She opened her mouth to talk to him, but no words were coming out. Isabelle began to cry desperately and clung to him with all her might. Shawn hugged her tight and let her cry until there were no more tears left.
Finally, Shawn had the proof he was looking for. For days and days, Isabelle hadn’t quite been herself. She was distracted, moody, frustrated, depressed, always in her thoughts. In the beginning, Shawn thought it was all caused by her pregnancy.
Earlier in the evening, before making love, she was showing the same signs. So, for now, he’ll let her calm down a bit and then he will find out what is going on with her. Shawn embraced her even after she stopped crying, but Isabelle continued to tremble and sob. He dried her face and kept her tight.
“Belle, all this is making me
Was this how it was going to be? Would they occupy the same house, share rooms, breathe the same air, maybe have periodic sex, but live the lives of quiet desperation? Those questions were like knives cutting her flesh. Raising her head from the sink after washing her face with cold water, Stephanie started long and hard at her reflection in the mirror. It was a disheartening sight. Having silently cried most of the night, her eyes were puffy and red. What else was new? This was her routine lately: crying by night and covering the puffiness by day. So, she started to undo the damage. Luckily Shawn's assistant, the ever-irritating Amanda, wasn’t at the office yet, so Stephanie had plenty of time to make herself look presentable again. This was her workplace, the only place
“Ah, there you are!” Billy exclaimed rather irritated once he got out of the elevator. “Come into my office right now! We need to talk and we need to do it now!” Stephanie did exactly what her boss told her to do. She stopped in front of his desk and waited for Billy to look at her. Why was he so upset? What happened to him on his way to the office?“I thought I told you to wait for me…” he said, crossing his hands on his chest and looking at her harshly. But the moment he looked her in the eyes, Billy stopped abruptly.“What happened to you? Why are your eyes so red and puffy? Have you been crying?”“Nothing happened, I’m perfectly fine. In the cab, I rolled down the window a little bit and the wind got to me,” she replied softly. “Forgive me if I didn’t w
Once they got to their favorite restaurant, Shawn stood in silence, letting Billy do the talking.“I’m sure that the Germans will accept all our conditions, Shawn! They finally realized that the Chinese product is pure crap and that we are their only salvation. Tomorrow I will play my game and I will get out of them all that we have lost, including the 10 million I owe Stephanie,” Billy said after drinking all the wine in the glass and pouring some more. “I hope you will be present tomorrow... I really need you there, brother!”“I will be there, don’t worry!” Shawn replied, nodding.“How about going out to celebrate tomorrow night? Just you and me, like we used to!” Billy exclaimed finishing another glass of wine.“Can I take a raincheck? Isabelle and I have a date tomorrow evening. There are a few things that she and I need to clarify,
The moment he got out of the elevator, Billy saw Stephanie at her desk, talking on the phone. She was speaking in German so he didn't understand much. Billy waited as patiently as possible until she finished the conversation.“I was on the phone with Helmuth Webber, the head of the German group,” she said handing him a couple of messages. “They arrived this morning and are already at the hotel. Helmuth wanted to thank you personally for the fine accommodation and to let you know that tomorrow he and his team will be here, 8 am sharp.”“Ok, thank you very much for taking care of this matter. Hmm… Stephanie, I want to see you in my office right now! I need to talk to you.” When he saw that Stephanie wasn't moving, Billy softened his tone.“Please,” Billy added.&nb
Right after he parked the car in front of the house, Billy turned to face Stephanie. She was staying next to him, in complete silence. She has been like this since she stepped into the car. Stephanie kept looking outside the window while fidgeting with her fingers. She was so nervous, and Billy felt a little guilty for her state of mind but also glad for what he realized after he tasted her lips and touched her body. The image of their kiss came back to his mind, and Billy felt his body reacting to it. What happened in the office between the two of them was so… right. He was still feeling the taste of that kiss, the sensation of his wife's body pressed against his. His wife... Since they got married, this was the first time when Billy thought about Stephanie this way. He reached out to take
Billy slipped his arms around Stephanie’s waist and drew her up against him as he angled his head to one side and deepened the kiss. Stephanie heard a deafening sound that made her ears rang. It was the pounding of her own heart. She had never heard it before, yet she recognized it immediately. A tide of heat rivered through her body, gathering and almost exploding between her thighs. Billy tasted her again and again, sending his tongue deep into her mouth for samples. When they had to either breathe or die, he buried his face in her neck, kissing it madly. He worked his way to her ear. Stephanie felt the warm, damp stroke of his tongue and gave a soft cry. Her knees buckled and she stumbled backward onto the couch. Billy followed Stephanie down, partially covering her body with his.&nbs
“Please, just calm down. Let's try and talk about our problems without raising our voices or starting the third world war,” he replied looking at Stephanie for a few seconds. “Yelling won’t solve a thing.”“Alright, Billy. I’ll behave like a civilized person.” A sharp pain went straight through Stephanie’s heart and she recognized it as fear. After having sex, Billy looked and sounded extremely serious. And this wasn’t a good sign.“You said that the current situation isn’t good for you or for me. Why are you saying this?” Stephanie asked but she kinda knew the answer.“We can’t continue to behave like this, to play this game... After making love to you for the first time that night...”“Stop, please… What we did that night wasn’t making love, Billy. It was something cold and detac
The day had been extremely heavy, so Isabelle decided to put work aside and go for a walk to calm her nerves. Working from home seemed a good idea at the beginning, but her thoughts were still pinned on those damned messages. The bastard that was bothering her needed to be stopped. Isabelle wanted to breathe some fresh air, calm down and find a way out of this nightmare. Not only was this man taking away her time, energy, attention from her work, but also from her husband and their unborn child. Because of him, things between her and Shawn were tense. Since their fight, they stopped talking… really talking. And this was unusual for them. Besides that, she was still receiving the usual threatening messages, only that this time they were nastier and more frequent than before. She had received another o
Isabelle's cheeks changed color. He smiled. Even now, after all this time, she was getting embarrassed easily whenever he would get pretty… aroused. She was his woman; he had done things with her that he hadn’t done with another woman. Shawn had told her things about him that others didn’t know. Isabelle was the keeper of his life. Unfortunately, their sexual life suffered a slight change since she had the baby. He knew it would happen, he knew that Isabelle's hormonal swings could lead to this point, but it was so difficult being next to her and not making love to her. Every night he was sleeping beside her, holding her in his arms, kissing her, caressing her, speaking to her softly, but that was about it. Between the two of them, there was a delightfully painful game of coddling, caress
“Marie, sweetie...” Chris's voice brought her back to reality. Their boys were calling the old couple to join them on the lawn. Rosa and Julia, the new cook, had already gone out onto the terrace and brought fresh lemonade for everyone.“Where were you just now?” Chris asked curiously.“I was taking a walk amongst our memories,” she replied in her usual simplicity.“I hope you relieved only the good ones,” Chris added. The look in her eyes and the bright smile on her lips made him understand understood that she just took a walk amongst some wonderful memories. He kissed her hand and helped her get up from her chair.“Come on, let's join our kids and talk to them a little before dinner. Let’s hear what are their plans for the holidays.”&n
On Villa Mimosa’s terrace, Marie and Christopher were sitting, chatting, and looking at the adults and children who were laughing, talking, and playing on the lawn and in the small treehouse. The image of the Grayson Trio, with their spouses and children, made Marie smile proudly.“Three generations of Grayson under the same roof and at the same time...” she whispered trying to hold back the tears. Chris pulled her lightly towards him and kissed her temple. Like his wife, Chris too was very happy to have everyone there with them. The opportunities were extremely rare, especially those of seeing Richard, Christine, and the girls back to the States for a vacation. But after all that had happened at Audrey's birth, all of them had started to appreciate their family time much m
The prison… This was a very scary place, but Isabelle took a deep breath and gather all her courage. She was determined to find out who Nathaniel Stevens really was: a lost soul or the devil himself. Once she would receive the answers she was looking for, Isabelle will finally close this chapter of her life or help him change. Her baby girl was about to come into this world and she wanted to welcome her by closing all the wounds left open and still bleeding: the old ones made by her father and the new ones caused by Nathaniel Stevens. Shawn's love had been her cure. He had given her peace of mind and had helped her trust people again, but Shawn had been able to cure the pain caused by her father only partially. The rest was up to her. &nbs
“Never!” He got up and stood in front of her. Shawn’s expression was harsh, cold. His eyes had that icy look that she had seen so many times. Isabelle had expected Shawn's reaction, she was prepared for it. She took a deep breath and tried to stay calm while talking to him.“Shawn, please... I have to know...”“Know what, Isabelle? What in the world can this psychopath tell you? Why are you allowing him to keep hurting you over and over again?”“Sweetheart, you know how much I loved my father. Before that fatal night, flaws and all, he was my hero. After he got sick, I’ve started noticing a certain behavior, finding out things about him that were hurtful. His words to me were like sharp knives through my heart.” Isabelle took a deep breath. She won’t cry, otherwise, Shawn wou
Sitting in the armchair, Isabelle was looking with sadness outside of the window. She hadn’t been able to sleep much that night, so carefully, without waking Shawn up, she got out of bed and went into the living room. She needed to think about what she had discovered since the day she went to the hospital to see Stephie. As much as she had tried to convince herself that it wasn’t true, the facts were very clear. Nathaniel Stevens was her half-brother. That merciless man that all of them had seen and known, that monster, was her father’s son. From beyond the grave, her father had managed to hurt her once more. Months had passed since she last thought of her father. Her last memory of him was a very unhappy one. But life rewarded her and Isabelle was no longer alone. She was no longer weak.
“I love you and I’ll never leave your side again. Ever!” He smiled at her blank, incredulous expression, then lowered his face to hers and sipped the tears off her cheeks.“I was ready to abandon the road to love because I thought that it had nothing to do with me. I couldn’t see what was in front of me because of my stubbornness or perhaps because of my fear of getting hurt again. So, I ignored all the signs and raised a wall between me and the entire world. Then you came and the world stopped turning for a moment. When I finally saw who you were, I felt like I was breathing for the first time. I felt my heart finally beating the right way when I saw you smiling when I looked you in the eyes. The second after, my wall was torn down by you, by your sweetness, by your love and our souls became one.”“Billy...” she whispered. “How can you say this after eve
“I want to help you and Stephie, so let me know what would you like me to do,” she replied with a sweet smile on her lips.“It’s not about me at all, it’s about Stephie only. Belle, after the doctor is going to sign her discharge, Stephie’s going to need all the psychological support in the world. She’s going to need a friend, a person who can understand what’s really going on with her. You two have been tagged by the same psychopath, so you have something in common. As much as I’ve tried, I can’t calm her down, I can't bring her back to me all by myself. For the first time in a long time, whatever I say or do to her, falls flat. She struggles to open up to me and this thing kills me slowly. Stephie keeps it all inside and she keeps pushing me away while the pain is consuming her from inside out. I can’t accept this, especially now that...”“Now that...?” Shawn added approaching his cou
It was still raining. Billy looked beyond his own reflection in the window out into the dark, forlorn night. Stephanie had a very rough night, waking up several times. She couldn’t stop crying, so the nurses had to give her a sedative to calm her down and allow her body to start recovering from the shock she went through. Billy didn’t sleep or move from her bedside. He couldn’t let go of her hand or take his eyes off her. Just the thought of leaving her for one second was too much. What Stephanie had experienced was extremely painful and Billy was afraid she might never recover from it. But the doctor said that in time love, care, attention will cure her spirit and her mind. And the baby… The news that she was pregnant, that the baby was alright, should’ve been a reason enough