I sighed heavily as I looked beside Michael. “There is nothing we can do about this,” I told him quietly before I faked a smile. "Ah, Melissa, there is no way I would ignore you; I just haven’t gotten the chance to greet everyone yet."“No problem; I know for a fact that you won’t let politics get between us; at the end of the day, it is just a game and only one player will win; either of us might end up being losers; we just don’t know it yet." Melissa came around as she embraced me, blowing air kisses to both my cheeks and doing the same for Michael.“Excuse me, Lance, you think maybe we could talk on the side while we leave the ladies to themselves?" Michael tried to excuse himself while taking Melissa's husband along. I am sure he was just being polite because if it was left of him, he would simply walk out on all three of us.He despises the Lance family a lot. I am sure Melissa knows that, which is why she rema
"Does it look like they are kissing, or is it just my eyes?" Louisa asked, and I quickly faced them. I was slowly about to lose my sh*t when I saw it, until Melissa pointed out that it was just the angle we both were standing at, so it appeared that way."My God, I heard she got divorced from her ex-husband; isn't that sad? Everyone seems to be getting divorced, somewhat like a trend," Melissa stated. "Let us not really look at them like that; they might see us.""How do you mean, she seems too focused on her to even notice?" Louisa said as she pushed Melissa's hand so she could have a proper view. I looked away instead as I grabbed one of the bottles of wine that were passed around by the waiters. "Honestly, it was about how she divorced that man.""That man?" Melissa asked, as if wanting to laugh."Of course he is that man; he was a nobody till Patricia met him; she clearly made him who he was.
I went out there after making sure Michael wasn't on sight to take notice of my disappearance. Seth stood next to the car that was parked in the garage. The nerve of this man to even smile at me—how can I hate him and like him at the same time?"You are so brave, Seth," I said casually as I walked towards him, looking around to see if there was anyone there with him; thankfully, he was there alone."Come here," Seth said with ease as he stretched out his hands. I paused, not wanting to go any further close to him. "What is it?""I don't know; maybe you should tell me because that is some long conversation you had with Patricia there," I said, not hiding the fact that I was indeed looking at the two of them."I knew it." Seth walked to me, grabbed my hands, pulled the back seat car door open, and gestured for me to get in."No way, you have been so daring lately, Seth. Do you know how many people are at this event?" I asked, though I was already getting in regardless."You aren't afrai
Over the next week, it was all good memories with Seth. It was like, as he opened up, he created a better understanding for the both of us, there was more communication, and overall things between us moved smoothly, though there were still a few challenges, like having to make time out for both our partners so they wouldn’t be suspicious. But if we successfully passed through that week, what is a month that we can’t go?“Seth and I have chosen to get married in the next month." Bella shockingly announced as we were both seated at the counter. I blankly stared at her as I was just not ready for the tsunami that just hit. “We discussed this last night, and we are yet to let anyone know. I am only saying this because you are my boss."“Oh… Thanks for letting me know, so this is like an invitation."“Not yet; Seth’s mother is the one to handle all of that, as it was her decision t
LEO POV“I am coming; hold on." I quickly pulled my pants up as I ran to open the door. I knew it was Rocky by the way he knocked, so impatient. “I didn’t know you were going to come this early; sit on the bed. We need to quickly go over the unfinished questions from yesterday, but I have marked the solutions you did yourself. I am impressed."Rocky walked into the room as if he had just seen a ghost; he lacked energy like the Rocky of yesterday.“Is anything wrong?” I asked as I searched my study desk for the math solutions I did for the questions he failed, “You seem awfully silent today; I found it!” I jumped on the bed as I placed my couple pen I bought for the both of us on the bed. “Where is yours?”“Hmm?” Rocky reacted, looking utterly confused.“Your pen, where is it?” I repeated it again, and Rocky searched his bag, b
~Leo POV~“So since when did it all start?” Rocky eyed me while smiling sheepishly. I tried to walk away from his stupefied gaze as I shied away from him. “Come on, tell me. I am sure it wasn’t at first sight. You loathed me then, which was worrisome and at the same time cute."I blushed at how wrong he was about our first meeting. “I liked you then,” I admitted as I sat back on the bed. “What did you say? Hm?” Rocky climbed on the bed after flinging his bag on it. “Repeat yourself."I looked away because I wasn’t yet going to tell him that I knew him before Mother had introduced us; the feelings had always been there, but I was scared.“Tell me,” Rocky pleaded as he dragged closer to me. I leaned back to the head of the bed away from him, shaking my head in refusal. “If you don’t tell me, I am going to leave,” he said. At fi
Mother kept her smile on as she saw me and Rocky come down the stairs. I didn’t even expect that I would be blindsided by Sasha’s quick embrace. “Baby,” she squealed from afar as she ran to hug me. I saw as the cameramen quickly took pictures. “I need more pictures for the gram, so please act naturally,” she whispered.Sasha took my arm and threw it over her shoulders. It felt like she had no marrow to stand up and resist her, especially since Rocky was also watching. My thoughts were about how he might be feeling, and in a way, I hope he understands that I can’t throw off Sasha’s advances.I am not even sure if I was ready to come out yet about our relationship, so if Sasha was a front, it would make for a good cover-up, but as it is, it didn’t feel like Rocky shared my thinking in any sense as I saw him run up back to my room, grab his back, and attempt to leave."Rocky, are you leaving so soon? Didn’t your lesson end by five? You have two hours left." Mother spoke; she was my mouth
~LEO POV~When my eyes opened to the dimly lit room, I saw my dad sitting on the floor with his head placed on my bed and his hand holding mine firmly. I raised my head slightly to look around my room, as I remembered it was a mess before, but everything was cleaned; the glass was no longer on the floor, and the water had dried up.Even though my room had become tidy, I panicked, thinking dad must have sent one of our workers to do this only to see the brush and dustpan still in the room.I looked down at my feet, which I had hurt to see were now bandaged with the first aid box still in the room.Father felt my movement and had soon woken up. “Son,” he said, letting go of my head as he went on to check my body to see if I was in any way feeling feverish.“I am fine, dad,” I said, trying to put my feet on the ground.“Be careful; I spoke to Doctor Benedict, and he said you should take this medicine for now,” Dad said as he pointed at it on the table with a covered glass of water.“Dad,
The minute I stepped foot into that place Michael called home for me and my children, it was the moment I lost all contact with Seth and the world. I never go anywhere without security following me around, monitoring my every movement and the things that I do, and making sure that they work according to my given schedule.Michael has gone insane.“Michael I am tired of all these.” I threw off my shoes and flung them out the window, and wherever they landed, I absolutely had no care for them. “I am tired!”“Then leave!” Michael screamed at my face as he slammed our room door, locking it shut. “I know you want his touch; you are doing all of these because you miss him, don’t you?”“For six months I haven’t seen him; I have adhered to every one of your demands and kept away from him; all I want is for you to sign the divorce papers and free me,” I say, moving away from him."Clearly, you don’t know that I won’t know such things, so act right and come down right now!” Michael yelled, and
“Carmela, hurry up; you are going to be late for school,” I screamed from the kitchen where I was packing up her lunch. When I didn’t hear anything from her, I went to knock on her door. The door pushed open as I held it. “Carmela.”“Mum, come take a look,” Carmela pointed at the two vehicles with security detail waiting in front of Seth’s apartment.“Ignore them,” I said to her before closing off the curtain. “Seth said he will drop you off at school before we head to the hospital to pick up your brother. Leo is finally returning home.”“Yay,” Carmela feigned excitement. “I am sure he is going to gain all of your attention now.” My forehead creased as I looked directly at her. I saw a small smile on her face. “I am kidding, mom. It is so easy to get to you. Make sure you give him all of the love for me.”“I think you should skip school today and come see him.”“And ruin my perfect record? No, I told you I would do better in school than Leo ever was,” Carmela said as she picked up her
“Why didn’t you tell me that Leo was alive? What was the need for keeping it away from me and from us?” Michael asked. Carmela had stared with the bitterness she had felt looking at her father this morning.“I did it so Brianna would confess,” I answered.“For fuck sake, Scarlett, if she had gotten arrested, she would have confessed either way; she killed our son, I mean almost,” Michael said as he moved back and forth.“And that is almost the reason he is alive today, Michael. I know Brianna was in her head yesterday, but she is not a bad person and still is my friend,” I acknowledged. “Everything she has done was to provide for her family; there is nothing wrong with that.”“By blackmailing you? Honey, have you gone mad? How can you call someone who has done all these things a friend? I pray she rots in jail for the sins she has caused you.” Michael pulled me and hugged me. I sniffed his shirt, and there was an unfamiliar scent—feminine, I would say.I already knew he had sex when h
A few talks with the officer were all I needed to get a name that I already knew. I couldn’t believe that the person I trusted so much about would have done this to me. I don’t deserve this. I may be a bad person, but I don’t deserve this at all.We drove over to my son’s murderer’s house as I begged for the police to let me speak to her personally; she is my friend after all.“She won’t harm me; Brianna already told me she would be waiting to speak to me,” I said, trying to convince the officer to wait.I knocked on the door of Brianna’s home, and it opened slightly, given that she hadn’t locked the door as she said she wouldn’t.“You came,” Brianna sat in the darkness of her home. I saw different weapons like a gun, a knife, and a couple of pills on the table. She said, “Don’t worry, they aren’t for you.”“I know,” I said. “You won’t harm me, Brianna.”“I hate you.” She said so simply as she whimpered silently, “You are so lucky; you have a good life, family, money , everything. I a
A heavy downpour of rain washed over Leo’s grave, and while everyone sought shelter from it, I stood there wondering how lonely it would be over there—no one to talk to, no food to eat—at least you wouldn’t have to study any more.My lips thinned as I exhaled deeply.There is no mother to tell you what you can and cannnot, how to live your life, or who you should be with.I kneeled down as I allowed the dirt to stain all over me, losing my mind at the thought that Leo was actually gone, like I would never get to see him again."Leo, I am sorry.” I cried out as all my pain weakened me. A snort came out of my nose as I continued to cry. It will take the intervention of everyone to leave my son’s at this point.I didn’t give him what he wanted and always found a way to make his life about Michael. I used him as a pawn to achieve Michael’s success, and I only started to feel sorry for it when he outgrew me.I never got to amend my relationship with my son; I never got to do that, and now
Seth was shocked as to where I had gotten such courage from. I mean, I was drunk in his scent and clearly wasn’t thinking properly, but his saying I should go ahead was where I understood he wanted it too."Seth, look at where we are. Do you think God will want to see that from two fornicators?” I asked, and Seth burst out laughing.“Fornicators? So that is who we are now. I have never felt sin be this good before. You think maybe he will forgive us so easily?” Seth asked as he looked around the chapel.“No, God doesn’t work that way, dear; you have to be remorseful and actually pay the price for the sin before he forgives, I think, but though he is merciful, his forgiveness doesn’t come cheap,” I said, smiling. “I also don’t think we should be this close.” I tried to push him further away while pulling him back at the same time.“Since we are fornicators?" Seth laughed, and the room fell into silence as he gazed at me ever so lovingly. “I know this is wrong, but I miss you,” he said
I visited the hospital frequently as if it were my home; I had to because Leo was yet to wake up and none of us knew exactly how he wound up at shore for that good man who was fishing to find him.Weeks after weeks, and though the doctors said he was responding to treatment and would probably wake up, there was still no sign of that happening, and now I am starting to become worried.For the first week, Leo’s health had been unstable. We received a lot of visitors at the hospital, but as the days pushed into weeks and then a whole month, everyone who we thought cared had soon forgotten and gone back to their own business.I hardly saw any of my friends around either; they were mostly focused on Laura for now, except for Melissa, and that is solely because she is Leo’s godmother; of course she has to be here along with her son.Even Rocky, whom I thought would be here every day, was also occupied, and I understand he has school and his mother to worry about, so maybe he can be excused
Silence, a void only one could hear and feel for themselves.“Scarlett, Sarlett, Scarlett.” They all called my name from different areas, but their voices never got to me.Could this be true? Could it be?My son is gone, and I am supposed to feel okay about it.I failed as a mother; I failed as his friend; and I failed as his world.When Leo needed me the most, I was never there for him. I don’t deserve happiness at all.My eyes closed as I allowed darkness to seep into me.*** **** ********* ********** ******* ****** ******* ****** ******* My eyes finally opened to see all of my loved ones gathered around my bed, with the beeping sound disturbing my hearing. I looked around, not saying anything. Where would I find the words?“Mum has woken up,” Carmela’s voice said out loud as everyone who was around the doctor soon came to me.“Darling,” Michael touched my face as he kissed my forehead. At first, I wondered why he was getting so affectionate until I saw who came as well.
~SCARLETT POV~Ambulance sirens blared as lots of body bags were being brought out and taken into the morgue one after the other, my hands shivering. I had already cried in the car. I can't help it now that I have seen Carmela in tears. She would need me to be strong for her, and I can’t help being weak in front of her.“Mum, why do horrible things always happen to us?” Carmela asked as she embraced me, her tears trickling down from her eyes to my shoulder as I stroked her back. “All will be fine, dear; we just have to identify the bodies; we have to hope your brother isn’t a part of it.”I was breaking down so badly; I was so occupied with myself that I never paid attention. God, I only ask for one thing, and that is for my son not to be a part of the dead bodies that drowned at sea.It was hard to pray because it was confirmed that Leo and Rocky were indeed on the guest list for the cruise and that they did attend.“Mrs. Thatcher,” The officer called as I turned, my heart beating ex