Billionaire Elijah Warren may be a saint to everyone else but Coraline Baxter knew better. She knew the younger man was too good to be true and that no one was that perfect. He always treated her like she was trash anytime they met, with a smile on his perfect face. She tried to avoid him as much as she could but it was nearly impossible when he was best friends with her friends and he came to her place of work every day. Coraline's life hits rock bottom when her daughter needs surgery and she is desperate for money, Elijah offers her double the money she needs. All she has to do is one little thing which is to be his surrogate. Coraline is stuck between a rock and a hard place. Will she agree to be his surrogate to save her daughter's life or choose her pride and walk away?
View More1 year laterCoraline's POVIt was a balloon mayhem in the Warren mansion. Today was the twins' one-year birthday and it was already off to a disaster. I didn't know who had come up with the genius idea to blow up ten giant balloons and tie the hand of my son, Judah, to it. Now I had a semi-heart attack when I saw him floating in the backyard. Okay, he wasn't actually floating but his legs were no longer steady on the ground. Warren and his ridiculous friends, one whom my son had been named after had been in charge of getting the balloons ready but it seemed that had something else in mind. Something life-threatening and death-worthy, they just laughed and took pictures of him floating. They were having way too much fun with the helium pump and I was not having it."Elijah, bring my son down this instant. Get those ridiculous balloons off him before I get there." I shouted from the backdoor, immediately they swooped into action, Elijah grabbing Judah while the other guys found the sci
Elijah's POVJudah, Kia, and I were in one car, three of my men were in another car behind us, and Tyler and Gavin had stayed back. Gavin was still tracking Coraline's location, he was on the phone so he could tell us immediately if the location changed.Kia pulled up in front of a shabby bungalow on the outskirts of town, if Judah and Gavin hadn't shown up, I would never have been able to trace Coraline to this place.We got out of the car and approached the front door, every man had brought out their guns and we were ready to shout at anyone who wasn't Coraline. That had been my order, shout first, ask questions later.I tried to open the door but it was locked, I moved back a bit and then opened the door with a resounding right kick, breaking the lock.I rushed into the house, Judah and Kia following closely behind me, the living room was deserted, and I spotted Coraline's black purse on the crummy sofa which was a good sign that she was here. "There's no one in the kitchen," Juda
Elijah's POVIt had been six hours since Mrs Smith informed me about Coraline's disappearance, I had my men out searching everywhere for Jeremy. I was reviewing all the places he usually frequented when I had my men watch him and he wasn't at any of them. It took Kia who was my hacker about an hour to track Coraline's phone. It had been tossed on the road, a few blocks away from the cemetery. I had moved Mrs Smith and Becca back to my grandfather's house, I wanted Becca somewhere I could keep my eyes on her. I had a feeling Jeremy was going to come after her and Coraline would never forgive me if Jeremy could get Becca and I would never be able to forgive myself. Right now I was lost, I had no leads on where Coraline was, I had exhausted all the clues I had and they all led to dead ends.Kia and my men were in the kitchen that was now our makeshift conference room. Tyler was here as well and had no idea who Kia and the other men were, he just assumed they were my security. My grandfa
Elijah's POV"Well, you royally fucked up," Judah said from the other side of the call. I sighed and ran my hand over my face, tell me something I already didn't know."I told you then, I reminded you constantly that getting your revenge was going to end badly. Trust me, I've been there, it never ends well for the parties involved." He continued.I kissed my teeth, "I know, dude. I never knew I was going to end up falling in love with her. Everything is so messed up, I hurt Coraline so bad that she couldn't look me in the eye." I was seated on my childhood bed in my childhood room, I looked completely out of place with the grunge band posters on the wall and the large poster of Metallica covering almost half of the wall. God, judging from the kind of music I used to listen to, I must have been such a difficult and troubled teen. How did my grandfather and Mrs Smith survive living with me?I heard Judah shuffling paper from his side of the call. It was already evening here but it was s
Coraline's POVI cried myself to sleep that night. Mrs Smith came over, she said Elijah had asked her to come and stay with us as I would need help with Becca. According to her, Elijah had shown up at his grandfather's house with a suitcase in her, looking like a puppy that had been kicked repeatedly.Janet made sure to emphasize that Elijah was sad, regretful, and wallowing in shame. I acted like I was hard of hearing and couldn't hear a word she was saying. Janet completely took over the operations of the house, she let me get the alone time that I needed and took care of Becca. She brought me food and although I had no appetite, I knew I would be punishing my babies by not eating so I forced myself to eat. Elijah called but I had handed over my phone to Janet so only she and Becca spoke to him. For two days, I was a complete shadow of myself, I barely got out of bed except to eat and pee, I realized that I was gradually falling into a depressive state and I hated Elijah for doin
Coraline's POVI raised my hand, I was not in the mood to hear his excuses because I knew Elijah, he was a sweet talker, he would always have something to say. "Stop. Stop it please, it's exactly what it looks like. I'm not stupid, neither am I blind. I can't believe I ever trust you. I can't believe I actually thought I was falling in love with you. What a big joke. Did your grandfather really say he was going to cut you out of his will or was that just a lie to get me involved with you? You know what, I don't care. I'm done." I snatched my phone from his hand, turned, and rushed out of his room as fast as I could. I entered Becca's room and slammed the door, I hurried to her wardrobe, got out a suitcase, and began to fill it with clothes, toys, and everything Becca would need for some days. I grabbed a backpack and put in some extra things. I wore the backpack and began to roll the suitcase out of the room. Elijah was waiting outside, his eyes widened when he saw the bag in my han
Coraline's POVI hadn't heard anything from my stalker in about two months and I was starting to think he had forgotten about me and had moved on. Jeremy had been away for over a month now and we were holding a welcome back party for him. He had gone back home to stay with his mother who had been diagnosed with breast cancer. Luckily it was quickly detected, she had gotten surgery and was now better. So both of our pastry chefs were out, Mei had to call in a favor from one of her culinary friends and they came with a staff and helped out for the month.I was now eight months pregnant and Elijah had officially banned me from working behind the counter as the barista so my new role was being the manager. Elijah preferred if I didn't work at all but I refused, I couldn't just leave the cafe when Mei was absent and Jeremy as well, it would have been too hard on Louise to keep the cafe running. We had hired no hands to help out in the cafe and increased our coffee stations as the cafe was
Elijah's POVFriday rolled by and we were currently seated in the courtroom listening to the lawyers use legal jargon as they went back and forth with each other. Coraline was shivering next to me but I held her hand tight and drew circles on her lap to calm her down. I had my gaze fixed on Reginald who was clad in a black robe looking regal and supreme but I knew better. He made eye contact a few times and I made to smile at him, acknowledging him. He always looked away quickly and stared at the papers on his desk.I tuned out the happenings in the court at some points as I had no idea what they were talking about and also since I knew there was no way we were going to lose. I came back to reality when Coraline began to shake my shoulders, crying. My heart sank, my first thought was Reginald had pulled a fast one on me, my second thought was to get my assistant to send out the videos of Reginald's son, and my third thought was to call Kia and get him to dispose of good old Reggie.Co
Elijah's POV"I got the information that you wanted," Tyler announced as he entered my office, he waved the file in his hand. He got to the desk and dropped in front of me."Thanks." I collected the file, opened it, and flipped through it."Why do you need it? What are you going to do with the information of the judge in charge of Coraline's case?" He sat down and crossed his legs.I lifted a shoulder and dropped it, "Nothing much, I want to run a background check on him and see if he's reliable. For what it's worth, Blossom could have bribed him to rule in their favor. "Tyler frowned, " I highly doubt that, Judge Reginald is an upright man from what I've heard. I don't believe he can be easily bribed."I snickered, oh how naive Tyler was. I picked up my phone and shot a text to Kia to investigate Judge Reginald, I needed a full background check on him and his family, I wanted eyes and ears on them every minute of the day. I also wanted to know if he had met with Blossom recently. Ki
Coraline's POVI'd always disliked my birthday, it had never been my favorite day but now two years in, I loathed it. I never expected that I would be spending the day at the cemetery, talking to my husband's gravestone, commemorating his death anniversary.I laid the bouquet of tulips on the ground beside the stone and used my hand to brush away dead leaves and withered flowers. "Hey, Vince, it's Cora and Becca, we came to say hi. I know it's been a while since we came to visit but we're here today. Becca, come on, say hi to Daddy." I stretched out my hand and Becca placed hers on mine, " Hi Daddy, how are you? How's heaven? Are you having a good time there? I miss you." Becca's small sad voice sent a sharp pang to my heart. My eyes filled with tears and I quickly wiped my face with my palm."Becca, tell Daddy about daycare. Tell him about your friends." My voice came out hoarse.Becca beamed, she was always up to talk about daycare, " Daddy, I really like daycare and all my friend
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