CELINE POV - “You said yes?” Bianca asked excitedly. I nodded with a smile. That’s why Bianca suddenly asked us to go out yesterday to distract me and my children so I will not go home to the apartment right away, because Tristan asked her for the surprise. “Where’s your engagement ring?” Bianca asked when she glanced at my hand. “I plan not to wear it during work hours, because I might put it somewhere or lose it while cleaning. I want to keep that ring.” “You really look happy. I hope you continue to be happy with Tristan.” I am pleased with my decision and I believe I won’t have any regrets. However, I still can’t get rid of the fear that my relationship with Tristan might be like my past. And every time I feel like this, I think they are both different. Tristan never hurt me. He did nothing but love me and Skye and Sunny. I am overjoyed to see my children’s happiness. When they found out if Tristan and I got married, we would be with him every day. “What is your plan? Wh
CELINE POV - The couple checked into a VIP room and requested that I clean their room. Ma’am Edith gave me forty minutes to clean the entire VIP room. Since my body is almost getting used to this job, I finished my cleaning at the right time. After cleaning, I quickly double checked every corner of this VIP room to make sure I missed nothing to clean and when I made sure I finished cleaning the entire room, I checked the time on my phone. I still have fifteen minutes left in the time Ma’am Edith gave me. I will use this time to call Teacher Agnes to check my kids. I went near my cart and was about to push this out when I heard the door open. It must be the guests. I planned to greet the guests, but my fear quickly washed over my body the moment I saw the faces of the guests. “M-Mom… D-Dad…” “Celine...” Mom greeted me. “I... I need to go.” I mumbled. I couldn’t conceal the fear evident in my voice any longer, and I had fifteen minutes remaining. I tried to step my feet to ge
CELINE POV-• • • ( F L A S H B A C K ) • • •. . . 9 years ago . . .-After I got home from the university, I went straight to my room and checked my report card for this semester again. My final average is 93% which means I can take a full scholarship again and if I pass again, I won’t spend anything on my studies. My tuition fee and allowance will be handled by the university again. As long as I can maintain these grades or increase them even more, I will finish my studies without too much trouble.I jumped in surprise when someone opened my bedroom door.I immediately stood up when I saw my parents entered.“What’s that?” mommy asked the moment she noticed what I was holding. “Is that your report card?”I hide my smile. Just now mommy asked about my studies. Is she happy and proud of me because I’m a full scholar?“Yes, mom.”“Let me see.”I gave my report card to but when she held it, my dream burst like a bu
CELINE POV - TWO WEEKS WENT BY that I was only in the room. My parents don’t let me go out, even in the dining area to eat, they don’t allow me. My parents send my food to the maid. They have a time given to the maid and me, what time the food will be given to me and what time I should finish eating. If I miss the time by even a second, I won’t eat for the whole day. Three times I didn’t get food in time outside my room, so there were three days where I didn’t eat and even drank a glass of water throughout the day. Now I’m waiting for my parents to enter my room so I can tell them I need to go to university to take a scholarship exam. “Celine.” I stood up from my study table and approached my parents. I noticed they were carrying a big box. They put it on my bed and opened it in front of me. The contents of the box is A-line white dress with color white stiletto three inches high-heels. “That’s what you’ll use on the wedding day of your fiancé. Two weeks from now, you will ge
CELINE POV - I just pressed my eyes into the blink of an eye when daddy removed his belt and raised it to the air to prepare to hit my skin. “Dad!” I heard the footsteps of the heels towards me until I felt someone hug me. “What are you doing?” I opened my eyes, and I saw Sabrina. She hugged me to protect me from our father. “Don’t intervene here, Sabrina.” Despite the calmness in Daddy’s voice, a hint of annoyance lingered, and I knew it was aimed at me. “No!” Sabrina shouted to our parents. “Are you both out of your mind? Especially you Dad?” “What did you say!?” Daddy also shouted at Sabrina. It would only be on the finger how many times Daddy shouted at Sabrina all year long before, but now it seems like daddy’s anger towards me is passed on to his daughter, who won’t let any insect near her. “Efren, don’t shout at Sabrina.” Mommy’s disobedience to Daddy. “And you, Sabrina. Don’t just interfere with what’s going on here. We need to teach that woman a lesson. ” “My God!
LANCE POV - “Go straight to the Heavenly hotel.” I ordered Conrad. “I want to see Celine.” I haven’t been to Chicago for a few days because of the amount of work I’ve been taking care of, add to that my father’s brother who doesn’t stop and won’t accept that someone has given the illegitimate child all the property, money, and most of all, the power on the underground world. It’s understandable that they feel this way because even I was surprised when my half-brother left me everything, but I’ve proven myself worthy of it. I will not allow all of this to be lost until I find what I should be looking for, which is I need to find one legacy left to me. I miss Celine so much, but she’s also one of the reasons I didn’t go back to Chicago right away. I still had to calm down my whole body system before seeing her again. That sensation of heat almost drove me crazy, that I didn’t know how to release the feeling. But the most important thing is that I calmed myself down and I already kno
CELINE POV - ALONG WITH the quiet surroundings of the cemetery, Lance and I continued to be quiet after he asked. A question I don’t want to answer. I’m unable to figure out how to answer his question either. Is this all he knows? Is this all he saw? Does he have anything else he wants to address with his question? Are there more questions he’d like answered? I’m afraid that in one word, my mistake will not turn out well. “Why can’t you answer my question?” he asked as he maintained his eye contact with me. He clenches his fists and tightens his jaw. “Did you really abort our child?” he asked repeatedly, as if he was short of breath. “What kind of question is that–” “Don’t answer me another question.” he cut me off in his cold tone voice. “Then don’t ask me if the answer is obvious.” I tried not to make my voice raspy, but deep inside, I was terrified of how this conversation might end. “Don’t you remember how you accompanied me to that abortion clinic and waited for me
CELINE POV - Silence fell between Lance and me again. I still couldn’t open my eyes to perceive his reaction. I don’t know what he can do to me the moment I open my eyes. I also don’t want to see that maybe he looks at me darkly because of what I said. “D*mmit.” I heard his sharp whisper. “G*dd*mm*t.” I dared to open my eyes and then I saw that Lance’s eyes were wide and round, as if he had seen a ghost. He opened his mouth, but he also closed it and faced Starr’s grave. Lance stroked the tombstone where the name of one of our triplets was inscribed. I can’t figure out how I feel. A blend of anger, resentment, and pity washes over me as I observe Lance. I shouldn’t feel sorry for him, because in the first place this is exactly what he wanted–to lose our child, for me to abort them then. I didn’t have the strength to send him away and when I couldn’t stop the tears that fell from my eyes one after the other, I left Starr’s mausoleum. Starr’s mausoleum has three steps of stair
CELINE SALVATORE POV-“Daddy, you did wrong. You did wrong too, Skye.”“What’s wrong?” Lance and Skye asked at the same time.Our children’s voices, as well as Lance’s voice, were the ones that woke me up.I hadn’t even opened my eyes yet. I could sense Lance was the one who started the trouble between the three of them.I yawned before opening my eyes.Lance and Skye were facing Sunny, while Sunny was looking at her reflection in the hand mirror she was holding. From what I could see, they tried to braid Sunny’s hair in two but Sunny’s hair only got messier.Lance had a book next to him. It was a book about hairstyles for women.“Skye and I followed the instructions here.” He said while looking at the book he was holding. Skye nodded agree his father, also looking at the book.Lance looked at Sunny and his gaze passed over me. “Celine.”Our children turned to me then they came to me to give me a hug. Lance also came to us and wrapped the three of us in his arms.The warmth of my ch
CELINE SALVATORE POV-“I’m so wrathful about what you did. I’m slowly getting used to being without you, and the next thing I know, I might lose my love for you without listening to your explanation, or maybe I won’t lose my love for you–but it’s getting to where I’ll get used to not having you until I don’t care about you anymore. Why didn’t you tell me what happened to you, that you were comatose, and about your rehabilitation?”“Who told you those things?”“I want to know everything. I want to understand, because if you regret the times you weren’t with us, I would do even more. But the anger in my mind still prevailed because I knew nothing.”Lance closed the photo album before speaking. “Butler Arthur and Conrad, they betrayed me.”“What? Why?” That was the last thing I could think could happen.“I don’t know and my half-brother mentioned nothing either, that our father is Butler Arthur’s brother. I didn’t even know Conrad was Butler, Arthur’s son. They wanted to overthrow me, t
CELINE SALVATORE POV-The third floor and the private room full of Lance’s toy collection were the only places we went. After that, we went to the dining room.I noticed that the long table was new, but the memory of the last time I went to the dining room still came back.The chairs were heavy for our children, so Lance helped them sit down. I sat next to Sunny, while Lance sat next to Skye on the other side.“So much food!” Sunny said in amazement. “Can I eat all of this?” she asked.“Yes, Ma’am,” Benjamin replied as he was about to take a vegetable dish. “You can eat all the food that is on the table. I made sure each dish was not harmful to you.”Skye and Sunny clapped together.There are many forbidden foods for Sunny that Skye goes along with, so it seems that there are also many forbidden foods for Skye because she understands Sunny’s feelings first.“I want that! That too!”Skye and Sunny couldn’t hide their excitement that they could eat more dishes, while they pointed to th
CELINE SALVATORE POV-I can’t believe this will ever happen. I don’t know how to let go of my love for Lance, but there have been so many times I’ve come to the point of almost giving up that he’ll come back and be with us.I broke away from the hug. Smiling, I wiped both of his cheeks while his ocean blue eyes looked into my hazel brown eyes.I stopped wiping when Lance grabbed both of my hands and gave a quick kiss. “Thank you, Celine, for giving me a chance repeatedly. This time I’ll never waste it.”“I know.” I replied softly, while holding back my tears.I looked at Skye and Sunny, who were innocently looking at us. I could see the wonder on their faces why Lance was still crying.“Skye, Sunny, can you give daddy a super hug, so he’ll be happier?”It was a new and thrilled feeling that I could tell our children that Lance was their daddy and that they could call him daddy.Without hesitation, our children quickly approached him and gave a tight hug while showering him with kisse
THIRD PERSON POV-As soon as Lance woke up, the first thing came to his mind was his recurring dream where Celine left him. He let out a sigh, trying to get that dream out of his mind, until he became aware he couldn’t hear Celine’s voice, that he played before falling asleep.The two things were working, which made him wonder why they were both off. He dismissed that puzzle after realizing nine hours had passed since the scheduled time he should have risen.He impetuously moved. He was about to run to the bathroom, but he was again surprised to find his suitcase missing.“I’ll just buy some new clothes.” Lance uttered to himself.He went out first and hurried downstairs.“BENJAMIN!” He called out loudly to the person who was in charge of his mansion whenever he was not there.Lance called Benjamin several times. He even went to the kitchen, but before he could enter, Benjamin was already in front of him.“I told you to wake me up at nine in the morning.”“Ah, Sir Lance, about that–”
CELINE POV-I held Skye's and Sunny’s hands and headed for the main door. I was about to ring the doorbell, but it suddenly opened from the inside.“Madame Celine!” Benjamin cheerfully greeted me, the mansion’s head cook who had also taught me to cook before. It was nice to see him still here. “Welcome back!” he tearfully muttered.“Thank you, Benjamin.”He gazed downwards at my children. “What are they doing here?” Benjamin looked back at me. “I mean, Sir Lance is planning to go to Italy two hours from now.”“What will he do there?” I asked. Perhaps he had other business scheduled.“To visit you. He plans to spend two days there to see you.”“Mummy, where are we?” Skye asked.Benjamin’s eyes widened. “I’m sorry. I’m so excited to see you, Madame. Come in first.”“Mummy used to live here, sweethearts.” I answered Skye’s question before we entered.Once we entered, I observed almost nothing had changed except for a wall with pictures of me, Skye, and Sunny hanging on the wall.“Mummy,
CELINE POV-It wasn’t even fifteen minutes before Hendrix returned to the mansion.Giovanni can’t accompany us and they don’t want my children and I to leave alone, we’ll have Hendrix drive us back to New York. Also, Hendrix himself showed up to take us to New York hours ago before he took me here to the mansion.Hendrix carried Skye while I carried Sunny. They both fell asleep again as I changed their clothes.“Say hello to Hannah for me,” Giovanni whispered to me as he hugged me.“If she asks you.” I laughed and whispered back to Giovanni.“Andrea.” He sullenly called me by my real name.I looked at our parents. I smiled at them. I’m so lucky to have parents like them, a family like them. Without their intervention, the fear of confronting Lance would have kept me frozen.“Be careful. We will go to New York next on our grandchildren’s birthday.” Mommy pronounce.“Hendrix, take care of our daughter and grandchildren.” Daddy reminded him.“Yes, Sir.” Hendrix responded.Daddy returned
CELINE POV-I easily got Sunny to sleep, especially Skye. Skye’s eyes were tired from crying.Looking at my child sleeping after talking to Skye, I couldn’t rest. I couldn’t sleep well until I was sure my children weren’t burdened with heavy feelings.What if there were more things Skye and Sunny weren’t telling me? Things that were heavy on their hearts and minds.I slowly got up and kissed my children on the foreheads then left the room.My parents were waiting for me in the living room to talk to me. I was sure it was about their grandchildren. Like me, they couldn’t sleep well until they knew what they heard earlier.Once I went downstairs, I saw Giovanni waiting with our parents.“Did you talk to Skye?” Mommy asked as I sat down.Along with my nod, I took a deep breath. “He was referring to Lance. He has known for a long time.”“How?” Giovanni asked.“In their eyes. They have the same eyes, and when Skye saw how much they looked alike, he suspected Lance was their real father.”“
CELINE POV- The dinner that Hendrix and I were supposed to have didn’t happen, and I didn’t even go to see Lance, instead Hendrix drove me to the mansion. He didn’t let me drive, even though I insisted I could drive. I think it’s a good thing he forced me to drive to the mansion. The entire trip, I was thinking about nothing but what he said about Lance.I wanted to think about what Hendrix said to me.“Celine?”When I heard Hendrix’s voice, I noticed we were already outside the main door. He was already outside and the passenger door was open.I unbuckled my seatbelt, then got out of the car and closed the door.“Thank you.”“No worries. Think about what I told you. I’m here until tomorrow night.”I nodded. “I’ll think about it. I’ll call you right away if I change my mind.”There was a small smile on his lips at the last words I said.“I’m leaving.”I nodded, not knowing what to say.I followed Hendrix’s car with my eyes until it headed towards the main gate and exited.I remained