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~WILLIAM~ I couldn't believe my ears. Anastasia was calling me; she still cared. I knew it was an act earlier. Of course, she was pretending, but why did she have to pretend knowing I would never chase after her? I thought James was taking me to the Lancaster mansion only for him to drop me off at Harriot’s house. Vivi was not welcoming but in the end, Harriot managed to get me to bed in their guestroom, I was about to fall asleep when my phone started ringing, I struggled, and when I saw the caller ID I quickly picked up. I cleared my voice before saying, “Listen if you... If you called to apologize, then it-” “I didn't call to apologize, William.” She cut me, “I just wanted to make sure you are alive; I don't want to be a widow.” “W-what?” I intended to raise my voice but failed as my voice came out as a whisper. “It's impossible to sign anything six feet under, right?” “Wait, so you're saying—” “I'm saying I’d rather you sign the divorce than have people call me a wido
~WILLIAM~ Mom looked confused like there was nothing wrong with what she did. “I'm confused, William; you always complained to Mom about Anastasia and that nuisance daughter of-” “Don't you dare refer to my daughter as a nuisance, Nicole?” “Why not? I mean, she's the reason you married Anastasia in the first place.” “Her name is Ivy, and stay out of my business,” I warned I've had enough of her. “Alright, I'm not saying anything again.” She raised her hands in the air and walked to the sofa. She picked up the glass of juice and crossed her legs, and after taking a sip, she placed the glass down, picked a magazine, and started paging. I turned to Mom, who was still confused. “I want you to leave, both of you.” “What?!” “I will deal with the divorce myself,” I said, and without turning back, I walked toward the stairs and headed to the bedroom. Yes, I always complained about how unhappy
~WILLIAM~ I cleared my voice as I impatiently waited for my daughter to speak, but she didn't say a word; it was just silence, and I started to wonder what was happening. “Baby? Are you there?” I asked. “Yes, I'm just making sure these media people got it right,” she said, and that's when I heard the tapping of the keyboard keys, so she was busy searching on the internet. I mean, wasn't she too young for that? If I remember correctly, she was four, even though I haven't attended any of her birthdays. I always made sure I bought her an expensive gift so I knew she was four; in fact, she had just turned four a few days ago, and that was the reason why Anastasia and I got into that fight that led her to be locked up. “They say mom asked you for a divorce.” “W-what?” "Yes, and I asked Mom, but she didn't tell me this; that's why I called you.” She said, and I groaned and rubbed my temples as what I'd feared had happen
~ANASTASIA~ I was lost in my thoughts looking out the window when my phone started to ring. I quickly reached for my purse and picked it up.“Ana, are you sure? I can still come.”"I'm sure, Vivi, I've got this.”“I know you've got it, but... I'm worried.”“And you're worried for nothing,” I cleared my throat. “It will just take a few minutes, and then I will be done with it, okay?" I sounded confident but it was far from what I was feeling. I was terrified, if I had an option I could have avoided today, but I figured out there was no way, and I was prepared to face it.“Alright, please call me if you need anything or if they give you a hard time.”“Thank you,” I said and then ended the call, as I knew speaking to her for a long time would trigger tears. “Okay,” I said as I took a deep breath and looked at myself in the mirror. “I'm ready,” I said to myself, but Scott responded. “We can try to postpone it if you're not-”“I am ready.” I cut
~ANASTASIA~ I couldn't believe what I was seeing. I let out a chuckle because this was absurd. Why would William change his mind now? He never loved me; our marriage was never meant to happen, so why on earth did he refuse to let me go now? “Is this a joke?” I turned to him, but he wasn't looking at me; instead, he was looking down. “Ms. Anastasia, please have your seat.” “I'm sorry, what? I mean, we both signed the divorce document; I'm here to get my copy, not to have second thoughts.” I said as my heart was now racing. “Ms. Anastasia, please sit down.” “I’m sorry, your honor but can we just get over with it.” “And I refuse to go through,” William said he sounded calm, which was the first as he had never been this calm, only when it came to Jimena. “I'm not signing it; I'm not giving up on my marriage.” “You’re sick. I mean…” I stopped myself as I realized what William was trying to do; he wanted me to
~WILLIAM~ “What do you mean you lost her?!” “I'm sorry, sir, but Ms. Anastasia’s driver is full of tricks.” “And who's Ms. Anastasia? She's still my wife, so address her as Mrs. Rogers.” “Understood sir.” “And you mean Scott is smarter than you?” “I didn't mean it that way, sir, but I promise to find the address before the end of the week.” “I just don't know how I employed a useless creature; you know what? I will hire a private investigator to get me her address. Come and pick me up.” "Alright, sir,” he said, and I ended the call before running my hand through my hair. James was really getting on my nerves. I had him follow Anastasia and her driver last time, just to find out where she was staying. But he failed, Scott was too clever, giving him the slip somewhere along the route. Today, I asked him to follow them again and somehow he managed to lose them all over again.I stood outs
~WILLIAM~ Jimena was now holding me by my belt; I'd never seen this side of her. “You're hurting me.” “I don't care, William; answer me, then I'll let you go.” "Aah, didn't you figure it out already?” “No…” She shook her head. “You can't do this to me, William; you can't be falling for her.” She sounded like she was about to cry. “She refused to go through with the divorce, and the judge gave us two months.” I lied; I didn't want her to cry, I knew what came after that, she would tweet it to her followers since she had a fanbase and they would start a rumor. “That’s ridiculous don't tell me you did nothing about it; I mean-” “I had no choice, Jimena, but it's just two months after that I will separate from her and marry you.” I needed her to calm down; I couldn't deal with her as I was dealing with a lot already. She seemed to buy it as she loosened her grip on my belt. “Two months is a long time. What will happen when my bump starts to show? You know I'm a model; so
{A WEEK LATER}~ANASTASIA~“No, just drive straight home; I'm exhausted,” I said to Scott as he asked if I wanted to stop by somewhere. “I'm so sorry, girl; I wish I could help,” Vivienne said. I was on a call with her. “It's okay, I'm not giving up; sure, he hadn't blackmailed all the companies in Seattle.” “I don't know, but all the companies you have visited so far don't want to employ you." She sounded sad like she was the one going through this. “I'm not losing hope; tomorrow I will try again until I get a job,” I said, sounding confident. “But for how long? You're already a month pregnant. What will happen when it starts showing, don't tell me William will never find out because he will, eventually, and I even don't know how I'm going to help you?” She sighed, but no matter how right she was, there was no way I was going to go back to William; the disrespect and mistreatment I had gone through for the past four yea
I was silently staring at her as I held back the tears that were threatening to fall. I felt really terrible for not insisting on seeing her before, as she seemed to have been going through it, and considering how she’s been there for me, it was only right I was there for her too.“Wow, it’s really bigger than the videos.” She commented on my bump; yes, it was now fully showing, even in the loose dress, but what shocked me was how steady her voice sounded. I expected it to crack, maybe even tremble, because she’d clearly been crying. Instead, her voice came out confident, almost too composed, despite the dark circles under her eyes. It didn’t add up, and I couldn’t quite figure out why.“I’m so sorry, Vivi. I know it must be difficult considering how much you loved him.” I said and tried to touch her hands, but she moved away.“It doesn’t matter; we were getting a divorce anyway.” She answered, not showing any emotion, “It’s for the best; he’s a rapist.”“I… I don’t
~ANASTASIA~I watched my assistant walk toward the door but stopped her when she reached it by asking her to forward me a copy of the order of pieces that needed to be shipped outside the USA. Yes, we could now ship outside the USA; we had an account on social media, but I wouldn’t say it was doing well, but we just started, so there was time.“Right away, Mrs., anything else?”“Oh yes, push my meeting to three tomorrow; I have an emergency,” I told her, and she nodded, then after that excused herself.I had to see Vivi; I hadn’t seen her since I got back. She kept making excuses, but today I wasn’t taking that.The only reason I hadn’t barged in her room was because with how things got with Mrs. Frost, I knew she wouldn’t allow me at her home, but I was now done; I needed to see Vivi; I needed to make sure she was okay; if it meant breaking into the Frost mansion, then so be it.It’s been a month since I returned to Seattle as the whole competition thin
~ANONYMOUS~I was silently staring at my teammates, who were now giving solutions to the mess we had created; as usual, all their ideas were just useless. No doubt I was the only one with a brain here. Yes, I'm the one who injected the bacteria into Ivy. I thought it would bring William and Anastasia close. I mean, that's the only reason I used a harmless one, but only for it to turn out like this? Not only did it now make Anastasia and Hudson close because now she trusts him with her daughter, but it also made William give up on Anastasia, settling to be her friend. “Why don’t we drug William and Ana—” “Last names.” “I apologize.” This one was new; she joined a year ago and was still confused about everything. “I was saying, Ms. Lancaster and Mr. Rogers are both in LA, and not only that, but they share an apartment and are close. Why don't we drug them and have them sleep together, then we can take pictures and send them to Mr. Frost
~HUDSON~The other one took over from Rowan and explained how they might have tampered with her fingerprints, “with one word that Maddison is not alone and whoever she's working for must be powerful.”“Of course, I… Are you sure Gabby isn't behind this?” I asked, as Gabby was my friend, but she was also part of the team when I worked for that politician, so she knew a lot, but for her to betray me like this? No, I doubted it as she had changed; she didn't want anything to do with that life anymore. None of us wanted it anymore; even Rowan and the rest were now just there working for me, and I didn't ask them to do things that were sinister like before.“We will check on Gabriella just to be sure.”“Yes, please do that, and if you find anything, let me know. For now, I have to confront Maddison.”“I don't think that's a good idea, Hudson.”“My family is protected, and we are ready, so I don't see why we should be afraid.”“We are not afraid; we just—”
“Oh come on, Huddy, I know you enjoy things like this; can't you just for once let me—”“It’s dangerous.”“You did the same for him, and you were never caught.” Vivi said, reminding me of the past, “Do you really want me to do this?”“Vivi?”“Fine, if you don't help me, I will call Ana and tell her all about the past, seven years ago?”“You wouldn't.”“Trust me, the way I desperately need to monitor these people, I will.”“Why?”“You will soon find out for now; get your men on it because I want to know what my husband is having for dinner without me physically being there. I'll send you the IP of my computer; you do need that, right?” She asked, knowing well that if she sent her IP, then the camera screens would be shown on her computer. I sighed, as I knew I couldn't say no, then I asked her to send her computer IP.“But you have to tell me why you're doing this by the end of whatever experiment you're trying.”“Sure, sure, one last thing: ca
~HUDSON~I was standing by the window watching as my guards escorted Maddison out. I called her here. I thought we could agree. I even had my lawyer draw up a contract for us where I would be present in the child's life as the father but not her husband, just like Ana suggested, but what did she do? Tear up the contract demanding that I divorce Ana and marry her. She didn't even care that Ana was pregnant too. She said her baby was the first child, and if I couldn't marry both of them, then I should leave Ana.Something was wrong with her, as not only was she breaching the contract but now threatening to go on that show with Mom. Yes, after Ana told me the call was important, I got on the phone, and that's when Juliette told me that my mom had announced she was going live on Sunday and that she had something important to share. I didn't need to guess as I knew she was going to expose me, so the next morning I came here with Ivy as she had to start school—I dropped
~ANASTASIA~ I was still waiting for William to answer my questions—why he took my daughter to the hospital, why she was injected, and why he didn't tell me. Because clearly if Ivy hadn't mentioned it, he could have kept it from me. He asked me to sit and then told me it was just stress-related, that it wasn't actually a needle, that Ivy was just exaggerating. Well, I knew my daughter well, and if she said a needle, then it was a needle, but I didn't have the time to argue with him since he said he took her just for a regular checkup and that taking her there after five days is just for a checkup. I let it go but made a mental note to go to the hospital and speak to the doctor because something in me told me he was hiding something and I had to find out. Ivy returned just in time, saying she was tired of looking at the wall. I didn't ask her to look at the wall; I just told her to go to the bedroom. I didn't punish h
~VIVIENNE~Ever since Harriot and I had that argument about him wanting a surrogate, things have been crazy. Yes, I was the problem, but why did he think I would be comfortable with having another woman carry my child—our baby?He made it worse when he told me his parents were asking for grandchildren, in as much as I wanted a child. I knew it wouldn't receive the same love as Hudson’s children because, to Mom, Harriot was a man after her wealth, so for him to say his family wanted an heir and suggested that we find a surrogate hurt me. After all, what if Mom decides to disregard the child—it was already bad that he would be the father but another woman carrying it would be something else.I was so upset with him that I left that night and went to Mom. I knew she was not the best person, and usually, I would go to Hudson, but he was married now, and with what Ana was going through, I knew she needed him more than me. That's why I risked going back to Mom.I wasn
Mom had now removed the lollipop from her mouth, smiling as she whispered I was doing the right thing; well, the smile faded when she heard me mention the name.“I'm giving you ten minutes; if you don't get here, I will release the photos,” I said, and without waiting for his response, I ended the call and sent him my address.“What was that?”“What was what?”“Don’t play smart with me; I asked you to call William, not that little doctor.”“I’m not getting a divorce, Mom; I have another plan,” I said as I sat down on the bed after pushing the stretcher from my sight, I asked for a comfortable bed, and they provided it; that’s how much power William held in this State, and I was not willing to let that go.“Harriot will do nothing, or what do you think? We can survive on a thousand every week?”“You should get a job, Mom; stop depending on me for your survival.”“I’m retired; I worked on grooming you to be the best.”“Yeah, sure, at deceiving man.”