"You look like someone who is in urgent need of soem boozze and hoe," Daniel said as he sat down to Gavin's table at the bar. Evangeline had finally taken off her yes from him, and he was all set to meet up with his friends regularly. If he was being honest, marrying her was not what he thought he would like. If he had gotten married to Lila instead, he was sure that he would have been free to do whatever he wanted, but with her, she was trying her best to cage him down. "Maybe that is what I need—some alcohol to numb my brain and a woman to make me feel like a man again." Gavin repied his eyes, scouring the dance floor of people moving to the beat. "Then I would take it upon myself to get that for you," Daniel offered."You do not have to do such a thing," Gavin told his friend before he got out of his seat. "So you are saying that you would rather look like a monk at a place like this?""Do you want me to turn up dead?" Gavin asked, taking up his glass and chuging it down. He was
"Where are you?" Damien asked over the phone. "Mr. Damien Calloway, don't you think you are obsessed with me considering that we are in a fake relationship?" She asked over the phone. She had waited all afternoon for Rosa's call, but she did not get one, and since she did not have her number, she could not call to check up on the woman; her brother was being a pain and was not getting her calls. All she could do was pray that the woman was all right. If she had known that all she would have been doing all day was to lay down and not do anything, she would not have turned down Zach's invitation to lunch."Fake relationship?" He gasped as if she were making up things, and he did not know what she meant when they had agreed on it together. "What do you want?" she asked, ignoring his fake gasp and pressing her lip into a thin line. "I want to treat you to dinner, so what do you say?" he asked, and she shook her head. She most especially did not want to see him; his presence was too ov
Lila jumped out of bed almost immediately, and the call dropped. She dropped her phone to the bed and looked down at herself. She was still in the clothes she had put on in the morning. "What do I wear?" she exclaimed, looking down at herself as she rushed into her closet. It was almost next to empty. She did not really care about things like that, and since she got back, she has been trying her best to get pieces of clothing for herself. She only got a new one when she needed it, and now out of the pieces of clothes everywhere, she had no idea which of them she was going to throw away to get a cute outfit for her to wear. One thing she very much wanted to do was have something that looked like she threw something together without putting much thought into it. "Maybe I do need to get myself some clothes," she murmured, holding a piece of cloth to her body as she stared in the mirror. After doing the same for almost everything in the wardrobe, she decided that before the end of the w
Gray had advised him and asked him to study her as it would make her feel he was really interested in her, but he reminded his assistant that as much as he would have loved to give a tailored experience to his enemy, he still wanted to work within the time frame that Kevin had given to him. Even though he did not have all of the details figured out, he knew that, as it stands, he had wasted an entire week and had not gotten anything done. He needed to find a way to speed up the process so that he could get everything done soon. "I would suggest slowly getting to know her," Gray said, sounding just like Sam. "I want to take revenge, not marry her. Why on earth would I slowly get to know her?" Damien murmured. "I do not have enough time for all that, so I should just ask her."Gray wanted to tell him that women were like search and rescue dogs who could easily sniff out insincerity, but he held himself from saying anything. He nodded instead. "I will be ready to take any further instr
"He was asking me what I would like to eat," Lila asked herself, staring at the phone. She had been so sceptical about him, and as much as she thought that his action was supposed to clear off the doubt she had, she feared that he was plunging her into more fear by the day. She dropped onto the bed with her eyes closed as she tried to steady her beating heart and convince herself that her heart was only doing that to her because she was feeling a bit stressed even though she had barely done anything all day. "Can I say something, sir?" Gray said out of the blue, and Damien raised her head to him. "I do not think you might like what I am about to say.""And yet you still want to say it?" Amien asked, shocked at his assistant. Gray had always been simple and took his words as law; he had never thought of speaking back at him like this, so Damien was curious as to what he wanted to say to him. "Yes, sir," he replied with a small nod. "Go on," Damien told him. "Sir, I do not think tha
"Are you asking me to sit on the floor?" he asked again. "Well, are you going to sit there and act uncomfortable when we could sit down on the floor and act free?" she asked. Damien looked down at his custom-made clothes and wondered how she was a heiress and acted the way she did. She was sure that no one in her age bracket would act the same way. 'You are worried about your clothes?" She asked, taking out everything from the bag and seeing it up on the table in front of her. He looked up to see her set up the meal without taking her eyes off, so he wondered how she knew what he was thinking. "They are just clothes," she said softly as she turned to him slowly. "Just clothes?" he scoffed, rolling her eyes. She must really be clueless about how the world truly worked. He had to sit on a very long bench for a while before he could get the suit he was wearing, and he was expected to just sit on the floor because she wanted it. "These are not just clothes...""Let me guess it is Lux
"Making a connection?" she murmured, taking a bite from the pizza and gulping down the remnant of food in her mouth."Is that not what you want?" he asked, and the room fell silent. Lila silently munched on her food, not because she did not have a thousand thoughts running around in her mind but because she did not know how to put them into words that would make sense. "You are awfully quiet," Damien said, breaking off the silence. He had broken the silence, so it felt weird that she was not talking again."Can I ask you some questions?" she said suddenly. "Strangely, you want to ask me questions, but I guess you can," he said, dropping the pizza back into the box. "You should not do that," she said, looking around. "I forgot to bring plates," she said, unfolding her legs and standing up. She shook them to get the blood flowing through them again. "I can go get the plates instead," he volunteered, trying to stand up. She bent so she could reach his shoulders, and she pushed him dow
"You want to know?" She said she was turning so she could look at his face, and no matter how she looked at him, she could not understand the expression on his face or what it meant. "You want to know?" she said, picking each word as if she were about to tear it apart. He picked up the cup and gulped half of the content before clenching his mouth and turning to her. "What I meant was..." He trailed off because he did not know how to tell her that the only reason he was sitting in her living room acting like they were close was just because he had to get closer with her so he could distract her. "Was?" she urged him when the silence lingered for longer than she was expecting; even if he was trying to make a dramatic silence stall for longer than necessary, it was not going to make him seem special. "I thought you were interesting," he said, pressing his heels together. "Was? Did I now seem boring to you when you got to know me? Just boring plain Lila who likes eating pizza and drin
"Do you really have to go?" Damien hated that Lila was whining over the phone. "Am I whining again? Why am I acting like this?" she muttered to herself and before he could say anything, she was speaking again. "When are you going to be back?" she asked."In two days and once I am back, I am going to run to you.""Okay then, you want me to go in the evening to check on Daisy?" she asked. Daisy was a dog that he had adopted and she hoped that soon she would join them at the house. Although staff were allowed in the house now, she wanted to still go over to his place; if she could not see him, then at least she could see the dog."Yes, can you do that?" he asked."Of course I can," she said and he took a deep breath."I gotta go down. I will call you as soon as we get there but it might take a while," he said and she nodded. She had to be understanding; as much as she wanted to cling to him, he had to have a life or else she would be known as the woman who sucked the life out of her boyf
Lila stood in front of Damien's office; surprisingly, since Gavin was put behind bars and they had publicly declared their relationship, he felt free and began to go to work. Lila wondered what he had done to her; she wasn't the kind of person who would randomly show up at his office on a Monday morning but he had been out of town all weekend, meaning they didn't get to spend time together and since he was so busy with a product launch, he came to the office straight from the airport. She was supposed to be at work but should go to work after seeing him.She cleared her throat and walked into the office. The lobby was littered with people going in and out and some small groups of people talking. She tried to look at them; ignorance is bliss; if she did not check them, she wouldn't know if they were looking at her or even talking about her. She stood by the elevator with some other people and got in as soon as it stopped. She was going to the last floor so she made herself comfortable
"Do you really have to go?" Lila was standing at the airport as they were seeing her mom off; she could not understand the reason her mom was in such a hurry to leave them. She stayed until the end of the wedding ceremony and then began to talk about leaving to continue her world tour.Lila and Tessa were just getting close but Tessa knew it would be short-lived; if she stayed a bit longer, then both of them would be at each other's throats in no time."Yes, if I don't go, then we will fight Tessa replied with a blank expression on her face."Spo why don't we make conscious efforts to make sure we don't fight?" To Lila, the question made sense because if they were to make an effort, then maybe they could stay together."I would like to try but I...""You don't want to try, you just want to make excuses" Lila understood and she was sure not to try and bring me up again. Her mother was not willing to try; she had better things to do and that was okay. Even if she would miss her, she at
FIVE MONTHS LATER"I know I was happy that you were joining my family but I still can't believe you are marrying my brother," Lila murmured as they waited to be called in."I would have you know...""You love my brother." Lila cut Arietta off before she could complete the sentence. "I know you do; I understand that you do but I still cannot...""If you can't understand it, then I suggest that you let it be." Arietta knew it was playful banter but she was getting nervous; she wondered what was going on in the hall and why it was taking so long for her to get called in. She wanted to tell Lila to go check what was going on but she knew if she showed fear, Lila, who was far more nervous than her, would freak out.She opened her mouth to continue the banter when someone came to tell her that her father would be there any moment to walk her in. Matteo came in almost immediately and it had Arietta wondering why they had to send someone when he was right behind her."Oh my goodness!" he excl
Lila waited for her mom to be out of the room before she said a word. She could not believe that she had just stood up to her mom and it had worked. It made her begin to think of all the times she could have done the same and maybe it would have worked too. She was still trying to process what had happened when she felt her feet leave the ground and dangle in the air. Alarmed, she looked down to see Damien holding her up. She looked down at him with wide eyes."What are you doing?" she asked with shock all over her face."I have missed you so much. I can't believe we began dating and we had to stay away for so long," he said, not answering her question. She felt butterflies swell in her stomach. It felt good hearing a man say words like that. It was never that way with Gavin for her, at least the side of him he decided to show her."I missed you too," she replied. She could not help but say, looking down at his face after hearing such words was enough to make her blurt them out withou
Damien spent the next few days shuffling between his office and the police station; somehow getting Gavin behind bars made him feel like a huge burden had been lifted off his shoulders. He could finally stand face to face with Kevin and Rosa without feeling bad. He and Lila had been communicating via text messages only and the words sounded as formal as they could be. She had told him that she was going to wait but first Gavin had to be securely behind bars because she feared what he might do.Even though Damien swore to protect her, he could still understand her paranoia. Every time he went to see Gavin with a lawyer, he was screaming in his voice and breaking out in a sweat, demanding Lila. Of course, Tessa was never going to allow Lila to show up there; it was still scary to see how much Gavin was not willing to give up even though he saw that there was no hope for him again.Gavin was glad that at last, it was the final hearing; he wondered why the court was dragging out the trial
Damien sat across from Oliver, wondering what he wanted to say; it was not like he was completely oblivious to whatever he was going to say; it was just that he had expected that all of this would blow over and Gvain would be safely behind bars before they talked about anything."You deceived me," Oliver said at once; there was no time for him to be beating around the bush. Damien had not thought too much about it before he decided to deceive him."I did," Damien replied with a head nod. It was not a false accusation after all and he thought that the faster he admitted to doing it, the faster they got to stop talking about it. "I wanted revenge and since I did not have the facts, I ran with what I had.""So all the while I was helping you get revenge against my sister and even after spending time with her, you did not realise that you were wrong about her?" Oliver asked. Lila was the kind of girl you would not believe would ever hurt a fly, even as her brother he had to say that nothi
Lila stood behind a glass watching Gavin get questioned; she wanted to run in there and scream in his face now that she was sure there was no way he would escape from there. She watched him get flustered even though he tried to act cocky. They were yet to bring up Amber and the evidence they had gotten. She knew he would lose his mind once he saw the evidence because that would point directly to her. She was the only one who had that evidence so he would know immediately that this was her doing but she did not care. There was no escaping for him for this one.She turned to Oliver, who was standing beside her. Tessa had said that she did not have a need to stand in the room and watch him get interrogated and the chief of police had taken her to his office so she could sit and get some coffee to drink. "I think I have seen enough; I want to go home," she announced, turning slowly to Oliver."I told you there was nothing to see here but you wanted to see," Oliver replied, his voice devoi
It took a while before the officers came to release all civilians from the room they kept them safe, the criminal was found and even transferred from their station to a more secure one. It was then that Lila knew that her mother and brother were standing outside the entire time. By the time they came in, Kevin was already speaking with the officers about how he would like to keep Gavin in there until there was evidence.Tessa did not pay any heed to Lila but walked straight to Kevin, who was arguing with the officer he was speaking to. "Mr. Voss," Tessa said as she approached him. Kevin turned around to see her and smiled with the base of his lips."Mrs. Carson, it has really been a while since I saw you," he said, turning to her."Can we talk a bit?" Tessa asked and he nodded. "Can we have some privacy, please?" she asked the officer who was still standing by them. The man looked flustered but his expression changed to gratitude because he was happy that he had found a way to escape.