“You don’t know anything!” I snapped at him and snatched the letter from his hands. I bit hard on my bottom lip and glared at both of them. “You have no freaking clue!” I added. “Danielle, we just want to help,” Elliot began softly. “Is what the letter says, true?” He asked and made eye contact with me.“We?” I spoke in a condensing tone. “You are the woman who ruined my life?” I spat in her direction and I felt her tense, “Really dad?” I questioned with a disappointed stare,“Charlotte cares about you —““Only when it is convenient for her, and right now she needs my help, so she is here, once she doesn’t, she will leave. That is the real Charlotte, and I hope you can see her one day,” I gritted out and clenched my fist.“I am not the enemy.” She whispered with reddened eyes. I felt enraged for no apparent reason, maybe because I had seen this drama before, maybe because this setting felt so familiar and the only difference was the fact that it was Charlotte and not Alice, and my fa
It Initially started as a chuckle, then a small giggle, before I burst out into loud laughter that shocked everyone in the room. Isabel stumbled back and raised an eyebrow at me, it almost felt as if I had grown two heads but I knew better.My eyes stung but my lips were smiling, The invitation did not slip from my hands, instead, I clenched it in my fist and the first tear dared to roll down my cheek.I really could not pinpoint why tears were in my eyes, maybe because I had thought I would be the woman to marry Tyler, maybe because the news of his wedding had not finally sunk in as it had done at this moment. Or maybe it was all the memories and promises that were finally back to haunt me since reality had finally dawned on me. Another stream of laughter erupted from me and I ran my hands through my hair, it almost felt like I was mocking myself, mocking my stupidity.It felt like I was mocking myself for loving a man who had abandoned me when I needed him the most, for having the
The dining table was silent apart from the sound of aggressive spoons moving around, Mrs. Amber had made her delicacy chicken soup and everyone was eating in silence. But I could feel the tension from where I sat beside Alexander.“So, Are you sure you are feeling better now?” Emilia perked up at Alexander’s soothing tone, a smile broke out from my lips and I squeezed his hand. “I’m doing fine now, Alex, I just need some rest, I think it’s the work from the past few weeks that got me down, even if I did absolutely nothing.” I joked towards the end of my sentence. Daniel seemed to be watching us more than he was eating his food, for some reason, Lee found the scene amusing and would steal glances from Alexander back to me. I rolled my eyes at her antics. “I have an occasion I want us to attend.” Everyone stopped eating at that point and I felt their eyes on me. I sighed and looked up at them, “in fact, I want all of you to attend.” I added softly,“What event is that?” It was Emilia w
I could barely gasp for air as the pressure around my neck increased, I kicked and tried to move, I wasn’t thinking straight, all I wanted to do was get out of the death trap I had found myself in.The fact that the room was pitch dark and I was gradually sinking into my silk sheets and the cozy bed was not helping either, panic swelled in my sour chest and I gasped for air but it came out muffled and the pressure on my air intensified. I was almost sure that this was it, This was exactly where I would die and there was no way I could fix it or save myself, despite my pitiful situation, I found my thoughts trailing to Tyler, I wondered if he would care about my death and I had to mentally smack myself at my trail of thought The lights came up immediately a loud smack was heard and the pressure on my neck reduced significantly. I blinked and gasped for air, I could feel arms wrap around me but I kept my eyes shut for a few seconds as the light affected my dilated pupils even more.“A
“I cannot believe that you dared to show your face here.” Isabel spat the moment I walked into my office with Alexander.She sits in my chair, comfortably pressed against it with her legs on my desk. The caramel color of the walls glared at us both as I forced a smile. “I am not here to fight with you,” I spoke sharply and took casual steps into the room, almost as if she wasn’t there at all. “But if you are looking for trouble…” I continued and placed my brown bag on the table. “Then I can match that energy.” I spat and made eye contact with her.She broke out into serene laughter and her blonde wavy hair sat on her shoulders comfortably, her amber-green eyes shone at me brightly and a greedy grin played on her lips. “Are you challenging me, sister?” She said and raised an eyebrow in what I assumed was supposed to be a threatening manner.“I don’t make threats,” I said in a monotone voice. “I make promises,” I added. I shuffled through my bag and pulled out the files that Elliot had
I let out a soft sigh and stood up, Alexander offered me a soft smile and I ran my hands through my short hair. I casually walked over to my desk and got comfortable in the chair.“You don’t want to talk about it, do you?” Alexander voiced my thoughts and I let out a sad chuckle. The man sighed and took the seat opposite me. “You’ve changed.” He admitted rather quietly. I was glad he voiced that thought, because I had changed, I had changed so much that it wasn’t only my physical appearance that I could no longer recognize, everything about me felt so foreign.“Is that a good thing… or a bad thing?” I offered as I picked up a file and began to look through it. It was the recent project Daniel had been working on and he made me promise that I would read the whole thing and give him my feedback on it. As much as I was no fan of reading or paying attention to boring things like these for so long, I found myself somewhat obliged to help him out. the feeling of having siblings was finally
“How are you feeling?” Alexander spoke as we walked into the company’s parking slot. It was evening now and the sun had set, I licked my lip and rubbed my hands together.“I am fine.” I replied the three words I had rehearsed since birth. It was normal for me now. Saying I was fine was like a white lie that tasted like a sweet truth I could not attain. My hands clenched and unclenched in front of me.Worry clawed on my skin at the thought that Alice could have been behind the attack on me and my insides twisted because charlotte was a suspect too. As much as I wanted to believe her sob story about change, I knew a chameleon could only change its colors not his nature and she was a chameleon.“You don’t sound fine,” Alexander admitted. “Why do you push everyone away? All we want to do is help-”“The last person I let in, loved and was sincere with is getting married to someone else. So don’t try to teach me how to express myself!” I spat. I was sick and tired of people trying to tell m
The gun fire had gone on for a while before Daniel showed up with some men I recognized from the mansion, two of the man that had been shooting at us escaped, but the one I had shot in the foot lingered around. The man was apprehended by the men from the house and we drove home casually.“For a moment there, I thought we were actually going to die or something.” I breathed. Daniel glanced at me from the drivers mirror and squeezed my hand. A silent reassurance from him that I had been getting a lot of lately.The drive to the mansion was awfully quiet and when we arrived, I immediately went up to my room for a nap, I needed to sleep all the adrenalin off, as much as you wanted a superstar character, I’m only human and I get tired too.I had woken up a few hours later, just in time for dinner but I was nit ready to see anyone, well apart from one person. I untangled myself from my thick purple duvet and slipped on my soft flip plops. Even after that long nap, I felt exhausted. I wasn’t
5 years later. “What happened here?” I sucked in a sharp breath as I glanced around what was supposed to be the children’s room but seemed like a battleground. World war three happened here. “It was him!” Bella cried in her high-pitched voice, I cringed at her tone and glanced in the direction of her voice. My heart skipped a bit when I could not find her, but if the mop of blonde curls that peaked out from beneath the bed was anything too go by; I was definitely on the right track. I took tentative steps toward her and crouched down to her height, “Baby, what’s going on?” my voice trembled slightly with worry but that was not the only thing threatening an anxiety attack from me at this moment. It was already 10:00 am and I wasn’t even dressed — forget about dressing up, Tyler wasn’t even around to handle the kids and he promised me. Today was my big day and he promised he would fill in, but as always, he just runs off with his burger. Bella reluctantly reached out to me and
You know how you can spend your entire life walking on the wrong path. You can feel like you have it all figured out even though you are just starting and struggling to be a good version of yourself. There are some memories, that don’t die when dawn comes barging in. Some dark times that even the sun can’t chase away. My point is: They are too many things out of our control and the last thing you want to do is get stuck with the guilt of not fixing or doing things that were never in your control, to begin with. As I ran my hands through my soaked scarlet hair, a lone tear crawled down my cheek and I swallowed sharply. I bit hard on my bottom lip as I thunderstruck and pierced my skin. It was almost scary how three years had felt like decades, how much I had linked to come here, all the promises, the guilt, everything that had built up to this exact moment. I wiped my tears which were mixed with rain. I found to hear the hesitant footsteps from Rye, but I did not turn. My fists cle
“There’s still time for us to run.” I glanced at Emilia as if she had grown two heads, but she had a serious expression on her face and I knew that she was freaking out deep down.So was I.“Run to where exactly?” I decided to humor her risky thoughts with a raised eyebrow, her stance deflated and she let go of my hand. We were outside the church now. It was crazy how much time had passed and how things were happening so fast.Until two weeks ago I was at Alice’s grave. Now I was walking down the aisle. I frowned and breathed. “When did Rye say she was going to get here?” I asked Emilia, the blonde seemed to be too engrossed in starting anything but the church that waiting for her. Her blonde hair had been styled in a perfect bun and Isabel had performed magic with her makeup. Her dimples were visible and she wasn’t even smiling. Emilia took a hold of my hand again, a small smile broke out on her plump lips.I held my breath as she stared me dead in the eyes before she broke out into
“This was the last place I thought I would ever come,” The words rolled out of my mouth and left a bland taste in my mouth, I could feel the heat from the ground tear my skin apart, and my eyes stung with fresh tears and my fists clenched.If anyone had told me, years ago, or even a month ago that I would do this, I would have laughed in their face and given them a fitting reply, yet here I was, tears pouring down my cheeks with a void in my heart that I was not sure time could heal.“It wasn't supposed to end like this, Alice. This wasn’t the plan. This wasn't the freaking plan,” I whispered and I could barely see from my clouded vision. “You always hurt me when it was alive and I always used to think that I would be happy when you died...” I trailed off and wiped my tears.“I’m not Alice,” I admitted. “I’m not happy at all ad it feels like my heart got ripped out. You took a part of me with you and it space you left stings a lot.” I swallowed and sucked in a sharp breath. I ran my
Tyler chuckled and his hand went to his neck for a nervous moment. “I don’t think you have realized it but… Alexander is in love, and it’s not with you,” I blinked in confusion.Tyler laughed at what seemed like my facial expression. “Alexander is madly in love with Lee.” My eyes widened and I immediately clicked the dots.Lee’s strange behavior ever since Alexander came into the house, her sudden change of heart, the reason she begged me to stop the wedding, why she was so devastated during the shoot-out, why she kept her gaze on Alex, and most of us, why she was bosses with taking care of Bella. “But she’s just a child and he- he’s twenty-five or something! This isn’t right!” I informed him.“She’ll be eighteen in a few weeks, by then she will be an adult, right?” Cole asked in a calm tone.“Well yes, but…” I trailed off and walked past him, I turned and continued. “She’s still a child, he’s five years older than she, and I don’t know, I’m just not comfortable with the idea.”“It’s
"Are you okay?" Tyler was standing at the doorwhen I came out, I nodded and walked past him. "Where's Gemma?" I asked with a straight face and glanced around the place. "She left," Tyler informed me absentmindedly. "She asked for a divorce." He added."Why? Did she finally realize that you are nothing like you claim you are?" I spat at him and he shrugged."She was pregnant for someone else," He continued. My eyes widened and I shrugged. "Oh wow." I chuckled. "You sue to surround yourself with the best kinds of people," I informed him and he relaxed on the wall"You don't seem okay, do you want to get some rest?" He asked and I rolled my eyes at his fake concern."I want to leave. Why did you bring me here?" I demanded in a sharp tone."You fell unconscious, I had no other choice," Tyler admitted bashfully and ran his hands through his hair. His lips were pursed into a straight line and he kept his gaze firm on me."Want some coffee?" He offered and walked towards what I assumed w
"I never thought you would come here." I heard a voice as I sat on the closest rock.From the view I had, the lake was breathtakingly beautiful, it had been months since I came here and I was dying for a breath of fresh air."Do you remember the last time we came here?" the voice continued on a steady pitch, I rolled my eyes at the tone and turned away. "Danielle, you are going to have to face me at one point or the other." Tyler finally confessed in what sounded like a defeated tone, I scoffed at his words. "There's nothing to settle." my voice came out strained. It had been one entire month since Alice was murdered and Aiden died at my hands. The memory still sends chills down my spine and for many days I refused to leave my home because I was terrified of the outcome, I sucked in sharp air and glanced at him."You ended this, remember?" I added in a soft tone, my eyes stung with tears but I blinked them away. Tyler sighed. He broke the small distance between us and sat beside me
I lunged at him. With all the force and anger I could muster at that moment. This was the moment I had waited for so many years. Three long years — I lived with that guilt and pain for three long years. I was broken, I had to deal with the pain and nightmares and the intense feeling that I could not protect the man who did nothing but love me. The only thing I had consoled myself with back then was that I would avenge his death.And only when I had avenged his death, would I visit his grave. Today, I would fulfill that promise.Aiden lost balance in shock, the gun went off immediately. My eyes widened when we hit the ground. I was basically on top of him, dangerously close with the gun between us and my breath hitched.My heart raced and it took me a few seconds to register the fact that the bullet had not hit me, rather it was stuck in Aiden who was bleeding from his nose.I must have taken too long to connect all these dots because the next thing I knew was hands around my neck, c
"Aiden," I growled and he smiled. He had a fun held up straight to my face and I was almost thrown off by the audacity of the man. Here, in broad daylight, he was pointing a gun at me, a smug grin plastered on his face as if he had just been given hot coffee on a stressful morning."Danielle" His voice was calm and held no remorse at all, his eyes narrowed at me and rested on Alice's body which was behind me. I watched as Aiden's grey eyes darkened for a bit before they returned to their previous form."For the first time in my entire life...I'm sad I was right about something." The words were not directed at me, rather it was where his gaze rested. Completely fixed on Alice. "If you cared about her, you would have stopped this a long time ago." I shot a glare at him, and he scoffed and stared at me with a piercing gaze. "It's because of her, I did this!" He snapped and shot one of the medics, I stumbled on the side of the van, my eyes went wide and I clenched my fist."That's a li