CHRISTY:Everette's eyes widened at first and then grinned next. “Will we stay here?” he asked in disbelief. P“Y-yes. No one is waiting for us in that house.”“Soon, someone will.”“Who? We are not having a baby.”“Who said we are having one? I'm talking about the soon-to-be maids.”Oh, great. I wanted the ground to swallow me now. “That's what I was telling you earlier,” I muttered while averting my gaze. He stood and was now in front of me while wiping the sand from his pants. “That's…good to hear. But our family would love a baby, kitten.”“I don't want to.”Sadness flashed in his eyes before he said, “No one is forcing you to do what you don't want.” He gave me a warm smile. There was no question that he would be a great father. He was already an amazing husband despite being in a business marriage. But…I don't want my baby to grow up without a father on her side. I already knew how hard it was to have absent parents. I did not want my child to encounter the same thing. “I'
CHRISTY:Everette’s eyes softened as he watched me laugh while clutching my chest. It hurts but in a good way. “What’s funny?” he asked, amusement in his eyes. I stopped laughing and struggled to maintain my composure. It was a good laugh, something which I had not yet done for quite some time. And everything was because of Everette. He made me feel…alive and important despite the piles of insecurities in my body, especially my size. “You are funny.”“Why?”“When you try to lift me, you cannot do it. Next time, don’t do something that you will be embarrassed about. I'm heavy and no one has managed to try to lift me.” Well, Everette was the one who attempted to. My previous exes never did, saying I was too heavy and weighed like an elephant. Not a little hurt about it because they were true. He flexed his muscles. “This is pretty useless. Don’t worry, kitten. These are just some of the failures in life that we will be able to conquer in the end.”I snorted and straightened myself
CHRISTY:Eden was dead?The woman whom I was always jealous…the woman whom Everette loved so much was dead?The news shook me off. It made me breathless. How could that happen? Why was she dead? Was she murdered? Did she get sick? Or was in a car accident?My mind could not wrap up all the questions I had in mind. Questions, which my husband could only answer. All along, I thought she was still alive, but she was not. Maybe that was the reason why Everette was scared of falling for someone again. He was scared that the love of his life would be dead just like what happened to his beloved Eden."What's the cause?" I asked, mumbling after finding my voice. He smiled at me. The kind of smile where it was forced and could not reach his eyes. Staring at his eyes, it seemed as if I could feel the pain myself. He was still grieving. "K-Kitten…Is it okay if we stop talking about her?" he pleaded, his voice nearly shaking at the end. "I'm sorry for your loss, Everette. I did not know."
CHRISTY:“Kitten?” Everette asked when I did not say anything at all. “Are you fine? You’re not hurt, right?”All I could do was stare at Everette as I looked for words to answer.It was only a simple question that even a two-year-old baby could answer, but for me, it was difficult. I did not want to lie to him. Except not telling him about Mom and mine’s conversation earlier. What would I say? That he was wrong? That I was definitely hurt after learning he had one woman and that he only used me so that he wouldn’t marry someone else whom he might hurt if that woman loved him. All along, I thought it was because he asked me to marry him because of our debt. Only to find out it had something to do with Eden.I forced a smile before rolling to my side and facing him.“Why would I get hurt? I don’t care if you loved Eden or any woman at all. I don’t have any feelings for you, Everette. After six months, we will have our divorce. I will sign the divorce agreement and we will be saying go
CHRISTY:Everette was kidding. There was no way he would think that we were no longer indebted to him. Two hundred million dollars was not something a person could toss aside. Except Everette. He was wealthy and that large sum was nothing to him. He was a freaking billionaire, Christina!Still, my mind could not comprehend why he was doing this. It needed an explanation. “Why would you do that? Why would our debt be paid?”“You don't want to receive any gifts from me. Then, let's put it on the contract that your family will be paid for all your debt after six months. You no longer have any liability and if your company needs my help, I will do everything in my ability to help your parents. Your Mom said your company is unstable.”I forgot to breathe. He would do that?I really did not care about what happened to the company, but if something did happen, what would happen to Dad? He would no longer have the will to live.My eyes watered as I continued to stare at him. He laughed an
CHRISTY:Everette laughed. “It won’t happen, kitten. I won't fall for you. You can mark my words.”My hope crashed. The smile wiped away from my eyes. He was so sure about it that he wouldn't be falling for me. It must be because of my size. I was ugly and did not pass his standards.Or maybe he just loved Eden so much that he did not have any space for someone else.He patted my hair, tenderly. “I promise that this will be the best six months of your life. I will show you that you should not settle for less anymore. I will treat you like my queen.”“How did you know I always settle for less?”“Different men after every break-up?”“It wasn’t my fault that they always come to me when I am broken.”Tenderly, Everett put the strands of hair away from eyes. “You attracted assholes, kitten. A piece of advice. When you have your heart broken, the next thing you should do is heal yourself. Not to enter into another relationship with a broken heart. The new guy will break you again. I bet my
CHRISTY:Loving someone should not be this scary, but it was to me at the moment. I was scared of all the possibilities. That this will be another heartache and everything. Of course, this would be another heartache. Everette loved someone else and already made it a point. “You would cook for me?” Everette asked with disbelief in his voice. “You must think pretty bad of me.”“No, no. It's not like that.”It was like that. He was only being kind to me. I was quite aware of how I treated him before. It was bad. But now… I made up my mind. To the best of my abilities, I will be good to him until this will last. Because I realized that Everette did not deserve my broken version. He did not deserve my evil side. Even if this started as a business marriage, I will make sure that when we get divorced, no one will have any regrets.“You don't have to hide it. I am quite aware of how I've been to you. I will send you food for lunch.”He exhaled an air of disbelief as he continued staring
CHRISTY:I know Mom would never stop running my mood, and she aced it for now. She will never stop calling me and she did until we reached the house. I was already happy being with Everette and temporarily forgot the problem I had to deal with when we were in the resort, but now that we were back to reality, it felt like someone had slapped me hard to be back in the present. My phone beeped and Mom’s text flashed in.“Christina. You will pay for this!” When I did not respond, she continued showering me with text messages.John kept glancing at me in the rearview mirror. “Are you fine, Christy?” he asked with a concerned look.“How was your relationship with your parents?”“They are still alive, and it is great,” he said, smiling. “Lucky you. How old are they?”“They are in their eighties, but still healthy and I wished them a long long life.”John must have loved his parents because he wanted them to have a long life. While Mommy…“We were poor but rich in values. We were also ha
CHRISTY:Then Everette's eyes snapped open.I held my breath as I stared at his beautiful eyes."Kitten...""You're awake. Are you done pretending that you were asleep?" I asked softly, already tired of fighting with him. A year of hiding from him only made my love for him grow even stronger.My heart yearned for him, and seeing him after a year, I felt like I had become whole again.He sat while I snatched my hand away and put it on my lap."You still love me," he commented."I did not say anything like that," I denied, averting my gaze. "Yes, you did. I heard you say one, Kitten.""It was only your dream, Everette. You did sleep, right? You were dreaming earlier."Touching my chin, he forced me to look at him. My toes curled. Yes. I still loved this man. A year of not seeing him made me want to jump at him and kiss him like crazy and have lots and lots of sex as if to make up for the lost time. My hands yearned to touch his face and traced the outline of his cheeks. Everette le
CHRISTY: When you least expected someone, you would meet that someone. I thought my husband had already gone home like what Poppy had said. Did Poppy lie to me or was it only because my husband waited for me to step out? "Kitten...It's you." He looked at my face and down to my body and back to my face again. "I was right. You are only at the bakery shop. W-Why did you have to lie?" he asked, his voice trembling. His hair was already long and his mustache and stubbles had grown so much as if he was a completely different person. Despite that, he was still beautiful. The very person whom I managed to love. "I'm not. Y-You're mistaken, Mr." I pretended to fan myself. "You're drunk, Mister." "I only drank two canned beers, Kitten." He sauntered towards me, but I stepped back. "What are you doping? Like I said, I am not who you think I am." His expression turned glassy. "Kitten, please. Tell me what I did to punish you like this. What did I do wrong, Kitten? Why did you leave me
CHRISTY:"He is gone," Poppy announced after talking to my husband. I hid in the kitchen as Poppy struggled to look for some alibis and lied to my husband. I was glad I was able to watch the CCTV camera and found him approaching. If not, he would know I was here, working in Poppy's bakery shop. If Everette will find out that I was only here for the whole year, he might be mad at Poppy. The woman had no fault. In fact, she was kind enough to give me a job where I wanted it. Everette…he looked like a hermit who just came out from his hiding place. He had a rugged expression on his face, but he was still handsome.How long has it been since I last saw him face to face? More than a year already and I just wanted to run into his arms."Thank you, Poppy. You're the best," I said weakly. “Thank you for having my back.”She looked at me with a stern look. “I was not happy with what you did, okay? I was only forced to do it because I loved you. But Christy…how long will you keep on punishin
EVERETTE: It had been an nth time since I stared at my wife’s picture when we had our cruise ship. It was a candid picture of her while we both sat on the sand. A year of missing her. My wife was gone just like what I dreamed. When I entered the house, when I returned back from working on the company, her clothes were still there, but she never returned. At first, I was scared that she was kidnapped again, but there were witnesses of her going somewhere else alone. She was not kidnapped. The truth was, she was only looking for a perfect opportunity where she could go and run away. It had been what? One fucking years of her absence. No calls. No text. Not even anything. Until now, I blame myself for what happened. Maybe…if I did not work late, I would still be able to stop her from disappearing. “Why don’t you give up, Everette?” Vincent said. “If you did not find her, it only meant that she did not want to be found.” We were in the house. I asked him to come and he did witho
CHRISTY: I want the world to swallow me now. What a very perfect timing. Beatrice being able to witness me slapping her husband. I would understand if she would hate me after this. She loved her husband so much that salpping him will be the reason why he would throw a fit. I did not know how to console Beatrice or how would I be able to face her and explain what she just heard and what she had witnessed. Did I regret going to their cabin? I did not. All I was thinking was this woman who looked like she could not even hurt a fly. "Beatrice..." I mumbled. Approach her. She deserved to know what her husband said. Are you sure? The other part of my mind said. If the truth would hurt her so much, was it worth it? Left with no choice, I sauntered towards her. "How long had you been listening?" I asked directly, no loger beating around the bush. If she hated me after this, all I had to do was accept everything adn move on. There was so much bigger things that needed my attention.
CHRISTY:I did it! I was able to slap Drake! I was able to avenge Beatrice!It was not so me to hurt anyone, but after slapping Drake, I felt this weird sense of fulfillment coming from the inside of my chest. Instead of getting guilty, all I felt was the sense of fulfillment of avenging Beatrice. My palms were itching to slap him again, but once was enough. As long as I was able to send him the message that not everyone liked him was already enough.Drake glared at me, watching the imprints of my hands on his palm. It hurt even for a moment and he would no longer be able to forget me. Staring down at me, he asked, "What the fuck was that for? As far as my memories are concerned, you and I had no proper conversation. What did I do to earn a slap from you? Be thankful that you're a woman or else," he trailed off.“So what if I am a woman?” I asked. I scoffed. "You have to ask me those questions? Are you that dense?" I asked. He stared at me for a long time, his face bright red wi
CHRISTY:Beatrice looked at me as if I had grown horns. I was a bitch for suggesting it to her, but what could I do? I was not the type who would just stare at a woman who was hurting because of a man.Yeah. I know. It was the suggestion that she was totally unexpected. Or maybe she already expected it, but she could not do anything about it. Perhaps I was not the only one who had told her to divorce her husband. "Y-You want me to divorce my husband?" she asked in disbelief, using the same words I had suggested. "Do you even hear yourself?" she asked. “Divorce? How could you say that!”"I heard myself loud and clear," I said nonchalantly. “It’s time to let go of that jerk.”Tears swelled in her eyes.Beatrice always had a waterworks, and I did not like any of that. A woman’s tears were like a stab wound on me. I kneeled in front of her and said, "It's time to let go of the man who did not even love you. Do you understand? Stop hurting yourself because you deserve someone who would s
CHRISTY:"I knew women like you. You will grab every possible opportunity," she spat. “Seeing you annoys me even more. You reminded me of your Mom.”“Mom and I are two different beings, Mom,” I said politely, even if my heart was already bleeding too much. And I could not blame Clara. Mom showed her worse side. “As long as my husband won’t believe that I will cheat on him, I am fine with whatever you say, Mom.”Clara’s hand shook in anger. She was dying to hurt me. To slap me once again. “Christy is right, Mom. The only thing that you can do is accept this marriage.” Everette kissed me on my hair. Clar did not like it a bit. “Mom, let us have peace. Christy admitted it was a mistake that she left me in the altar. But don’t you think it’s already too long since that happened? Let’s move on, Mom. Please?” Everette was about to touch his Mom’s hand, but Clara slapped his hand away and looked at me with disgust.“You’re a witch. You bewitched my son!” She was about to slap me, but Everet
CHRISTY:Panic kicked in as I struggled to break free. No matter how much I attempted to shout, my voice was muffled. The person holding me won't budge at all. I kicked in. I thrashed. I shouted, but no words would come out.Everette! Please help me!What the heck was happening?"Stop squirming or I will hurt you for real," he threatened. “Do you think I will hesitate hurting a woman?”I stopped, sensing this bastard won’t hesitate to hurt me at all. My body went cold. It was the man whom Everette had fought with. Vincent was right. Sooner or later, he would come to get me. I should have listened to Vincent when he said I should be careful. Everette’s enemies would resurface. Did I listen? I did not. As he dragged me deeper into the darkness, I was losing even more hope that someone would be able to help me.It was safe to let him think that he was able to get my trust. Hot tears welled in my eyes as I thought of Everette. Would I die not being able to see my husband? If I knew