Elijah's POVI wanted to break something, not just break, I wanted to hurt someone so much that they would beg me to stop. After dropping Coraline off at work, we had agreed that it would be better that until her stalker was caught, I would drop her off in the mornings and pick her up after work, I drove straight to the warehouse. I needed to let out my anger on any piece of scum possible.I arrived at the warehouse and went down to the dungeon, I walked it on Kia and another of my enforcers having a time at a debtor. Usually, I didn't mess with Kia's time as he usually handled low-grade scum but right now, I needed to beat the crap out of someone.I entered the cell and Kia and my men noticed me and stopped what they were doing."Who is he and what did he do?" I asked, eyeing the bloodied man on the floor, he had curled up in a ball and was coughing out blood. I scrunched up my nose in disgust. He wasn't badly bruised so Kia must just be starting with him. Great, I get to be the one
Coraline's POVJeremy and I got Mei into his car and drove her to the hospital. I called Tyler on our way there and he promised he would be at the hospital soon. We got to the hospital, Mei was put in a wheelchair and wheeled into the delivery room, while I paced outside, calling Mei's parents and siblings.Tyler arrived with Elijah and he went into the delivery room while Elijah stayed with me."Are you alright?" He asked, wrapping his arms around my shoulders and pulling me in to rest my head on his chest."I'm fine, I'm just worried about Mei. Labor and delivery is not a joke, it's going to take a lot from her and I'm just praying that there are no complications." I felt so much at peace with his arms around me. It felt like a safe haven."She'll be fine, don't worry about her. She has the best doctors with her. Everything is going to be alright." He led me to the bench outside the delivery room and we sat down, I was still cradling in his arms."Hey, I've got your ice cocoa…" Jere
Coraline's POVThe laughter vanished from Elijah's face and his expression turned stoic."Coraline, I've told you the truth, I don't know Liam from Adam. Please drop this topic, it's making me uncomfortable."I could see that he was getting annoyed so I decided not to press on the topic, Elijah drove us to Becca's daycare and we picked her up and then drove home. "Becca, would you like to spend the night with Grandpa Warren and Nana Janet?" I asked Becca as she took a bath." Yep." She bopped her head, enthusiastically. "Great, when you get out of the tub, we're going to pack your purple luggage and then after you have an early dinner, Elijah and I are going to take you there, deal?" I held out a fist and she bumped it with hers."Deal. I can't wait to see Grandpa Simon, he's going to teach me how to play poker." My head had never swerved so fast as it did in that moment, " What?!" Becca gave me a strange look, " Mommy, are you okay?" I swallowed and nodded, I was going to have a
Coraline's POVBlossom was all dressed up in her usual snobby clothes, she looked like she was coming for a dinner party rather than a five-year-old birthday party."Can I help you?" I asked, using my body to block the door, preventing her from entering. Blossom gave me a once-over, I saw the way her lips twisted when her eyes fell on the jewelry on my neck. I was wearing an emerald set that Elijah had given me, to the normal eye it was a simple teardrop necklace but anyone who was vast in jewelry or dealt in jewelry knew the cost was about fifteen thousand dollars. "You've differently leveled up in life. My brother is barely rotting in his grave and you've moved on to your next sugar daddy. Who knows if you weren't cheating on my brother with him?" She sneered."Excuse me, you can not come into my house and insult me. Now tell me what your purpose for coming here is or I'll have you kicked out the same way you did to me and my daughter.""Firstly, this is not your house, it belongs
Coraline's POVI was taken aback by her words, it felt like my ears were ringing. I could barely stand still, I wanted to jump her. I was pissed by her name-calling, I had slapped her before I realized my actionsBlossom clutched her cheek, "You slapped me? You actually slapped me? How dare you?" She raised her hand and tried to slap me but Elijah gripped her hand and flung it away."How dare me? How dare you? I'm not going to let you take my child, you bitch. I slapped you and I'll do it all again. How dare you arise from the dead and now you want to play mother? Where the fuck were you all these years when we needed help?!" My voice was booming and a crowd had gathered around us. Luckily there were no children around, the childminders knew how to do their job well and quickly cleared them out."There it is, there's the unstable mother that I'm talking about. How are you going to be able to raise my niece to be a refined and elegant lady of the Baxter standard when you are from the s
Coraline's POVThe devil worked fast but Elijah worked faster. When I meant Elijah worked faster, I meant FASTER. I woke up bright and early the next day to a ruckus, I could hear loud chatter coming from downstairs and outside, I got out of bed and walked to my window, my room was directly above the garden, casting a shadow over it. I looked out the window and saw a group of people walking around, setting up props in the garden. What the hell was going on? I couldn't stand my curiosity anymore. I left my room and went down the hallway and the stairs. The living room had changed completely and looked like a page from Royal Life magazine. I spotted Janet sitting on one of the sofas and directing people on what to do. She had Becca on her lap and my daughter seemed to be having the time of her life."Janet, what's going on?" I asked, moving closer to her.She looked surprised to see me, Becca jumped off her lap and tackled my legs, "You're here. Why are you out of bed? You should be o
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
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
1 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