CELINE’s POV-“Why did you suddenly think of going to the Stellar restaurant, sweetheart?” I asked.I saw in my peripheral vision Tristan was also waiting for Skye’s answer.“Me too, mummy. I want to go to the Stellar restaurant again!”“W-Why… why do you want to go to Stellar?” I tried not to stammer out of shock.Not that I don’t want to go them to Stellar... just not now. As far as I remember, they had only been to Stellar restaurant three times and in those three times they were inside Tristan’s office.“Because I love daddy Tristan.” Skye replied.“Me too! I love daddy Tristan!” Sunny shouts happily.“What do you mean by that, sweetheart?” I question Skye again. I looked at Tristan and he shrugged his shoulders, even though he didn’t know what Skye meant.“Daddy Tristan said he named us.”I nod. “It’s true.”Overwhelmed by weakness, I succumbed to an extended period of sleep after giving birth to my twins. I had to take bed rest for six weeks. So during the twins’ first months
CELINE’s POV-My picture on Tristan’s lock screen is me looking at the camera, but as far as I can remember, no one took a picture of me like this when I was in school. I barely talk to others. I didn’t even have social media accounts because my parents forbade me to create any kind of account.Tristan glanced at me, then he took his phone and looked at my picture displayed on it.“About this?” When Tristan looked back at me, he paused for a while. “You look like you didn’t remember?” Tristan asked, laughing.“Which one? Which one did I not remember?” I asked in surprise. “You’re not a stalker, are you?”“What?” Tristan laughed out loud. “When I saw you again six years ago, I thought it was destiny that we would meet, yet you think I’m a stalker?”“I don’t understand, Tristan.” I was still confused as I asked him.Some of my memories then I forgot something, because nothing stuck in my mind was how I suffered from my family since I was a child and I only remembered a few things and t
CELINE’s POV-I was dumbfounded by what I heard and speechless with astonishment at what I found out behind Tristan’s lock screen. It was so meaningful that even I couldn’t believe it.Tristan drank his ice chocolate drink before speaking again with a dazzling smile. “It’s okay that you still don’t remember what I said, but maybe you won’t think that I’m a stalker?” he playfully said.I shook my head. “No... But I am lost for words. Because I’m not… I can’t believe it.”Tristan moved closer to me. “Can I hug you?”I nodded absentmindedly. “Yes.”As Tristan gently hugged me, my chest tightened. I felt the edge of my tears. Suddenly, the fear and pain I felt at the hands of my parents returned. I was scared, I was helpless.....**(FLASHBACK: Third year middle school)**-Just like the previous years, no one planned to make friends with me this school year. Because besides the fact that I still don’t know how to talk to other people, my fellow students are already avoiding me because
CELINE’s POV - Tristan broke away from the hug and gazed at me. He cupped my face and wiped my tears with his thumb. “If you’re not ready for me to even hug you, that’s fine with me, Celine. Just because I told you I have been waiting for you to love me for a long time does not mean you obligate you to love me right away. I’d rather wait over ten years than force you to love me.” Tristan took a step away from me, then let out a sigh. “I thought I couldn’t talk about it. I have no intention of telling you about this matter yet.” “Why?” I question curiously. “You might think that I’m pressuring you to love me back. Because of this picture,” he said, laughing. If I hadn’t asked about that picture, maybe I wouldn’t remember what happened then. The thing I don’t even remember is that I once had a crush on Tristan. What a playful chance. My intense fear crippled me, preventing me from fulfilling my wish of being with my crush, Tristan, even for a moment at the prom. “Tristan, why d
CELINE’s POV-My mind woke up following I heard my twin giggling. Other than that, I feel the pillow I often hug is becoming hard. I squeezed my pillow.“I have a tickle there, Celine.” I heard Tristan giggle.Immediately I opened my eyes and the smiles of my twins and Tristan’s face opened up to my sight.“Good morning, mummy!” The three speak, but the voices of my twins are loud.I hugged Tristan while one of my feet rested on his thigh.Tristan and I talked a lot last night, and I just fell asleep here.He opens up to me with something about his family, just like his brother, who is looking for his first love, the reason he doesn’t want to get married either. His father has been cheating on his wife several times and he never does not want to imitate his father in such a thing and one of reasons Tristan doesn’t want to come back to his family. For the length of our conversation last night, I got sleepy, but I was holding back my sleep because I was also curious about Tristan’s fa
CELINE’s POV-I accepted what Tristan offered me. Except this is a good chance that I can avoid Lance if I am in the kitchen. My twins are enrolled in a kindergarten closer to the Heavenly hotel. The travel time will only be ten minutes, unlike here where the travel will take almost an hour to get there.I signed the contract, the one Tristan gave me. Afterwards he asked me who I wanted to be there with so I said it was Bianca and the rest that I would be with was Tristan, who asked our staff.Due to the impending reduction in staff, Tristan is busy dealing with the applicants who have applied here. He wants to screen the applicants himself like before, but the problem is that there are too many applicants.It’s fine with Tristan that the applicant has no experience, however most of the girls who applied flirted with him. There’s even a woman who asked Tristan to marry him during the interview.“There are still a lot of applicants.” Bianca said, laughing after taking the resumes of
CELINE’s POV-“Are you sure?” Bianca’s concern asked me.I nodded. “I am so, so sure.” I responded.Lance returned the menu book to Bianca without removing his gaze at me. After Bianca got a menu book and left us, I put my total attention on Lance.“Good day, sir.” I smiled at him.“Your smile makes me melt.”“I hope you melt now,” I whispered.“Ha? What are you talking about, Celine?”“I said here is the menu book, sir.”I handed the menu book to Lance that he accepted and looked at. Unlike a while ago, when he was looking at the menu book with a bored look, his smile now reached his eyes.“You can sit down while waiting for me to order.” Lance stated that the smile on his lips would not disappear.I shook my head. “No, Sir. We can’t do that.” I reason.We had little strict house rules here at the restaurant, as long as we served well and there was no harm.“Your feet may get hurt while waiting for my order.”“You don’t have to worry, sir.” I kept smiling.“It’s up to you. Well, I
CELINE’s POV-“Thank you,” I told the server who helped me with what I ordered.“Ma’am, what are you planning to do here? Why did you put the table here?” he asked me.“Nothing. Suddenly, I thought. Alright, you can go back to work.” I said.He nodded and went down, though there was clear doubt on his face. He must have been curious about what I ordered for him because for the five years he was here, this was the first time I just did this kind of special treatment to a customer. Well, this is for my special VIP customer.I walked closer to Lance and, as before, a smile on his lips slowly fluttered once he saw me.“Celine.” He warmly called my name.My heart skips a beat every time Lance joyfully and excitedly calls out my name, even after all this time. I’m still not used to it. Every time he sees me and calls my name, he suddenly smiles. For three years we have been together. He barely calls me and if he mentions my name is lifeless.“Lance, I want to apologize to you for the mista
THIRD PERSON POV-“I’ll explain again from the beginning?” Celine asked reassuringly while hiding her irritation.“I think you need a break first,” Lance said formally. “I’ll review what’s in the folder again.”Celine blinked her eyes innocently a few times for a second while looking at Lance, who was so engrossed in the folder that he didn’t notice Celine’s actions.She didn’t know what to do as she waited for Lance to finish reading the document in the folder again. She could already feel the pain in her feet from wearing three and a half inches heels.Celine wanted to sit down for a moment to rest her feet, but thinking that she was in a formal meeting, she wasn’t sure if she should sit down, so she stood up.By chance, Lance glanced at Celine’s feet and was surprised to see her wearing high heels. He hadn’t noticed that Celine had been wearing such high heels all this time.Lance shifted his gaze from what he was reading. “Miss Andrea, you can sit down.” Lance said, still formal.
CELINE (ANDREA) POV-A wry smile glimpsed on my lips after I presented Mr Lance Hart with the best wines we could offer him, as well as other wines he requested me to explain.In my last explanation of the presentation, I no longer look at the slides. Out of the thirty slides, I didn’t memorize five or four slides because of how many times I explained it to him.No. I was wrong. This is not a familiar occurrence, I prefer to call it an annoying occurrence.He tilted his head while looking at the folder Enzo had given him a while ago, where the printed slide I had presented to him several times was attached.Lance and I were the only two left in the conference room. His secretary, who was with him earlier, had to be dismissed because he had an emergency job that needed to be fixed. While Enzo, who was with me, also left because he had other work to do that Giovanni left.After a second, he looked back at me. “Can you repeat your explanation from the beginning? I don’t understand what’
CELINE (ANDREA) POV-I tilt my head, cross my arms, frowning as I look at Giovanni.“Andrea, why are you looking at me like that?” He asked.Giovanni is in the hospital, lying in a hospital bed. His favorite car crashed into a pole because he dodged a cat, so now he has a mild arm and leg injury.“After driving for so long and taking such good care of your car, you suddenly crashed your car into a pole? And now, really?”“Accident. I can’t avoid an accident.”“Why do I felt that I don’t want to believe you?” I blurted.“Are you saying I’m lying?”“No,” I shook my head. “I was just pointing out that… the timing of your accident was great.” I said with a sarcasm tone then sighed.While he was on his way to the company, he called me and said he was in the hospital.I was at the coffee shop when he called, serving customers’ orders. I was startled by his screaming in the other line, causing me to call our mother to come see him. He said that what happened to him was serious and that he
CELINE (ANDREA) POV-When my parent’s mansion came home, I went straight to our room. Skye and Sunny are asleep. My mom is next to them. I kiss my children’s forehead first before bathing.I took a quick shower to just freshen up.Getting out of the bathroom, I slowly wake up my mom.“Are you just coming?” Mommy asked as she woke up.“Yes, mom.”“Who brought you here?”“Hendrix. They took me here before heading to the airport with Sabrina. ”Mommy smiled when I mentioned Sabrina’s name.“Sabrina, she looks nice.”“Yes, mom.” I proudly answered. “As I say, she is the last person I know will never leave me.”My mom kissed my forehead. “I’m happy you have someone to depend on when we are not with you.”I smile.I didn’t even tell my family what I had experienced in the hands of Sabrina’s parents.“I’ll take you to your room?”“Don’t bother. I will not get lost going to our room.” Mommy jokes. “Go to sleep. You must be tired. Good night.”“Good night, mom.”When Mommy got out of the ro
CELINE POV-After setting the coffee on the table along with the chocolate cake and muffin, I sat down.“I’m sorry if I only took care of you now. Ashley is still not very used to interacting with people.” I explained to Sabrina. “Taste them. They’re one of her specialties.”It was late at ten at night when Ashley and I closed our coffee shop. I helped her talk to our guests, so I didn’t have time to take a break and attend to Sabrina. Before Ashley left, she made coffee and baked Sabrina so that Sabrina would eat freshly baked.My family takes care of my children during these times.“It’s okay, Sunny and Skye entertained me, so I wasn’t bored either, also your brother.”I laughed when she mentioned my brother. “I hope Giovanni didn’t hurt your head.” I said, laughing. Knowing my brother, he has a talkative nature.“I’m used to it.” Sabrina laughed until she let out a sigh.“How are you?” I asked.She sipped her cappuccino, then smiled. “I’m fine. Your friends didn’t abandon me. Than
CELINE POV-The crowd applauded after the ribbon cutting for Ashley and I’s coffee shop.“I hope you all enjoy and–”I stopped speaking and left my hands in the air when I saw Lucian at the end of the guests with a bouquet of red roses.“Why did you stop speaking?” Ashley asked in a whisper, not yet noticing her fiancée.I pointed at Lucian.At the same time Ashley looked at what I was pointing at, our guests also looked.“Lucian…” I heard Ashley whisper in disbelief as she stared at her fiancée.As Lucian walked towards him, the crowd parted ways and gave Lucian a way to get to his fiancée.I took a few steps to the side so as not to interfere with them.Hendrix approached me. “Are you okay?” he whispered.I nodded. “I need to.” My answer whenever I am asked that question.I fix my gaze without emotion on the red roses that Lucian gave to Ashley.I don’t have a splendid memory of red roses, because of that memory I hated red roses. But Ashley loves red roses so I don’t just let her
( 7 M O N T H S L A T E R )[ MILAN, ITALY ]....THIRD PERSON POV-Rayne Ashley Evans was busy checking every item, every corner of the cafe that was just hours away from its grand opening. She had asked the staff several times if anything was missing and each of them patiently answered the cafe owner’s repeated questions.“I’m sorry for asking so many times,” she apologized to her staff. “I was just nervous.” She explained.“It’s okay Ma’am.” One of her female staff members assigned to clean said.“We understand, Ma’am,” her barista agreed.Ashley smiled at how her staff at her coffee shop were giving her so much patience.“Alright, get ready. We’ll be opening in less than two hours.” Ashley announced to everyone with a smile.“Yes, Ma’am.” Everyone said in unison before leaving Ashley’s presence to check how many times they had checked their respective jobs and positions assigned to them since two weeks ago.Meanwhile, Ashley sat down at the table and let out a sigh. Her he
CELINE POV-“Are you not going to stop messing around and now you make up stories?” I angrily asked Hendrix.After we had breakfast earlier and I dropped my kids off at school, Hendrix blocked my path and pulled me into his car. Before I could get out of the car, he got me inside and quickly started it.He took me to a private resort I assumed he was building because I saw its name outside.Everything was still being built at this resort and only in front of the beach could we talk quietly.He handed me some papers. When I saw its contents, I didn’t bother to examine it anymore, especially after he told me what this thing was.“What should I do so that you don’t come near me anymore?”It was getting annoying that he kept coming near me. I was tiring of pushing him away and now he was making up stories?“I’m not forcing you to believe. I’m just giving you a choice.”“Choice for what?” I asked, holding back my irritation. “One more thing,” I took a quick look at the paper he showed me,
LANCE POV-I looked at the sky where I ordered the fireworks. Celine would see my birthday surprise for her. I’m hoping she liked it and I also sent Hendrix to that place. Hendrix agreed to work with me, but he had one condition and that was to protect my family in his own way. I agreed as long as he would update me if my family was safe.“It’s so beautiful. Are those for me, babe?”I shut my eyes before looking at Freya with a forced smile. “Yes.” I answered sparingly.I need to be with Freya, I need to show I regret everything I did to her. It’s unfair to her after what happened to her. I will make her bait to those who betrayed me.I waited all night for a message from Hendrix and after he said someone was still trying to kill Celine, it was not enough to show a sudden change of mind. I had to make everyone believe what I was doing with Freya..I went back to Chicago. I shouldn’t have gone to Celine that day, but I couldn’t stop myself. I went to her and left because I might not s