POV: Victoria “Vee, where are you?Come home, come back right now, I need you.” Mom let out sadly when I picked up the call. The call ended before I could say anything and I felt miserable because she didn’t say anything reasonable. She didn’t tell me exactly what was happening over there, but I heard the pain in her voice and I knew it had to be something so serious.I felt my heart breaking into a million pieces as I imagined different scenarios. I tried calling back, but she wasn’t picking anymore. I don’t know what I’m going to do, how do I tell Raphael and his grandfather that I cannot stay for the evening cocktail party that was being held on our behalf. I kept pacing the room and calling Mom, hoping and praying that she would pick up my calls. I even tried Claire and her boyfriend. But no one was taking my calls and that made me panic even more. I didn’t want to disrupt Ralph’s meeting with his grandfather, but when I could reach anyone at home, I had no choice but to go to h
POV: Victoria “He likes you, you know. I’ve never seen him this obsessed with a girl, not even when he fooled around with Charlotte. How I would to see him broken and miserable when you finally break up with him, it going to be Epic!” Nathan told me teasingly laughing excitedly.“Where is my sister, Nate. What have you done with her?” I asked him angrily, hitting him repeatedly as the tears rolled down my cheeks.“You drugged my sick mom and killed the guards just to take Claire away?How heartless are you?You are a murderer, Nathan?And you won’t get away from this, I promise! I’ll make you pay for hurting my mom and kidnapping my sister, I’ll make you regret it!” I told him furiously. He scoffed and turned away from me, sipping from his glass of scotch and pretending not to hear a word I was saying to him. He’s heartless and wicked. I thought I could handle him, but he’s coming up with different requests that are not easy to be granted. I wish Ralph would listen to me, but he ha
POV: Victoria I stood in the middle of the room, looking around for clues about the stupid key. I came back here some minutes ago and I started searching for the key the moment shut the door. So far, I have no clue how to find it, I’ve never seen Ralph with a key, and I’ve never seen a safe or briefcase around him either. This is even more difficult than looking for a needle in a haystack.I didn’t tell Raphael about it obviously. I don’t trust him with my family after he let them get hurt. I will do anything to save Claire, even if it means defying Raphael and getting on his bad side again. What the hell?I’m already on his bad side. He thinks I hurt his precious Ex-girlfriend so what difference does it make if I steal one stupid key and give it to his brother?He wants it now, I have to hurry as soon as possible. Claire’s life depends on it, my mom needs her. I walked into his closet, opening every drawer and pulling out his shoe boxes one after the other. But I couldn’t find it, I
POV: Victoria“I’m sorry, Ralph, I should have come to you first. But he tricked me, he made me believe he still had her and I stupidly fell for it!” I told him sadly. I sat down next to him, telling him about the key and my deal with his brother. I finally got through to my sister and mom. Turns out that Claire’s phone was hacked by Dad, and that is how they found their location. My father aided Nathan in hurting Mom and Claire. I’m sure they would have killed my mom if Nathan didn’t need her alive to threaten me. Raphael had them moved to his house in a private estate and he took away their old gadgets and had the whole place checked for bugs or anything harmful. I felt so sad that I didn’t trust him enough, I had no idea that he would pay so much attention to my family, treating them as his. He was so pissed when I showed him the videos and told him about Nathan's request. He refused to look me in the eye and I felt guilty for disregarding his instructions and selling him out to
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: 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