«Layla»There were two options, go to twelvth district and find out what I could or let Jonas drive me to Drake's workshop and see if there was anything new.Oh and there was also the option of going to the hotel where everything began. If I was lucky, there would still be clippings of last month... Considering the scandal involved important personalities like Ethan, the file in the cameras might have been saved.I had a premonition that the man Nicole ordered to r#pe me was the same John that was reported on dead today. That would be something worth clarifying.After all, he did look innocent. But then again I couldn't be sure because my memories of that night were foggy. A picture of the scene would do the trick.“Milady,”Looking up, the three story mansion came into view. Oh shoot... I thought.I hadn't been able to make up my mind in time so the driver who didn't have a preferred destination, automatically drove to the mansion.Well I guess brunch would be good too. I thought com
«Ethan» What was I thinking? I stared at the phone with a mixture of feelings. Why would she want to have a conversation with me... Why would I even want to talk to her? I thought more disgusted with myself than ever. Granted, it was about the problem my father created for me by claiming I had to go on a stupid vacation with her but honestly, I didn't have to seek her opinion on the matter, I could just command an answer from her. I was getting soft. I thought in distaste. “Never mind,” I texted back staring daggers at the phone. I shouldn't mistake her for her sister with whom I was more familiar with. “Penny for your thoughts?” I glared across the table at Violet who was as normal, giving me that cheeky lopsided grin which I had grown to despise. “I'll give you a thousand and one dollars for you to keep your mouth shut,” I sneered my voice laced with sarcasm. “Oh really, is that how you reciprocate kindness?” She pouted managing to look innocent. I laughed humorlessly. “
«Layla»“I'll tell you what's wrong with me, you!”Ethan's words hunted me as I ran. I tried to stop the tears from flowing to no avail. What had I done? Was I so wrong in conceding to this marriage?Was I so unbearable? So disgusting?This isn't working I thought. And Ethan had spelt it out crystal clear. Why did I push him... Why did I so desperately want to get hurt.I fled blindly, running away from everything I knew. I needed a safe space to think and clear my head. I definitely couldn't see Drake at this state.Turning onto a dark alley, away from the prying eyes of passers-by, I sat on the concrete ground shaking.“Breathe... Breathe Layla,” I strayed my self as best as I could and pulled out a cloth to clean my already stuffy nose.He didn't even hit me but now
«Nicole»The car was parked and I felt someone carry me down. I was made to move through a winding path and up and down some stairs and around passages before finally my hands were untied and the polythene bag was removed from my head.I stood face to face with Sedar Maxwell, a slight glint in his eyes as well as a smirk at the edges of his lips.He spread out his hands. “Welcome to my humble abode. Sorry for the inconvenience.”His chest bulged out of the thin black that he wore as usual, blinding me once again with his unimaginable number of gold chains. How did someone even manage to wear two belts just to prove he had a thousand gold belts?I glared at him. Heck next up he'll show up with diamond teeth. “You better have a damn good reason.”“Please, make yourself at home.” He smiled fully now, revealing sparkling diamond false teeth that made a one-two-three pattern with his normal teeth. What the fuck... This was oppression!“This is the dark side.”I looked around and sat down
«Nicole» “It's yours to choose,” His grin widened. “And mine to watch.”I nodded checking the time. I had to get home on time so my parents wouldn't start asking me stupid questions.“I'll notify you once the target is within Killing range. Three men will do the job.” He snapped his fingers.A man walked in dressed in a leather jacket and ragged fashionable jeans. He nearly tripped over the shackles that were still on the ground as he stumbled into place in front of us.I gave Sedar the, “seriously him??” look.“It had been completely coincidental,” Sedar's smiling eyes replied.“Ring leader Jacob,” The man reported standing straight. “Two of my men and I would be avaliable from noon to late in the middle of the night. We're well trained in kidnapping and assassination.”“He's the most ordinary looking killer I know.” Sedar testified walking closer to me. He held out a hand and led me to the door. “Could lend right in amongst innocent two year olds without problems anytime.”I could
«Ethan»Jonas looked a little more than terrified but followed my lead as I pulled the trigger. The look on his face was resigned. There was no going back now.I'm glad he understood. Since we had already gone against the law, we were going to see it through to the end.“Who's there, show yourself!” One of the kidnappers yelled pointing in all directions. Layla had already taken the initiative to flee and take shelter behind a ledge. I heaved a sigh. It would really be troublesome if the criminal still held on to her and used her to threaten us. “You know what to do now.” I nodded at Jonas.“Y-yes master,” He said no doubt remembering my instructions. No matter what happened, he was to take Layla, get into the car and leave.I stepped out of the shadows and addressed the man.“I'm sorry but you have something that's mine.” My voice was cold and deadly, plunging the already cool atmosphere to another freaking hundred degrees.Out of the corner of my eyes, I sighted Jonas sprinting a
«NICOLE»“Darling come down. You're getting late.” Mother knocked o my door impatiently.It was just some minutes past seven, I thought relaxed. I wasn't supposed to be there until thirty minutes. And besides, he was the one... Whoever this prince guy was that was supposed to wait for the girl.I wouldn't have it any other way.My phone rang and I glanced down at it half annoyed. Sedar... I glanced in his direction and decided to take the risk.“First this call can't be traced. So our full security is there.”nodded walking some distance away from the room. “Since there are a thousand of here.” T one you.I added some blush to my cheeks and smiled at my reflection. Now this was what we called colors.“Suspect is all alone and within
«Layla»I was long awake but still trying to get my bearings. What was I doing in a strange bed... Again.I stood up trying to organise the memories floating in my head. Everything was messy upstairs. All I remembered was that it was a rather eventful nights.I was Layla Wales, Ethan Crawford's legal wife. What exactly had happened last night? I know I felt a lot of emotional damage but the main events themselves eluded me.I glanced around the room I was in, the messed up working desk was impossible to miss. I never left my working space disaranged, if I had doubts before, now I was certain, this was not my room.As though to affirm this, my eyes caught the decorated tepestries that hung on the wall and unlabelled oil paintings. Everything was so Greek... Definitely not my style.I felt around for my phone but wasn't really surprised to find nothing.“I guess I'd be roaming the corridors then,” I thought sadly.There was nothing like waking up feeling strange and there was no one fam
Ethan's POV Layla held Aria's hand as they walked through the toys section of the mall, happily grabbing everything that caught Aria's eyes. It was good to be free again, to not be watching over our backs. It had been two months since Sedar was finally caught and even know it still felt unreal. He was such a nuisance for so long it was weird with him gone. All the drama we went through because of him. I remember Layla suggesting we go to Nicole out of desperation and frustration and to be honest I was about to give in but I knew good would come of exchanging oke devil for another. We decided to not go that far and I was grateful we didn't, unfortunately even if we wanted to it was too late. Layla got a call from a family about two weeks later that Nicole had ended her own life. The warden said she was constantly screaming to be let out and that someone should call me or Layla but they didn't because that was unreasonable. A while after she hung herself. Layla was frozen to t
Layal's POV"Okay." Annabeth's weak response came from the other side of the phone. Thank heavens maybe my little speech had knocked some sense into her."Okay? so you'll come stay here right?" "Not yet, I'll stay with a friend for a while. I want to stay with you guys but I can't risk messing up your lives even more." she sounded tired and I decided to let this matter rest for now. "Which friend?, where's Derek?", he had taken her home but he never called back so I guessed he was still with her."He left a while ago."He left?! Could he be any more of an asshole. He comes, drops a bomb like that leaves the two of us in a mess and then just drops her at home to be by herself. What was all the love talk about if this was all he could do. "He left you like this?" I was really starting to direct the anger i fel towards Derek, which obviously wouldn't end well. "It's not like that, i asked him to leave me alone. He kept apologizing when he wasn't at fault and I knew letting him see me
Layla's POV Watching Annabeth leave felt like my world came crashing down on me. I couldn't believe my eyes when Derek showed me that picture, immediately my mind clicked and made the connection it was like my brain just went into autopilot. It felt like the cinema all over again, realizing that Sedar had been so close to me again, I had been so close to death. I was thankful for Ethan who caught me before I fell, God knows him being there was what helped me calm myself down. Then Annabeth had started her meltdown, I had expected a shocked reaction but not something of that intensity, she looked like we just told her, her entire life was a lie. "Annabeth wait." When I had tried to grab her when she dashed upstairs she basically pushed me away and snatched Cho. My reaction to that was slow, what had I done wrong? I was in as much shock and disorientation she was feeling so why was I the one getting this reaction from her. To be honest I was disappointed that Ethan just stood ther
Ethan's POVI watched silent as Annabeth took a pause from her episode took a breathe and look at us, she seemed more composed but still rattled up. "I've got to leave." She said I shot off up the stairs"Why? Where are you going?" Layla called after her and follow her up.I turned to Derek, in less than a minute he'd wreak absolutely havoc on us all. This is why I didn't involve Layla in my conversation with Lucas, I didn't see her as weak, no but I also knew that certain matters are delicate so they should be handled delicately. "When did you figure it out?" "Last night. I was going to tell you guys first but..." I raised a hand to cut him off, it didn't matter if he wanted to tell us earlier or not what did matter was that we had found Sedar and he was awfully closer than we thought, this entire time."Wait, just wait." The sound of a door shutting and hurried steps called out attention. Annabeth was basically running down the steps with Cho is her arms, she was leaving with h
Ethan's POVI could hear the noise increasing slowly from downstairs, I had warned Layla this would happen. I tried to ignore it at first but then they had to be shouting for me to be hearing them this clearly. I put my laptop aside, stretched my limbs and walked downstairs. I got there to find Layla, Derek and Annabeth sitting round the dinner table, Layla's eyes were already in my direction by the time I reached them. She had most likely heard me coming. The discomfort they were putting her through was very evident on her face. I was already pretty much irritated, trying to work and being disturb by meaningless quarrel was very annoying. "I warned you." I said in my head as I looked at Layla, I was definitely going to rub this in her face later."You two know you're in another man's house right? A man who's trying to get work done and who has kids upstairs." They both shut and sat frozen with their eyes fixed on me. Personally I would have just kicked them out there and then. I
Layla's POV"It's nothing really, I just felt like maybe he was right" she waved her hand dismissively."Who?" "Derek", shit what had he said again"What did he say again?" I felt my fist instinctively clench, I was starting to feel like Annabeth was actually right in this. "Again, nah he said it when he brought you over to my place. That you had issues too and I was acting like my man drama was the center of the world." She looked to the side, it was obvious she was hurt by it.That was too much, this had gotten way too much. "Give me a second." I grabbed my phone and marched upstairs."Where are you going?" "I'll be right back." I barged into the room and Ethan looked at me confused."What's gotten into you?" "I'm going to interfere. I'm calling Derek to come over right now so I can settle whatever this is that they have going on." His eyes widened in shock and he shook his head, "Don't Layla. You sure you want to be in the cross hairs of whatever it is they have going on?"
Layla's POVThe house had been on lockdown for the past two days, yes, because of Sedar and also because Ethan was an overly protective person. Did I like being locked up in here all day? No. Could I do anything about it? Also no. All that could be done was wait it out and pray it needed soon. Ethan also worked from home to keep me company and lessen the agony of my situation. I told him numerous times that he could go to work and I'd just ask Annabeth to come over but I guess he saw through that lie. I was just looking for a way to get him out of the house so I could sneak out. His maid, America brought us all of the groceries and supplies we needed so there was no way to use needing to go shopping as an excuse. It was nice to be cared for but this was pretty much the same feeling that made me move out in the first place, unfortunately this time that wasn't an option."What is on your mind?" Ethan asked, this question snapped me back into the reality, I looked around, yep still stu
Ethan's POVI watched her step into Derek's car and drive off, I didn't exactly like the idea of her being out in the open after seeing Sedar stalking us but there was no winning an argument with Layla, the best I could do was give her a curfew to be back home. I called Lucas when she left, she was right about us needing to find the leak in our whereabouts that Sedar was tracking is with. "Didn't we just get off the phone?" He said sarcastically."I'm calling about Sedar. Again." "Did he show up again?" "No, but you remember how we talked about finding out how he knew where we were. Well Layla has a theory about it, she thinks it has something to do with Annabeth. Apparently all the times Sedar has showed up unexpectedly were when she went to places she'd already told Annabeth she was going to." "Was Annabeth the only one she told? That's a pretty wild assumption." He sounded skeptical, which was reasonable. Even I thought it was a shaky suspicion."No but she's the only common p
Layla's POV "What do you want me to say. Oh hey don't date whoever that creep is. I love you. Is that it?" I just stared at him, what the heck was that? So what he loved her now?. He stared back at me like a moron and then his expression softened and I took as a sign he realized he'd just lashed out at the wrong person."I am sorry." He did his puppy dog eyes look."I'd love to say it's fine but it's nothing, you two really need to take a minute and sit down to talk." The rest of the ride was absolutely silence, he walked me to the door and kept apologizing for the way he acted but all I did was nod. "What happened between you two?" Ethan saw the look on my face when I stepped in."More like what the heck is happening between two of them" I threw my bag on the couch and fell into his arms "Who are we talking about right now?" "Derek and Annabeth." "Oh, those two. Wait, they're still at it? I thought it would be over by now. Aren't they taken it a bit too far?" Even Ethan notice