{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
~ANASTASIA~ I still couldn't believe William was standing in front of me. I thought I would only see him again in court—when we finalize the divorce, well, I guess I was wrong. I tightened my grip on the documents in my hands to hold my ground. “Another failed interview?” He pouted his lips, which made me roll my eyes. "Oh, I forgot these companies are not even giving you a chance to speak; let me guess this time, I'm sorry we can't employ you, Mr. Rogers gave-” "Oh, save it, William.” I cut him, and for a moment he looked confused. “So what if I didn't get the job? It's not the end of the world.” "Well, it will be the end for you, and both you and I know it.” “You disgust me,” I said then almost walked away, but he held me back by my arm. “Let me go, William.” I struggled to free my arm but he didn't let go. “You just have to beg, then I'll forgive you; you'll not even need to publicly apologize for staining my n
~ANASTASIA~ The man was my dad; it shocked me because I hadn't seen or spoken to him in four years, and from what I remembered, he hated me, so how was he in my kitchen and making cupcakes at that? The words were stuck in my throat as I opened my mouth to say something, but nothing came out. “Cupcake?...” He also seemed shocked as he slowly took steps toward me. I was in so much shock that I didn't react or realize when he got to me as he took me into his arms. "Cupcake…” he repeated; his voice was so low like he was about to cry. I closed my eyes and raised my hands to hug him back, as smelling his scent somehow calmed me. I hadn't seen or spoken to him in years; I didn't even realize how much I missed him until now. “D-dad…” My voice broke, and as he stroked my hair, I couldn't control myself as I started crying, he didn't stop me; instead, he encourage
~ANASTASIA~ It's been an hour. Yes, the distance from my apartment to the Lancaster mansion was half an hour's drive. We passed by the company. Dad had things to take care of. He asked me to go with him, but I refused and remained in the car. That's why we took another thirty minutes, as we had just arrived at the mansion now. The mansion was located outside town because he wanted all the space as it was very large. We were not the only family; most wealthy families built their homes outside town like there were many other families, including Vivienne's, which was called the Frost mansion. “Are you ready?” Dad asked, and I took a deep breath before I turned to him and told him I was ready. He warmly smiled, then got out before he held out his hand for me, which I took and followed his lead. “Ms. Anastasia, welcome back,” the servants we met on the way to the main entrance greeted, and I ignored them as my attention was on something else. I was
~ANASTASIA~Dad looked shocked as he shook his head, almost not wanting to believe it. Well, I couldn't lie to him even when I wanted to, so I nodded my head as I placed the cupcake down.Dad came toward me, and I stood up as my hands found their way to my flat belly. Dad never liked William but still loved Ivy. I heard how he spoiled her, but I didn't know how he was going to feel about this.“Dad-”“Congratulations!” he surprisingly said as he took me into his arms; my hands were still on my flat belly, not hugging him back as I was in shock.I stayed in his arms for a moment before he pulled away and then sat me on the couch."Well, at least the asshole gave me beautiful grandchildren,” he said, and I still confusedly looked at him, “Cupcake?” He lifted my chin. “You don't look happy about it?”“You're o
~WILLIAM~I couldn't believe after everything I did Anastasia still had the guts to refuse me. I mean, where's that girl who would do anything just so I noticed her? Now I was convinced something was really wrong.“Maybe she hit her head,” I said as I paced around my office, “or is doing this to get to me.” I thought of every possible reason that made her say what she said to me, “She walked out on me, me..." I scratched the back of my head as nothing was making sense.I made sure no one employed her, and she made it easy for me as she refused her brother's help. I thought she would come and beg me, but it seemed she was more stubborn than I thought.“This is insane,” I said as I got my phone and dialed my daughter's number. I was left with no choice but to ask for her help; the divorce wasn't trending anymore, so I wasn't worried about my reputation, but I just couldn't allow Anastasia to be the o
~ANASTASIA~I didn't understand what William was doing here, so I quickly stood up and walked to the door with Dad following behind.Reaching the door, I was shocked to find that William and Trey were taking turns on each other—hitting each other like little kids on the grass.“Oh my god, somebody stop them!” I screamed, and that's when the gateman and two guards rushed to them and separated them. I couldn't just wait by the door, so I walked to them and asked the guards to free them since they were both struggling and wanting to hit each other more.“Trey, go inside,” I said, and Trey shook his head.“You're not speaking to him, sis; this bastard mistreated you for four years. Give me a good reason why I should leave him alone with you.” Trey questioned."He's in my house; I can take care of myself here, and besides, the guards are here; he can't do anything to me,” I s
~ANASTASIA~ You won't believe I've been married to William for four years and still never saw this side of him. With the mistreatment, I still never imagined him calling me a thief. “You're unbelievable.” “I know you have it.” "Well, my father is experiencing a little trouble now, but that does not mean we are desperate for money.” "I honestly don't care the reason you took it; you know how Jimena is.” “I don't care about Jimena!” I yelled as I was tired of hearing her name, “You love her; then fine, go be with her and stop bothering me.” “What is that?” “What is what?” “I knew it; you still want me,” he said, a smile on his lips as if that's all he wanted to see. Well, if I didn't know him well, I would think he wanted a second chance, but this was William; he would never love anyone apart from Jimena, and besides, I was nothing more than the villai
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.”