Shit, this wasn't how I wanted her to find out. If it were up to me, I would've never wanted this situation to happen in the first place, for her sake. She didn't seem like someone who liked to the center of attention and I didn't her to be unnecessarily bombarded by paparazzi just because she was seen with me. But what's done is done. I let out a heavy sigh as I quickly turned my phone off, blackening the screen. When I turned around to glance down at her, she was still staring at the blank screen of my phone with her eyebrows completely scrunched up and her thumbnail locked between her teeth. I gently pulled her finger out of her mouth, not wanting her to hurt herself from chewing on her nail. I softly apologized, "I'm sorry, Ms. Belcalis. I should've been more careful." Her hand tightened, squeezing only two of my finger in her little hand. She looked up with bright violet eyes, quivering as tearing threatened to spill. "I-I... Um... Y-you..." I lightly brushed the tears out o
"So, do you have any woman in your life yet?" Huh? My hands stilled on the chopping board, not expecting such a sudden question from my mother while I was helping her prep the ingredients for tonight's dinner. I thought I had already finished all her questions when I first walked through the front door. She had already asked me about my work and my date with Mellisa's daughter. I thought she was already satisfied with the answers when she dropped the questions and told me to help her with dinner instead. My mother continued stirring the pot and repeated, "Do you think your own mother wouldn't notice the leaked picture of you with some woman? I know that Joseph is good, but my PA is better." I silently cussed in my head and looked back down at the half-chopped vegetables on my board. I didn't expect her to catch the picture so quickly when it had only been on the internet for less than 5 minutes. "So, who is she? You never date unless I force you and always go to your events with
I don't think I have been as nervous as today since I first met one of my father's business friends back from when I was still only 14 years old. I had changed my outfit 3 times already and fidgeted with my cuffs more times than I could count. Would she like the outfit? It was just a simple button-up shirt along with an oversized coat and some slacks. It wasn't all that different from my usual outfits or full-on suits for work. Would she think that I didn't put too much effort into my outfit and looked too boring?No, no, no. I shouldn't be thinking like that. Ms. Belcalis wouldn't be a person like that. I nervously glanced down at the bouquet of flowers in my arms. I ended up grabbing a set from a flower shop along the way out of instinct: a bouquet of lilacs intermixed with a few strands of lavender because of how they reminded me of her eyes. But did she even like flowers? It was such a cliché gift for the first date. A book probably would've been better for her... I had never
Stopped at a red light, I glanced over to my passenger passed out on side of my car. Miss Danary was completely tuckered out after our date, falling asleep almost instantly the moment I started driving.She had spent the last couple of hours exploring the bookshelves at the café and telling me all about her favorite books and pointing out the ones she had a home. She was so excited by the collection of rare books and new up-and-coming ones that she barely even sat down to take a single sip of water. She dragged me from one shelf to another without any resistance. Leaning against me as she reached for certain paperbacks on the higher shelves. Talking to me with barely any stutter. It was almost as if she had forgotten her fear of being around men. It was the complete opposite of her usual timid demeanor. It was like I saw her for the first time, the real Miss Danary beneath all her protective walls. However, our time was cut short when she realized that it was already 3 PM in the
"Sir, is there something going on that I don't know about? You've been working since morning without even stopping for lunch."Joseph peered down at me concerningly with his tablet pressed tightly against his chest and a coffee cup held out in his hand. He set the coffee down on my desk with a worried glance at the stacks of files on either side of me. I graciously accepted the cup and reassured, "It's nothing. I'm just trying to go home a bit earlier this week." I've been trying to finish my work faster so I could leave work with Danary and go to her house to visit Liam in the evenings. It was something that had quickly become routine since the night Liam asked me to stay with them. Even though it was just having some home-cooked dinners together, I didn't want to give it up for a bunch of paperwork that could be done at a different time. It just felt much more heart-warming to eat a meal that we cooked together than sitting in my cold office to eat by myself, even though those bo
Croissants. Croissant donuts. Pain au Chocolat. Baguettes. It wasn't exactly the type of sweets that they preferred...Danary asked me if I wanted to join her and Liam on their weekend trips to a library, to which I eagerly accepted. Apparently, there was a lecture that Liam was interested in at the Morgan Library and Museum in midtown this week in particular, so she told me to wait in front of this french bakery shop near the library as a meeting point. I had gotten here a bit earlier than planned and decided to look around the shop to pick out a few snacks, but I couldn't decide what to get them. Liam and his mother tended to like fruity desserts, which this bakery shop didn't exactly have, leaving me confounded. Instead, the bakery had a lot of freshly baked bread, but I didn't know what type of bread they liked. Sourdough, wheat, or just normal? Soft or crusty? Lighter or darker bake?Maybe I could get them baguettes, butter, and some specialty jams... They had freshly in-hous
Days have passed since Benedict found out about my budding relationship. Although nothing had changed between Danary and me, I felt more stressed than ever before. I still went to her house in the evenings for dinner and helped Liam with his university-level problem sets, but I was never able to bring myself to ask about her past. I feared that she would try to leave me once I reminded her of the person with whom she still held attachments for, so I buried it deep down inside of me and tried to pretend that everything was fine. Even though my body itched to hire a private investigator to look into her past and figure out who it was, I cared too much about her to invade her privacy like that. She would only hate me if she ever found it. Instead, I kept myself as busy as possible so that my mind wouldn't wander in the middle of the day. Meetings stack upon one another such that there was always someone new wandering into my office to give me a report. Paperwork for finalizing overse
I checked my phone for the umpteenth time today. There was still no response. I messaged him this morning with our usual good morning text messages while I was getting changed for work, but he still hasn't responded, even though he almost always replies within 10 minutes. I haven't seen him all day at work either, but it was already almost noon. Was he not coming in today? But he would tell me beforehand if that was the case or at least let me know in reply to a message, right? Or was I expecting too much? After all, Rafael is a busy man. He's the head of Cordova Industries, the wealthiest and most powerful man in the country. I couldn't expect him to always think of me when he had other things to do. Maybe I was just being overly paranoid, but I couldn't stop myself from feeling antsy about his absence. He did seem to be growing increasingly tired over the last week.Even though he still always came to my house to have dinner with Liam and me, I could tell that he was exhausted
Ten years later"Brother Liam! What are you doing out there?!" I tore my gaze away from the light fluttering of snowflakes and glanced back at our house curiously. A fiery little girl came flying out the back door with a flurry of blankets.And before I even knew what had happened, I was bombarded with a pile of soft wool and pulled down to her height by the blanket hooked over my head. A familiar head of warm hazelnut curls and bright silver eyes popped up into my view with a big pout gracing her lips. Not caring for the fact that I was a full ten years older than her, she harshly scolded, "It's too cold out here! Are you trying to make Mom and Dad worry?" I chuckled softly at her antics. Though she was a tad overprotective, I had to admit that it was getting a bit too cold for me to handle, but I honestly liked the snow too much to give it all up. After all, it was my favorite season. It was the time of year when all the best things in my life happened. Getting saved by Mom
"Now, now, Mellisa... Don't you think you are rushing things a bit too much?" I tensed up as a tall, lanky brunette walked up to our table. He was dressed messily, with his buttons done in every which way, similar to his wild hair. But the thing that caught my eyes more was the gun that he was haphazardly twirling in his hand. Ms. Mellisa's expression dropped at the appearance of this man, making no indications of releasing Liam. She unamusedly replied, "Stop acting so condescending, Albert. I'm the one holding what you need. Personally, I would've preferred getting rid of this annoying child from my sight, but you and Margarett still need him for your plans, don't you?" The atmosphere dropped 10 degrees colder as the man stalked closer to the pair. Stopping abruptly in front of Ms. Mellisa, he lowly questioned, "Who do you think you are to threaten me?" Roughly pushing her aside, he grabbed hold of my son. Liam's eyes grew two times wider as he took in the sight of the man before
"Danary, are you ready to go?" I perked up in recognition of Haraya's voice and the familiar clamoring of the visitors entering through the front door. It must've been why Achilles darted out the backdoor in such a hurry. He truly was such an antisocial man when it came to anyone besides Liam or myself, but it was still something I found quite adorable in my giant of a husband. I helped Liam down from the island top and walked out in hand with him to greet our visitors. Even though it was still only morning, Mrs. Cordova was already spiritedly chatting away with her friend, pointing out all the details and ornaments along the walls as Ms. Mellisa stared at the interior of our house in awe. I guess it was the first time Ms. Mellisa had visited our home due to Achilles's overprotectiveness, but I figured that Ms. Mellisa was a safe person. She had apparently been friends with the Mrs. Cordova for decades, even before Mrs. Cordova married Achilles's father, and generally acted as a g
"Achi?" "Yes, love?" "Um... W-Would it be alright if I went o-out today?" I paused mid-twirl, making her loose strand of hair slip out from between my fingers. With my head still propped up against my arm as I laid next to my little wife on the bed, I glanced down at her, noting her fiddling fingers. Looking up at me hopefully, Jane continued, "I-It's just I haven't left the estate for several weeks a-already a-and your mother invited Liam and me on an o-outing for today s-so I thought it would be nice to do something d-different for once..."I pursued, hesitating on agreeing outright. The people who wanted to kill her were still out there, and I didn't want to risk the possibility of losing her so soon after getting her back. Noting my hesitation, her face immediately fell. "I-I g-guess it's still too much to ask for right now... I-It's probably still too d-dangerous, and I know that you're still working very hard to find the people w-who tried to hurt me... I'll just tell them
I knocked on the doorframe, signaling my entrance as I walked into the main office of our private warehouse. It was pitch dark with not a single light on in the room. Only the bright glow of several monitors kept the room litReegan looked up from his computer with his usual sunken eye bags and tiredly asked, "Did you bring the goods?" I rolled my eyes at his poor attempt at a joke and placed the bag of his favorite take-out meal on the desk next to him. A large grin spread across his face as he eagerly tore into the bag, fishing out his usual order of extra spicy ramen with a cup of quadruple-shot espresso coffee. I leaned over his head, taking no mind of his messy habits as I glanced at his work. There was a jumble of numbers spread across the screen, with one of the panels seemingly tracking an IP address bouncing between several towers across the globe. I hummed softly in thought for a moment before noting, "I'm guessing you're having trouble pinning down the owner of the phon
After I had spent the rest of the evening with my family, thoroughly reminding my wife how much I loved her, I decided to take the next day off to explain to her what I had been doing these last couple of weeks. I had originally wanted to keep it hidden from her in fear of stressing her out more than necessary, but it seemed that my secretive nature only caused more harm than good. I told her I had been working with my father and brother to find the people who were targeting her. Explaining how we had found the woman who pushed her down the stairs the first time I ran out of the house in the rush. How we had been trying to get more information out of her ever since to find the other people supporting her from behind. To quell her worries, I had to tell her about the dark side of our family that I had tried so hard to hide. Although I didn't go into detail about it, I had to explain how we couldn't do everything to the book due to the number of enemies that came with holding one of t
My eyes widened in surprise at her outburst. A picture of me kissing another woman?Since when did I kiss someone else...Tears fell from the corner of Jane's eyes as she looked at me brokenly. She whispered lifelessly, "I saw the picture of you kissing Cassy... I knew she had feelings for you and never wanted to tell you for fear that you might someday realize she was better than me... But it seems like you finally realized it all by yourself..."Cassy?When did I...Oh god... That time she came into my office on the day of..."I knew that I should've expected it... She had devoted her entire life to you... There was no way someone as kind as Achilles could ever overlook such devotion... It's selfish of me to say this, but I was hoping you would overlook her efforts... That's why I never said anything..." She roughly yanked her hand out of my grasp and pulled her hands closed to her chest. Lowering her eyes, she muttered, "I knew that I was the outsider, but I couldn't bring myself
"Are you going to head back to the madam now, sir?"I handed my bloodied shirt to Watson and graciously accepted the clean towel from him. I nodded quietly in response as I carefully wiped the rest of the blood off of my body, making sure not the miss any of the specks littered around my collar or splatters dripping from my hands. I didn't want to freak Jane out by coming home covered in blood. She had no clue about the dark side of my world. She only knew of my clean image as the infamous head of the long-standing and powerful Cordova Industries, but there was no company in the world that could have stayed this strong for so many generations without any bloodshed. I had enemies lurking in every shadow of my life. I was greedy and brought her into my life even though I knew it would be dangerous. And she had gotten hurt because of me. It was something that I would never be able to forgive myself for, but I was much too selfish to let her go. I had already gotten a taste of how
"Achi, you know that I'm not going anywhere, right?" He nodded his head in acknowledgment but made no move to release me from his grasp. "You've been holding me since you came back last night... Are you sure you don't want to do something else?" He gave a soft shake of his head as he silently buried his face even further against my stomach. I sighed and set my book aside. He really wasn't budging in the slightest. I leaned back against the headboard of our shared bed and laced my fingers through his hair, gently taking my fingertips against his scalp. I tried to reassure him, "You know that I won't disappear if you let me go, right?" He pressed his lips into a thin line. Eyebrows furrowed in silent discontentment. Sighing again, I decided to continue stroking his head comfortingly in hopes of easing his nerves. Just like the night before, he ended up spending the entire morning lying in bed with his head nuzzled deeply in my abdomen, only lifting his head briefly to call his g