Alice POV
I Have a quick shower and do my skin routine. Once I come out of the bathroom wrapped in the fluffy bathrobe I see Harry sitting in the front room reading the newspaper with another mug of coffee.
He looks so sexy with his wet hair brushed back.
I close the bedroom door and I get dressed.
The blush pink dress hugs my curves. The dress has a pencil skirt that goes to my knees. I put on the black high heels and black thin belt on top of the dress.
I do a very neutral and soft makeup. My hair tied perfectly into a low ponytail.
I spray my perfume and I walk out just holding my clutch.
Harry’s eyes meet mine and I see his eyes
Harry POVAfter the Pantheon, we walk back to the hotel. It takes us around thirty minutes but I enjoy Alice’s company. She is grounded and she has some culture. I’ve apologised to her a thousand times about my mother and my family but all she says is that she is okay and she’s just doing her job.That gets to me. That she only sees this as a job. I am hoping to become her friend. She is different from the girls I’ve met before.As we are walking one of the journalists spots us and starts following us. I hate when they do that. If you want a photo just ask for it and get it done. Don’t follow me around. It drives me insane. I stop walking and I turn around to face the guy.
Harry POVOnce we get to the hotel restaurant we are taken to the table where my parents and Harold are sitting.“Sorry we’re late” - I say shaking my brother’s hand and kissing my sister in law’s faceI see them eyeing Alice from head to toe. I put my arm around her waist. And pull her close to me.“Mother, father” - I say as I kiss her face and shake my father’s hand.“You’re late” - mother says“I know. I’m sorry, I had some work I had to take care of” - I say “It is extremely disrespectful” - mother says and I can feel Alice shifting her weigh
Harry POVToday is the rehearsal dinner. I don’t get why they do this. Why rehearsal something like a wedding? I don’t even know what to expect and honestly, I am not bothered. I might come up with an important business meeting and not attend. Since Alice got annoyed with me I struggled to attend all the functions for this wedding. I just want this to be over so I can go back to my life and forget about her. I know it will be hard considering I have been spending twenty-four hours with her constantly. She can make me smile even when I don’t want to. Just looking at her makes me want to drop everything and wrap my arms around her. “What time are we going?” - Alice asks bringing me back from my thoughts
Harry POVToday is the wedding day and tomorrow everything will be over. Well be back in London and Alice will exit my life. I will pay the exorbitant amount of money that I have to and that’s it. I will never see her again because we are from different worlds. I shake my head avoiding those thoughts. I can let her leave my life without forgiving me. I like her. I don’t know what kind of spell she put on me but I like her. I like how she talks back at me and she doesn’t take my shit. I like how she looks at me because I know she likes me too. She says she doesn’t but I know she does. We had a serious conversation yesterday and she put me back in my place. Just because I am paying for her services doesn’t make her my slave. She is right. Was the first time she talked back at m
Harry POVAfter the wedding, I came back to London. I have arrived twelve hours ago and I am already swamped with work. Karen has been calling me since the day that Alice left but I haven’t answered the phone. I don’t know what she told Karen and I honestly am scared to know. I can’t avoid this anymore as I have to pay the rest of the money. According to my lawyer that is the only person that knows about Alice besides the people involved told me I wouldn’t have to pay the rest of the money as Alice was in breach of contract. Alice would have to pay a stupid amount of money to Karen instead of me. But I know she left for a good reason. My mother was nasty. Nastier than usual. So I wouldn’t let Alice in debt because of my mother. I have been trying to call Alice but it always goes straight to voicemail.
Alice POVI keep my eyes closed and his hand grabs my waist pulling me closer to him.“Alice, look at me” - he whispers and I open my eyes slowly. His beautiful green eyes are sad. I can see the uncertainty in his eyes. “Can we please talk?” - he asks and I am not able to talk. It’s like I’ve lost all the ability to formulate words. My heart is beating so fast that I think I will have a heart attack. His smell, his breath hitting my face as he speaks is sending me shivers down my spine and my butterflies are awake again flying in my stomach as he tightens the grip on my chin and waist making me give him an answer.“I’m sorry Harry, I can’t” - I say trying to walk away from him but he pulls me closer and his lips meet mine sending jolts of electricity through my body to my
Harry POVIt’s been a few weeks since the last time I saw Alice and she walked away from me. I am not the type of guy to be running around trying to get a girl’s attention. If she doesn’t want me hell. I’ll move aside. I made the payments to Karen including the two million for Alice’s freedom. I hope she’s not working for that excuse of a person anymore. I tried contacting her so I could tell her I didn’t expect anything from her but she changes her phone number. She even changed her address. I have to move on with my life and make sure I never let anyone else in. I can’t keep getting stitches to fix my broken parts. I shake my head trying to move Alice from my thoughts but those beautiful blue eyes keep popping into my mind without warning. Today is the annual Gala that my family organise for charity. The press goes insane about this event and there’s
Alice POVToday I have one event to attend to. I don’t know where I am going. I just know I will be escorting a big-time American actor to a Gala event for charity. This is a fifty thousand contract. I get twenty thousand out of it and I can pay some of my brother’s debts with it. There’s only one problem with this guy. The media paints him as an animal towards the woman. There’s never evidence about what he does but there are some reports of people saying they saw him mistreat his girlfriends. I spoke to Karen about this and she guaranteed to me that is all lies and he would never touch a hair in a woman’s head. She says it is all speculations and people trying to bring him down. I don’t think she would ever put one of her girls in danger and it’s not the first time that she accepts a contract from him. J
Abbey POV “MUM, MUUUUUUUM” I scream from the top of my lungs, and I can hear her running up the stairs with dad following her. “What happened? Are you hurt?” she says, almost breathless, as she opens my bedroom door. Dad stops right behind her with his hand on his chest, trying to catch his breath. “You’re getting old, dad”, I say jokingly, and he gives me a stern look that breaks as soon as I offer him one of my biggest smiles. “What happened?” Dad asks, “Why were you screaming the house down?” he keeps asks as they both take a couple of steps into my room. “I got into Oxford University”, I say, and mum starts to cry immediately as dad walks to me with open arms, and I hug him tightly. “Oh baby, I am so proud of you”, dad says, kissing the top of my head. He is a lot taller than me; I am just a little bit taller than mum, a couple of inches, but that still makes dad tower over me. “Mum?” I let out, and she hug
Harry POV It’s been a couple of months since Alice chose that dick over me. Rita suggested we worked on our marriage because she was willing to let the past be in the past and forget about everything that happened between us if I could work on our marriage because of our children now that Karen and Alice are out of the way. We have been doing couple’s therapy, and I have to say that it is actually helping me heal from the fact that Alice chose Devin over me and is helping me to see that Rita is the best option for me. She wants the same things as me, has the same values, and wants our children to have a happy family. My relationship with my parents changed for the best since they helped Rita hide from Karen, keeping her and my son safe. We are having another boy, we haven’t decided on the name yet, but we are working on it. I want Harrison, but Rita doesn’t want another name starting with H. We have to sort it out. We sold the flat an
Devin POV “Devin, come here please”, Francisca says and I walk towards her from my improvised desk in the front room. She has the design for the house for me to approve, we go through everything and I ask her to change some small things, like the window features, and to keep the balcony exactly the same way it is right now, I have my morning coffee outside every day now and I actually enjoy it. I can understand why Alice used to do it. I have asked her to get someone to make the maze disappear as it is a difficult place for me, I used to love it when I bought it, and the first time I took Alice in there, we shared our first kiss, she got lost and when I found her she hugged me and kissed me, but then, it was in front of the maze that she chose him over me, she decided that he was more important than I was. I walk back to my desk and I hear a lot
Devin POV It’s been three days since the Gala and I am back at the cottage, I am having an architect to come and check everything out to do some remodelling of the house, I need a bigger and more comfortable work space and I definitely need it quieter. The staff in this house have no sense of keeping to themselves and leaving my life out of their business. Maybe after the meeting I’ll just go for a trail ride and try and clear my head. I haven’t been able to focus on work for the life of me. All I keep thinking is Alice, and how she might be back in his arms and I am here moping around. I shake my head and I walk back into the house and into the kitchen to get a cup of coffee when the doorbell rings, slowly I walk to the door sipping my coffee and I open it. The architect is waiting for me with a smile on her face, Francisca, she is Portuguese an
Harry POV As soon as Alice left Devin walks out of the room and I grab his arm tightly. He looks me in the eyes and I don’t recognise my best friend anymore, he looks like a stranger looking at me, he looks more confident and more independent. Not that that is a bad thing, it’s just different from the Devin I am used to. Devin always kept his head down after all his drug addiction, he has a man slut but he kept himself in the dark from everything else. “Leave her alone, she is mine”, I tell Devin and he shoves my hand away from his arm placing both his hands in his pockets again. “She will be the one to decide if she wants me to leave her alone, the day Alice tells me to go, ill go, but if she doesn’t I am sticking around until she tells me to give up”, Devin tells me and anger builds up in me. Devin approaches me and whispers in my ear “I know you let her fall on purpose”, Devin says and I take one step back looking him deep in his eyes, he
Alice POV The police wants to ask me some questions, obviously Harry doesn’t want to leave me alone but the police insists, they need to get our testimonies separately, they want to hear both sides of what happened and they want to see if the stories match, They say they’ve heard Devin already and they have given us a few minutes because of the traumatic side of things for me. Harry says he is not leaving my side and that they can ask us both questions at the same time, I know they are just doing their job but I have to say I like the idea of not being alone with anyone I don’t know right now. The police starts asking me questions as in, how did Karen take me upstairs to the roof terrace. I said she cornered me in the bathroom when I wasn’t expecting her and she said Devin and Harry were fighting up there all because of me. I look at Harry and once more his face is unfazed, as if nothing ever shocked him, he learned to hide his true emotions
Harry POV Alice leaves to walk into the bathroom and I see that Devin is getting ready to follow her, no, not on my watch, he needs to stay away from her, he’s done more damage than good, I need him far away from Alice, I walk to him holding on to his arm and telling him to stay away from her, and for the first time he faces me telling me to let go of him and that I am making her unhappy. What the hell does he know about happiness? All he has is failed relationships because of his little obsession with me. Devin calls me self centred and if we weren’t on such a public place I would’ve shown him how wrong he is, how all I want is Alice’s happiness by my side, all I want is to hear her laugh and see her smile again, see her eyes shining when she smiles and looks at me, see her biting her lips when I approach her and take her in my arms. “Where is she?”, I ask as I get inside the bathroom and I can’t see her anywh
Devin POV I haven’t gone back to London in over a month, I changed my phone number and I have been conducting my meetings from the cottage, I sold my flat and all my properties in London, I couldn’t bare the idea of going back. I have been keeping in touch with Rita’s mum and she updates me about Henry, he is my godson after all. I stopped reading the news and I am keeping to myself. I know Rita is still gone and I know that Harry is probably panicking. I have been taking care of my horses and of my mental health, I stopped drinking and went back to my meetings, I need to keep focused, my will to do drugs was too strong and I can’t cave, I’ve almost lost everything once and I can’t do it again. Once more Harry got everything he’s ever wanted and I was left with nothing. I roll to my side on the bed and I keep reminding me that we were younger back then, Harry couldn’t have done it on purpose. I
Alice POV I have been back in London for over a month, and I have to say I am not happy, or I am not as happy as I thought I would be. I thought that after our conversation, things would’ve gone back to normal, but they didn’t. Harry is distant, and I don’t like his touch anymore. In fact, we haven’t had sex since we came back to London. I am starting to notice small things about him that are making my skin crawl. Harry forgave me for sleeping with Devin, but I can’t say I forgave him for sleeping with Karen. I understand his reason for doing it, I know he is worried, and I know how much he is struggling with Rita’s disappearance, especially with Henry asking about her constantly. I know he is worried about the child Rita is carrying, I know, and I am worried too, but I think he went too far like; he enjoys the challenges like he enjoys when someone tries to control his decisions, and he does it to pro