She shuffled to her bed and grabbed her phone which she had thrown on the pillow and found the last text message that the devil sent her.
[Why are you doing this?] She typed. Right before she tapped the send icon, she thought twice about it. What would she benefit from it? He might just deny it. Worst case scenario, he would reveal that he had something to do with it and his reason was to make her owe him—or something more sinister. She stared at her screen and slumped against the pillow, looking up at the ceiling. A while later, she sat up as a mixture of emotions flashed through her eyes. Her text was vague after all. If she simply sent it without explaining, the man might accidentally reveal whether or not he was behind the matter. Before she could convince herself against it, she hit the send key. She placed her phone facing down on the pillow but would check it every few seconds. The minute it took for the message to be delivered felt likeIt all sounded like a joke until Gemma was informed that Noah would appear before the court the next day. It had already been a week since he turned himself in and none of the days had been easy on her. Her attempts at stalking Livian Dumont had failed miserably because she couldn't get any information of him for the last five years. She didn't even know where he was, much less how to track down what he had been doing. She wanted to get something on him so he couldn't blackmail her but the end result was him threatening her to stop prying into his personal life.Easy for him to say, when he was the one who had been prying into her life.So, she had stopped prying and hoped he would not try to cause her any trouble. At least not until she was ready to face it.The following day, she prepared herself and decided to go to court to watch the arraignment. She would only be at ease after seeing him being taken to jail."Gemma, are you going to c
Gemma's eyes flared. What did that punk just say? She heard gasps reverberate throughout the courtroom and knew that she was not the only one who was shocked by the ridiculous revelation. How could Noah be in love with her?To the other spectators, it was probably something they heard every other day despite it being shocking every time. Brothers falling in love with the same woman? What was new about that? It was more common than best friends finding out that they were being played by the same manipulative seductress. Especially when the three lived in the same house like Ethan, Noah and Gemma did.But to Gemma, it was just not possible. She knew Noah. He was a jerk and a manwhore despite not having any of the things she thought women looked for in men that they wanted to have a fling with. But he hated women who were above him in any way, especially status. She was his boss for a while which meant she was definitely not one of the people he would want to befr
Her hands wove into his hair and grabbed a fistful of it as his hand snuck into her dress. His fingers felt warm against the skin of her back as he gently caressed her. She gasped into the kiss as he traced down the small of her back. His touch sent shivers down her spine to her toes which curled from the waves of want. The muscles between her legs spasmed as she felt his erection that threatened to burst out through his pants. He tugged a strap of her bra and her hand flew to his chest, gently pushing him."Livian…" What was supposed to be a complaint came off as a moan. It took a while before he finally comprehended why she was pushing him. He let go of her and sat up, brushing a hand through his hair in a mixture of frustration, lust and confusion. He heaved for a while before reality registered itself."I'm sorry." He whispered."You shouldn't be." She glanced into his eyes and had to look away. He looked delicious when he gazed at h
"I'm sure we can work something out. Don't lose hope yet." Cora reached over the table and patted her hand. After dropping the worst bummer of the year, she had called Gemma out for ice cream and snacks so they would discuss and try to come up with a way to counter their current ordeal.Gemma blew out an exhausted breath. She was not losing hope. That was the last thing that could happen. She was losing her freaking mind! Just how horrible did her luck have to be?Cora glanced at her and didn't know what to make of her pale face. She didn't look angry about losing out on the deal that she thought was pretty much settled. She waved to get the waitress' attention and passed a menu to Gemma. "Come on, cheer up, will you? We need to clear our minds for anything to work.""This is Livian Dumont we are talking about." Gemma ran a hand through her hair in frustration. She caught the confusion on her friend's face."I was just about to say we are lucky
There had to be a limit to how blind one could get. It had been hours since Gemma saw Livian at the company and she was still unable to process it. There must be a wild coincidence linking up the two men.One was a model whose career was yet to take off while the other was a billionaire. Had been since they first met. Which brought her to the second difference. There was no way the son of a tycoon like Charles Dumont could be poor. It wouldn't make any sense, especially since Livian Dumont had always worked hard and had taken over the family business long before they met. He couldn't have lost it either, because the man he saw was obviously still the CEO of Dumont Group. She had checked his car at least a few hundred times and it was parked in the spot reserved for the company's CEO.Yet, rationality was screaming at her to see the truth for what it was. That man must be Livian. The differences could have been a lie the asshole came up with to screw with her.&n
"Do you think it's finally time to let me know what's going on?" He asked when she stopped her antics. He knew from the panic in her eyes that it had nothing to do with wanting to touch him. Though that didn't mean her touch didn't ignite fire under his skin. It was quite the opposite. Even though her touch meant nothing sexual, her act of impatiently ripping his shirt off sent a jolt straight to his manhood.She pulled her hands away, suddenly realizing what her actions might have passed off as. She was embarrassed as she shook her head.She was acting strange but he nodded. "Okay."She thought he had dropped the matter. He didn't have any scar but it was too soon to tell him anything about his doppelganger. The worst that could happen was him turning out to be that doppelganger, just with the scar long faded. She turned around and stared right into his eyes intently.He wasn't sure what she was looking for but he cupped her face as he looked d
Ten years ago.“Tell me about your past.” Livian said as he settled to sit next to Gemma. The soap opera she had always been hooked onto had just ended and the credits were rolling.She glanced up at him.“Sir,why would you ask about that?” She asked. Although she and her boss were close and talked about all sorts of random things, they had never talked about her past.He smiled down at her. “It’s nothing to be shocked about, is it? You know many things about me,including the name of my teenage crush and my experience with her.”She covered her mouth to stifle a chuckle. “Were you really serious about that? I thought you were joking.”“I wasn’t.” He looked more amused than she was. She had to give it to him. Who would have thought that he had really fallen in love with his middle school teacher? She had thought that he was merely saying that to make her feel better about the f
“Shit!” Livian cursed and almost threw his phone away in frustration. It had taken a while before he realized that the text message he had replied to had been sent to Livian Dumont but on Livian White’s phone. He had wanted to stop himself from sending the reply he had just typed but perhaps his mind was already set on sending it, his finger reflexively tapping the send icon. His first reaction was to delete the message.The ‘message delivered’ notification came just a breath before the ‘message delivered’. Just great. It was too late and there was nothing he could do about it. For a moment, he hoped that Gemma was too busy to see the text message and would not see it until their meeting later. He had decided to come clean today but this was not the best way for her to find out. The hope that had started to form in his heart shattered as soon as he saw the ‘message read’ prompt. He was dead.He rushed to the
Wendy had her eyes shut when he opened the bathroom door."What's the result?" He asked.She didn't intend to tell him without playing a guessing game with him, which he quickly found out. Luckily, it was only a two choice option."Is it positive?" He asked hopefully. She shook her head.His mood dimmed in the slightest but he still asked, "Is it negative?"She shook her head, and he was baffled. Was she going to make him have a gazillion options even though it was a question of yes or no?He tried again. "Were you unable to take the test?"She shook her head to that too, and he was about to ma
It had been several weeks since Mia learned the truth about the past but it was not in the slightest bit easier to bear. It was still hard to imagine that the woman she had hated all her life was also the one who had saved her life. She had not had the courage to tell Carlos about it. Maybe he already knew the truth but kept it to himself. It was probably one of the things that would become clear with time and she was not willing to pry into them before they naturally unfolded. It made her feel guiltier because they were growing closer by the day.They had agreed to be friends but spent a lot of time together, doing things that friends definitely wouldn't ever do—not that she was complaining.On Friday evening, she went to his office as soon as she clocked out. This was how it had been for weeks. He would either seek her or she would seek him, every day. They would either have dinner together or he would drop her off. On weekends—like today—they would coo
“What in the world…” Gemma was rendered speechless by the insanity she had just heard. “Why the hell would such a rule even exist?”The elderly lawyer had no definite answer to that, because it was not he who had written the will nor had he set the rules that his granddaughter was finding absurd. He could only hypothesize. “The old man didn't want his bloodline to go extinct. He had to set some rules, and you are lucky that he did not specify that you must have a son before inheriting his estate.”Gemma sighed when she imagined that such a thing was possible. She had not known her grandfather when he was alive, because her family was yet to find her when he passed away. From the tales she had heard about him from her parents and grandmother, she knew that setting such an absurd rule did sound like something he would do.Even so, it still made no sense when she thought about it. “But I'm a w
Mia translated the document and while she didn't think there was anything secretive about it that would make Carlos unable to give it to someone else, she got the work done within the deadline nonetheless. It was the only way to get him to stop seeking trouble. She hated having to do everything he asked of her but he was the boss and there was nothing she could do about it. At least not yet.He was still sitting at his desk when she returned."That took you half an hour,." He remarked when he saw her.She placed the folder on his desk. "I'm done." She muttered, wondering why he sounded like he was complaining when he had given her two hours. She had not even taken up half of the allocated time. Was he going to scold her for being too fast?"Thank you." He half whispered. It was the first time he was appreciating anything she did and she was baffled."You're welcome." She smiled. He was smiling back at her and for the first time as well. She not
She thought he would ask to spend more days of the week with her or something along the lines but what he said surprised her."Promise me that you will sue Declan and that you will definitely go through with it no matter what happens."She frowned. "How is that paying you back? It's in my favor either way." She looked at him in confusion. Did he have a misunderstanding about the meaning of paying back?"It does pay me back. It's a win-win situation for both you and me."She thought hard about it and still couldn't understand how that was remotely possible."Is it because the man who hurt the woman you love will be behind bars and you will no longer have to see his face around? or, do you have personal grudges with him? Are you planning to use his term in prison as a way to end him?He smiled at her vivid imagination. "It's nothing of the sort. Well, those would be added benefits of putting him behind bars but the main reaso
"You are so beautiful." Livian ran his hand down her shoulder and kissed her cheek. She would have thought that he was just saying it to get on her good side but when she met his gaze, she had to believe that he truly meant it. His eyes were filled with adoration and if it was humanly possible, his attraction for her seemed to have intensified after what they had just done.She purred like a comfortable kitten when he kissed her cheek. She was lying against his chest with her body half sprawled against his. She pulled her knee up against his thigh and it drove him crazy. He groaned in pleasure."You are insatiable." She chuckled. They had done it twice in a row and she was beginning to realize that it didn't take much for him to be hard again.He wrapped his arms around her waist and chuckled against her neck. "Who am I to blame for that? If the wife is too sweet, is it the husband's fault that he got addicted to her sweetness?"She looked
Liam and Wendy had a shotgun wedding and it was baffling to everyone. The first thing they had to do was fulfill a part of the contract, which was for Wendy to make an appearance in the Dumont family as his wife.Their plan was to pass off as a real couple but they were shocked when they found out that Gemma was not falling for it."The two of you broke up two years ago, didn't you?" She questioned them."We reconciled and realized that we didn't want to risk losing each other again, so we decided to get married." Liam held her hand.Gemma chuckled. "Or, Liam had his assistant get him a suitable wife for hire so he would be able to access the trust fund from his great grandmother and since his assistant couldn't get a suitable woman, you decided that it would be more believable if it was you and him getting married." Gemma teased."That's not…" Wendy didn't know how to defend herself."It's okay. It's perfectly
She was certain that if she chose to agree to the contract marriage, the money she would earn would be enough to pay all her debts including her rent. Forget paying rent. Even if she wanted to purchase the entire estate and kick the landlady out of the apartment complex, she would have the power to do so.She was only in such a predicament because she had a falling out with her parents and decided to leave.It was impossible to count the number of bosses and managers who had tried to take advantage of their position to sexually harass her.Even so, she did not regret her decision, nor was she going to bend her will for that man. She shrugged. Many of her problems would be solved once she received her salary from the diner.After eating her snacks, she took a shower and prepared to go to bed.…It was already 7pm and the traffic couldn't get any crazier. Wendy was already an hour late for her evening shift and she kne
Evenings were the busiest time of the day at the diner and when Wendy was finally done with her work for the day, it was already 7pm. Even so, she couldn't leave until her replacement who would be working the night shift arrived since it was a 24 hour restaurant.She glanced at her pocket watch in irritation. Alma, that bitch, was late again. What irked her was the fact that she knew Alma disliked her and she was doing it on purpose like she always did whenever she had to take over the night shift from Wendy.Clara had already changed out of her work uniform and sent it to the laundry, so she was ready to go. She offered a smile at Wendy as she made her way towards the back door. "Want to go home together? My boyfriend will pick me up. We can give you a ride. Go on and change, I'll wait for you."Wendy looked up from the orders she was preparing for a couple and their daughter, returning the smile. "It's alright. I'll take the subway." She was gratef