POV: Victoria “You need to understand that Raphael has enemies at every turn and he needs to be twice as smart and powerful to deal with them. Out there he will be bullied and infuriated by so many people. They will bring out the beast in him and make him fight back to stay alive and keep the company. You must stand by him through it all, I need you to stay by his side until he establishes his dominance and takes full control of everything. Can you do that for me, will you promise to protect my grandson and be his lifeline?” Gramps asks me, making me promise to stay with Raphael and be his support. I couldn’t stop thinking about it, His words kept ringing in my head as we had dinner before the cocktail party. I should never have agreed to his request when I knew in my heart that I wanted to seduce Raphael. Now he’ll know I’m up to no good, and one day, he might slip and divulge my plans to Ralph and he would hate me forever for trying to trick him. Now he knows I’m interested in h
POV: Victoria I stood and watched as the girls danced with him one after the other, dancing with elegance and poise. I still can’t believe that Gramps did this for Raphael and I. My eyes took in the elegantly decorated ballroom with shimmering lights and lavish decorations. It’s so beautiful and it’s held in my honor as a part of the family, the Hawkins family.If only Raphael could see me the same way if only he would consider me a part of his family. My eyes went to the guests who were dressed in their finest attire, clinking glasses of champagne and mingling throughout the room. It landed on Raphael and I noticed he had his eyes on me all this while. I smiled at him but he looked away, ignoring me.Cindy looked confident, she was sure she would win the competition. She had been to countless parties before and was known for her graceful dance moves and charming demeanor. As she took her turn dancing with Grandpa, she twirled and swayed with practiced elegance, expecting to win over
POV: Victoria “I don’t care how you feel, Victoria!You knew what you were getting into when you agreed to be my pretend girlfriend. Now I’m going to try to please my father by proposing to you. Do me a favor and pretend to be surprised okay?” he told me through gritted teeth, holding me close and locking his lips with mine before I could say anything to annoy him further. “Fine, you win!” I told him after the kiss, smiling brightly. He chuckled at my excitement and for a brief moment I saw his eyes brighten up and his smile almost looked genuine…almost.He looked into my eyes and kissed me In a romantic gesture, his eyes fixed online. He took a step back and went on one knee, presenting me with a small velvet box. He opened the box and Inside was a stunning diamond ring, a huge diamond I must confess. I known was expecting this, I mean, he just told me to fake it. But this is actually a nice surprise because I didn’t know he had it in him to be this romantic. Hell, I didn’t even k
POV: Raphael “You will regret this!” Ethan told me this morning before he got to his car and left. All these years he has never threatened me or shown me his true colors. It’s been Nate all these years. Ethan just stayed in the shadows, doing his business behind the scenes. Now he has decided to join forces with Nathan and it’s going to be more trouble for me.“You don’t have to take me home, I can get home by myself.” Victoria told me as I drove her home. She has been quiet since last night, she didn’t say anything about it, not even when she witnessed Gramps brutality with my brothers. She got her fair share of threats from Nate, but she kept her cool and just pretended not to notice.“I didn’t ask for your opinion, did I?” I asked sternly.“Can we skip this pretense and talk like two smart adults?I thought we were past this stage. You may not like me Ralph, but at least treat me like a friend or a sister. Just get rid of the attitude already, it’s not who you are.” She told me, s
POV: Raphael Her eyes narrow in suspicion as she looks at me, her expression cautious and scared, “You may be wealthy, Mr Hawkins. But I am not scared of you. I want you to stay away from my family, leave my daughter alone!” She affirms, glaring at me.“Let me make this very clear, ma’am Eloise. You have no right to interfere in my relationship with Victoria. Like I said earlier, I did my best to respond on time and save you and Claire from my enemies. It’s not Claire's fault and it's not my fault either. I would work harder to make sure it never happens again. You cannot use this incident as an excuse to keep us apart. I won’t let you!And I’m not here to threaten you or force you to like me. I’m saying that I won’t let you control her life and if you insist on keeping us apart, I will make you suffer!” I told her sternly, earning a gasp from Claire and her sister. “How can you be so mean, Raphael?How dare you speak with my mother in that tone after all she has been through?” Vic
POV: Raphael “Fine!If you feel I’m such a bully, then why are you with me, why not break up with me already?!” I asked her furiously, glaring dangerously at her. To think that I’m looking out for her and she dares to call me a bully, yelling at me and calling me names. Her mom is the reason they are being bullied by their father always. He knows her secret and he’s using it to bully her and threaten her. If she tells her girls the truth, then they will be free from his attacks because their mother would have nothing to fear anymore and she would fight for her inheritance and face him head. “Come on, what are you waiting for?Leave if you want to, I fucking dare you!” I yelled back at her, walking out on her and heading back to my car. I thought she would not respond to me, but I heard the sound of her footsteps behind me and I knew she would not let me have the last word.“You are so arrogant and proud, Raphael. You don’t think of anyone but yourself. You must think that I have no
POV: Victoria “You love him?” Claire asks me, startling me from my thoughts.“He’s not coming back, is he?” I responded, my voice heavy and sad. I’ve been standing out here since he drove off. A part of me still thinks he would turn around and come back to me. I didn’t think he would leave that way, I thought he was simply bluffing. But as it is, nothing is a joke to Raphael Hawkins. “You shouldn’t have asked him to leave if you love him that much, you shouldn’t let anyone manipulate you into leaving him. You need to start thinking about your future, no one has the right to tell you what to do and who to be with!” she told me firmly. “Jeez, who are you and where is my kid sister?” I joke, earning a chuckle.“You know how you always ask me to leave Kyle because he is not good for me and I completely ignore you?Well, that is because I love him and I chose to think with my heart and not my brain. I let myself love him because I know he is a good man and he loves me too. In fact, he i
POV: Victoria The master bedroom is incredibly spacious, it covers a significant portion of the top floor of the mansion. I smiled in appreciation as I looked up at the high ceilings with a beautiful chandelier in the middle. It has large windows that offer a stunning view of the terrain.At the center of the room is a massive, custom-made bed with the finest linens, plush pillows, and a designer headboard. The mattress is likely to be a top-of-the-line luxury model for the ultimate in comfort. I jump on the bed and smile in satisfaction, chuckling excitedly. Claire jumped in after me and we jumped and danced on the bed, loving the soft mattress. The décor of the room is elegant and sophisticated, there is custom-made Italian furniture and tasteful artwork. The color theme is grey and white with luxurious tones of gold and silver as designs.“This room is huge, Vee!It has everything you need!” Claire let out excitedly and we toured my room. I am pretty sure that this room belongs t
POV: RaphaelIt took a few days for the girls to get back on their feet. Turns out the poison Eloise used on them is a deadly chemical that could turn them invalid for the rest of their lives if not handled properly. If they had stayed there longer for her to administer another dosage, it would have been detrimental to their health. Good thing we got to them on time, good thing we took her out before she could hurt them more than she already has, especially Victoria who is a few weeks pregnant with my child. She had no idea she was pregnant, I had no fucking idea. It was discovered during her body exam at the hospital, and I couldn’t be happier in my life. This changes everything…It doesn’t just validate our relationship; it’s going to keep every other man away from her; it will be the one reason why I will fight everyone, including my grandfather, just to keep her. I couldn’t take my eyes away from her, even when she fell asleep on the hospital bed. It’s amazing to know that a lit
POV: VictoriaSo it turns out that Eloise Kendall was still lying and playing games with us down to the last minute. After the building exploded, Raphael got up as fast as he could and ran up to me, making sure I was okay. Miguel was here the next second, and they smothered me with love and care, checking to see if I was not hurt. “Claire…My sister…Where is my sister, where is Claire?” I managed to ask in my confused state, turning around to find her. They heard me asking for her, and they turned around with me, searching for her. We spotted her in Dominic’s arms as he struggled to get her to wake up.“No! No! No! No!Claire!Wake up!Claire!” I called out to her, struggling to get up but failing miserably as usual. Raphael took one look at me, and he turned in my direction, and he knew I needed my sister. “Stay with her; keep her safe!” he told Miguel as he left my side and ran to Claire’s side, administering mouth-to-mouth while Dominic called out to her, yelling at the top of h
POV: Victoria“Move away from here; she has a bomb; she is going to kill us all!” I yelled in Carl’s direction as I saw him approaching us slowly, thinking that my Mom was not seeing him. Of course, she is seeing him through the device in her hand; she knew the moment they took off the power grid that they were here. She came up to us and smiled excitedly, clapping her hands as if it were the happiest day of her life.“The guys are here to save you. Your Prince Charming has arrived, and they came prepared to save you. Are you not excited?” She asked us, smiling so happily. I turned to Claire in fear, and she had the same look of fear on her face, too. “Let them go, Mom; they don’t have to die because of us,” I begged her.“Of course, they do. Why the hell would you ever think that they deserve to live, why would you think that?” she asked me angrily.“I have been waiting for them for so long, they are the reason why we are still here. Of course, they would get what they deserve; the
POV: Raphael“How is he?” I asked Miguel a few minutes later after he spoke to the guys he put in charge of his parents. We have been waiting for their report and for a minute there we thought that something bad has happened, we thought they were under another attack from Eloise. We were contemplating whether or not to cancel the mission tomorrow and go back to Havana to save the Myers and get them out of town before coming back to face Eloise. But the call came in just a few minutes before we made the decision to cancel the mission. Turns out that the guys are even more efficient than we thought. Immediately after Shaun came out from surgery, they moved him and the Myers out of the hospital and took them to a safe house outside the city. “You did good, guys; I’m proud of you. Where are they now? Where did you take them?” he asked the boys after confirming that they were safe. “I’m sorry boss, but we can’t disclose our location to anyone yet, not even you, Mr Myers.” They told him
POV: RaphaelWe were all awake all night, going over the plans over and over again, looking for any flaws. Dominic and I did not have any misunderstanding as we worked together, in fact, you will never know that we even had a fight before we started. Saving the girls is more important to us and that’s what we focused on.We could not walk up to the front gate together because that was where she was expecting us to follow. We flew a drone over the property, and we saw that half of her security guards were stationed at the entrance, waiting patiently for us. I’m sure that she must be expecting us to show up at her gate any moment from now. I mean, she wasn’t expecting us to back down, was she?“Get the helo ready, we leave two hours after the ground team,” I instructed Carl. We decided to split the teams into two so one team could create a diversion while the second team sneaks into the house and saves the girls. We agreed to use a helicopter to drop a few guys on the building while th
POV: Raphael“If you are here to give me attitude and make my job more difficult for me, I suggest you get the fuck out of here right now. I’m too busy to deal with your attitude, Raphael, I mean it!” He told me furiously, glaring daggers at me. It’s obvious to everyone looking that this guy is angry with me for a completely different reason. I mean, he cannot be this furious because I said I wasn’t helping, right?“I’ll do anything to save Victoria, even if it means putting up with your bullshit!” I told him, repeating my earlier response and ignoring his earlier comments about my attitude.“Are you testing my patience? Are you trying to piss me off?” he yelled at me, letting the others turn to us curiously as they wondered what was going on between us. I turned to face him and he came to stand in front of me, glaring at me as if he wanted to punch me.“If you have something to say, why don’t you say it to my fucking face, Dominic. You keep saying you have moved past my betrayal, but
POV: Raphael“Shaun, what is going on over there, Are you hurt?” Miguel asked him in a panicked tone as he got up immediately and viewed his body to see where he was shot. I’d already seen it when the nurse took his phone but I didn’t say anything because I don’t want to get him more worried and upset than he is presently. He was shot in the chest and stomach, and I could tell that he is in pain, but he is just faking it to put Miguel’s mind at ease. It would break Everyone if something bad happens to him. I know I only just met the guy today, but trust me, I would feel it too because he is such a great guy and he doesn’t deserve to die. I see him like Carl, he is loyal to a fault, just like Carl. I could see it in his eyes that he would do anything to protect the Myer’s, even putting his life at risk for them. He is still bleeding from the gunshots, the bullet has not been taken out and the bleeding has not stopped. He must have lost a lot of blood while waiting for Juliette Mye
POV: Raphael“If you had a way of getting them back all this while, why haven’t you done so yet, why are they still being held hostage, Mr perfect plans?” Dominic retorted angrily.“ It’s your perfect plans that got me into trouble with Carlos Gonzalez in the first place, remember?” He asked again, scoffing at my words. I wanted to refute his decision one more time, but he stopped me with a wave of his hand, dismissing what I had to say as if it didn’t matter. “Save it, Ralph, I don’t want to hear it!” He told me angrily, glaring at me. “Tomorrow, I’m saving the girls and bringing them home to their family and loved ones. You can keep planning and stalling for as long as you want, I don’t care. But I’ll advise you to stay the fuck out of my way before you get hurt!” he warned me, walking past me and heading back outside. He turned around when he got to the door and he turned to Miguel and said,“I'm going out there to make plans on how to save your sister and my woman. You can
POV: RaphaelI didn’t want to deal with Dominic now because I knew that he must be so furious with me for keeping him in the dark all this while. I have not been sending updates to him as he instructed. I’ve been too busy to even think about him. As expected, he was angry with me, and his tone was so rude when I called to inform him that Miguel and I were crashing at his house tonight. I thought he was just being unnecessarily angry. I mean, I know I didn’t call him to give him updates, but he should have called me to, right?When he didn’t hear from either me, Carl, or even Miguel, he should have known that something was wrong, and he should have called to find out what was happening. He knows the enemy we are facing is so cunning and evil. He should have called us to check up on us and see if we were okay. But he didn’t call either, and now he is pissed at me for nothing.I was getting ready to give him a piece of my mind, but when I set my eyes on him, I immediately felt guilt