I glanced out the window, noting the relatively dim lighting reflecting off the morning snow. It must've still been quite early in the morning, considering how soundly Jane was still sleeping in the crook of my arm. I carefully leaned over her to grab my phone. The screen lit up with a single flick, revealing all the notifications I had received from my family, company, and security team. From my family, it was mostly just a bunch of jumbled-up messages from my mother with more typos than I could count, asking about how the trip was going. I quickly typed out a few short responses telling her about how well the last few days went, including a couple of pictures from our visit to the main village on the first day and pictures of Liam going down his first ski slope from yesterday. Closing my family's chat, I moved on to my overflowing inbox and skimmed over a couple of the emails. Deeming it to be mostly useless stuff, I opted to skip to Joseph's text messages instead. It seemed like
"Did you have fun, Liam?"I passed off our skis to one of my guards as I kneeled down to help him unclasp his helmet. With how cold it was in Gstaad at peak season, Jane had made sure that he was well bundled up for the weather, leaving not even a single inkling of frozen toes. The only problem was that he had practically been turned into a marshmallow with by the time she was done dressing him, making it quite difficult for him to handle any item with his thick mittens. As the hard cap popped off of his little head, a bright smile beamed up at me as he cheerily replied, "I did! Did you see how fast I went on the last run?" I chuckled softly as I helped him out of his ski boots, remembering how he barely turned and basically barreled his way down the mountain. "I did see. You are quite the daredevil, aren't you?" "Yup!" He twirled around in the snow freely now that he was back into his normal boots. Jumping into my arms all of a sudden, he excitedly exclaimed, "I can't wait to show
I gazed out of the kitchen window fondly as I dried the last few plates. My two little angels were playing with the snow in the backyard, building a giant but definitely lopsided snowman. I watched as they animatedly chatted with each other, two pairs of bright violet eyes sparkling like the morning dew as they happily patted away at the last snowball to be added to the top of the snowman. The ball was so big that it was nearly as large as Liam's crouching figure. Even my guards looked a bit unsure of themselves as they watched their madam wobble from side to side with a giant ball of snow in her arms. Ever since the day Liam shoved that little boy off of his mom, he had insisted on staying with Jane for the rest of the trip, not that I minded in the slightest. He followed Jane around everywhere and wanted to help her with everything. It was actually quite adorable to watch him follow his mom around like a little duckling. Unlike when he was with strangers, Liam always turned into
Ever since we came back from our honeymoon trip, I had barely been able to spend any time at home. I had been buried under so many piles of paperwork and never-ending lines of meetings for these last couple of days that I found myself spending less than 6 hours at home these days. In addition to the current quarter closing within a week, a bizarre amount of issues suddenly came up in the outer families. Their companies had all sorts of problems ranging from missing papers involving my company to incorrectly filed numbers that caused the stocks to bounce up and down even though they were sure that they had personally input it correctly. It was unlike me not to be able to finish my work, but I found myself leaving early for work at 5 AM in the morning to carve out time to fix confidential paperwork that only I could handle. But my meetings would stretch so late, trying to sort out all the mishaps, that I wouldn't be able to reach home until midnight. Jane had tried to convince me to
By the time I got onto the road, Benedict had called me, telling me that the paramedics had already gotten to Jane and rushed her to the nearest hospital in midtown. I immediately swerved mid-road at the news, making a giant u-turn toward the address that he had sent me. My mind was all over the place by the time I arrived at the hospital. All I could focus on was my need to see Jane with my own two eyes. I haphazardly parked the car in the drop-off zone. I had rushed into the emergency room in such a flurry that I frightened several nurses as I made a beeline to the front counter. I frantically spurted out to the receptionist, "My wife! She was admitted here a few minutes ago! Where is she?!" Her eyes grew wide at the sight of my panicked figure. I must've looked like a crazed beast, but she managed to regain her bearings relatively quickly and replied in a soothing tone, "Sir, everything is going to be alright. I need you to calm down first so we can locate your wife together."
It's so dark... Everything hurts... My head is pounding...My body feels so heavy...What happened...All I remember was Liam desperately calling out to me, trying to keep my awake... How tears streamed down his face... Begging me to stay with him... His heartbreaking scream was the last thing I heard before I passed out. Was I dead now?No... I can't be... Liam still needed me... I can't leave him all by himself again...A blinding light appeared as I forcefully cracked my eyes open. My vision was blurry, but there was the faint sound of a familiar, rhythmic, soft beeping to my side. I was in a hospital...Blinking a few times, the heart rate monitor eventually came into focus, displaying a clear red line spiking repetitively every so often. My eyes drifted across the room, scanning over the fluttering pale curtains and sofas only the side of the wall only to find no sign of my little boy. Where was he? He was brought to the hospital with me, right? How long was I out for?Ch
A tall and hard appearance but he still handled me with an unexpected level of consideration and gentleness. An intimidating silent front but soft spoken in the rare moments that he did speak. A rather expressionless face and yet his eyes still somehow able to carry such raw emotions. Everything about this man seemed like a contradiction. After the doctor had concluded that I had temporarily lost about a year's worth of memories from my concussion, she suggested that I stay overnight for monitoring and told me to refrain from exerting too much energy. With these instructions, Rafael spent the rest of the day fretting over my every need. Asking me if I was hungry, if I wanted some water, whether I was in pain anywhere, and a whole list more. Even though he was already hovering over my every move, I could tell that he trying really hard to hold himself back to avoid frightening me. Every time he reflexively reached out to me in fear of me hurting myself... Every time he accidenta
It was easier said than done. For the last week, I had been trying to make amends with my supposed husband. He had asked me to take some time off from work to rest up and said that he would work from home too, but I had barely even been able to see him at all this entire time. It wasn't that he was neglecting me for anything. If anything, he was much more of a doting husband than I expected. Although I rarely came face-to-face with him, he managed to guess all my needs before I said anything and somehow finish all the tasks for me before I even needed them. He would prepare breakfast, handle the laundry, and clean the house to a nearly spotless state before I even woke up every day. All of my favorites would be left piping hot on the kitchen counter as if he knew exactly when I would come downstairs, but he was never present as I ate breakfast with Liam. Not even a single glimpse of his towering figure. Just like breakfast, all the other meals would also be prepared before I cou
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