Charlotte McCartney Later that day, after lunch, I left Kelcie in Lydia's care and went to visit my sick grandfather at the hospital. Grandfather had been sick for a very long time and had been admitted in the hospital for months.As I sat here in Grandfather's hospital ward, I reminisced on distant, more sweeter times. When life was easier, friends were the obvious ones and foes hid far away from sight. Anytime I come here I can't help but remember times like those. Basically my grandfather was a reminder of such times, he was my friend, confidant, protector, and yet as I sat here watching him breathe raspily through the oxygen tank I felt a little gratitude that at least all the drama was happening far from here,far from him.It is not as though I doubted my grandfather's ability to protect me at this time. My grandfather was nicknamed The Lion of McCartney by those who knew him well. Up until when he took ill he kept up the reputation of that name so it wasn't exactly his ability
Charlotte McCartney “How dare you leave the mansion without my permission”, he growled. “How dare you defy me!” “What are you talking about Josh? I do not recall exactly when I became your prisoner”, I said, turning to face him surprised at what he was insinuating.“You're in my house, you will obey my rules woman or I'll make you wish you did”, he said angrily.“What do you intend on doing?” I challenged. “Tell me exactly what you intend on doing Mr Josh Xavier, in truth I understand the effect of what you've been through but I think you're pushing a little too hard Josh. I'm not your slave nor am I your prisoner period”, I said slightly annoyed.“Young lady do not act as though you're being with me is purposeless, you obviously have what you're trying to gain”, he said with scorn.“What exactly do you mean by that?” I asked, genuinely confused.“What I mean is that if you're trying to get something out of me you need to understand that won't happen until you learn to follow simpl
Charlotte McCartney “What are both of you doing here?” I asked, obviously irritated by their presence.“Mummy, who's there?” Kelcie came running.“Hey Kelcie!!” Whitney and Ron Chorused. “Come give Aunty a big hug”, Whitney added stooping to receive her.“No baby come here, come right back here”, I commanded sharply.Kelcie turned to me, “Mum what's going on?” she asked, confused.“Come back here!” I repeated and she turned and came back. I bent down and picked her up. Whitney and Ron stood obviously outraged by my action.“Come on Char don't be so low”, Whitney said “Come on not with the child” “Yes Charlotte, I understand that what has transpired between us is not exactly the best story but come on not with Kelcie . I've explained it to you, I swear I didn't mean for any of this to happen. It's just happened and you can't keep blaming us for it. Turning Kelcie against us is not any better”, Ron chimed in.“Do not tell me what to tell my child? Both of you have borne no responsibil
Charlotte McCartney “How dare you walk into my house and attempt to assault my wife?” Josh said with so much rage you could see what prevented him from inflicting true injuries on Ron was his condition.“How dare you hit me, screamed Ron back at Josh. “Do you know I could sue you for assault?” Ron asked glaring at Josh“Wait till you see the video of whatever it is you were trying to do to her then you'll know who's suing who”Josh replied holding his phone up. Then he turned to Whitney “What in fucks sake are you doing in my house?” he asked frowning.“Josh don't be like that” Whitney said trying to feign affection. “You know I really loved you, it's just that you know I fell in love with someone else and I just had to let my heart choose. Please Josh bun”, she tried to reach him but he wheeled his chair backwards.“So you fell out of love with me when you discovered that I was invalid and jumped on your sister boyfriend the valid one”, Josh replied, unmoved.“Oh come on Josh, you kn
Whitney McCartney For a second everything they said seemed to make a lot of sense. “Why are we even here?”, I thought. “Why is he here? Is what they're saying true?” I asked myself, feeling quite stupid. “Are they telling the truth babe? Tell me! Did you come here because you still want Charlotte?” I asked, turning to face Ron, confused and angry at the same time.“What do you mean baby? Don't listen to them, they're just two crazy people you know that right?”Ron replied, looking totally shocked.But I couldn't calm the fear and uncertainty that had already started boiling within me. “Is Charlotte right? No, freckle face Charlotte cannot be right. She can't be”, these thoughts kept coming back to my mind even as I tried to fight it. Even in my thoughts, the name “Freckle face Charlotte” brings a smile to my face. I gave her that name when we were teenagers. I have always thought myself to be the fair princess who lived in a fair castle and Charlotte was my not so fair sister. I
Josh Xavier I recall the first time I met Charlotte. It was when she was born to my best friend, Lancelot McCartney. She was a tiny one. I watched her grow. Her grandfather and I were business partners at the time so that made me a frequent visitor in his big home. Lance and I were different in certain respects. For him, he loved family and his home was a full one with children as well as grandchildren. I, on the other hand, never really understood the essence or the need to have a family. All through my years as a young man and middle aged man, I was immersed with working and managing the various enterprises my father had left in my care so I had no time. I did have various romantic relationships with different women from different classes but none led to anything meaningful. I would have continued, but the issue was I had to have an heir. I told this to Lance one evening when we were sitting outside his mansion.“Lance I don't know, anyway it's going to happen but I need an heir
Charlotte McCartney “Mommy are the cookies ready yet?” Kelcie asked impatiently as she tried hasten me up.“Almost honey. What's the hurry?” I asked, quite confused by my daughter's display. “She is probably just excited about the cookies”, I thought.“Nothing mom” she said smiling cunningly. “Did you make the special ones with chocolate in them?” she asked excitedly.“Of course honey and God I have really wasted time here I promised Lydia I was going to only need to twenty minutes and it's past an hour now. Come on help me put away the plates so I can get here cleaned up”, I said and began tidying the kitchen up.When we were done tidying and were about taking the cookies upstairs to our bedroom I remembered I left her phone back in the kitchen store.“Wait outside here for me honey”, I told my daughter. When I got back there however, Kelcie was nowhere to be found.“Where has she wandered to now?” I asked grumbling. Then I heard soft footsteps which I followed.“That must be Kelci
Charlotte McCartney “What alphabet is this one baby?” I asked, sceptical that she would get that one.“Letter w”, she replied almost immediately.“Oh! my one true genius”, I said, picking her up and blowing on her stomach till she laughed so heartily she held my head to stop.“How about this one? Do you remember this one?” I said, still holding her.“Letter v”, she replied cheerfully.“Baby you've made mommy so happy. What would you want me to buy for you?” I asked cheerfully, then I remembered that I can't exactly buy anything because I don't exactly have any money. Coming here we had to give up everything, I gave up lots of past acquaintances, my job and most importantly Kelcie's education. The issue that led to Kelcie's leaving school didn't have so much to do with money but more to do with the distance from her school to here. Josh Xavier's house was located in a much distant part of the town. It wasn't that there were no schools around here but the schools here are so expensiv
Charlotte McCartney By the time I came out of the bathroom my baby was no longer sleeping. She had turned on the bedroom light and was already out of the room as she usually did in the mornings. I looked up at the antique wall clock in our bedroom, “7:41am”, I said. “Kelcie must be having her milkshakes by now or just talking to Lydia”, I thought, then it hit me like a blow.“Lydia knows”, I said out loud. “She knows. There is no way she doesn't know. She was the one who called Josh to come and conduct the wine tasting. We were supposed to do it together but she excused herself. I'm sure she would have expected me to do the same as soon as Josh arrived but I stayed, foolishly”, I thought.“That's what mother always talked about. This is the same thing mother always said about me, the same reason she's always complaining. I'm so stupid. I never think before I act. I'm just so stupid. I could have left. There was nothing stopping me from leaving. But I stayed. Why? I could have left it
Charlotte McCartney “Baby”, I said as I stretched my hand to reach my baby. “Oh she's out already”, I concluded to myself as my outstretched hand met an empty bed. “She's probably watching the sunrise now”, I added, as I tried to sit up in bed. “There is something hard about this bed”, I thought, rubbing my eyes with the back of my hand. “Did someone replace the bed when I was out?” I asked myself.I yawned and laid back down to sleep but my eyes flew open almost immediately and I sat up at about the same instance. “Where am I?” I asked myself, looking round to check my surroundings. “Where am…” I was going to repeat the question again, when realization dawned me. “This is Josh's room. How did I get here?” I questioned, quite confused.“Oh my God! No! No! It did not happen again”, I said, wrapping my hand around my naked body, as I realized I was lying naked under Josh's sheets. My clothes were folded neatly at the foot of the bed.“Oh God please! This did not happen. How could I ha
Charlotte McCartneyThe sound of his name had butterflies swimming around my stomach all of a sudden. I had deliberately avoided talking about him all morning and had tried my best to not spend my whole day thinking as well as talking about him but he was everywhere nonetheless.“What Is that?” Lydia teased. “You think I'm going to be carrying you around afterwards?” She asked, pausing dramatically. “No young lady, not when you have a loving husband”.I bowed my head feeling slightly embarrassed and mildly amused. “Lydia and her mean little humour could somehow take one off guard like that. But it's alright the lady means no harm”, I said to myself.“Don't you worry though? I'll go call him for you. I bet he's still in his room but definitely awake by now. Come on I bet it'll be fun too”, she said assuringly.As she hurried off, thoughts of the last night we were together filled my mind. I yearned so much for his presence but yet was still shy and scared to admit it. It just felt too
Charlotte McCartney “The sugar is literally making me drunk”, Lydia exclaimed “It's too much don't you think?” she asked. “I love it Mommy”, Kelcie said to me. “Ms Lydia, why do you not like it?” Kelcie asked, turning to Lydia. Then, she chattered on and on as though the sugar was really getting her excited as Lydia had complained.“Too much sugar like this baby will have me living in the toilet for a couple days or weeks maybe”, she said, squinting her face. A proper look at the lady and you'd know that she had been a beauty in her youthful days and still, till this day gave off the impression of a beautiful aged lady.Kelcie laughed, “Ms Lydia you're saying the cake is going to make you poo poo?” She asked, amused. “Oh lots of poo poo I'm afraid”, she said, still squinting up her face.“But they do taste creamy as well”, I said. I personally thought it tasted quite good, heavenly to be exact, everything felt heavenly right now.“Yeah there's cream but there's sugar as well but p
Josh Xavier “Come on, go and get your things!” Ashley McCartney yelled again, louder this time.“Please mother! I don't want to leave”, Charlotte said, pleading.“Get out of the way sister!. We are getting you out of here. You can't live with this cripple”,Whitney said, pushing Charlotte out of the way finally. “Josh talk to Grandma, she'll listen to you”, Kelcie said to me with tears in her eyes. It broke my heart to see my little Princess cry.“Ashley, listen to me. Let's talk about this. Don't do this, remember our agreement”, I said, trying to reason with her.“There is nothing to talk about Josh. I have told you what I had to tell you. There is nothing to discuss. The agreement is over. You cannot have her anymore. She's going home”, Ashley replied, stamping her feet on the ground.“Have you finished packing Whitney?”. She questioned, sidelining me.“Almost mother, just a few more things and we'll be out of here”, Whitney screamed from inside. “Josh do something please”, Charl
Josh Xavier If she did not kiss me back, I'm not sure what it would have done to me, to my fragile heart. It's not like I've never been heart broken in the past. Because I have. I'm an old man, I've lived through different experiences with women. Good and bad ones I must say. But mostly good ones. The good ones were in my hay days. The days of my youth, when nothing could stop me. The days when I could have all the women I wanted, yet I rejected them all. I have been with women and I have had my fun with them. That's all I ever wanted from them. Fun. Nothing else. It changed over the years though. I changed. It's probably something that comes with age maybe. The desire to be stable, have a family and build a legacy. I already had one, one that was built by my father and his father before him and even before him. So all I needed to do was continue. Keep the legacy on. You don't want your family legacy to end because of you. “No, noone wants that” , I thought out loudThat's when my
Charlotte McCartney I have never thought of a man as being sexy. To be honest it never really crossed my mind. My only real thought of a man was when I was a teenager and even at that time, it had nothing to do with him being sexy. It was all about finding my prince charming and being like beautiful princesses from cartoons I had watched as a child. I wanted to be married into royalty and someday become a queen. I dreamed of dresses and jewelries, of balls and crowns. I didn't think of it as exotic billionaire lifestyle but as royalty. To think of it now it may sound the same.After I got pregnant, all those dreams disappeared. I had a new purpose, a new dream. I could no longer dream for myself. My baby was in her way, I had to dream for her. And so she became my new dream, the only person I thought about, the only person I saw. And as I looked at Josh at that instant, as we looked into each other's eyes, I saw a man who was willing to dream this dream with me. A man willing to se
Charlotte McCartney “You have not used it Charlotte. I gave that card to you so you could use it. So why are you returning it?” He asked, looking at me with a serious face. “I thought it was just for today's outing”, I replied, slightly confused.“It was for today's outing but you didn't buy anything for yourself. Neither did Kelcie. So hold on to it till you are able to find something you want to buy”, Josh said with a calm voice.“We got toys Josh”, I said, reminding him. “And chocolates, cookies and candies” , I added.“Yes you did. But I need you to shop for some more sweetheart”, he said, startling me with the name “sweetheart”.“I know you're probably trying to not be wasteful”, he continued. “But you're going to be my wife. You will be the wife of Josh Xavier, you must have the best of everything. And you must have everything my dear. I want you to. I know you'll like them. You may not know it now but when you have everything you'd know it was all worth it”. “But that's why
Charlotte McCartney Josh did not show up for dinner. I waited patiently as Kelcie and I ate. “I thought he said he was coming for dinner. Why is he not here yet?” I asked myself as I ate, pinching my food so it wouldn't finish before Josh joined us.“Mommy are you okay? You're not eating. Don't you like your food?” She asked “I’m fine my baby. And of course I like my food. It's very delicious”, I said quickly. “Yes mommy it is delicious. But why are you eating very slowly? Are you tired?” She asked seeming quite concerned.“No baby I'm not tired. I'm taking my time to enjoy my food because it is very delicious”, I replied, smiling as I spoke.My explanation was good enough for her. She smiled. “It's so yummy”, she said. Lydia came back before we were done eating. “Hope you like your food”, she said to me.“Yes I am. Thanks for asking”, I replied smiling warmly.Dessert will be here soon Kelcie you're going to love this”, Lydia said, turning to Kelcie. “Don't scream now, child”, sh