves forward. This morning, I decided to arrive at my first lecture early, feeling a sense of renewal as I embarked on this next chapter.A month ago, I applied to further my studies. I realized that returning to school would not only help me heal but also increase my value. In a world dominated by men, I understood that as one of
Micah’s POVWhen Attorney Langford was asked if he had evidence to support his claims, my heart raced even further.Attorney Langford was actually making a lot of sense, enough to prompt the judge into giving me a lesser punishment. But now that she had asked for evidence? I knew Attorney Langford was all mouth and no proof, yet he should have known that words alone wouldn’t work in court—especially not in the Supreme Court of Mandena.I turned to look at Attorney Langford. At the mention of providing evidence, sweat broke out on his forehead. He was clearly trapped. Across from him, Attorney David smirked, and when I passed my gaze toward Rebecca, she smirked too. But she wasn’t even looking at me.It was evident that Attorney Langford had walked straight into a dead end on this case.“Huh… humm…” he stammered, attempting to form a response regarding the evidence.Right there, I dropped my gaze to the floor inside the dock. My hands were trembling now. I could practically see myself
Judge Hilar’s POV“Who is representing the defendant?” Judge Lisa asked as she took her seat. Just then, the courtroom door barged open, and Attorney Victor Langford stepped in.Every attorney in the city knew who Langford was. He was an opportunist attorney, the kind who seized cases others wouldn’t touch. No one hired him because they believed he was too young and inexperienced to handle or win any case. So, he made himself available for any defendant who had no legal representation.If he won, he would demand his payment later. But unfortunately, he was a lawyer who kept proving the public right. He had never won a case since he was called to the bar.My heart froze the moment I saw him enter the courtroom. If by “defendant” attorney, it meant he was the one who would represent me too, then Micah and I were doomed. My pulse quickened at the thought.“My name is Victor Langford, representing the defendant.” I watched as Langford rose to his feet and bowed to the judge, introducing
**Micah’s POV** It didn’t matter how long I waited for the head of the community service to arrive so that I could complete my service for the day and ensure I wouldn’t land in trouble with the government—he never came. Hours passed, yet there was no sign of him. Frustration gnawed at me, but knowing full well that I couldn’t leave the house, I stayed put and waited until the next morning, hoping for clarity. Morning arrived faster than I had anticipated, the sun barely peeking over the horizon when a sudden, resounding knock echoed through my home. My heart froze. The forceful banging sent a chill down my spine, instantly reminding me of the letter I had received the day before. Yesterday had been the 18th. Today was the 19th—the day I was supposed to appear before the Supreme Court of Manderin. My pulse quickened as my mind scrambled for a solution. **"How do I..."****BAM! BAM! BAM!** Another heavy knock jolted me out of my thoughts. Without wasting another second, I rushed to
Micah’s POVThe moment I stepped out of the office, the court officials grabbed me immediately, escorting me straight to the van before tossing me inside.Just as they were about to close the door, I caught sight of Judge Hilar stepping out of his office. He stood by the entrance, his gaze locked onto mine. His eyes were red and swollen as if he had been crying before coming outside.Even as the police vehicle took off, my eyes remained fixed on him until his figure faded into the distance.His words still haunted me, echoing in my mind as if he were standing right next to me, speaking them all over again.Two hours later, we arrived at my home—the same home I had abandoned when I left to be with Rebecca. The officers dragged me out of the van and led me inside. Without hesitation, they fastened a device to my leg, and the moment it snapped into place, a sharp beeping sound filled the air.I knew exactly what this device was. I had seen it in movies countless times—a tracking monitor