«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
«Layla»“So would you like a tattoo?” He gave me a cheeky grin pulling me inside the shop.I glanced at the flaming furnace near a Ln iron stretcher and the asernal of sterilised needles hanging over it. The cavalry of ointments and oils on the shelf and the emergency room pasted across a door behind revealed a bit of what the aftermath would look like.“Um no thanks,” I said immediately.“Pity,” He sighed. “You didn't change one bit from the goody goody teachers pet in college.”I hid a smile. He had probably forgotten about the butterfly tattoo on my right thigh that I got on my sixteenth birthday.“You wanna step aside for this part,” He filled in a combination code in the side door which slided open.“Nice office,” I commented stepping in
«ETHAN»I walked into the building deep in thought. Layla had refused to tell who her enemies were. That gave me a bit of extra work.I had gone on with the original plan and told her about the vacation we were supposed to have. It was my last form of compensation to her.I hoped to goodness that I wouldn't regret itOut of the corner of my eyes, I saw Violet at the top of the stairs, smirking down at everything. It kinda also pissed me off that she was making some discreet phon call on my territory... Almost like it was hers. I might still be able to cancel my honeymoon with Layla, a part of me thought. But no, I had already given her my word. The least I could to was to keep to it. Our eyes locked and she winked at me. I maintained my poker face fighting every muscle in my body that wanted to smack that smug look off her face. “Trust your decisions,” I told myself. “Trust the guts.”That wasn't much of a prep talk because right now, my guts told me something terrible was about t
«LAYLA»I managed to convince myself that Ethan was a CEO, if he was a bad guy, he wouldn't be here. There were certain things he had to take care off... Like getting rid of his enemies.I walked up the stairs to the office. It would be quite a journey compared to the elevators but I felt that I needed the time to think.There was still some personal homework to do just incase whoever was stalking me happened to be an enemy from my end.“Watch it,” Someone brushed against my shoulders harshly.I recognised the sassy comvativvoice even before I looked up.I rolled my eyes automatically at Nicole.Twenty one floors, more than forty three hallways, thousands of people and heck even six mother freaking elevators yet I had the unfortunate luck of meeting with little Jezebel.I face palmed. I mean there were lots of different stair ways but why did it feel like she was walking just because I was. What terrible luck really.Nicole smiled her serpent holier than thou smile at me.“Oh I nearly
«NICOLE»Ethan didn't love me? She was spouting nonsense. Layla didn't know shit. We were inseparable. And by all means, I was going to prove to Ethan how valuable I was wishlist Layla continued to affirm now dispensable she was.I was still shaking with intense fury and found it difficult to even concentrate. Why hadn't I ever thought of it. It was time to expose Layla's little secret in how she actually got to live with Ethan.Ether ways, my miscalculation that led to this mess in the first place would turn into a weapon. Once I established the fact to the works that Layla was just a useless nobody who could go through such lengths just to get what she wanted, all it would take was a bit of framing to write her down further and soon enough, Ethan would be utterly disgusted with her.Whatever why it turned out, I was the winner. I barred my teeth in determination.&n
«ETHAN»“Bullshit!” Lucas cursed. “Get out of there immediately.”“Hai,” I muttered. Some foul play had been done somewhere.I smelt a fish as well as a rat lurking in the shadows.“Listen I don't know what the fuck is happening but I'm on my way right now.”I clended the call with a deep feeling of dread in my guts. Just like Lucas said, I had to get the fuck out of here as soon as possible. “Boys,” Standing up, I turned to address my body guards to inform them of the trouble at hand. The sight that awaited me had me staggering back instead. The two body guards were gagged and choked to death, blood trickling down the side of their faces. So quickly, so stealthily... My breathing hastened. The situation became lucid to me. This was a set up. Someone had hired assassins on me. I was at a space and shock disadvantage. The small balcony wouldn't even have been sufficient to hold a battle against trained killers even at my peak. And not to talk of.... I gulped glancing down at th
«ETHAN»I was at the border line of life and death. How long could I stall the devil before he struck? How long before help came or I succumbed completely. As it was presently, I could barely feel my feet.Help wasn't coming. And even if it was, it wasn't coming on time.I knew when the battle was over. But that didn't mean I was ready to give up. Not now...Not ever. I wouldn't be where was today if I threw in the towel everytime life threw a boulder my way.The question remained. What was I to do? He smiled smugly smugly as though reading my mind.I held up my hands. “Looks like you won this one hey?”“Looks so. ” He nodded in agreement.We were moving in circles wary of each other and secretly waiting for the first person to strike.He was reading my movements. Even if I got close enough to him, he wouldn't be as easy to kill as the other two men.“Why, don't you put your gun away.” I proposed. “Since you obviously can't use it. Such unnecessary weight... Or don't you think?”He e
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