Skylar’s POVI stepped into the coffee shop as the door pinged, hinting at my arrival. The air around us was thick with the scent of caffeine mixed with a classic room freshener. Two coffee mugs were already placed on the table I sat by, with a nerdy man waiting for me in his glasses.“Hey.” I smiled.“What’s with the formalities? I was waiting to hear a curse word from you.” Zac looked surprised as I took his coffee mug instead and pushed mine to him.“A little change won't kill you, idiot.” I sipped on the coffee and resisted the urge to appreciate it. “And why would I curse now? We’re not shooting.”“Well, Ethan didn’t sound chirpy when he called. So I guessed you needed me to listen to you curse about him.” He said, "Knowing him, I was sure he might have acted like an asshole again."I looked at him in surprise. “Ethan called?”“And ordered me to take good care of you. Isn’t he the most caring?”I rolled my eyes. “Overbearing control freak.”“Excuse me?” He frowned at me.I shook
“That was amazing!”My voice resonated in the air as I spoke excitedly into the mic. The reporter before me had a sly grin on her face.“Tell me about your honeymoon, Skylar. It looked like you had good fun.” She smiled as she spoke and I was obliged to reciprocate.Zac was watching me over the throng of people, widening his eyes, trying to convey something to me. I ignored him and responded to her.“That’s because it’s so true.” I chuckled. “I’ve always loved going to London. It’s one of my favorite places. I totally love my husband for taking me there.”Zac facepalmed and I could see that he was inwardly groaning. He gestured me not to do anything stupid but I could just do so much as frown at him. We were done partying and just came out to have a bunch of reporters ready to bombard me with questions. Zac came later so he was still not their target yet.As soon as they saw me, they started asking me questions. I answered most of them but Zac kept glaring at me. I didn’t get why he w
“What the hell, Ethan! Put me down!” I yelled but he ignored all my protests. He walked upstairs and threw me onto the bed as we reached his room.“I- what are you doing,” I said when I found him tying my wrists with handcuffs.“I’m tying you up so that you stay home.” He said and went to cuff my legs too.“How- where did you even get those!”“Owen gave them to me to protect us from Jake and Luke. But guess I should be protected from you first.”“Ethan, you’re insane!” I yelled at me, as he pulled a stool and sat in front of me.“Tell me something I don’t know.” He said, resting his elbows on his knees.I shook my head in annoyance. “I hate you.”“That’s not something I don’t know.”“No, this time it’s real.”“You mean it wasn’t real for the last one million and five times you told that?”I stopped for a second. “Don’t confuse me with your words.A smile broke on his lips. “You’re so drunk, baby.”“I told you not to call me baby. You can’t just yell at me and then call me baby the nex
“Switch the damn thing off!"I groaned into the pillow and threw it over my ears. Just then, I heard a chuckle from beside me.My ears quirked up when I heard my own voice playing on a speaker. I twisted my body and turned around, squinting my eyes open.Ethan was sitting with his back resting against the head board, with a laptop on his thighs. He was sipping on the coffee whilst watching some interviews on the screen.My eyes widened when I saw my own face appear on the screen. It was the interview that I gave yesterday.“Tell me about your honeymoon, Skylar. It looked like you had good fun.”“That’s because it’s so true.” I chuckled. “I’ve always loved going to London. It’s one of my favorite places. I totally love my husband for taking me there."I shut the screen instantly and pulled the laptop away. Ethan looked at me with mirth glistening in his eyes.“If I had known you’d fall back in love with me if I took you to London, then I would have done it long ago, sweetheart.”I glar
Spotlight wavered from place to place, as the chattering of people filled the room. I sat by the side of my hairstylist, controlling my urge to remove the strands of my hair that was styled to fall on my forehead.Zac was not having a good time either, as a furious frown set on his face as Mellisa, our assistant director and the girl that’s been in love with Zac for a long time has just got yelled at by the director.Directors generally don’t do that, and our director, James, is an even more loving and jovial person. Zac is too mad at him to see the facts and didn’t think of the possibility of us faking all this just so we could stir those buried feelings in him.Mellisa was right now weeping in the bathroom and it sucks for me to not be able to go console her. We are waiting for Zac to do the job and I don’t know what’s taking him so long.“Zac, Skylar, you’re being called.” One of the persons of the crew came to call us.After doing my last check of makeup, I was allowed to go.We t
“How would you do that?” I asked him.“Well,” he snapped the sleeve of the dress with his fingers. “The dress will have to come off first since you’re clearly being disrespectful to the owner of this dress.”“I thought I own it from now on.”“You do, you bought it from me.” He said. “Well, technically, you didn’t.”I gave him a surprised look and looked around. “This is your store?”He nodded. “Yes.”“Wow.” I smile. “I love the stuff here.”His face softened. “You can always come back here and take whatever you want.”I gave him a teasing look. “Why are you being this good to me? I thought you were threatening me just a few seconds ago?”“Do you want to talk dirty with you again?” He asked, his eyes hooded.“No no. I’m fine.” I chuckled. “I should take advantage of you while you’re still being a human.”He nodded. “So, did you decide yet? Do you want this dress on or off your body?”I smirked at him. “I think Ben will kill both of us if we don’t show up. So I guess I need to have this
“Hey, you!” Jen’s voice reached out ears before she could. “What the hell are you two doing here? Cassidy is corrupting your kids with her words and you guys are having your own chit-chat?”“What?” Stella’s face paled. “What’s the bitch doing now?”“Hey, Ben won’t like it if he hears you saying her that.” I said.“I don’t care, do you know what she did?” Stella said. “She told our girls to say ‘fuck’ whenever they catch me kissing Ben.”“What!” I paled in response.“Yes.” Jen said. “And now she’s teaching them how to say screw you.”“I’m going to kill her,” Stella said with a scowl. “And her brother for inviting her here.”Stella walked away and left me with Jen. She pulled me towards the other girls who were drinking.“Where were you guys? We met Ethan but he said you were right behind him.” Lucy asked as soon as we came.“Stella and I were talking about things..” I said. “Did you guys order something for me?”“What, you’re not drinking!” Lana said. “We don’t want the history to repe
“What’s the matter with you, Ethan? Why are you acting like this?”“Like what?” He asked, ignoring my comment and unbuttoning his shirt to change.“You... I don’t know. You seemed distant.” I said, clutching my hair in frustration.“We were never close in the first place.” He said and threw his shirt away. He went into his closet and came back with just one towel around his waist.“Ethan, you’re ignoring me.” I accused him.He gave me a tired look. “I’m exhausted, Skylar. I just want to shower and go to bed. Please let me take some rest. I have a long day tomorrow.”I stared at him for a few seconds before giving up. He sighed and walked into the washroom, closing the door with his feet. I shook my head and changed out of my clothes. My eyes lingered on that tattoo of his name on my back which I had when I was in high school. Although I had every reason to remove it, I couldn’t get myself to do it in these years.My make up artist did a great job at concealing them all these years whe
"I missed you guys," I said and hugged the first person I found, who ended up being Jen."I missed you guys, too." she said, wearing a face splitting grin. "how long has it been since all of us met? If I remember it correctly, it was almost four years ago."We were in touch all these years but it was never possible for us to meet all our friends together. It was definitely a reunion we had all been waiting for.Soon, the party started in full form. The guys grouped up near the bar to have drinks and the ladies found a table with the kids to gossip."Oh, look those morons gulping shots like they have no worry in the world." Jen scoffed beside me. "And here we are taking care of the children.""Cut them some slack, will you?" Lucy interjected. "They have pretty stressful job handling work, kids and their wives. Plus, they deserve it once in a while.""Well, hello miss newlywed." Stella said from across the table, "Lucky for you, Zac is the best out of all those dick heads. Although I'm
If there was one day in his calendar when Ethan let me do something for him without him returning the favour - then it was definitely his birthday.It was the day I had always looked forward to, more than anything, since it gave me an easy excuse to do things for him that were bound to make him incredibly happy.I recalled his birthday a few years ago when we flew to Paris to celebrate it. We were making love until midnight, and right when the clock struck twelve, I broke the news to him. According to him, that is still the most memorable and most cherishing moment of his life."We're pregnant," I said, my facing breaking into a huge grin.He was hovering over me, after an intense lovemaking session, and was just about to go for my lips when I uttered the words. I felt his entire body freeze under my palms as soon as he heard them and his eyes instantly shot up to mine."What?" he asked, as though he couldn't believe what he just heard.Only we knew why the news meant so much to us at
“Skylar, this outrageous! It’s been six months!” Ethan complained from the kitchen.“I told you I’m not going to let you touch me until Katie and Kevin are at least five years old.” I said, climbing up the stair to our room.The heard footsteps follow me from behind, more hastily than I mine. As I reached the last step, Ethan pulled me back by my waist and pinned me to the wall.I waited for the wall to hit my head and knock me down, but luckily for me, Ethan already anticipated it and placed his hand on my head.“I cannot wait for another four and a half years to have sex with my wife.” he affirmed. “You know you’re being unreasonable.”I frowned at him. “Hey, you’re not the one who carried twins in your womb. You’re not the one who almost died in labour for two whole days. And you’re not the one who pushed two very persistent babies out of your vagina just six months ago. Do you even know how that feels? Painful. And do you also know who caused that? You!”“Wait, now I’m supposed to
I fell onto my knees at that instant.She’s pregnant.Skylar is carrying my baby.We’re going to have a baby.Our baby.No.No.No.Skylar needs to survive.“No.,” I said. “You can’t let anything happen to her or the baby. Please.” I begged her. “Please save them.”“It’s a very risky job.” She explained. “She has a bullet inside her. And we don’t think a pregnant mother can survive it.”“No.. she can’t just leave me alone. We cannot let our baby die.”“We’re going to give your best. We’ll try to save both of them.” She said.****It has been five hours already. Everyone I knew was in the hospital.I decided to not disclose about the pregnancy to anyone. Although I don’t want to be a pessimist about it, I can’t help but be practical about the situation.I knew that the odds weren’t in my favour. And if just one of them survives through the operation, I don’t want Skylar to know we were ever going to have a baby.Owen thought that was extremely cruel of me to even think about it. But I
I widened my hands and kicked them from behind but the the person was too strong. I heard them asking me to calm down in an instant I turned around to look at them.It was all dark and I could barely spot the standing figure.“Skylar, it’s me.” Ethan’s voice rang in my ears.“Ethan..” I said breathless.The next second, I fell into his arms. He picked my face up and I felt him brush his lips against mine. Tears ran out of my eyes continuously as I clung onto him.“How are.. what are you doing- how did you get here?” I asked him.“I can’t tell you that right now. We need to go-”“She’s here!!!” I heard one of the men yell from behind us. “He’s with her!”I could barely take in some air before Ethan pulled my hand. I sensed him pull out a gun and point it to my head. I widened my eyes in disbelief. What is he up to?“Drop your gun, or she is dead.” I heard him.For a second I wonder if I was truly in the hands of my husband or not. Is he threatening to kill me?“Are you stupid? They kno
“How am I ever going to recognise them!”“They know you.” He said. “That shouldn’t be a problem. Once you go to them, you should obey whatever they say. You cannot-”“Fine.” I cut him off. “But how can I trust you?”“You simply will have to.”“That’s not going to be enough reason.” I said.“Well, I see you have something in mind. What is it?”I drew in some air. “I want you to send one of the girls to Stella. Only then, I’ll come.”“Bloody hell. That’s not-”“That’s the only way I can trust you.” I said. “I’m just asking for you to send one of them. You can still have one girl to use against me, don’t you? I will come for her.”There was a long pause.I gave him the time to think. I knew that what I was doing is not right. I knew I should be trusting Ethan but I can’t risk the twins’ life on this. What Ethan can’t find them soon enough? What if Jake hurts them? I could not let that happen.I also knew the twins needed each other at that time. They could be there for each other. But if
I was obliged to stay put inside our confined room for hours. Not a single message. Not a single phone call.Ethan kept himself busy with the search for the girls whilst keeping a bunch of men around our house.I highly doubted if I needed, since Jake would never pull an ordinary stunt like that. He is smart. He is capable of doing something that no one expects. Not even us, who know him better than anyone else.If Jake is really obsessed with the idea of pursuing me, he will have nothing to do with the girls. He will set them free, but it will have a price to pay.All I want is for Ethan and his men to find the girls before he hurts them and uses them against us. His actions will do no good for anyone. Not even to himself, at a point.I sighed and rested on the couch. Right then, I got a call.“Yes?” I answered into the phone.“Where are you?” Ethan asked.“I am still here in the place you locked me in.”“Can you elaborate?”“No.” I replied.“Skylar.” He called out my name in a warni
“I’m.. Ethan you don’t have to.. I.. uh.. just stop this freaking blood!” I said, uncertain about the words that were lingering at the tip of my tongue. i couldn’t comprehend my thoughts. A part of me was feeling terrible to see him like this. But a part of him was still upset that he hadn't believed it. It wasn't the first time it was happening. He chose to trust somebody else's words over mine and it cost us our relationship.He obviously feels more responsible for what happened. But this was bound to happen anyways. I would’ve been attacked at any cost. Jake and Luke are not the kind of people that would let me go without trying for it a million times. Our only regret is to have Mila and Evie pay for it.“Yes.. just a second.” He ducked down and grabbed something from one of the drawers. He poured some liquid into it and put it too my neck in a hurry.I winced in pain and pushed his hand away.“I.. I’m sorry, did it hurt?” He asked, panic evident in his eyes.Of course, it did!“No
“Get me the girls!” I said, pushing away a pair of hands coming my way.“Ma’am, we need to stop the blood-” one of the men that rushed into the parking lot right after the lights were turned on spoke in a hurry.“Where’s Ethan?” I asked him. “Call him right now! Tell him that the girls-”“What girls, ma’am?” The man asked. “We haven’t seen any-”I stroke my hand right across his face. His face was filled with bewilderment as he clutched the side of his cheek.“I’m not fucking hallucinating! Go check your security cameras and you will find two girls with me. Hoe the fuck does this mall work? Do you honestly not notice when a kidnapper comes in and takes away kids? What-”I cut myself off when I found someone coming my way. In an instant, Stella was before me.“Where are my girls?” Stella asked, looking around. “Where are they? Are they in the car?”“Stella, you need to listen to me. The girls.. The girls aren’t here.” I said in a low voice.“What do you mean they’re not here?” She aske