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Lauren
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Marriage of Deception Gavin
The last time I talked to my little sister was a decade ago, right after she returned home after marrying my former best friend. I didn’t say a word to her or her new husband that night, as I was too angry to even look at her after what she did to me. At that moment, it felt like a betrayal, as if she had stabbed me with a blunt knife right in my heart again and again.Sarah was always like this. Most people would describe her as a selfish, spoiled brat, too busy in her own world to see her surroundings, but I knew my sister long enough from all these people to state she was a different sort of animal who happened to be in the golden cage, which didn’t go well with her nature.After her marriage, there was a simple distance between us that none of us created again. None of us tried to end it. It was there, and we went with it without saying or thinking about it. Every day, I thought about my sister. After a decade, perhaps there was a change in her rebellious manner, or she was still
Marriage of Deception Lauren
These days, Gavin was behaving differently for some unknown reason. The friendship that we created over the month with lots of laughter and mutual understanding somehow disappeared after last night’s dinner. He suddenly walked out of our dinner, didn’t come to our bed to sleep, and got out of the house without saying anything. Also, not eating breakfast at home or with me was out of his daily routine.Over the month, we, husband and wife, came to an understanding about ourselves, whether it was about our personal life or professional life. We both somehow managed to have breakfast and dinner, even if we were under a pile of work. It didn’t matter to us; the pressure of work was a tiny part of our lives that we vowed not to let become our lives even if there were a thousand other things we needed to do. The respect that we had for one another might have been another reason why I enjoyed being with Gavin so much, so much that I missed him when he didn’t come to bed last night. I felt ba
Marriage of Deception Gavin
Yesterday after lunch, I got a call. The number was unknown, so I avoided picking up the call the first two times it beeped on my phone, also because I was in a meeting with a client, which I thought was more important than that stupid call. Another reason was that I assumed it was Celine. My ex-girlfriend, who was going crazy over the fact that I dumped her, said it was better to dodge her, especially after the last conversation I had with her.I didn’t pay any attention to my phone for an hour and more, but when my phone didn’t stop and the meeting was over, I picked up the phone just to warn that phone of this newly crazy woman.“Will you stop this madness?” I yelled over the phone.“What madness?” a female voice asked.And the voice wasn’t Celine’s. I was with Celine for over a decade. There was no way I would not recognize her nasal voice this easily. The weak voice belonged to some older woman with whom I was familiar, yet not a single name or face came to my mind to identify th
Marriage of Deception Gavin
The funeral that we arranged for Mrs. Kennedy had little attendance. I thought about talking to Lauren about her relatives and family friends, but she wasn’t saying anything. The day doctors informed us about the death of her mum, she stopped talking to me or anyone. Her friend Selena tried to talk to her, asked her so many questions, attempted to feed her food, and sought her attention by saying she was dating someone, but Lauren didn’t respond.Lauren would prefer to stay in our bedroom, sometimes laying on the bed, looking over the window, or just sitting in the corner of the room with the lights off. She wasn’t acting strange; instead, she stopped doing anything. Whenever I took a glance at her, it felt like there was nothing left in her as if it wasn’t her mum who left the world; it was her whose life halted all of a sudden.For the past two days, I had been working from home. I couldn’t trust Lauren to leave her alone all by herself, knowing she could do anything without realizi
Marriage of Deception Lauren
If you asked me about yesterday or how I spent the entire twenty-four hours, it would be difficult for me to address that, as I barely stored the information in my head. I was able to pick out bits from here and there, but not the whole movie. One might weigh in that there wasn’t anything significant to recall; that was why I was like that; or another might assume that I was drunk, too drunk to retrieve my memory for the past 24 hours. Unfortunately, both of them were wrong.Neither was I drunk nor did the day negligible. After all, it was my mother’s memorial, the last day of her being with humans, which I forgot as soon as I opened my eyes to a new morning.I was present there, saw things happening, and also listened to people talking, however, that’s all I could recall no matter how much pressure I put on my head. I remembered being in a church with many people whom I recognized but still couldn’t figure out why they were all there. They expressed their sadness to me when they real
Marriage of Deception Gavin
I was on my way to see the woman whom I was ready to strangle to death if I needed to.Everything had its limit, and if we tried to play with that, the blame was on us. No matter what the consequences were, we needed to face that without complaint. I assumed that was a basic unspoken rule that everyone in the world was aware of, but it turns out that my ex had nothing to do with it. The woman whom I knew almost all my life, who was my girlfriend for almost two decades was the one who didn’t have any knowledge of that, and for that, I was blaspheming myself.Celine was playing with fire. The fun part was that she knew that pretty well and still refused to back out of that. The route she tormented me was something only a child would do, but today what she did made me question her sanity.Was she even, in that sense, before doing something that she would never do even if she was full of three bottles of whiskey? The only thing I could make out about this entire situation was that someone
Marriage of Deception Lauren
It was modest to add that I had been correct in my husband and Celine Alonso all along. They were indeed in a serious relationship for a long, long time and veiled it from the eyes of the world without a flaw. Their friendship was always talked of in the town however, no one seemed to notice the other coating on that friendship, which I deciphered after giving a glance at them laughing together.Yeah, yeah. I wasn’t a fortune teller or processed any supernatural power to divulge these sorts of hidden relationships between human beings. They gave me the clues to discover their relationship in the first place.It was last year when I joined Gavin at a charity where people donated money for unprivileged children’s futures and education. It was an interesting event, yet the most fun began after the arrival of Celine, who was accompanied by her father. As soon as Celine set her foot in the area, all the men were gazing at her like puppies who all desired her attention. They were trying to
Marriage of Deception Gavin
Two Years LaterCeline had been busy talking to someone on the phone for over an hour now. If I had to guess, I would say it was the wedding planner who was responsible for her wedding. As a bride, of course, she was going to be terrific in her half-million dollar wedding gown that was designed by Oscar de la Renta just for her. The designer’s team worked for ten days on her special dress so they could make her dream reality, and they did. All the instructions Celine gave them were there. The lace mermaid dress with a long train dress possibly was going to steal all the limelight on her wedding day. For me, that wouldn’t be a surprise.Celine was getting married, putting her career aside. This ambitious woman was all ready to walk down the aisle to say those two words. If someone told me about this a year ago, I would have laughed and moved on to the next joke, but that wasn’t a joke anymore. It was reality, for her as well as mine too.The wedding is going to be held in Canada. Yes,
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Marriage of Deception Epilouge
Five Years LaterLaurenIt was Joy’s seventh birthday. The party that Gavin threw for his dear daughter was supposed to be a kid’s birthday party, but after cutting the cake, this blast turned out to be a boardroom meeting. Gavin was sitting with his friends, clients, investors, and business partners whose children were the same age as my daughter or a little older than her. The chocolate cake was lying on the coffee table ahead of these adult men, but they were more interested in talking about the stock market than the party that was going on.I was sitting with a bunch of the mothers from Joy’s school. It was regular mom-concerned talk, which I was getting used to, but surely needed enough time to get into the gossip that they were passing. Every time I sat with them, the only thing I heard them talking about was a teacher who got pregnant before marriage or a parent who was fighting behind closed doors. The mothers called this get-together “about the children” each time they invite
Marriage of Deception Gavin
I was sitting in my office when Lily informed me that the guest of the day was already waiting for me in our waiting room. On the bright side, Knox accepted my invitation, which I sent to him through a text that Dean and I created last night by wasting thirty minutes of our precious time.“It has to be a minimal text with some unadorned words,” I told Dean when we sat down in my penthouse living room, squeezing the burner phone in our hands.Everything we wrote felt fake until the last text we typed, which somehow sounded formal enough to send to Knox.“Astor Empire’s CEO would like to have a cup of coffee with you tomorrow at his office. Please be in the Astor building at sharp 4.”It was such lame and childish stuff to forward to someone whom you would like to meet. The moment Dean typed this nonsense, the one word that came out of our mouths was the same word Archimedes said upon a significant discovery in the Physis world.“Eureka,” we both said at the same time, reading what was
Marriage of Deception Gavin
“Alright. I understand everything you are saying. But why would Knox go after you? There is no logic behind that. I assumed he felt betrayed when he realized you moved ahead in life while he was serving his sentence for a murder he committed earlier in his life. That wasn’t in your hand. I mean, it was his crime, and the law gave him a suitable punishment, I believe. At present, he is dating your older sister, or more like he is using her to get revenge on you.” I sighed. “My question here is, what revenge? You didn’t do anything wrong with him, right? Then why was he after your life like a mad dog?” I sat on the near couch while Lauren was still standing in the bathroom doorway with her hands together, just like a criminal.“I did play the foul game that night,” she whispered.“How?” I asked. “I don’t see any foul play in your tale.”“Do you know why Knox went to prison?”“Yes, for a murder that he committed.”“Whose murder? Who was that man? Do you know that man?”“No.” I shook my h
Marriage of Deception Lauren
Eleven Years AgoThe environment of our house was never healthy. There was always something happening, and most of the time, it was my father who was screaming at the top of his lungs. After breaking up with Knox, I took another job just so I could come home when every one of the members of this house was deep in sleep. Hearing those arguments every single day was so annoying that sometimes I wandered around the town, just to escape from the ear-piercing competition that my parents loved to do at night.My time at Knox was my pathway to abscond from the toxic atmosphere of my home. If I ever sat down and thought about Knox, including the feelings I had for him, I was pretty sure I had nothing for that guy in my heart. You could say, I toyed with him, using him to get away from home for some time. I was aware of what Knox was thinking all the time, but the feeling that I felt for him was after he threatened me to be with him.Of course, I was missing him. I was thinking about him now a
Marriage of Deception Lauren
I was in the bathroom treating the wound that Knox and my sister caused me yesterday. Everything else was in my body, which I could easily bury with my clothes, but the one punch that Ashlee gifted me right in my face was giving me hell. I tried makeup, foundation, and concealer, but nothing was working. Instead, the redness was turning into brown shades, which was making it obvious. I had a flight to catch in just a few hours, and here I was making my face presentable.When I first saw Ashlee with Knox, I smelled the fishiness there. In which world would there be such a weird coincidence where your older sister was dating your ex-convicted boyfriend without knowing about each other? I doubt this was a plan that they both plotted together to take revenge on me. They both undoubtedly harbored a bitter grudge against me.I was in the corner of the convenience store when Knox grabbed me by the cap of my hoodie and threw me into the dark alley. Before I could realize anything, a hard slap
Marriage of Deception Gavin
“This is the information you asked for.” Jonathan gently slammed the brown file ahead of me.“I asked you for this at least two weeks ago. You are giving me this right now.” I collected the file from the desk, and without opening it, locked it in the drawer. “What happened to your skills? Did it dry out?”“You wish, brother-in-law.” Jonathan smiled as he fell into the chair ahead of us. “I hope you are aware of the fact that I am not a detective or anyone who is with law enforcement. I did my best with what little I had. So be grateful for that.”“Did Sarah know anything about this?”“About what?”“That I called you and asked for help or the favor I asked from you.”It wouldn’t be a great deal if Sarah got the idea that I was reaching out to her husband. Of course, I could ask for help from Jonathan, but if my little sister found out about all this, there would be another drama from her I couldn’t afford at this moment. Sarah lived for drama, which is why she chose Hollywood as her ca
Marriage of Deception Lauren
Eleven Years AgoMy mother never liked Knox. During the time I was dating him, although it started with a threat, however, over time we both became inseparable. My family was aware of the twenty-two-year-old boy I was dating, but they never approved of my choice. While my mother stayed quiet the first few times Knox visited our house for dinner or picked me up, it was my father whose anger flew over the bridge every time he saw Knox. Dad hated him so much that one time he kicked Knox out of our house.It was during Thanksgiving. Knox wanted to spend that time with me alone in his warehouse, but it was my mother who made it clear that if I didn’t stay for Thanksgiving dinner, I wouldn’t be allowed to return home. So, I convinced Knox to spend time with me at my parent’s house, which he refused several times. It was my endless nagging that forced him to change his mind. He didn’t change his damn mind, he just lost the game of a nag that I was playing with him at that moment.The next da
Marriage of Deception Lauren
Twelve Years AgoI blocked Knox from my life with a perfect plan which I thought was solid. I changed the schedules of all the part-time jobs I had at that time. The school was what I began to give importance to more than anything in my life at that point. The main reason for that was to improve my grades. By the next exam, I was back on top, the top girl in the school with 98% marks in all the subjects, which put a smile on my mum’s face, and seeing her being proud felt worth all the sleepless nights I spent studying.Knox didn’t cross his path with me for the next six months. After I left his house and came back to mine, he followed me everywhere I went. From my school to my workplace, he was standing outside every place I went. It was embarrassing when people whispered about seeing the notorious boy of the town waiting for me every single day for a week straight. I was already the weirdo in the eyes of my classmates, and seeing me with Knox, the notorious boy of the town, was only
Marriage of Deception Lauren
Twelve Years LaterOver the next week, Knox and I fell into a routine that wasn’t doing good for any of us. While he didn’t have a job, I was doing whatever I could with the given situation. I was going to school, but there wasn’t a single time when I was doing homework or assignments that I needed to submit to the finals. Even my grades were going down, which was terrifying. My teachers were worried about my future. The straight-A student was getting a B, and a C wasn’t a piece of good news for anyone. The three jobs that I had thankfully stayed with me due to Knox’s constant visits to my workplace painted me red in the eyes of my employer. One evening, Teddy, my convenience store owner, pulled me aside and asked me what I was doing with that boy.“He is a friend,” I replied.“He doesn’t look like someone with whom you spend time,” he said, frowning.“Looks aren’t everything, Teddy. You can’t judge a person based solely on the tattoos on their hands,” I said, smiling.“So, you are
