Chapter 01{ G R A C E }I felt a wave of nostalgia hit me as the breeze brushed against my skin. My eyes wandered around, a warm feeling in my chest as I took in my surrounding. Everything felt so different and it looked so as well. The house next door was now painted a different colour and the red jeep which was always parked out front was no longer in sight. The tree which was just across the street looked bigger and healthier. A lot of things had changed.Which was only right and understandable; it had been over two years since I stepped foot here.So much changed since I left for England. My first book, which I had later named Sandalwood, was published and rapidly became a bestseller. The amount of recognition and publicity it got was a shock to even me. It really got my name out there and was a great start to my career.The first few months were kind of tough, to be honest. It wasn't easy trying to adjust to a system I was new to and in a place where everyone was literally a s
Chapter 02 I remained frozen in my spot. My eyes stayed fixed on him and I didn't, for the life of me, know how exactly to react. Dean Ryan was the last person I expected or, quite frankly, wanted to see in the time of my visit here. So, I felt it really surreal that he was standing in front of me at that very moment. Maybe it was just me, but he had grown taller. He was dressed in a neat three piece black suit with shiny black dress shoes to match. His dark brown hair looked well groomed and so did the beard which he had grown on his face. I felt my breath get stuck in my throat when my eyes made direct contact with his. His gaze didn't shift from mine, he let his ocean blue eyes stay piercing into mine.His entire aura seemed different, more intimidating.I’d have to admit it felt a bit nerve-wracking trying to hold his gaze. Sasha's voice snapped me out of my trance, "Wait, you two know each other?" I quickly gathered myself, clearing my throat, "Y-Yeah, um, Dean and I are old
Chapter 03Amber was beautiful.She was a lot taller than I was and she had a pretty figure. Her brown hair cascaded in waves all the way to her lower back, it appeared healthy and shiny. She had big brown eyes and a structured face. She was dressed in a navy blue pencil dress that perfectly accentuated her curves. She held a designer bag in hand and her heels matched the colour of her dress.I flashed a small smile her way, "It's really nice to meet you, Amber."The look Amber was giving me wasn't particularly unfriendly, but it wasn't nice and welcoming either. She gave me a look that practically pierced through me, like she was observing and assessing me all in one go."Likewise." Was all she said back.Dean's hand went round her waist as he focused his gaze on her, speaking softly, "How are you?""I'm good, my love." She responded. "How was your interview?""It was good." He smiled at her."Did you have an interview with Sasha as well?" Amber asked me."Uh, yeah." I replied with a
Chapter 04 It was Monday the following week. Chris had spent the entire weekend apologising for how the night at the bar turned out. I wasn't even mad at him but he really felt bad for how I left that night. He solemnly swore not to try to play Cupid and set me up with anyone ever again. I wasn't looking for a boyfriend and even if I was, I wouldn't need his help finding one. The three day conference I was invited to by the Ronald brothers started today and just as I had promised, I brought Chris along with me as my plus one. The building in which it was being held was as large as it was beautiful. The lighting was phenomenal and it was adorned with a lot of breathtaking artworks. The ceilings were high up above our heads and the marble tiled floors were almost spotless. And that was just the waiting hall, where everyone who had been invited stayed socialising and pacing around. The conference was yet to start and people were still filing in. A lot of successful people wer
Chapter 05It was the third day of the conference.Not much had happened yesterday, really. The conference had gone smoothly, just like the first one had. The Ronald brothers brought in different guest speakers and they were just as inspiring as the previous ones had been. It held on quite longer than the first though but it was much more exciting.Chris and I didn't have the chance to speak with Dean the entire time. Between the herd of people he was occupied with and Amber who was glued to his side, to the amount of people Chris and I got to mingle with, there really wasn't any time.Being the third and final day of the conference, the Ronald brothers had decided to make it more of a dinner event. It was held in the same building, just not a conference hall this time. I, for one, felt it was a nice way to wrap it up.The setting was breathtaking.Everything looked so beautiful and luxurious. From the different tables arranged everywhere, to the glass and chinaware that were being f
Chapter 06Dean was having a panic attack.That was clear by now.Apart from the mental breakdowns I used to witness after Dean would have a nightmare about Charlie, I honestly had never seen him like this. He looked completely disoriented and frantic.Luckily, I was familiar with panic attacks. Tommy used to suffer from them when he was younger and I watched my parents handle him enough times to know exactly what to do.Dean and I had found ourselves on the floor of the bathroom, his back against the wall. I pulled away from the hug so that I could face him squarely.Holding both his arms in each of my hands, I looked to him and said, "Breathe, in and out."He tried to do as I told."Dean, look at me." I whispered as calmly as I could manage. "Look at me."His ocean blue eyes met mine."Breathe." I instructed slowly. "In and out."He was able to do it this time."In and out." I said again, my eyes searching his. "Come on."He repeated the action but his body was still trembling.I pl
Chapter 07"So, are you ever going to tell me what happened last night?" Chris asked, facing me squarely on the couch where we both sat."What do you mean?" I raised an eyebrow as I looked up from my phone.The ride back to my house with Harry last night was simply filled with us talking about random things. It was a good distraction from the event that had happened earlier. He was also able to get my number before I got down from the car.It was nice, really. He was a nice guy."What do you mean what do I mean?" He furrowed his brows, hitting me with a pillow. "What happened with Harry?""Nothing happened with Harry." I rolled my eyes."Come on-""For real, Chris." I told him. "He just dropped me off and that was it.""What about that date?" He nudged my foot with his."I already told you I turned him down.""Ugh!" Chris groaned. "What in the world is your problem?""Nothing." I shrugged my shoulders."Why do you keep shutting guys out? Are you scared to love again?" He said in a pl
Chapter 08It was the anniversary of my father's passing.Three years.My father had been gone for three years.It all still felt surreal, really. It still felt like yesterday when my mother called me to give me the most heart wrenching news of my life. It still felt like yesterday when my father and I were trying to rebuild our father-daughter relationship. It still felt like yesterday when I was a little girl and he would tuck me in every night.Death was a thief of a different kind.It was the most wicked thing to happen to our loved ones. The pain of having to live with the fact that you might never see or touch that particular person for the rest of your life. The grief that washes over you when you think of a million things you wished you had said to them but didn't. The things you would do just to speak to them one last time. The hope that maybe you'd see them when you die too.The uncertainty of it all.It was crushing.I had promised myself that I wouldn't feel sad today but
Chapter 60“Remind me why you two need to break into Connor’s house again?” Lydia asked, throwing confused stares at Dean and I.“Well, it’s not really breaking in if I have a key.” I shrugged lightly.It had been four days since we spoke to Audrey.And frankly, we hadn’t made much progress since.The background check Dean had carried out on Connor came back and it wasn’t really much help. It didn’t give us any information other than what we already knew. And if we found any thing a little bit suspicious, we still didn’t have much more to act on it.Getting the CCTV footage seemed more and more impossible by the day. At this point, it was obvious they were toying with us and had no intention whatsoever of letting us take a look at it. And the more we requested for it, the more we stood at risk of Connor finding out that we were on to him.And I didn’t want that to happen.Getting fed up with sitting on our hands and doing nothing, Dean and I decided it would probably be a good idea to
Chapter 59Audrey had agreed to come over to talk.And I gave Lydia a call immediately our conversation over the phone ended. And it wasn’t long before she showed up at my front door.We all waited eagerly for Audrey to arrive.Honestly, it felt surreal that she finally responded to us. It felt like there was so much mystery surrounding what happened with her and Connor and where she had been this entire time and why she completely ghosted everyone.I had a lot of questions for her, to be honest.Because we had a real friendship, regardless of anything.While we waited, Lydia filled Dean and I on how the conversation with her friends turned out, which kind of went south at the end if you ask me. We also told her about our conversation with Mr Flores and everything that led up to him quitting his job.Lydia was just highlighting how much of a terrible person Connor was when the doorbell rang. I sprung up my seat immediately and headed for the front door.I wasted no time in unlocking a
Chapter 58“I don’t know,” I gave a light shrug. “I’m not sure exactly what I expected but I was kind of hoping she’d have something more reasonable to say. But her views on the entire thing haven’t changed. She still thinks I should suck it up and forget about justice.”“Damn, I’m sorry my love.” Dean said, stealing a quick glance at me in the passenger seat before focusing his attention back on the road. “If she still thinks like that, then she obviously doesn’t believe you. Because it’s impossible to not feel angry about this situation, especially when it involves someone you claim to care about so much.”Dean kept to his word and was at my workplace to pick me up by 5pm sharp.We waited with Lydia for a while before Carlton came to pick her up. Carlton was kind to me, as he has been since the whole thing happened. I could tell what happened to me really made him upset. I mean, apart from the fact that his girlfriend was completely affected by it.He genuinely wanted to help in wha
Chapter 57My ‘suspension’ went by in a blur.And before I knew it, I was ready to get back to work.Not much had happened in the past week, really. There wasn’t much I could do while I was cramped up in my apartment.But having Dean around certainly did make it better.Kendra and I had still not spoken. Connor had still not reached out about his car; I hadn’t heard a word from him since the entire scene at the boardroom.Dean, Lydia and I tried to play detectives the best ways we could. We started small by texting Audrey on literally all social media platforms and hoping for a response. Which hadn’t still come, by the way.Lydia spent everyday trying to get in touch with Mr Flores, but every time they just told her the same thing, that he didn’t show up at work that day.Although it was starting to feel like we weren’t making any progress, I had a much more confident attitude today, knowing I was going back to do hands on investigation.Dean insisted on driving me to work.Lydia’s ca
Chapter 56“Hold on, so she just texted you?” Lydia asked, raising one questioning brow. “Out of nowhere?”I nodded, “Yeah.”“And she’s on her way here right now?” She asked again, her eyes going from mine to Dean’s continually.Dean and I both nodded.As Lydia had promised, she stopped by that night.It wasn’t long after she arrived that we filled her in on what had happened, which was the texts I received from Greta. It seemed like she was still trying to wrap her head around the whole thing.Lydia read through the texts again with my phone in her hand, “But what exactly do you think she wants to say to you? She didn’t particularly give enough context before you invited her over.”I moved over to where Lydia stood and looked at the conversation again.Me: why?Greta: can we meet somewhere private & talk?Me: how does my apartment sound?Greta: that’s okay.Me: I’ll send a pin rn.“Look,” I said again, “I just feel that it’s fantastic that the one person that believes me, aside you g
Chapter 55My head was spinning.There was a loud ringing in my head and it was difficult to breathe. A lot had happened to me in the past 72 hours and I just needed the ache I was feeling in my chest to go away.I simply wanted to feel okay again.But that wasn’t my reality.This was.While Kendra was leading me to her office, Lydia jumped in, confused as to what was going on. Kendra left me with her and instructed Lydia to get me to her office while she headed back for the boardroom.It was hard for people not to stare and murmur when I was having what was a possible mental breakdown. I bet it was fucking easy for them to stand there and make assumptions and come up with theories for my pain.The world we live in, I swear.Immediately we were in Kendra’s office, Lydia sat me down on the sofa and tried to get me to breathe.She rubbed her palm up and down my back in a soothing manner and whispered softly to me, “Just breathe, baby. You’re gonna be fine.”I tried to do as she said but
Chapter 54The knot I felt in my stomach was tight enough to kill me.I knew I had been anxious and bothered about this all weekend, but it felt a million times worse now knowing I’d have to go to work and look Connor dead in the eye after everything he did to me.I hadn’t heard a single word from him all weekend.Nothing.A part of me was hoping that there was still some sort of humanity in him and that he would try to reach out and apologize. A part of me hoped that he would find a way to explain why he did what he did. Blame it on the alcohol, something. Anything.But he didn’t.And that was okay.Because today, I was determined to make sure Connor loses his job after what he did to me.Dean drove me to work.The ride consisted of him whispering reassuring words to me and offering small acts of physical comfort like holding my hand in his and rubbing his thumb soothingly on the back of my hand or placing a hand on my thigh and gently squeezing on it.When we eventually got to Sprin
Chapter 53{ G R A C E }People believed dreams to be so many different things.Some believed they revealed visions of the future, some believe dreams held meanings that could be translated. Some also believed that dreams consisted of memories that a person was ever so fond of.I, on the other hand, believed dreams to be a figment of human imagination.Now, don’t get me wrong, I wasn’t trying to say the other theories were incorrect. I did have a strong belief that it came in different ways to different people. I was simply trying to explain what it felt like for me.I had distant memories of quite a number of dreams l'd had in the past. Whether they were silly or scary or lighthearted, I always remembered somehow being in control of the plot. Like I was the orchestrator, if you know what I mean.My dreams happened based off on logical things like the last thing I thought about before I went to bed, the last person I spoke with, the movie on the TV as I fell asleep or the show I had
Chapter 52{ D E A N }4 HOURS EARLIER.I would be leaving tomorrow.The thought of returning to a norm which Grace wasn’t a part of was sad to say the least, but we both knew what we were up against when we promised to give us another try.And I would rather endure a million phone calls and torturous nights of wishing she was beside me than have her absent from my life as a whole.Seeing as today would be the last time we spend together in a while, I wanted to make it special. Even if it wasn’t something over the top, I spent majority of the day trying to learn a new recipe and watch tutorials on YouTube and TikTok. I wanted to cook dinner for her, something different and exquisite. I felt it would be the perfect way to spend the evening, seeing as how she had been working all day.I probably watched a thousand cooking videos before I finally headed out to the supermarket to get the ingredients I needed for the meal. I didn’t realize until I got to the parking lot and loaded the groc