~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
~JIMENA~ I took a sip of my glass of milk and then glanced at my phone. I don't even know why I was checking at this point when it was clear that William was not going to call. I don't know where to start; this was all so shocking to me. Why was William behaving like this? I mean, a few days ago he was talking about our marriage, how he was going to divorce Anastasia and marry me, how he was going to give me and our child the world, so what changed? I kept asking myself if I had done something wrong, but nothing came to mind. I don't remember doing anything that could have upset him. “Did he fall in love with her?” I asked myself in a low tone as I was in the kitchen still waiting for him to return as he stormed out earlier, leaving his mother and me. “It is like he doesn't want to marry me?” I said as I remembered earlier when he said he didn't care about our honeymoon and his reaction when Carol, his mother, said she was going to move our wedding date. "No, he loves me; we've
~JIMENA~ “Shit!” I cursed as the call ended, “What am I going to do now?” I asked myself as I started pacing around, “They made it clear, god!” I slapped my cheek but quickly rubbed it as it started to tingle in pain. They made it clear that if their plan got ruined, I would be the one to pay for it. “But I... I can’t leave William now.” I said to myself as I stopped pacing, “Mom, she knows what to do.” I said as I got my phone, and with trembling fingers, I dialed Mom's number, and she picked on the third. “Sweetheart, I’m in the middle of something… can…can you call back la-” “You can fuck him later; I need you.” I cut her as I could hear moans; yes, that was my mom. Since Dad died, all she did was sleep around with young men. “Okay, that’s rude,” she said, but I could hear movements, which meant she was now seated. “What happened?” “It’s William.” “What did he d
~ANASTASIA~ I woke up about thirty minutes ago; I had already taken a shower and prepared myself for the day. I had to see Harriot today for my first appointment. Sadly, it wasn’t weird that William was not going with me. I mean, even with Ivy, he never attended any of the appointments; he was only present at her birth, which he made sure to trend on the news as that was his main goal. I was standing in front of the mirror combing my rich chocolate brown hair. I haven’t looked at myself in a mirror in such a long time. Marrying William somehow made me question myself if I was just that ugly, whenever I looked in the mirror, I saw that ugly woman who destroyed William's life, so I refrained from looking, but now that I wanted to rebuild my confidence, it was going to be difficult, but I had to try. I noticed I had bags under my eyes, so I quickly picked the foundation and hid them. I was pregnant, so I was so emotional that even a little thing made me cry. Last night, after t
~ANASTASIA~ I couldn't believe it was happening again—Dad choosing Carmen and this time Carol's side too. I could feel my tears threatening to fall, but I bit my inner cheeks, keeping them in; this was not the time nor the place to cry. “Really?” I tried to sound confident, “I should publicly embarrass myself?” “Honey-” “Don't you dare!” I yelled as Carmen almost came to me; she really knew how to play nice; I mean, she just agreed to me publicly humiliating myself. “You need to calm down.” Dad said, and I shook my head, “I might not agree with Carol now, but what she's saying is making sense.” “Why should I go and embarrass myself?” “For peace...” Carmen answered, “We, your family know the truth, so it won't matter what the public will say, right, love?” She turned to Dad, who nodded. “If what the public says is not important, then why bother holdin
~WILLIAM~I was reading through the report as I waited outside the bathroom door for my daughter who was taking hours.Jimena didn't want me to leave her side, she looked so scared. I didn't want to leave her alone, but Ivy didn't like the smell of disinfectant, so I left and promised to return in an hour.I left Jimena? It was shocking, as never have I ever left her side, not especially when she was in a situation like this, but my daughter came first. That's why I didn't think twice about it.I couldn't be far though—Jimena was expecting my child, so I got a room at a nearby hotel. Ivy insisted she wanted to take a shower. She didn't come with clothes, so I asked a friend to take care of that while I waited for her. I wanted to help her, but she insisted she was a big lady and couldn't be bathed.“Is the lady here?” she asked from the bathroom and I told her almost even when I didn't know how far off she was, if it was not that she didn’t work for me, I would have fired her already.
I swallowed hard, fighting to stay calm. Maybe it was a slip of the tongue because there was no way he was asking me such a question in that tone.“Did you know that Juliette is Mrs Grant's daughter?” I asked, changing the topic.“I asked you a question, Anastasia. Did you or did you not sleep with William?”“Okay, I'm not doing this,” I said, standing up, and he stood up too.“Doing what? It's a simple question with a yes or no answer.”“Which is not important. We have something more important to worry about. Our reputation, remember?”“I do not care about reputation right now. Tell me, did you sleep with William?”“You're being childish, I mean are we even supposed to have this conversation?”“Yes, we are… A man who happens to be my wife’s ex-husband tells me something amazing happened between him and my wife. He also says there's hope and that I should prepare for a divorce. Am I just supposed to ignore that?”“I'm hungry, do you want to do takeout? I heard you love pizza.”“Seriou
~ANASTASIA~‘What? You think he's serious? Really, with all those earrings? Come on, Ana, you're better than this.’‘He's not you.’‘Exactly. I'm better; trust me, once he gets what he wants, he will leave you in the dust.’“Ana?!” Hudson's voice shook me out of my thoughts. I don't know why I was replaying my conversation with William in my head. He told me Hudson was not husband material, and that he had earrings. He made it sound like there were a lot. Hudson had one earring on his left ear. I didn't ask why he had it, but it looked good on him, too good that it would make other women want him, and William thinks he won't hesitate to cheat.‘I only cheated with Jimena, which I'm sure you understand, but Hudson, you are going to regret it, Anastasia; you should separate now that it's still early. Save yourself from the embarrassment, at least do it for our daughter!’I walked to the sink and fetched water into a glass.“I know you're worried about Ivy, but she is back home; she will
After my daughter agreed, we got in the car, and we were driven to the hospital by one of my drivers. Ivy looked so calm, and I wanted to keep it that way. I didn't know how, but I knew she had to be calm. It didn't matter if I had to give Nicole money; she couldn't be rude to my daughter.It didn't take long as we were now in the hospital's parking area. I turned to my daughter intending to ask her if she was ready, but the smile on her face told me she was, so without asking, I got out of the car and held out my hand for her.I asked if she could walk, and she said she could, then reminded me how what happened to her hours ago wasn't serious.“Son.” Mom was the first to rush to me; she hugged me, and since I was holding Ivy's hand, I only used one hand to return the hug. “I'm glad you came; I was so worried,” she said, and I nodded as I turned to Nicole, who was forcing Karen to have tea, but she refused.I knew it wouldn't be easy, as Karen already hated me. Last time she warned me
***“I can’t come now; just investigate what happened, get someone on it, and don’t leave her side. If anything happens to her, it’s on you. Get it?”“Yes, sir.”“Good, keep in touch.” With that, I ended the call and turned to Ana, who seemed to be shivering. Hudson was holding her, and I couldn’t help but blame myself for her condition.We have been waiting here for about twenty minutes now, and still no sign of a doctor. I turned to Carmen and Mrs. Grant, who both looked worried—Mrs. Grant was comforting Carmen.Carmen had been blaming me since we got here, saying I was responsible, and I didn't even try to deny it; I was. I'm the reason whatever happened to her happened. Ana hadn't said a word; she seemed too shocked to speak as her whole body was trembling, but I knew if anything happened to Ivy I wouldn't survive it, not only from her but from my guilt.How could I let Ivy walk out when she was clearly upset?I took a deep breath and was going to knock on the door when it suddenl
~WILLIAM~I was pacing around, running my hands into my hair as I thought of all the possible consequences.I didn't know whether I should go out there and confront Hudson or just remain here and be calm like Anastasia asked. I mean, going out there would make her upset because after last night’s kiss—even though she slapped me, it showed me there was hope, so I wanted to be on her good side.I was going to sit on the bed and just give it time when a thought struck my mind. Hudson said he was going to take a shower; what if Anastasia decided to join him? I couldn't allow that, so I made my way to the door, but before I could reach it, my phone started ringing, and since I was expecting a call from James, I reached into my pocket, and surprisingly, it was my sister, Nicole.I didn't understand how she was calling me when I blocked her and was going to press the ignore button when I realized the call was coming from my social media company account; I picked up as I thought it was urgent
Carmen wiped her tears while staring at her daughter's photo. She told me her name was Daniella, or Dani for short.Hudson was explaining the details about her life; “She works at a restaurant, never went to college, has no kids, and has no friends. She rents an apartment in town and doesn’t have a boyfriend.” Everything Hudson said sounded so sad; Daniella's life seemed lonely. No boyfriend or friends? I mean, he didn't need to add that she had no family, as that was obvious.“This is my fault.”“Carmen…”“I abandoned her; it's because of me that she doesn't go to college, that she's this lonely.”“None of it is your fault, Carmen.” I said as I rubbed her back in a comforting way, “You made a mistake; no one is perfect.” I said, and it seemed to make her better as she wiped her tears even though more kept coming—at least she was trying.Hudson was truly helpful as he explained how kind the daughter was; if I hadn't followed the details from the reports, I would think he knew her as a
Carmen and I were now in the living room; Ivy asked for William, and I showed her to William's room, so she went to him. “Should I get you coffee? Tea?”“No, we already had breakfast. We arrived last night; Mrs. Grant gave us a guest room.”“Oh, with Ivy?” I was just curious about how Ivy didn't insist on coming to me.“Yes, she was asleep when we arrived. Now tell me about you. How are you?”“I'm fine; it's not the first time. I'm used to it. Comes with being a heiress, your life is everyone's business.”“I know…” she looked around before she whispered, “Mrs. Frost was at the house; she was very upset.”“She called me.”“I'm so sorry, Ana. I know this is not what you pictured your married life to be.”“It's okay, I'm on it. How's Dad? How's everyone?” I just wanted to focus on spending a day with my daughter and Carmen.“They are all worried about you. Santiago is stressed; you know this is all on him.”“I know, I actually don't know if I sho
~ANASTASIA~I turned as the voices disturbed me; I kept turning and turning, trying to ignore the voices for a moment. I thought it was a dream, but when I heard Hudson’s voice, I quickly sat up—Hudson had never appeared in my dreams before, so it wasn’t a dream.“You’re not coming in. I told you she’s not here.” Okay, that was Williams' voice. I don’t know if Hudson was really here; I mean, he could have called me; he could have texted to ask if it was okay for him to come, so getting out of bed, I walked toward the door, picking the robe that was on the couch; and putting it on, I exited the room.“She’s my wife. I have every right to be here.” I could see William standing at the door, clearly stopping someone from entering, and with Hudson’s voice, there was no doubt it was him.“What’s going on here, Hudson? What are you—what are you doing here?” I asked, shocked, as I fixed the robe.“I came to see you; you’re my wife, remember?” He sounded awkward as he kept looking at William.