/Brian’s POV/
I flounce out of my father’s study bouncing the door angrily behind me, enraged by the suggestion that he just gave me only to be interrupted by the sound of my phone ringing loudly.I almost fling my phone in anger, but catching a glimpse of the caller ID changes my mind so I decide to pick the call instead.“finally!” Elliot heaves a sigh of relief on the other end of the call as soon as I pick up the call.“where have you been?’ He inquires.“I have been trying to reach you since I got back to silver city and found out about everything that has been going on, but your line has been so busy….” Elliot trails off.“where have you been?” he inquires with concern lacing his voice.“everywhere” I answer him with a deep sigh because at this point, I am way too exhausted to go into the details of my crappy day.“where are you right now?” Elliot inquires“I am in front of our mansion” I inform him“I am also presently at kings’ villa, your mom told me to wait for you in your suite” he informs and I just sigh because at this point, I doubt if I have any energy left in me to engage in a proper conversation.“I will be down in a minute” he says hurriedly before getting of the call.After getting off the call with Elliot, I almost take out my frustration on my car, but on getting flash backs of what I went through after breaking my steering shaft this afternoon, I comport myself and just yell to vent my frustration.After yelling for a while, I notice Elliot standing rooted in his spot and staring at me like I just stepped out of a zombie apocalypse so I stop screaming and I start staring at Elliot who doesn’t speak for the first few minutes.“how have you been holding up?” he finally speaks up after a while of staring at me like a zombie.“I honestly don’t know; I guess I have just been trying my best to stay sane” I answer him.“I have just been trying to analyze and reanalyze everything that happened over the past two weeks and somehow, I am able to fit in the missing links in the events” I express.“I am really sorry that this is happening to you, you don’t deserve any of this” Elliot comforts and I just sigh“You are going to be fine…” he says squeezing my shoulder reassuringly he says and I sigh again because it saves me from trying to think of the right word to reply with.“I heard from Meelah that your father summoned you talk about everything that is going on,so how did the conversation with him go?” Elliot inquires but my rage surges like a tide trying to cover my hurt and grief.“what does Xander kings think of himself?”“why does he keep on making decisions concerning my life time and time again without consulting me first?”“how could he suggest that I call off my engagement with Ember and announce my engagement to her sister in a few days as if it is as easy as flipping a switch?”“above all, why do I have to go through this magnitude of injustice just because I am the almighty Xander Kings only son?” I start to rant.“Hey! Hey!! Hey!!”Elliot coos me.“Don’t get yourself worked up over the outcome of your conversation with your dad…..You have been through a lot today” he tries to calm me down.“I think what you need right now is for us to go inside so that you can grab something to eat, freshen up and relax” Elliot suggests.“I don’t want to face my father right now , I just want to get out of here to a place where no one will impose anything on me” I say in something that sounds like a pleading tone.“Fine….let’s go to my house” Elliot offers but I immediately refuse.“Anybody that knows me will trace me to your house and I really want my whereabouts to remain untraceable” I explain.“Fine……let’s get you to an hotel” he agrees.The drive to the hotel is really quiet, which brings me to one of the things that I appreciate about Elliot, and it is the fact that he waits for the appropriate time for people to open up to him .He didn’t ask me any questions while we were in the car, neither did he try to forcefully engage me in any boring conversation, he just allowed me to have that time to myself.When we got to the hotel, he did all the necessary checking in before inviting me into the hotel room and helping me get comfortable.I try to check through the series of messages that clouded my notification bar, but Elliot confiscates my phone , forces me to eat and also forces me into the bathroom to shower while he steps out to get me change of clothes.I step into the bathtub for a soothing hot bath after Elliot prepared my bath for me and for a while, I was able to get my mind of things.Throughout the time that I was in the bathtub, all I could think about was the blissful feeling that I experienced as I let myself soak in the bath.I don’t know how long I stayed in the bathtub, but I am sure that it was long enough for Elliot to go to the nearest mall to get some essentials and come back to knock the bathroom door to ask if I was still alive because I have stayed longer than he expected me to and he wanted me to come out so I wrapped myself o to a bathrobe and stepped out to change into something comfortable.I suggested to Elliot for him to go home and get a proper rest after such a stressful journey, but he stubbornly refused saying that he can’t trust me to stay alone in the hotel room and before o could say jack, he forced me to retire to bed and tucked me in like a child ignoring my protest so I eventually gave in and retired to bed obediently, because if I am being honest with my self, I am really exhausted.I have been in bed for more than 20 minutes now without being able to sleep because my mind keep wandering off to what happened during the day.I try to shield my mind by thinking about the past two weeks with Ember, and my thoughts become slower with my body posture changing to a more relaxed state as the events of the past two weeks starts to become cage in my memories.************The piercing sound of my phone ringing makes my eyes flutter open as I start to wriggle and search frantically for my phone on the bed stand.After struggling in vain, parts of my body starts turning on, so I get out of bed to check around for where Elliot flung my phone after he seized it the previous night.While dear king for my phone, I silently pray for the person calling to give up, but the caller is quite persistent.“Elva!” I groan half asleep as I swipe right on the caller ID to pick the call.“We’re you intentionally listening to your phone ring so that I can stop pestering you?” She answers from the other end of the call visibly annoyed.“Why did you decide to call so early in the morning?”I answer her question with another question.“Bold of you to assume that your voice is the first thing that I want to hear after waking up in the morning”she mocks.“So why are you calling?” I inquire uninterested in all the details“I am calling because we are in front of your hotel and we need you to let us in” she informs“We??” I ask her bewildered“By we, I mean mom and I do can you just open the door and let us in?” She groans“How did you guys find out about my whereabouts?” I query“I refuse to answer any question unless you open this door” she Insists“Before I open the door,I hope you guys didn’t tag along with dad” I pause to ask before going close to the door“Do you you think I will sly you after the heated conversation that I eavesdropped on between you and dad?” She questions“So why did you now expose my location to mom?” I question her“First of all, I won’t call this exposing your location to mom because I got your location after great difficulty and second of all, are you going to open the door or do you want me to create a scene in this hotel?” She snaps“Fineeee I will open the door” I agree as I walk towards the door to open the door for them“Good morning mom” I greet my mom as she walks into the room scanning around“Why does this room look so lifeless?” Mom mom inquires as she goes to open the Curtain“What are you doing?” I caution her“It’s afternoon already, and you look like you are not ready for the day” she says and I just let out an uninterested ‘oooohhh’“So what are you guys doing here?” I inquire and both my my sister and mom share glances“Why do I smell suspicious activity on you both?” I ask my mom but instead of her to answer me, she starts to out food like we are having a feast.“ can you both stop being so weird and tell me why you are here?” I ask not enjoying silent treatment and knowing look that both my mom and sister were sending each others way“Wait a minutes, did dad send you?” I ask my mom with my rage building up“I was not sent here by dad, I just can’t say the same for mom” Elva clarifies making me shift my attention to my mom“Stop looking at me like that, I wasn’t sent here by your father…… I just came here to buttress what your dad said”my mom starts and I hiss because I can’t believe they interrupted my blissful rest to “buttress what my dad said”“You have not been taking my calls, nd I get that you probably need time to process everything that is going on, but at the same time you may have to consider your dads decision to marry Eden because this whole thing is blowing out of proportion and marrying Eden is the only constructive solution that your dad could come up with so stop being so hard on your dad and try to see things from his own perspective okay?” My mom tries to intercede on my dads behalf“If your husband sent you here to emotionally blackmail me into marrying Ember, tell him that it is not happening” I tell her with finality in my voice“Elva and I will be on our way now” she informs“We will?” Elva cuts in“But we just got here…”Ember protests warning her a glare from my mom“Fineeee we will be on her way now” she finally agrees“Well, the ball is on your court….do with this information whatever it pleases you” my mom says in conclusion before walking out ./Brian’s POV/“what was the reason for you guys to come all the way to ruffle my emotions like that” I mumble as I slump on the bed while my mom practically drags my sister out of the room.“hmm, they left quite early” Elliot sighs in relief as he makes his way out of the bathroom with his phone in his hand.“wait a minute…” I pause in shock“you were in there the whole time?” I ask him and he nods with a sly smile playing on his lips.Elliot looks around the room awkwardly before charmingly lifting one eyebrow as he says “I kinda felt that you guys needed a moment so I just excused you”“…….by staying in the bathroom?” I ask looking up and down at him snobbishly.“so the ‘great lengths’ that Elva went to get my location was you?” I ask him intentionally putting air quotes around my words.“ouchhhhhh……………I just exposed myself” Elliot says scratching the back of his head, something that he does when he feels really guilty.“how could you do that to me?” I ask him running my hand throug
/Brian’s POV/“so how did the talk with Eden go?” Elliot inquires as I move toward my bed but I just ignore him as I try to make myself comfortable on the bed.“I noticed that you were quiet majority of the time, and I didn’t hear anything that sounded like a major plan to sabotage your father’s arrangements” he points out making me remember that I was way too engulfed in Eden’s explanation concerning Ember that I completely forgot to bring that up.“so……. what did you guys talk about?” he inquires trotting slowly away from the sitting area and walking towards my bed.“why are you so interested in what we talked about?” I ask dryly barely giving him the attention that he wants.“I am so bored and I will take any form of gossip that comes my way” he says with a smile as he sits at the edge of the king-sized bed.“what about your girlfriend?” I inquire.“she is currently busy” he answers with a sheepish smile.“just because your girlfriend is busy, you want to use me as I rebound” I ask
/Brian’s POV/I go stiff for a moment, with lots of questions bolting in my head but the most obvious and pressing of tem all is ‘what the hell is this double dealer doing in Elliot’s house’. I thought I was the only one shocked to see the betrayer, but after recovering from my state of momentary shock, I realize that he was also more than shocked to see me.Well, who wouldn’t be after I beat him to a pulp to relief my anger the last time we met and I told him that we are now strangers with memories.The thought of leaving Elliot’s house crosses my mind for a moment, but I decide against it because Adrian is the one that is supposed to keep himself miles away from me since he was the one that wronged me.With that consolation, I walked into Elliot’s living and took my seat without saying a word to the double dealer because he doesn’t deserve it.One thing I just find difficult to understand is why Brian will decide to host someone like Adrian in his hose after everything he put me th
After finalizing the issue of the paternity of Embers unborn child with Adrian that was eager to get rid of both Ember and her baby, I dropped Adrian off in front of his hose as thank you for giving his child to me but Elliot refused to ride back with me because he was not in full support of mine and Adrian’s decision, but I know that he just needs time to come around.After making my way out of Adrian’s street, I make my way to silicone valley, my own special spot on the outskirt silver city just to blow off some steam because silicone valley is a place that neither the reporters or any of my family members will think of finding me.Silicone valley is one of the most expensive relaxation spots on the island that has a really reserved atmosphere, and they operate on the basis of membership or extension of an invite by a member to a non-member, provided that the member has made reservations in advance.I actually didn’t really have plans of doing much, the major plan was to just chill,
Brian’s POV\“Ember has been grounded in her house by her father and she has not been allowed to meet anyone since then” I go over Emma’s message again trying to check if she has updated the message with the reason why Embers father grounded her because It just doesn’t make sense that her father will just ground her like that or does it? “Who is Emma talking to for the past few minutes that her line has been busy and why exactly didn’t she call me so that we can figure out the way forward?” I sigh heavily, starting to get really impatient.“Emma is only Ember’s colleague so she is no place to help you figure out a way forward” a voice in my head says making me pause to actually consider it.I only started talking to Emma because I needed someone in Ember’s place of work that I could send stuff through when Ember was busy working on a presentation for a major project in her company and I just wanted her to know that I was rooting for her.“Who should I call now?” I pause for a moment
/Brian’s POV/ I started making preparations for Embers arrival as soon as I got to silicone valley and even though I didn’t know what exactly to prepare , I just asked the management to prepare everything and anything they feel that Ember is going to like.It’s better for the food to be on ground and she doesn’t want it than for her to want it but it won’t be available.I thought of staying in one of the private lounge, but the thought of Ember being grounded since the incidence happened and I decided to just keep everything simple and nice.I want to be prepared for her arrival, but I want to be prepared in such a way that she won’t know that I left no stone unturned concerning her arrival so that she won’t be uncomfortable.I have checked over everything that I have prepared over and over again because I don’t want anything to go wrong and now that both Ember and Her sister are on the highland already I am going to sit down on my chair and act like I have not been pacing around the
/Brian’s POV/ “I am still willing to marry you” I say reassuringly after a few awkward seconds of her not saying anything only for her to blink back in shock. “Why?” She manages to squeeze out.For a moment, I thought she was trying to confuse and discourage me, but after witnessing her confused expression it feels more like she is fighting a battle in her head and she is trying to convince herself that she doesn’t deserve what I want to do for her. “Hey” I whisper, taking her hand in mine. “I am marrying you because I am in love with you” I inform her so that can stop trying to convince herself that I am doing what I am doing out of pity for her, but she just bursts into an uncontrollable laughter. She asked for an answer as to why exactly I am still willing to marry her, and I gave her a befitting answer so why is she laughing out loud and making me feel like a fool?” I ask myself while allowing her to take her time to process whatever she wants to process concerning what I
/Brian’s POV/“Ugh, what’s going on here so early in the morning?” I groan half asleep as the first beam of sunlight hits my face.I cradle my pillow to my chest as I try to adjust to the change in the room, only for someone to Rudely open the blind widely, letting enough natural light into the room and causing me to squint my eyes open.“Are you awake? Or do you need me to help you to get your ass off the bed” Elliot’s voice rings out from the other end of the room and my eyes widens at the sight of him.“What the hell are you doing here so early in the morning, disrupting my beauty sleep?” I ask Elliot alarmed because I did not know when he walked into my room.“Bold of you to assume that I left the comfort of my warm bed to come all the way to this place to disrupt your beauty sleep” he says scoffing.“So why are you here” I ask him as I relax back into bed completely uninterested in what he has to say.“I was forced to come here by that hoodlum that you call your baby sister just
|Meelah’s POV|I start rounding up the exercise of decluttering my space because this is the first time I am getting back home at the normal closing hour instead of working overtime like I have been doing with Brian, only for my phone to start ringing, so I pause what I am doing to pick up the call.“Hey babes… how are you doing?” Eden says as soon as I pick up the video calls and before I can reply to her, the other girls join the call.“Melanie Caleb… you skipped two girl’s nights without any call nor explanation to justify your actions,” Aurora accuses as soon as she joins the call.“Hmmm,” I sigh deeply.“The past two weeks have been crazy in Kings Corporation, with me trying to stay out of my husband’s ex-girlfriend who tries to sabotage me at any opportunity that she gets, the latest project of Kings Corporation that has been making both Brian and I work overtime because he needs to prove to his father that he can handle the company while I have had to prove to people that I did
|Meelah’s POV|Sunday went by in a blur with my girls showing up at mine and Brian’s house because they were worried sick about me switching off my phone after the incident that happened at the movie premier not only did they just help uplift my mood, but they also mentally prepared me to face the cold world (Kings Corp).It's Monday morning and instead of excitedly walking towards the tall and imposing structure that is standing out against the sky, reaching for the clouds in front of me with the windows arranged in a grid-like pattern in front of me, I am quite nervous but also eager to start work after being away for a while.I park my latest baby (the Tesla that was gifted to me by my father-in-law), then I take out a few of my necessities while clutching my ID badge, my bag, and other necessities, and then head towards the reception desk.I greet the security guard with a friendly smile and I swipe my badge at the entrance turnstile, hearing the satisfying beep that confirms my a
|BRIAN’s POV|“Can you stop being difficult and just tell me who the photographer nigga at the movie premier is?” I urge Meelah because her nonchalant attitude is seriously starting to piss me off.“No one important,” she answers, waving the issue like it is nothing important as she focuses on her breakfast.“Photographer nigga is no one important, but you and your sister were fighting over him?” I remark to get a reaction from Meelah, and judging from the way she pauses dramatically from reaching for the baked beans that are a part of the breakfast platter, I know that I must have struck a nerve.“Fighting over him?” she scoffs.“Are you for real right now?” she questions, looking at me dead in the eyes.“How was I minding my business and getting my pictures taken, only for me to get drenched by the torn in my flesh the same things as me fighting over a man?” she expresses painfully and that makes me realize that I must have gone too far.“Fine…. I apologize for my insensitive choice
|Meelah’s POV|I should have known that running into RK the previous night was not going to end well or should I say that I should not have unblocked that villain and tried to give him the benefit of doubt by thinking he must have had a valid reason for decamping to the enemies camp, but it was obvious from all indication that RK chose Jayden Conor and Skylar over me because of the money that they offered him, but the question that has been on my mind since yesterday was why RK Is still trying so hard to be in my good graces after everything that happened.To say that I was livid when Skylar tried to mess up my life once again by using RK was an understatement, and even though I had so many unanswered questions for Ryan, I was way too blinded by rage to hear him out, and now that everything ended up blowing out of proportion, I kinda wished that I was patient enough to hear him out so that I can at least get closure and move on with my life.I ended up avoiding Brain after we got home
|Brian’s POV|After trying to get Meelah familiar with the movie she didn’t look interested in the slightest, probably because this type of movie is not her kind of thing, she stepped out of the cinema to get some fresh air, but she went for a long time.Even though I want to keep enjoying my movie, I have no choice but to step out to check up on Meelah simply because I brought her here and I have to make sure that she has a wonderful experience, or else the aim of bringing her here will be defeated.I stand in front of the event hall, scanning around to see if my eyes can capture Meelah from afar to assure myself that she is fine so that I can return to the movie theater but I see her with a man who is busy taking pictures of her and from the looks of it, I don’t think this is the first time they are meeting because of how he is putting his hands on her to direct each pose he wanted her to strike when he could have just described it tor her or strike the pose instead of touching her
MEELAH’S POV|I wasn’t expecting that sly human being to take advantage of the situation by offering to help me if only I agreed to hear him out but I had to agree because I couldn’t let my girl’s efforts be in vain, and instead of sending the driver to get me a random ring, but Brian stepped down from the car himself to get me a ring which made me wonder what he is playing at.Anyway, Brian got me a pretty simple and elegant ring that doesn’t look as complicated as the previous ring and I love it because I think this ring sits my personality more, more so you will barely know that it is a counterfeit ring, so a win is a win for me.We are now at the event venue, and here is Brian stepping out of the car while I am waiting for him to open the door for me because even though I agreed to hear him out, he still has to make up for how miserable and rejected I felt during the week so that I can feel his sincerity.Big Daddy Brian has finally put the gentlemanly teachings he got from his wo
|Brian’s POV|After racking my brain, thinking of the best way to ask Meelah out to the movie premier, I decided to abandon the responsibility to the butler because I knew for a fact that I was the one whom Meelah had issues with, and she was not the kind of person that will take her anger out on an innocent butler by intentionally making his task difficult for him, and it worked because just when I was driving into kings estate yesterday, I saw Meelah’s driving out.I actually thought of driving out of the estate to block her wherever she was going to have a conversation with her, but for someone who made a conscious effort not to run into me even while we were living under the same roof, I knew better than to try, and thank goodness I decided against it because on getting home, I was informed by the butler that his part of the task was completed.I went about my after-work schedule normally, and while I finally settled down to eat dinner, I got a message from Elva that she had been
Everyone in this house except for me stayed up all night trying to help with the outfit and everything because my fashion enthusiast friend decided to make an outfit for me from scratch after she found out about the movie premier at the dying minute and she had got her team of designers here as early as 5 am to help with the process of making me an outfit despite my protest that it wasn’t necessary.Brian's sister also showed up with her team of makeup artists, hairstylists, and nail technicians, just to get me dolled up for the event, and I have been sitting here since I took my bath while they dress me up like a doll.“Your bestie wants to talk to you,” Aurora says, handing me her phone hours later after I sat to get my hair, nails, and makeup done without being allowed to check the mirror. “Are you not scared that I will see myself through the camera of the phone?” I question Aurora and that makes Elva block the camera from my view.“I still stand on the existing protocol that I w
\Meelah’s POV\After being made to feel stupid by Brian and like a total failure by my mother-in-law on Wednesday, I needed a way to vent, and the last thing I would have wanted in this life was to put a call through to my girls because I just like me, they had stuff going on in their lives, and it won’t make any sense for me to put everyone in a bad mood just because things were going sideways for me, so I went to mine and Brian’s bedroom to sleep but the more I laid on the bed, everything I could think about was how Brian kickstarted my day by overreacting to the perfume that was supposed to boost my confidence, so I ended up smashing the perfume bottle into the wall hoping it will make feel better but it barely did anything for me.I tried to snap out of the negative emotions that I was feeling so that I could be prepared for the next day’s work, but nothing seemed to be working so I resorted to something that I wouldn’t normally resort to just to escape my problems even if it was t