CELINE POV-As I was getting off the private jet, I immediately noticed the bodyguards who were waiting for us. When I counted them, there were ten.I continued to follow Hanna until we reached in front a black car. A man, not included in the ten people I counted, opened the car door for us. The total number of bodyguards with us is twelve.I looked around. There is one car each in the back and front of the car and two big motors.“Celine, what’s the matter?”“Why are there so many security guards?” I asked Hanna, looking at her.“For your security. Lance was worried that something bad might happen to you while he wasn’t on your side.”I chuckled. “I’ve been safe for six years without him. Even when we were together for three years, I was safe even without him by my side.”“The situation is different now. There are more enemies around. Let’s go inside. It will take you only fifteen minutes to drive away.”“Only fifteen minutes, but this many guards? And then where are you taking me?”
CELINE POV-Hanna left me in this big house. She told me to wait for Lance and Lance will be here any moment.While waiting, I went around this whole house. The upper floor has a dazzling living room, facing the big blue with a beautiful fireplace and a large skylight. There is also a luxurious primary suite that includes a gigantic bathroom with a jacuzzi tub, shower and a huge walk-in closet. The glassed-in dining room is beautiful. There is also a media room and a larger guest bedroom. On the middle floor, there is a large room with a fireplace right off the pool and an enormous deck. There is also an enormous bedroom with a bathroom, gym, playroom and five-car garage, tennis court, shooting range. What makes it more beautiful is the beachfront and sea views.I looked away from the pool area where on the enormous deck there was a table for two and scattered red rose petals and candles.I closed my eyes and inhaled. I felt my fist clench as I stopped my tears from falling. Why does
CELINE POV-Three minutes, five minutes. I think Lance was on his knees in front of me for almost ten minutes while I just looked at him.I was waiting for him to stand up or else he would laugh at my surprised reaction, but no. For ten minutes, he was still in this position, saying nothing.“Excuse me?” I broke the silence between us.“Celine, marry me again.” He repeated.“No.” I answered, looking directly into Lance’s eyes.I almost laughed when I saw the surprise on his face.Does Lance think that after six years, I still love him so much? I admit Lance still has a part of my heart, but not my brain. Now I know my value as a woman, as a person and above all as a mother, I will not settle for the same as Lance.Once Lance stood up, I also stood up. “Is this what you’re aiming for, so you want to see me? To test how stupid I am?” I asked. “Of course not. I want you to come back to me, Celine. I want us to start over again.”“While you’re still married to someone?”He became silen
CELINE POV-“Are you done?” I asked Lance after he scolded me for everything he did he said was effort and love for me. “If you would just scold me for everything you did, you wouldn’t have bothered to spend time bothering me.”Lance’s eyebrows slowly furrowed until his facial expression softened. “No. No, Celine, that’s not what I meant. I don’t blame you for anything. I’m happy to see you, even though you’re pushing me away. I just want you to see everything I do to prove my love for you.”“You have nothing more to prove to me, Lance. I am content with my life in Chicago. I lived and coped without you. You also been okay with six without me in your life—”“No!” he cut me off. “I have been miserable every day since the disappearance. I always look for your presence. Goddamn! I almost went crazy looking for you. I can’t… I can’t live without you, Celine.” he weakly said. Lance took my hand. “Celine, please. Let’s forget everything that happened before and let’s start—”“No.” I immedi
CELINE POV-“What?” I asked in disbelief.I heard what Lance said clearly, but what he said didn’t sink into my brain and I hoped I was just wrong in what I heard.“We will not leave here until you accept my wedding proposal.”“Are you really crazy, Lance? Why do you insist on what I don’t want?”Lance took out the red box again and took out the engagement ring. “Just fucking wear this fucking ring to let you get out of here.”I looked at Lance in disbelief. “Lance, stop this–Lance! What are you doing!?”Lance took my hand. His grip didn’t hurt, but I couldn’t get rid of his grip either.I circle my fist after Lance forced me to put the engagement ring on my finger.“Just fucking wear this ring, Celine.”“And you really want me to be a mistress, huh, Lance!?”It was only then that Lance realized he was still married. He let go of my hand and hid the engagement ring in his tro
CELINE POV-“How dare you?” My voice wavers and stutters, lacking stability. “What right do you have to question my love for you? I gave you everything. I fought for my love for you. I fought for our marriage even though I shouldn’t have fought for anything at that time. I gave you everything. My whole being, I am ready to give my whole life for our marriage to be with you. But what did you do? You divorce me and marry another woman.”I shouldn’t worry about what happened then. I also don’t want to blame Lance for everything I did because in the first place I was the one who wanted to fight for my love for him.Now, I realize that I’m even more angry with myself for letting all of that happen out of fear of losing Lance.“You did all that because you just needed me, Celine...” Lance said hoarsely.I was stunned by Lance’s criticism of me.“Have you admitted to yourself that you only need me? That’s why you stayed with me?”“Do you still think of me that way? That I only want money f
CELINE POV-* * ( C O N T I N U A T I O N O F T H E F L A S B A C K ) * *-“M-Mom… D-Dad…”Horror filled my entire system when I realized my parents were also here. I didn’t know my parents were also here.My body trembled not because of hunger but because of my parents, who were both glowering me.“What do you think you’re doing? Are you leaving this room? For what? Show the people downstairs and get their attention?”I quickly shook my head in denial of what they were saying. “I just want to get something to eat.” I almost cried because I was so scared. “I haven’t eaten since yesterday..”“And you want us to believe what you say?” my father asked me as he unbuckled his belt.My feet voluntarily retreated away from them to get away. By the time they got close to me, that thick belt was sure to hit my skin until it broke.When they entered my room, they closed the door.“You deserve to be taught a lesson,” my mother said angrily. “Then remember that you should not disobey
CELINE POV-Lance hugged me without breaking the kiss. He pressed his body towards me until he walked and I couldn’t do anything but walk backwards and at the same time I sat on the bed.During the three seconds, Lance doesn’t remove his seductive gaze from me as he unbuttons three buttons of his clothes. “Lance–”Lance claimed my lips with his lips again. I did not open my mouth to not respond to his every kiss. For this reason, it didn’t take long for Lance to pull away from the kiss and he stared at me.“Celine, please. I want you...” he said in his throaty voice.When he is about to kiss me again, I tilt my head to avoid his kiss.“Why can’t you give me a kiss?”If I followed the impulse of my body, I would have given Lane more than a kiss. But I would rather endure the body heat I feel than give Lance a kiss and give him a slight chance to be a fool to him again.“I will sleep in another room.”I stood up without looking at Lance.Lance’s warm body pressed against mine from beh
LANCE HART POV-I put down the folder containing the documents I had to approve, but after a few minutes of reading it I couldn’t focus. Over three hours had passed since Celine left. Five minutes had passed when she called me to tell me to remove the body guards I had sent. After that, she said she would call me again in an hour. I can’t rest until my own eyes see Celine is doing well, also I miss her so much.I stood up to get a black coffee. Just as I faced the table again, I recoiled after I saw Skye sitting on the sofa. Upon approaching him, my eyes bulged when I saw he was holding Starr’s picture. As I often did, I looked at their pictures; among the many on the table, Skye focused on Starr’s lone picture.Celine will scold me if she finds out Skye saw Starr’s picture. We were planning to tell our children about Starr before we got married, but we planned to tell them together.I sat down next to Skye and put my coffee cup on the table. “Skye, why did you wake up?” I attempted
CELINE SALVATORE POV-I wore a sleeveless sexy backless white dress high waist slim a-line short dress, paired with three inch black ankle strap heels. For the make up I did I kept it simple, for my short hair is loose.After checking myself I came out of the walking closet. I straiht to the mini living room where Lance was watching a children’s cartoon with our children.“What do you all think?” I asked them.Lance turned off the tv first then he looked at me, followed by our children.“Mummy, you’re beautiful!” Sunny, lauded.“You look amazing, mummy.” Skye, acclaimed. “You look gorgeous as always.” Lance, extolled.“Are you all sure? Look again.” I turned around once to show them the entirety of what I was wearing.“What the f*ck, why is the back of your dress like that?!” Lance exclaimed as he stood up.I glared at him for swearing in front of our children.“Mummy, what is, what the fa... fa…” Sunny asked curiously but had difficulty saying the word she wanted to know.“That’s a
SABRINA RODRIGUEZ POV-I smiled after Celine sent a picture to our group chat. Joy welled up inside me at the thought of their happiness. I keep telling myself that she deserves her happy family. Despite all the problems and hardship they have gone through she and Sir Lance still love each other very much.I put down my phone and I drank the twentieth shot of whiskey.“Please have one more shot of whiskey.”I think the spirit of alcohol had kicked into my body. My head was aching from the loud music and the surrounding people, plus the various smells mixed with the smell of alcohol and cigarettes. Why did I even think of going to this bar?Since I’m finishing the project I’m doing for a client who will build a mansion for their growing family, I take a whole day off. I shopped almost everything I wanted I remained unsatisfied, so I went to the nearest bar I saw. “Thank you.” I told the bartender as he handed me a shot of whiskey.I drank the whiskey straight again and paid. I should
CELINE SALVATORE POV-Lance fulfilled what he said, after the grace period of three days he would finish all the work and, could take care of the wedding preparation. Today is our fifth day of preparation.We hired a wedding planner that Christine suggested to us. Her recommendation felt like a sure thing, given my experience with her previous wedding planning success. The wedding planner also suggested our photographer.This evening, we got back from Italy because we had a dress measurement.In Italy we found a designer who will sew wedding gowns, suits and bridesmaids’ dresses. I took the bridesmaids’ measurements one by one three days ago,. For the final touch, one week before the wedding, the tailor and designer themself will come to New York for last fitting for all of us.We have accomplished a lot in the five days of wedding planning. We might move the wedding to an earlier date.“I’m leaving.” I let him know after I took the bag from our room and returned to the living room.“
CELINE SALVATORE POV-I put back my gaze at the secretary. “Thank you.”I stood up and left in front of the secretary.I took a breath and it seemed heavy to know about that thing. It was clearly a work discussion, but the thought lingered–I quickly dismissed it from my mind.I shouldn’t waste time thinking about other things. Lance loves me, he loves our children, we love him–it is the important thing and above all I trust him.I was about to get in the car but I saw the man get out of the car and come towards me.“Can we talk?” Lucian asked as he approached me.I sight at the time on the watch I was wearing. “Sure.”——————————Lucian take me in a private restaurant, where he rented the entire restaurant for the entire time.I invited him to a coffee shop, but he refused. He said what he had to say was a private matter.When we arrived at the restaurant and sat down, the waitress served us food, after that, Lucian told them to leave us.“I’m sorry, Lucian. I didn’t plan on staying lo
CELINE SALVATORE POV-“What do you want for dinner?” I asked Lance after I cleared away the container. “I’ll cook dinner.”“About that.” He held my hand, his other hand caressing my knuckles. “I’m not sure what time I’ll be home. I still have a lot of work to finish, so I can finish everything by tomorrow.”He sounded sorry, as if the sin he had committed was too big.“It’s okay, don’t worry.” I said with a smile to ease his burden. “Just, please, take care of your health.” I said, almost begging. “On our wedding day, I don’t want our friends to drag you down the altar so our wedding can go ahead.” I joked.“I won't.” He said, laughing, then hugged me tightly, just enough so that my body wouldn’t be trapped in his arms. “Thank you for giving me strength. I don’t even need to drink energy drinks anymore.”I hugged him back.For a moment, the surroundings became silent as we still hugged each other.“Celine.”“Hmm?”“Can we have one round?”I pulled away from the hug. When I looked at h
FREYA POV-After I finished fixing myself, I put the final touch on my makeup, my red lipstick as red as blood. I checked my phone first. I tightened my grip on it seeing that until now, after two days, Lance announced his engagement to the whole world. They all kept talking about all this. Our wedding back then, it maybe, was grand because I pressured him into every detail but to announce to the whole world he didn’t do it. He hasn’t said who he’s going to marry yet but I’m sure it’s his pathetic ex-wife he’s going to marry.I called that stupid thing, but he still didn’t answer my call. In my annoyance, I threw my phone somewhere in my hotel room. That stupid. I cooperated with him back then because he promised he could find a way to keep Celine and Lance away. I even sacrificed my smooth face and skin. The beating me back then in the old building was our plan. No one kidnapped me. It was all a plan to make Lance believe someone else hurt me. After beating me and got hurt, I shoul
CELINE SALVATORE POV-“As soon as possible?” I asked, with a hint of doubt.“Why don’t you seem sure?” There was concern in his voice. “Didn’t you change your mind?” There was fear in his voice.“Of course not. I just don’t know if your schedule can handle it if we get married so soon.” I spelled out.The worry on his face quickly disappeared after I explained it to him.“When would you like us to get married?”“Before our kids go back to school, so they won’t be confused about which surname to use and can use your surname.”“When is the new school year for our kids?”“Two months from now.”“Two months?!” I was the one who was worried by his question. “W-Why?”“I thought I would have to wait just less than a month to marry you.” I lost my concern. I thought he was the one who changed his mind now. I wish to give back my surname to you. If possible, we will get married next week.”“That’s a short amount of time for preparation.” I explain with a beaming face. “On a serious note, when
CELINE SALVATORE POV-It’s not like it used to be that my children wake me up every morning, now I wake them up.Skye and Sunny were still rubbing their eyes when I woke them up.“Good morning, sweethearts.” I greeted them and gave them a sweet kiss on the top of their heads.“Good morning, mummy.” They greeted me sleepily.My smile widened seeing their father was still sleeping soundly. I saw that his forehead was unfurrowed, he didn’t smile widely, but his face was peaceful. He looked like a puppy sleeping. He was so cute when he slept like that.For all the years, I think this was the only time I’d seen him sleep. In all these years, I finally saw Lance sleeping without anger on his face.“Daddy!” Skye and Sunny happily approached Lance at the same time.Sunny climbed onto Lance’s tummy while Skye was on the side of Lance’s face.“Daddy, wake up!” Sunny woke up. I came closer to them, theb supported Sunny’s body when it moved.“Daddy!” Skye and Sunny woke up at the same time to th