"I missed you, Mandy""I missed you too baby girl. We haven't had enough time to spend with each other since you've been working""You know I'll rather spend every minute of the day with you but work has been choking""I know that boyfriend of yours has been keeping you busier" she winked at me "Where is he?, Are you not meant to be spending the weekend in his house""He traveled""Awww, I know you are missing him. How is your relationship?""Cool, we've not heard any issue yet. I'm even helping him on his new project""Really!!!, That's great news. So when is the release date of the collection, let me start preparing my dress""He has not yet announced the release of his new designs, he's keeping it a secret. It's only him, the stylist and I that know and now you. He won't release anything yet until he has finalized everything""Do you have the sketches?" She asked "Can I see them" I was skeptical about showing her but I trusted her and so I went to the living room to get them. I wen
CONSTANTINE'S POVMy jet arrived in Rome, the capital city of Italy two days ago, I came here for business. When I was done with the business. I decided to visit my grandma. My family's ancestral home was in Florence, I came here to visit my Nonna who I had not seen in a while. I drove to our estate and knocked on the door. A young maid came to open the door and greeted me. I went to my grandma's usual spot in the house. The balcony. She looked so surprised to see me. "Figlio, how are you. You've forgotten all about your old nonna" my nonna said"No nonna, I can never forget you. I've just been so busy these days""Your brother too has not also visited me in a while. You both are now grown men. Or is a woman keeping you both from seeing me?" She asked with raised eyebrows. I laughed"Am I wrong? You both have reached the age to settle down. Don't you have a woman in your life?""Speaking of settling down, I met a nice girl and I've been dating her for some time and I'm also in love
I was terrified. Tears flowed from my eyes like a river. Constantine did not believe me. I just stood transfixed in a spot. I had lost my job and relationship. He was angry at me and he didn't give me a chance to explainWhy is this happening now my life was finally taking a nice turn.I gathered the will to move. I packed the things I had in the office in a box. I looked around my office one last time. I was definitely going to miss it. I opened the door with a heavy heart and stepped out. I entered the elevator and pressed the ground floor, when the elevator dinged and opened it took my feet a while to move out. I cleaned my eyes before stepping out. Some people had left what they were doing and stared at me as I walked past with a box in my hand. I kept on walking and praying that nobody speaks to me and I can leave this building before I break down again. "Eulalia" Samantha called out. Why now? I dragged my feet faster"Wait" she held me by my arms "Is everything fine? Where
I am not going to sit at home doing nothing. I'm going to look for the person behind this even if I had to go to Larissa's house. Peter came to take Mandy home this morning. I prayed they settle their differences. They had a little bundle of joy on the way and I was going to become an aunt.Right now, I'm going to look for Larissa and confront her. I looked for the paper Mandy had written her address on. I boarded a taxi"Take me to Lake Street Avenue""Yes ma"It was time to visit Larissa, I'm going to shock her because she would not be expecting me. I used my time in the taxi to Google on Larissa. I knew nothing about her. I saw a lot of articles about her. She was married to a billionaire for two years. I scoffed, she was calling me a gold digger when she was the gold digger herself. I'm sure she married him because of his money.There was also news of her cheating and it was rumored to be the cause of her divorce. Not long after her divorce, she was seen with a prominent man in so
The next day, I thought about Samantha and what she said the previous day. I just realized I knew nothing about Samantha. I called Mandy."Mandy, can you come over to the house. I have something to tell you""I'll be there in a jiffy""Who is Samantha?" I kept asking myself. I've known Samantha since I started working for Constantine but I knew just her name and age and nothing else. Now, it seems like she was hiding things about herself. She never introduced me to her boyfriend. There was a knock on the door. Mandy was here already"Good morning Mandy" I engulfed her in a hug"Did you find the person?""Come in first and sit down. Do you want to drink anything?""No, I'm not thirsty""How are the baby and Peter. Did you people settle?""The baby is fine and Peter too and yes we talked and we are cool now. He was so happy when I told him we were having a baby. He said he had been praying I got pregnant""Did he propose yet?""It's too early. We just reconciled now and you are already
Francis had a lot of explaining to do. I banged on my father's door with so much force that it might pull the door down. My dad opened the door"Is someone chasing you? Why are you banging on the door like that" I ignored his question"Where is Francis?""He's inside. You didn't answer my question, why were you banging on the door like that?""Dad, not now" I walked past my father and started shouting his name"Francis, Francis, Francis" I shouted "You better come down here before I drag your ass here, you lying bastard""Euli, why are you calling your brother names. Is there a problem?""Just stay out of this dad"Francis was coming down the stairs without a shirt. When he came down the stairs. I walked up to him and punched him in the face. He stumbled back, he was expecting a hug from me."Fuck!!!!" He held his face "What was that for?""That is for stealing from me?""Stealing?" My father's eyes widened"Why would you do that Fran, I thought you loved me. I thought we told each ot
"Dad, please open your eyes" I cried while they were carrying him into the ambulanceI couldn't help but think this was my fault. I won't be able to forgive myself if anything happened to my father. He was the only parental figure in my life.I entered the ambulance with them as they tried to resuscitate my father, and an oxygen mask was placed on his nose.When we got to the hospital, there was already a stretcher waiting to carry him inside. They placed him on a drip as they carried him to the emergency room. I wanted to follow them inside but the nurses stopped me and said it was out of bounds. My brother held me as I sobbed"Dad, please don't leave us""He's going to be fine, they are attending to him now" my brother tried consoling me"How sure are you he's going to be fine. This has never happened before""The nurses assured me everything was going to be fine""This is all my fault, I shouldn't have come back home. If I hadn't come home this wouldn't have happened""Don't blame
Death sucks.Numb.That was how I felt as I sat in one of the wooden chairs, I'm not sure when people began to fill the empty seats. Mandy was by my side giving me words of assurance as I continued crying. They ask me how I'm doing, I was so calm and they were worried.I was thankful she was here. She had been my backbone since last week my father died. With her by my side, I was able to get through the week without trying to do anything rash. When the priest stands by the casket with his Bible in his hands. As the priest, began to speak I'm consumed by the last moments.I recalled some moments I spent with my father as a little girl"Daddy" five-year-old me ran to my father"Hey, my little princess," he said lifting me onto his lap"Daddy, I met a new boy at school today. His name is Adrian""Really?""Yes""Tell me what happened with Adrian""He came to school for the first time and he was my sitting partner. He offered me some chocolates and I took them. They were really sweet""Di
THREE MONTHS LATERIt's been three months of planning my fairy tale wedding. Mandy gave birth to a baby girl, she was so happy. I cried when I held the baby in my hands, she was so small and cute. I couldn't wait to hold my baby. Yes, I'm pregnant and it's four weeks old. Nobody knew yet, I wanted to tell Mandy when I found out but she went into labor.Mandy asked me to be her child's godmother and I gladly accepted. Constantine was with me when Mandy gave birth because I dragged him to the hospital.A night before my wedding, there was a party for the girls. I invited Katherine and Lisa and they came with their various friends and we had lots of fun. We even booked rooms for the night, Mandy and I stayed together in a room while the rest paired up.On the day of my wedding, I woke up with jitters and I still needed to tell Mandy I was pregnant."Mandy" I tapped her"Yes""I have something to tell you," I said with a smile "I'm pregnant""Oh my....when.....when did you find out?""Bef
A MONTH LATERIt's been a month already since Caesare met his downfall, he was all over the news after that incident and he was investigated. It was not the first time he had stolen another person's design and used it for his collection. His brand suffered a huge loss and he went bankrupt after that, the investors pulled out. His wife also left him.I helped Constantine to prepare his new collection although he had drawn the designs when we separated. I did not come back to Rodriguez but I still helped him. My relationship with my brothers strengthened and we were closer than before.Francis met a new girl Lisa but he was taking his time to know her better before asking her out even though he liked her. I liked Lisa, she was good for Francis. Gabe finally introduced his girlfriend to us, her name was Katherine. She was also a nice girl. We became instant friends once we were introduced.Mandy's belly has increased, her due date was almost near, and she had mood swings and weird cravin
"The plan is we go to his warehouse where he keeps the collection and we cut them into pieces""How do you plan to achieve all these with just me?""I'm planning to use Samantha since she knows something about him""Samantha has left the city""When? I didn't know""After she came to ask for forgiveness she told me she was leaving. My brother broke up with her and she said she can't stay in this city knowing she wronged people""She got what she deserved. Now back to the plan""Why don't you get someone to do it instead, must we do it ourselves?""I don't trust anybody with this and this is going to be fun doing it with you""I'm scared. I don't want to enter any trouble with anybody, can't we just let it go. You said those designs don't mean anything to you again""No, don't man deserves a taste of his medicine. He has been on my nerves since and what he did was the final straw. I must teach him nobody messes with me and goes scot free""I'm begging you let's just forget it and plan
I felt better than I had been since my father's funeral. I was still looking for a job but in the meantime, I engaged in baking cupcakes for little children and I also started playing video games. I enjoyed playing video games.I still did not accept calls from anybody that was not Mandy, I couldn't bring myself to talk to anybody apart from her yet. I was enjoying my time alone, I visited parks and eateries. My phone has been ringing since yesterday and Constantine has been calling me non stop but I didn't pick up, I kept ignoring his call. I was not ready to speak to him now and I didn't know what to discuss either. I did not need his pity. I had just finished eating my breakfast when the doorbell rang. I was excited because Mandy was at the door and I had someone to spend my day with. I opened the door and the smile on my face died down. It was Francis and he had a sad smile on his face. I folded my hands and looked at him"Can I come in?" he said calmly. I was tempted to bang th
CONSTANTINE'S POVWhen I received the news of Eulalia's father's death, I was heartbroken. I couldn't believe a man with so much life had gone to the great beyond. He looked very healthy when I saw him last. Before I went to Italy I had visited him to ask for his blessings to marry his daughter. He gave me a stern warning"Eulalia is my only daughter and she is very precious to me. I don't want you to break her heart she's very soft on the inside no matter how hard she portrays herself to be. I know she loves you and you love her too so I'm begging you to please take care of her. I'm entrusting her in your care, her brothers will have their own families too and they might not always be there""I promise you sir that I will never hurt your daughter and I will always protect her and stand by her""Then you have my blessings""Thank you, sir, I won't disappoint you""You better not"Now that man was no more and he had so much life in him, he was always happy. I feel like a loser because
I spent two days in the hotel, Mandy came to visit me every day and she never came with anyone. I was happy she respected my wishes not to come with anyone. On the third day, I was ready to go back home and Mandy was there to pick me up. She ordered an Uber that took us home.I unlocked my door. It felt nice to be back home."Thank you Mandy for everything, thank you for standing by me in this hard time. I don't know what I would have done without you" I smiled at her"I must stand by you. You were there when I needed you and it's only right I do the same. I'll be on my way now, Peter is waiting for me and I have to go to work""Okay, thank you once again. I'll stop by the house later""Sure. If your phone rings please pick up, I don't want your brothers blasting my phone up""Yes, mum" we started laughing. It felt nice to laugh this hard "I promise to pick up" we hugged each other and she left. I locked the door and put on the television, they were showing After and they were halfway
After my father was laid to rest, my brothers pleaded with me to stay a while in the house before going back to my house but I did not agree. I had already planned to go home after my father was laid to rest, but I didn't want to spend time with my brothers. I was not going to listen to any of them. The only person I ever listened to was dead and gone. I was much angry with myself as I was angry with Francis and Gabe. I was angry with Gabe because he didn't listen to my father and Francis was the main cause of my father's death. If only he had not done what he did, I wouldn't have come home ranting like a mad woman. I just needed somebody to blame for my father's death.If only I had left when I said my mind, my father would not have been six feet under. If only could not bring my father back, he was gone forever and I was never going to see him again probably till I die. My father was my rock, my adviser, my father, my everything. He has been the one taking care of us for a very lon
Death sucks.Numb.That was how I felt as I sat in one of the wooden chairs, I'm not sure when people began to fill the empty seats. Mandy was by my side giving me words of assurance as I continued crying. They ask me how I'm doing, I was so calm and they were worried.I was thankful she was here. She had been my backbone since last week my father died. With her by my side, I was able to get through the week without trying to do anything rash. When the priest stands by the casket with his Bible in his hands. As the priest, began to speak I'm consumed by the last moments.I recalled some moments I spent with my father as a little girl"Daddy" five-year-old me ran to my father"Hey, my little princess," he said lifting me onto his lap"Daddy, I met a new boy at school today. His name is Adrian""Really?""Yes""Tell me what happened with Adrian""He came to school for the first time and he was my sitting partner. He offered me some chocolates and I took them. They were really sweet""Di
"Dad, please open your eyes" I cried while they were carrying him into the ambulanceI couldn't help but think this was my fault. I won't be able to forgive myself if anything happened to my father. He was the only parental figure in my life.I entered the ambulance with them as they tried to resuscitate my father, and an oxygen mask was placed on his nose.When we got to the hospital, there was already a stretcher waiting to carry him inside. They placed him on a drip as they carried him to the emergency room. I wanted to follow them inside but the nurses stopped me and said it was out of bounds. My brother held me as I sobbed"Dad, please don't leave us""He's going to be fine, they are attending to him now" my brother tried consoling me"How sure are you he's going to be fine. This has never happened before""The nurses assured me everything was going to be fine""This is all my fault, I shouldn't have come back home. If I hadn't come home this wouldn't have happened""Don't blame