Tami let out a long suffering sigh. “It has been quite the journey so far. A lot more hard work than I thought. It makes me feel very lucky that I have Pierce by my side, guiding me every step of the way…” Where was he. I let my eyes roam over every face off stage but I still could not find him. The dim lights made my search tougher. Unconsciously, I drifted away from Adams, willing my eyes to find Pierce. “Be careful.” Adams hand wrapped around my waist protectively. “There are wires in front of you. If you trip even one, it could interfere with the interview.” I muttered my thanks. If I was Pierce Blackwood and backstage where would I stand. I scanned the places I suspected till my eyes landed on a dark figure perfectly camouflaged and alone in the darkest part off-set. I could not make out the feature but I was sure it was him. He was really here. He was here for Tami. He had missed every event I had invited him to, when he was not personally invited to it, but here
The box revealed a beautiful ruby necklace embedded in soft black foam. “That was supposed to be your gift for your interview with Lindsay. However, things have been a little crazy of late. And since you’ve been very insistent on throwing your little tantrum with Adams as an accomplice...” “He didn’t do anything.” “Good.” The cell phone started up again and he cursed before he pressed it to his ear. “Yes mother?” I could hear muffled version of a woman’s voice coming out of the speaker and with every word that was said Pierce seemed to get angrier and angrier. “I’ll deal with him, mum…Of course. Love you too.” This was the first time he had answered the phone in front of me, he had not peeked at me and moved away or plain ended the call. Or his usual when he was in the apartment with me, which was to turn his phone off so no one could reach him. And he was probably too angry to notice that I was still standing there when he took the call. I had never seen him look this angry
“Talk to me Lily, what’s wrong?” I asked, my heart speeding up. Was she getting tremors again? Or did she get violent like she did sometimes . Lily sounded too calm for the latter. “ Mum’s fine.” She assured me and I let out a big breath, dropping into the chaise by the window. “I’m sorry, I did not realize my phrasing would send you into a panic. Mum’s okay...for now at least.” I listened to her shuffling feet and then she whispered. ”She's taking a nap.” “What’s the problem then?” “I called a call from the facility, Dad’s release date has been confirmed. They wanted us to know incase we wanted to pick him up.” My blood ran cold. “Why did you say this news could be good or bad?” “Well it's bad because…Dad. But the good thing is, we know how long we have till we move or have to play happy family with him again.” That was true. He didn’t know we were responsible for putting him in jail which meant he would expect us to be waiting with open arms. I didn’t think the man wo
Pierce watched me silently while I waited nervously for his answer. He picked up his wine glass and I wished mine was filled with the same instead of juice. When he had drunk a sizable amount, he placed his glass back down. “Let me play along with your little imagination for a second.” He leaned back in his chair. “Sure. If I said you should pay me back, where would you get that kind of money?” “I could return the gifts…” I still had all of them. Each jewelry piece was safe in their boxes in my drawer. I would keep them in my heart if it had been possible. The chocolates…no refund on that. “and as for the money, I could pay in installments-“ I heard a weird sound, then again, and realized that he was laughing. At me… Embarrassed I looked down. “You are a funny woman, Myra.” “I wasn’t trying to be.” I muttered. “Really? it sounded like you were. It's extra funny because a week ago, I could swear you loved the gifts and other perks that came with the Blackwood name, why ar
Hannah’s face turned to me with alarm in her eyes. It dawned on me that we were doing the movie thing of staring and not reacting. I got off my chair and opened the door quickly to find who our spy was. It was no one. Not a soul hung around the extensive corridor. Hannah bit her lip with guilt on her face. “Well? Who is it?” I shrugged. “No one was out there. McKenzie didn’t shut the door properly. I guess draft pushed it in a bit.” “Are you sure? They might have made a run for it?” I considered her theory. “This corridor goes on forever, I don’t think anyone’s that fast. We’re safe.” She let out a breath. “That was close…” she moved to the seat McKenzie occupied and plopped down, fanning herself. “I’m too old for these kind of surprises.” I rolled my eyes. Hannah and her need to act like she was pushing sixty. “As I was saying. You need to eat. I look like a hippo next to you right now.” “Don’t be dramatic. I’ve just been stressed. I told you already. What ever new
I hugged her tighter at the sound of the nickname. She told me that she called me Tiny because I was so small at birth she was afraid I wouldn’t make it. When I pulled away she was still smiling. “Lily told me you were in the house a while ago but I was asleep. How are you? Is Tiny a big movie star yet, look at you, you’ve grown so much…”I chuckled. Everytime I visited, it was the same thing , whether the interval was a month or a day, she always asked something similar. Time was messed up in her head. “I’m not a movie star yet. But we’ll see how the year goes. You look healthy mum.”“Ohh you…” she laughed. Then her face turned serious, “has your father seen you yet? He left in the afternoon, I don’t know when he’ll be back.”I wondered what timeline she was in in her head. Samantha told me it was best to let her be.“No, he…he’s still not back.” He would be soon though. I looked at mum with worry.“I suppose it’s for the best that you missed him. He’s in one of his fits today, he
“I told you, I was out with friends… I guess we got carried away and I didn’t realize it was late until later. Don’t be upset.”I sighed, “What time did you get home then?”“That depends, what time did you leave mum?”“Lily!”“I’m kidding!” she laughed. “stop being such a worry wart.”“Did Sam tell you about the accident yesterday?”“Uhh no, she didn’t mention anything. What happened?”My eyes fell to my injured arm, currently wrapped up with a bandage. The pin had done more damage than I thought possible. “Nothing serious, but I’m moving mum tomorrow. We can’t wait around till dad gets back.”“Alright.” her voice sounded solemn. “I’ll ask Sam how I can help-““No, YOU will be going to school, I don’t care about your senior nonsense.”From the distance, an arm moved in the air drawing my attention. Hannah. That was weird, I wasn’t supposed to see her for another couple days. Maybe she had news for me.I raised an arm to show I had spotted her before she put her arm down and strolled
“Yes please, help yourself.” Adams said sarcastically, and shook his head. I laughed as he called for the waitress again. “You won’t have to deal with my shit for much longer.” He answered revealing his half-chewed food. “Nobody wants to see that.” I groaned and pushed his face away, not before he snagged a fry from my plate. “What’s that? I asked looking over his shoulder. “Email. From my agent.” He answered scrolling through the message. “I got an invite for an audition. Nice.” He finished casually, tossing the phone on the table and taking another bite of the chicken wrap. “Can I see that?” He handed the phone to me without a second thought. As the waitress took down Adams new order I skimmed through the mail. Fantasy movie…’esteemed’ crew. They really wanted to keep it as secret as possible. A script was attached to he email and a date for his audition. Zombies didn’t count as fantasy right? “Stop hitting on everything in a skirt.“ Adams scolded Jace as I handed
The D-day had finally arrived and I felt so nervous I could puke my guts out. Lily was somewhere backstage waiting for Hannah. I lost her when a crew of people had carted me off to make sure I was miked up and ready.I paced backstage wringing my hands together. “Candy?” A stage hand offerred, extending a bowl to me. “For your breath.” I grabbed one.“I think I’m just gonna find my sister, is she still backstage, or has she joined the others?”The others being, Jace, Bianca and Jeremy. Jace had gotten all of them tickets, how he did it? I didn’t have time to ask. “I think she’s still here. I could go on find her for you if you’d like.” I shook my head frantically. “I need to move around a bit, anyway, thank you.”“Alright. Just take deep breaths alright?”Why did this show have to be live? And where the hell was Hannah. I walked around, getting stopped very few times by Destan’s backstage crew. A particular burly man who I heard being called Jelly or JB, lingered around me, I knew
Lily didn’t look like she wanted to be the one to answer the question, so I turned to Angie who layed one of my dresses on the bed gently.“Mr Blackwood instructed us to move your stuff here.”My eyebrows connected with my hairline. He was moving me into his room?! “Where is he? He’s left for work?”“No he’s in the gym.”I stalked out of the room and straight downstairs to find him. He was using the pull up machine when I stopped in front of him, and crossed my arms. “What is it?” He grunted after a while.“You told Angie to move my things to your room:”“I did. I’m guessing you have a problem with that?”“Of course, I have a problem with that. Why do you think it’s okay to do that? AND without my permission.” He sighed and stopped using the machine, which was a shame because watching his muscles flex was reducing my annoyance.“You know why I’m moving you, I don’t want you or the baby to get hurt because you’re suddenly sleep walking. In my room, I can keep an eye on you.”“Get An
No, it was happening again. I had to get away before dad showed up, or creepy mum, or I became mum…but then it was too late. And I was fighting off the man who made me.“Myra!” Lily called out and I glanced around the room. My sister was here? There was no time to look for her. Dad was folding his belt up to use as a whip. I felt strong muscular arms grab me. But my father was still standing over me. This had to be the trippiest dream in history. I kept my eyes glued to my father as a familiar smell invaded my senses. Pierce. I breathed in deeply and then again, as my heart stopped pounding so hard. Pierce was here. My father could not hurt me. Pierce would protect me. He’ll protect our baby.A hand tapped against my cheek repeatedly and I tried to jerk away in response. I came to, finally awake, and was greeted by my sister, standing by the edge of the bed in her pajamas, and chewing nonstop on her thumb nails. The room was completely lit up and I was on the floor with Pierce’s ar
“Oh.” I answered lamely. “Or maybe you’re scared because dad is out of jail.”I shook my head, “let’s not think about that-““Theory confirmed. You’ve bottled up your worries and it’s showing up in your dreams.”“Lily, don’t ‘therapize’ me right now. And he has been out for a while, so why didn’t they start since. .”“We should check the old neighborhood. Find out exactly where he is.” She said out of the blue, I could immediately tell that she had been thinking about it for a while. “Yeah and lead him back to us if he’s there?!” My voice had gone up several decibels. I pinched my nose and let out a sigh. “Your first theory seems more plausible.”“Okay…”The second one was wrong. I mean she was right, I didn’t want yo think about him free and somewhere in the city probably. But that was because, thinking about it all the time would do us no good. “We should go down to eat.”“Sure.”“Hey uhmm, do you want to have a sleepover? Me, you.” Lily asked as we climbed down the stairs. I loo
My heart skipped a beat and I glanced at him through the mirror. I should’ve known this was coming, but a part of me hoped it would be delayed for a while, that he would be at work by the time I woke up.“I Uhh…I had a bad night.”“And and equally bad morning it seems.” He nudged his head to the sink as I wiped my hands. “Yeah. I might be coming down with something.”“Something strong enough to make you knock on my door at 2 a.m in the morning with a scared look in your eyes?”I gulped and turned to look him in the eye. Pierce was just praying for information, he didn’t really care. And I would rather rip my tongue out than admit I was running away from a man in my dreams. I shrugged faking nonchalance. “Look I had a crazy nightmare okay? Obviously my pregnancy hormones are working overtime to make me emotional so I overreacted. You don’t have to worry. The baby’s fine, I’m fine. Sorry for bothering you last night, it won’t happen again.“I marched past him and made it into his room
Cold air brushed against my skin and I shivered in response, rolled over in bed and pulled my covers tighter around my shoulders. Wait something wasn’t right, I was sure I shut the windows before I climbed into bed. No matter, I would rather freeze than get out of bed, I was way too comfy. Suddenly I heard a thud that sounded very familiar, and then the telltale curse. I opened my eyes, all traces of sleep gone and sat up in bed. The windows were open, but this wasn’t Pierce’s home. This was the house I was raised in. I didn’t have time to wonder how I was here, all I could think about was the sound I heard. It was so ingrained in my memory that I would recognize it any day.My father was back from one of his drinking sprees and stumbling through the house. Soon he would get mad at the random furniture for tripping him, even though they had never changed position since I was born. Then he would accuse us of moving them.In the room, lit up only by moonlight, I tiptoed to the door. I
I blinked in confusion several times and looked at Ruth. She gave me her usual smile and skulked off.“Hey Jeremy, long time no talk.”“Hey hey heyyy! How’s you mini-vacay going?” I sighed and sat back on my heel. “I am tired of sitting on ice. When’s O’Malley gonna call me back?” “I don’t know either. Maybe he wants you to have the baby first? Anyway, we miss youuu. Jace is such a grump without you here.” I heard what I assumed to be Jace speaking and then Jeremy laughed. “So I heard rumors…” he started and my heart dropped into my stomach.“What rumors?” I asked nervously. Did they hear that I was living with Pierce, and if they did, where did they hear it from. I was sure, Jace I could not help but think about Elizabeth and how much of a secret she wanted this to be for a while. “About an interview with Destan, is this true? Spill the beans girl.”I chuckled, my relief leaking into my voice. “Yeah, it’s true. How’d you hear that? Destan’s guest are always a surprise.”“I have my
“Now I want you to slowly lower your foot to the ground and twist into your warrior III pose again.” Yoga lady continued, clearly not sensing the tension in the roomZ I followed through with her instructions doing my best to breathe, not fall over, while ignoring Pierce’s eyes burning into me. Talk about tripling difficulty.“Derek, I didn’t think yoga instructor was in your job description when I hired you.” Pierce said calmly.“I didn’t think it was either, till Angie summoned me in here.”I craned my neck to the side and spotted Pierce with his suit jacket unbuttoned, arms akimbo as he waited for Angie’s response. His eyes were not on me but my body didn’t seem to understand that.Angie lifted a shoulder nonchalantly, “She looked like she was going to crack her head open on the floor, or pop something that shouldn’t pop. I took authoritative liberties.”“I see.” He turned to me and I looked away quickly. I was beginning to feel lightheaded and blamed it on my terrible breathing te
I stumbled out of bed, my legs trembling underneath me and a hand over my mouth. I burst through the bathroom door and made a beeline for the bathroom sink. Barely a second later, the wave of vomit surged up from my stomach, and then, I was retching. Tears dotted my vision as I clung to the bowl. My stomach screamed in protest with each convulsive spasm that shook my body.As they subsided, I rested my head on the edge of the sink, exhausted and drained. I took several ragged breaths in that position before I lifted my head and turned the tap on, studying my face in the mirror as water washed down the contents of my stomach. My face was pale and clammy, and a sheen of sweat coated my forehead. I cupped my hands under the cool water and brought it up to my mouth to wash out the bitter taste of bile, then took some more water and splashed over my face. “First, the nightmare and now, this?” I grumbled as I pat my mouth dry with a towel. “I need a shower.”I got rid of my clothes quickl