Benedict hadn't tried to contact me again since that day. It had already been three days, and he had never let a day go by without filling my inbox with clutter. I probably shouldn't have snapped at him like that. Despite his outgoing and obnoxious personality, he was still a child at heart and easily got his feelings hurt. Maybe I should pick up some pastries at his favorite dessert shop on my way to work tomorrow.I sighed as I tossed my papers back onto my desk, noting the setting sun just outside my office window. An entire day had gone, and I had barely been able to get anything done between the heavy guilt sitting on my consciousness for lashing out at Benedict and my inability to prevent my mind from drifting off to a certain little brunette. Gathering up my revisions on the blueprints and contracts for my joint project with Benedict's firm, I decided to search for Ms. Belcalis and hand her these changes before heading home early, even though I knew I wouldn't be able to ge
Pushing through a dreadful 20 mins of stomach-churning drive, I eventually reached her place on the upper side of Manhatten in Washington Heights. It might've been a bit of an intrusion of privacy, but I had fished her address out of the HR system to bring her back. Her home was a quaint little townhouse squeezed between two large buildings. There were all sorts of green vines and plants spilling out of her windows and growing up along the exterior of her house, giving it a bit of a down-to-earth feel despite being awfully close to the Bronx. I parked the car in front of her driveway, trying to think of a good way to tell her husband what had happened at work and preparing myself for what will most likely be a resignation letter from Ms. Belcalis next week such that I probably wouldn't ever see her again after today. My stomach dropped at the thought. Was this really it? I glanced over at her peacefully sleeping body. Despite everything that had happened today, she still looked
His little body had immediately tensed up at my question but he remained as silent as ever, keeping his lips tightly shut. The only thing that told me that he had heard my question at all was the slight frown that appeared right after.But it had disappeared as quickly as it had appeared. He immediately pulled his hands away from Ms. Belcalis as if he had been burned and hopped off the bed with a slight humph. Avoiding my question all together, he instructed, "You can stay downstairs for the night since it's late, but don't try anything." I nodded silently and gathered all the dirty items off the nightstand. The shredded clothes, dirty clothes, and bloody basin. Taking one last glance back at the pair, watching how he meticulously tucked his mother in with an array of blankets, I stepped out of the bedroom with an armful of items and made my way downstairs. It was pitch dark outside with only a few rays of moonlight shining through the windows. There was the usual random hollering
"You arrived at the office late today, Mr. Cordova. Did something happen?" I shook my head as I followed Joseph to the room holding all the mock-up designs. "No, I was just dropping off some sweets to Benedict as an apology. He's been a bit upset with me since last week." Joseph chuckled lightly as he held a hand up to his lips, trying to hide his amusement. "Ah yes, Mr. Serman can be quite the character sometimes."He stopped in front of a room just a couple of doors down from my office and held the door open for me. I stepped into the display room, glancing at the mock-up of my new headquarters in the corner of the room and all the notes scattered across the center table. The mock-up was quite detailed and followed the design plans to the tee. A tall skyscraper rounded at the top with glass walls looking over the city with 80 or so floors. Plus an open garden concept on the roof of the building with open access to any of my employees. I picked up a few of the papers on the table
"Reegan? What are you doing here?" A man with shaggy midnight black hair and a familiar set of grey eyes— the two key traits inherited by all the men in the Cordova family— stared back at me blankly, clearly not in the best mood. When I opened my door this morning, I hadn't expected to see my younger brother standing outside my apartment. With only a five-year age gap, we never had a bad relationship, especially since he had no desire to take over the family business, but he wasn't one to visit others.He worked as a freelance hacker who would've stayed inside his house 24/7 if it wasn't for my mother's mandatory weekly family dinners. As such, he stood just half a foot shorter than me at only 6 feet tall, with a much leaner build than my own from sitting around at his apartment all day. "I didn't want to come, but—" Reegan was abruptly cut off when an arm was suddenly thrown around him, and a familiar brunette popped up in the doorway."I thought we should hang out together this
He was covered in splotches of dust from head to toe. Even the collar of his shirt was torn apart. A bright red mark decorated the left side of his cheek, and deep scraps were littered across his hands.What happened to him?Why was he here by himself?I quickly made my way toward the little boy, parting the crowd like the red sea with my large frame. The moment I reached him, I swiftly scooped him off the ground. Liam reflexively swung his hand toward my face but immediately stopped mid-motion when his eyes widened in recognition. A series of emotions flashed through his eyes, from anger to shock to relief to panic. Tears brimmed at the corner of his eyes as he incoherently sputtered, "T-that man... O-over there... he w-was... he's t-trying to..." I never expected to see his previously cold demeanor break down like this. I caught his flailing hands, not wanting him accidentally hurt himself. "Liam, please try to calm down first. I can't help you like this."He yanked his tiny fis
By the time Ms. Belcalis finished her bath, I had finished disinfecting Liam's wounds and applying an ointment to the bruise on his cheek. I had also wrapped the open-wounded scrapes on his little hands with bandages since he seemed to have scabbed his tender palms pretty badly on the rough pavement when he was pushed around in the crowd. She walked out of the bathroom, drying her hair with a small towel. Even though I found a set of relatively small clothes from my teenage years, the shirt was barely hanging onto her shoulders and almost fell all the way down to her knees. To add on, the drawstring of the shorts seemed to had been pulled as far as it could possibly go to keep them on her hips. But she still managed to make my heart flutter, even though she had just come out of the shower and her face was slightly swollen from before. Taking barely any note of me, she went straight to Liam's side, kneeling down next to him as her eyes worriedly raked over his body. She chewed onto
I groaned as the bright ray of morning beated against my eyelids.I haphazardly threw my arm across my eyes and rolled into the back of my couch, trying to hide from the obnoxious sunlight. Due to the fact that my couch was much too small for my much larger frame, I was barely able to get any sleep last night with my feet dangling way off the end of the couch. My entire body was definitely aching from this damned couch. I wondered if the other two had a good night's sleep. I hoped they did, especially after all the stress they had gone through yesterday. But, at the same time, I wouldn't be surprised if they freaked out from waking up in an unfamiliar environment today. My mind drifted off, considering several things that I could potentially do to try to help ease their nerves. Maybe I could make them breakfast...But I had nothing in my apartment...Should I hop out to one of the nearby grocery stores and quickly pick up some stuff? But if they accidentally woke up while I was ou
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