Charlotte McCartney “Hey! Stop there! Where are you going with that bouquet of flowers and box of candy?” The receptionist at the hospital where Josh Xavier had been admitted held my arm.Her grip jolted me to reality. I had been too immersed in my thoughts that I had forgotten to sign in at the entrance.“Oh I'm sorry. My name is Charlotte. I have been here before. I am looking for one of the patients. He was brought in here some weeks ago. The accident victim. His name is Josh Xavier. I brought him these gifts”, I raised the bouquet of flowers as well as the box of candy so she could see it.“And who are you supposed to be?” She examined the flower.“I’m just a friend. My sister is his ex-girlfriend”, I smiled.“So what are you doing here? Please leave here! Don't you know he has been discharged?”She looked ready for a quarrel.TCHHHHHHH!I heard her hissing loudly as I turned to leave. I felt very stupid as I walked away. Why did she have to be so rude? I was there to see a pati
Charlotte McCartneyTired and drowsy, I started the engine of my car and headed home. It had been more than one week since I walked in on my boyfriend Ron and my sister Whitney kissing in the sitting room, and I had still not gotten over the fact that my sister had stolen my boyfriend.I had also not gotten over mom’s reaction when I explained the situation and the stinging slap she gave me for getting angry and making a big deal over Whitney’s relationship with my boyfriend Ron.So everyday for the next one week, I lived like a ghost, avoiding everyone in the house. Luckily I had my job to escape to and my daughter Elsie to distract me. Still Whitney always found a way to rub their relationship in my face. She took Ron everywhere around the house kissing and fondling each other.For some reason Ron was visiting too frequently. I hoped he would have the decency to stay away for a little while but he did not. He and Whitney were constantly acting like two lovebirds, smiling, laughing a
Untitled documentChapter TwoCharlotte McCartneyCharlotte McCartney For your information, in case you are looking for your money, you will not be able to find the money. Your sister and I have removed it from the safe and moved it somewhere else. You can search if you want. You will never find it”, mom said looking at me devilishly.My heart skipped when I heard mom make this shocking revelation. That was all the money I had. The money in my safe which mom and Whitney found and claimed to have kept was not a small amount like mom had said. That was my nine months savings“How did they find the safe? I made sure it was well hidden”, I asked myself feeling very uneasy and my face did nothing to hide my feelings especially with my mouth hanging open as it was.“Why do you look surprised? You didn't think we would find out that you were planning to run away did you?” Whitney asked and laughed like a little demon.“I was not planning to run away with the money. I only hid it there to pr
Charlotte McCartney The morning that I moved to Josh Xavier's mansion marked the beginning of our marriage. I used to have dreams of my wedding to my prince charming when I was a little girl. I would imagine my wedding dress to be as beautiful as Cinderella’s wedding dress and my husband prince charming. But that was before I got pregnant. It was a long, long time before I gave birth to my daughter Kelcie. Even though I loved her and could not imagine life without her, I knew that my life took a new turn when I got pregnant. I could no longer marry Prince Charming or a billionaire. Mom made sure she sang it to me every day. “No billionaire will marry you after what you have done to yourself. Which billionaire wants a woman as trashy as an Afterone?” Mom constantly repeated, referring to me as an Afterone, a name she used to describe women who gave birth to children for men who refused to marry them. In my case, though, I did not know the father of my child, so it seemed worse.Meet
Josh Xavier“Many times bad things happen to us and everyone expects us to get over it quickly and move on with our lives. But it's not always so easy to get over things, nor is it so easy to move on. And it's stupid of anyone to expect that”, I said to myself angrily the morning Charlotte and her daughter, Kelcie arrived.My life was different from what it used to be. Three months ago I was involved in a fatal car accident which changed the course of my life. Everyone who has come to visit me since the accident has expressed how lucky I am to have survived the accident. “But what is the use of being alive if I can never walk again? What sort of man have I become? A handicap? I, Josh Xavier a disabled person ", I said and angrily flung the teacup I was holding out of my hand, smashing it against the wall.I hated my life many times I attempted to kill myself but even that I didn't have the balls to do. “Not this Josh Xavier anyway, the former Josh Xavier though. That one had the ball
Charlotte McCartney After the incident with Josh Xavier, I decided once Kelcie was properly fixated on playing chess on my phone that I was going back to confront him for being such a demon and worse of all he didn't even consider the presence of my little girl while he was being so demon possessed. Whatever it was, I resolved that I was going to tell him to at least have the decency to deal with me personally and for the sake of whatever keep it away from Kelcie. I walked to the same room I first found him almost unconsciously. It wasn't exactly his bedroom from what I heard from Lydia. But from the look of it, it seemed like a place you could find him. In my heart I hoped to find him there. The house was still too unfamiliar and that seemed to be the only place I had managed to take note of. On getting to the room, I found the door slightly ajar and he was inside this time though he did not look as disoriented as he looked at first. “Mr Xavier, I'd like a word” I said breathless
Charlotte McCartney I was awoken by Lydia’s polite but firm knock. Polite because she took minutes in between knocks to probably give me time to get up. Its firmness was in its repetition which went on for almost an hour. I was finally awake. “What's the time?” I thought to myself, then I turned to check the time. “11:30!” I screamed, noticing it was already pretty bright. I looked around and Kelcie was nowhere to be seen.“Good morning ma'am”, Lydia greeted as I opened the door to her.“Not to worry your daughter is not lost, she's down in the stables with the horses. She awoke earlier to have breakfast. We both tried to get you out of bed but you seemed too tired. We gave up and just let you sleep”, she said and gave me a warm smile.“I must have really been tired”, I thought aloud feeling a bit embarrassed “Yes ma'am”, she replied. “Would you need me to do anything for you? Breakfast has been served but I can have something sent up for you or if you want to come down to the di
Charlotte The evening seemed to go on pretty fine, better than what happened yesterday. It seemed like all we had to do was to keep away from Josh Xavier's way and all would go smoothly and well. Josh Xavier’s mansion was so well provisioned. I had to do nothing except bathe Kelcie, which I insisted on doing myself. So far, Josh Xavier has kept his side of our marriage agreement by providing for Kelcie and me.Dinner that evening was served with a bowl of chocolate marshmallow as dessert. The meal was as sumptuous and tasty as ever but Kelcie could not get over the chocolate marshmallow. “This chocolate marshmallow is very sweet, Mom. I love it”, she said to me immediately after she tasted it. She looked like she could cry from its sweetness.“Is that so honey?” I asked, tempted to taste it as well and I did. It was the best chocolate marshmallow I had ever tasted in my life.“Yes, honey, I agree with you. I think I love it too baby”, I said to Kelcie as we dug in.“Mom will Ms Lyd
Charlotte McCartney “What do you mean Josh? What do you mean by "we should not call her a liar?” Whitney asked, taking two steps forward. “She's obviously lying. Why will you not call her a liar? There's no way Ron would have asked her to marry him. He asked me to marry him already. Ron and I have been in a relationship for how long now. You are aware of that. You also know that because of how it started, just because she was dating him first, she has been angry. But that's not enough for her to tell you lies about him and I know she's lying so when I know she's lying nobody can tell me to not call her a liar. I'm sorry not even you”, Whitney said, with a serious face.“So what if she's not lying this time around? What if this stupid lowlife here is the one lying? And why is he even quiet? Why are you the one defending him? Can't he speak for himself? What if your sister wasn't lying this time? What if what she is saying is the truth and this little rat here”, he pointed at Ron, "i
Charlotte McCartney “Charlotte enough with the lies. What are you trying to say?” Whitney asked.“Don't ask me, ask that lying fool that you are about to get married to”, I replied“If you have anything to say, Charlotte go ahead and say it and stop going around saying s*** . I know you're just a bitter person, everybody here is aware of that, everybody at my wedding will be aware of that so you can go on with your bitterness. Keep spreading your fake rumors, but none of the rubbish you've been saying or the ones you plan on saying will make any difference”, Whitney said, dismissing me.“From the beginning , you hated what Ron and I had. When we first started our relationship, you were obviously against it. I knew how much you hated Ron and I being together”, Whitney said with scorn.“Of course I hated you two being together. If you were in my shoes, would you not have hated it? You stole my boyfriend from me and you tell me that I should not hate it. I should be smiling at you for s
Charlotte McCartney “Josh, are you okay? Why do you sound so mad?” Whitney said, reaching out to Josh. “That’s right Little Miss beautiful thinks she can save the day by just talking to him”, I said in my mind”, as I hide her “What do you want? Is it too much or too difficult a question to answer? Why are you here? You didn't think of calling before coming here. Don't you think it is only appropriate for you to do that? At least inform the person that you're about to visit that you are coming, and not just come visiting. And of all things, you bring this fool along with you. Why did you bring this lowlife to my house? Why could you not come here on your own? Ashley, at the very least I would have accommodated you and this daughter of yours coming here so unannounced. But what is the pig doing in my house? Why did you bring this degenerate with you?” Josh asked with a look of irritation. As he spoke, all I turned to Ron. His mangoed up face from the other day's beating looked a li
Charlotte McCartney Josh had been quiet since Lydia left. He had not said the word all through. “I wonder what he's thinking”, I said to myself as I watched him. He was looking in the direction mother and Whitney were supposed to come from. He had not taken his eyes off that spot since he agreed for them to come in. “I hope this goes well”, I said, talking to myself. Then, I reached out to Josh and held his hand. He seemed to jump a little bit when my hand touched his. “He must be so deep in thoughts. I wonder what he's thinking”, I said to myself again.“I'm not sure why they could not call before coming”, Josh said, more to himself than to me, but loud enough for me to hear him.“Why are they even coming here? What is so important that should really bring them here?” I thought, beginning to worry. “We've been in peace all this time. We have been living happily ever since we moved here. Josh even promised us a good time today. My new family seems to be going well and here my own fa
Charlotte McCartney “Ron is in my house?” Josh asked in disbelief. “princess”, he said, with a calm tone, “can you go into your room for a while Mommy and I will be back and could join you soon. You can play games if you want, watch a movie, play with your toys, anything you want. If you want you can get some ice cream, anything you want, just give us some time”, Josh added, very calmly.“Okay I will go now”, Kelcie said and turned to leave without asking any questions. “Did you say Ron is in my house? Like that fool is here? I want to know why that fool is here. Why is he here? And why did the estate security let him in? Were they not supposed to turn him back from the entrance? Somebody is going to get punished for this stupidity”, Josh said threateningly.“I'm sorry sir, it's because he's here he's with Mrs Ashley, Ms Charlotte’s mother. They did try to turn them back, but they refused to go. They've been out there for over an hour now causing a whole lot of drama that's why I h
Charlotte McCartney “Mommy do you like flying too?” Kelcie asked, curiously.“I don't know, baby. I've never gone flying before. I don't know if I would like it from up there and I can't tell if I will not like it either. I've heard so many things about flying so I don't know if I would really like it or if I may be a little scared of the distance from the sky to ground level”, I replied, saying even more than I would have said. “I don't know what's been up with me lately, I've been saying more things than necessary”, I said to myself.“What! You have never gone flying? you've never flown anywhere? You have not gone anywhere by air Charlotte?” Josh asked in disbelief and I shook my head. “You spoke about this idea like it was some childish desire of Kelcie's, or some unnecessary expense or should I say irrelevant experience that your little girl was craving. Meanwhile it's something that you yourself haven't even experienced”, Josh said, gazing at me in shock. Kelcie on the other ha
Josh Xavier What Ron said had not left my head since I discharged Charlotte. “It's a good thing she told me”, I mused. “That fool, that bastard wants to take my wife from me. He wants to take my woman from me. When I was in the hospital he succeeded in seducing Whitney. Now that I'm out, he still thinks he can take Charlotte back. He won with Whitney only because I was in a coma. He dares to steal Charlotte from me now? Now that my eyes are open? Now that I can talk? He dares undermine me because of this wheelchair?” I said to myself,deep in thought.“He’s not going to know what hit him. I'll show him. I will show that bastard what it's like when you joke with the wrong person. I thought it was my wife's family trying to deceive me, but Ashley may be a horrible mother but she at least knows to not mess with the wrong people. I'm sure that's why she sent Charlotte to fill in Whitney's position after she dumped me for that imbecile. She of all people must know that you don't joke with
Charlotte McCartneyThe tone of Josh's voice and the look on his face was really frightening. “I don't think he has ever been as mad as this with me”, I said to myself. Turning to Josh, I said, after taking a deep breath, “he was saying a lot of things to me that were necessary, unbelievable and equally annoying”, I said, wondering if I should really give Josh the full details. “But if I don't explain it all to him in detail, he would not believe that I did not have a hand in this, so it's best to tell him everything”, I thought deeply. “Unnecessary things like what Charlotte?” Josh asked, just as I was about to tell him about it all.“Unnecessary things like talking about my family. Things that he didn't know. For instance, he was telling me that my grandfather left the company to me and that my mother had been managing it on my behalf because I wasn't old enough to manage it. Meanwhile that's not the truth. Mom has been managing the company on her own not because I couldn't manage
Charlotte McCartney“Hold on baby, mommy needs to get something done really quickly”, I said, as Kelcie and I got into our bedroom.“Okay mommy. Will you be gone for long?” Kelcie asked. “No baby, I will not be long. I just want to get this done very quickly before it's too late”, I answered, flashing her a warm smile.“It's okay mommy I'll wait for you”, my baby said, smiling back at me. I left the room soon after. Leaving the room, I went directly to Josh's room. I wanted to get it to talk to him before he went into the bathroom, because I did not know how long it would take before he came out for breakfast. I did not want the awkwardness that had just occurred between us to happen again when we were having breakfast.“Kelcie is always watching me and she may just notice the silence and inquire about what is going on. I'm not sure I will know what to say to her if she asks about why we are giving each other this silent treatment. There is really no need for that display, so it's b