“Of course you can,” I shrugged, brushing past him. He grabbed my arm and pulled me back.“Look, Jane, that’s not how business works, OK? There are protocols to this thing,” he said, his voice strained.I turned sharply to look at him. His blue eyes were pleading with me, but I felt nothing. He was my husband, but also my rival. He owned the company that I wanted to take over.“And I am your wife, and I’m sure that if you want anything to work, it would definitely work. Now you do that or I leave this house,” I said, pointing at the contract on the table.He looked at me in disbelief. “You’re blackmailing me? You’re threatening to divorce me if I don’t give you my company?”I nodded. “That’s right. You have two choices: sign over your shares to me, or lose me forever.”He sighed and ran his hand through his blond hair. He looked defeated.“Okay, fine, we’re going to work something out. But you have to understand something. The highest shareholder currently in my company is holding 70%
“Too bad, sister. I was already imagining you as Mrs. Landry. We don’t know what the future holds for us. Maybe, just maybe, eventually you actually will get married to him, you never can tell,” she said and I thought about it for a moment.“Hmm, there is a possibility,” I said, not really meaning it.“Let’s pack up all this money and gifts so we can go to bed. I don’t know about you but my head is hanging from all that excitement and alcohol,” I said to her and she chuckled lightly.“Of course,” she mouthed. “What are you going to tell your husband about these gifts?” She asked and I smiled eerily.“I don’t know. Till then,” I said, avoiding the question.The truth was, I didn’t care what my husband thought.Feeling a surge of joy in my chest. I stretched my arms and legs, feeling every muscle relax and every joint pop. What a night, I thought, remembering the fun I had yesterday.I got out of bed and wrapped my duvet around me like a cape. I walked over to the window and pulled back
“Oh, no, I haven’t forgotten. My bad,” I said, dropping my bag and everything I brought with me for the gym on the floor. “So how is your health? I heard you were hospitalized,” he asked, and I looked at him with wide eyes. “How do you hear everything, don’t you?” I asked him. He chuckled and shook his head. “You act as if the loss of memory actually made you lose your memory of me. Have you forgotten that I actually know everything and see everything?” He asked, and I acted as though I had forgotten. “Of course, I have forgotten everything. But I do remember that you are my gym instructor and this is the gym that I usually come to,” I said and winked at him. He looked at me in disbelief. “You know you can deceive every other person, but you can’t deceive me. How do you think I know everything and see everything?” He asked, lowering his voice to a whisper. It sent chills down my spine because he was really getting creepy. He did know everything, no jokes. And I’ve always wondered h
“Me,” I said, and he looked at me for a while before bursting into laughter.“You? You’ve been a housewife your whole life. What in the world do you know about management of such a very big and luxurious company like that?” he said. And I took a little bit of offense, but I didn’t let it get to me, because he obviously didn’t know.He mostly didn’t know who exactly I was and what I was capable of doing. So I smirked and told him, “I am very much capable of being a manager and I can prove it,” I said, and he chuckled lightly.“Really? How? Tell me. In fact, show me,” he said.I took in a deep breath and let it out. “First of all, I cannot show you until you’ve given me a chance. Now let’s strike a deal. I will work as a manager or personal assistant for you for just one week and watch how many sales I mount in that one week. And once I’m done with that, if you are impressed, then you’re going to raise me to the very senior manager in the entire company. And if you’re not impressed, the
I stared at the documents in disbelief, feeling a surge of emotions. They resembled the exact same documents the old lady had given me back then when I was in school, only that these were the real ones. The ones I had were counterfeits, and they were useless. But these… these were the keys to a fortune worth billions of dollars.“What? This is impossible. How could you? Why did you hide this from me? All this while? Where were you when I needed you the most?” I exclaimed, clutching the folder to my chest.He smiled sadly and shrugged. “It was all part of a plan to make sure that you didn’t mess up. Thankfully you didn’t do anything rash with the fake documents, but here are the real ones and you can have them,” he said.He gestured to the folder with more papers inside. They were certificates of ownership, bank statements, patents, and other legal documents that proved that I was the sole heir of a fortune that belonged to our late father, who was a genius inventor and a ruthless bus
“No, no, no, no. You’re not barren.” He shook his head emphatically, his eyes wide with concern. “You are very much able to give birth to kids. But what I’m saying is if you should get pregnant, you have a high chance of dying during labor.” He lowered his voice, as if he was afraid someone might overhear him.I felt a surge of disbelief and despair as he said that. It was very hard for me to take in and I didn’t know why everything that was happening in my life was happening in my life. It was like a legit movie at that time. A horror movie.So I swallowed my saliva and took in a deep breath and asked him again.“Could you please repeat what you said?” I asked him, hoping he would say something different. “You said I can’t have kids, but if I should go into labor, I have a high chance of dying. How do you know that when I haven’t even had kids for the first time?” I asked him curiously, but also desperately. I felt like everyone was lying to me. Everyone was lying to me. I wanted the
I didn’t really care that much about her and my husband. I was going to divorce him anyway, but it was going to hurt my ego. However, I wanted the surrogacy so bad, I had to agree.“Okay, fine,” I said after a minute of silence and deep contemplation. I felt a pang of resentment as I looked at her smug face.“Okay. That’s agreed,” she said and made to leave. She seemed eager to get out of my sight, as if she couldn’t stand being in the same room with me.“No! Wait,” I said because I had a very brilliant idea that could work out for both of us.“I will allow this condition under one condition,” I said looking her in the eyes. She scoffed.“Oh please! You don’t counter a condition with a condition,” she said and a smirk played on my face.“I can,” I said naughtily. “Then I don’t want to hear it,” she said stubbornly as she made to walk away.“Okay it’s more of like a plea. Please,” I pleaded with her and she stopped and turned. She had a wicked smirk on her face. “What is it?” She asked
“Honey, you left our car in the hands of strangers,” he said and I nodded.“I know. Relax. Nothing will happen to the car,” I said, dismissing him because I didn’t want further questions.“I hope not,” he remarked and I swallowed hard. Speaking of that lie, I really had to get people who would wash off that diesel smell from my car so I would pick it up when they were done.“Thank you for cooking today, baby,” I said, hugging him from behind. He was wearing an apron and he looked very adorable when he cooked, but that didn’t mean he was a bad cook. He was actually a very good cook.“Oh, it’s no problem, my love. I just thought to treat my wife to a special meal today,” he said, flipping an egg with a spatula while I massaged his muscles. They were huge and round and I loved to touch them.“I’ve missed these biceps!” I said slapping his arms lightly while he chuckled. “Is that a blush I see?” I asked teasingly because it was very amusing to me that he was blushing. The husband that I k
“Well! Now, we’re going to have to make a new round of chicken,” I said, groaning angrily while he chuckled and pointed toward the store room.“At least we have a whole island of them,” he joked and I nodded, slightly feeling guilty about wasting food.I had grown up to know that wasting food was not an option and here I was, abusing the gift of abundance. I needed to retrace my steps.“Why don’t we just order takeout?” I suggested and he pondered a while over it before he shrugged and looked me in the eyes.“What?” I asked and he shrugged. “Well, why do you want takeout?” He asked and I rolled my eyes. He was literally impossible.“Don’t give me that look! I just want to know why. I can cook the food if that is what it’s about,” he pressured but I was already having a headache as he kept going on and on.“I didn't know men talk a lot,” I spat and he looked at me with a surprised expression.“Okay, I’m only talking this much because I want you to be comfortable with me. I don’t want
“Oh, I see. Well, it is hard for a guy to pass by you and not stare at you with his eyes or even make a passing comment. But that’s not what we’re trying to talk about here,” he said, noticing my uncomfortable look. “I’m sorry, okay? I just want to keep letting you know how beautiful you are and how lucky I feel to have you over. How lucky I feel that both of us are sharing the same house at the moment. How lucky I feel that I’m helping you with whatever it is that you need, okay? I don’t want you to feel uncomfortable near me. I want you to feel very comfortable because it’s going to be a long ride in the long run. But I need to remind you once in a while how crazy you drive me,” he said and I blushed again.“Okay, I’ve heard you. I’ve heard everything you said. Now, I guess it’s time to go and have dinner. Maybe. I’m starving,” I said to him as he nodded in agreement. “Of course, yeah, dinner. I didn’t even realize how much time had passed since I stayed with you. You make time go
“Alright then, we can drive there right now,” David said with a mischievous grin. I looked outside and saw that it was already getting dark. I just wanted to smile and relax and wait, because obviously he couldn’t penetrate that safe. And I made sure that it was a high-quality safe that I laid my hands on while I was at UNI. You know, that woman who first gave me those original documents? She also gave me that safe. Nobody could crack it open, not even the best programmer in the world. It couldn’t even be blown up by a bomb. It was just a safe, just the way it was. So I was less bothered about that, but what I was a little bit bothered about was the fact that he would go in there and probably start taking all the furniture and all his clothes and all that.“Don’t worry, there’s no rush. Revenge, especially the sweet ones, take time. We’re going to go tomorrow. It’s already getting late. We should make something to eat and go to bed,” I said to him with a smile. He smiled back
“Jane, Jane, relax.” David said, as he rushed towards me. He tried to hold my shoulders, because I looked like I was going crazy. Like I was going mad. And he was probably very afraid at that point, because I was acting batshit crazy. That I was going to injure myself or him. So he held me firmly in his arms and made me look at his eyes. His caring eyes.I said to him, with tears in my eyes, “All the assets, everything I worked my ass off for, everything is gone. I have searched everywhere. I have checked everything. Maybe I misplaced it. But no. Henry has betrayed me.” I said in the most heartbreaking voice you could ever imagine.I was so heartbroken, because I never would have done the same to Henry. But why did he do this to me? He had stolen from me. And I would not stop until I had stolen back from him.“I always knew Henry was shady for that thing he did. Of course, it had nothing to do with getting married to you or you being a terrible person to get married to. There were alw
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” I said, with a very nervous chuckle, as I tucked my hair behind my ears and faced forward, avoiding his gaze. But deep down, I knew he was right about what he was saying. I was just very afraid to admit the truth. He asked again, “Jane, look at me. We need all the information we can get if we’re going to get to the bottom of this. You don’t have to be afraid to release any information. You don’t have to be reluctant to do that, OK? I’m here, standing by your side. I’m always by your side and I will forever be by your side. Right now, we need all the information we can get. You’re the only one who can give us that information. Do you understand, Jane?” He asked, looking at me intently. I shook my head, feeling overwhelmed by emotions. I didn’t know how to feel at that point, because he was right. I knew so many things that could have made Henry make this decision of his. Or whatever it was. I knew quite a few things about why he may have lef
“OK, so I have some detective friends who could also help out in your case, but I need your consent with everything. I promise you it’s not an affiliation with anybody, not your ex-husband, not your fiancé. You know I just really want to help, just in case you need backup. Is that OK with you?” He asked, his voice gentle and reassuring.I looked at him, feeling a surge of gratitude and affection.His eyes met mine, and I saw a flicker of something else in them. Something warm and tender, something that made my heart skip a beat.I almost wanted to jump up and hug him, but I had to comport myself because I was a lady. Oh, fuck it, I thought, and jumped up and hugged him tightly. He wrapped his arms around me, holding me close.“What was that for?” He asked, sounding surprised but pleased.I smiled shyly and pulled away slightly. “Well, you care about me more than anyone else cared about me ever since I lost my child. So I think you deserve more than that.” I said softly.He took my ja
“Why don’t you call them to know what’s up?” He asked, looking at me with concern. I shook my head.“No, no, no, no. We already spoke about this. We discussed it. It’s OK. They will have to be the one to call me after the mission is complete. I can’t call them now. It would be destroying something in the mission.” I said, biting my lip nervously. I was already tapping my feet fast on the ground and grinding my teeth anxiously. Just remembering everything already brought a knot to my stomach and a lump to my throat. And I guess he noticed, because he reached out to my hands and took them in his. He rubbed them gently and gave me a reassuring smile.“It’s OK. I’m sure you’re going to get the text soon. But I need to ask you some questions. I don’t know if it will be OK for you to answer them for me.” He said and I looked at him. I hesitated a little bit, because I didn’t say I was going to trust anyone with the information that I had. But I was willing to give him a small chance. May
“Oh, not so fast, David,” I said, holding up my hand. “Not so fast. You have to take it easy with all this flattery. I’m very quick to fall in love, haven’t you noticed that?” I teased him and he looked at me with a twinkle in his eyes. His smile matched his eyes, bright and warm. It was one of the most brilliant features about him. Was I falling in love again? I had just promised myself that I wouldn’t fall in love so quickly, but I couldn’t help it. This man was amazing. So good looking… Even more good looking than Henry and Rick combined. And I had a very high affinity for very good looking men. And to be honest, at that point, I didn’t really care. I just felt that I should live life and just be who I wanted to be, when I wanted to be, and how I wanted to be.“Oh, I have noticed,” he said, leaning closer to me. “We did have quite the chemistry there when I first walked into the room. When I got coffee with you, you know… I felt it. It was kind of obvious. But I didn’t think anyth
I felt dizzy for a while because I was so confused. I was usually the one who said I love you first in all my relationships. I was usually the one who made the first move, probably because of my desperation. I hoped so much that this man wouldn’t see through my desperation, that he wouldn’t see how desperate I was to find somebody to love. But obviously, I was wrong because he saw it. Why would a man be telling me that he loved me on the very first day we met? And given the circumstances surrounding it, it was a big lie, at least in my ears. What did he mean by love at first sight?“Jane, Jane, did you hear what I said?” David’s voice woke me up from my little mini trance right there. I didn’t even realize that I had drifted off from the normal conversation that we were having. But in truth, I didn’t know what to reply to that because obviously, I didn’t love him. But I did have a little bit of liking for him. And if there’s anything I’ve learned over the past few months, it’