“Oh, my goodness! I’m so sorry about that, Kane. What went wrong?”
“It was a difficult labour. Her birth canal appeared to be too narrow for the baby and the doctor suggested an emergency C-section but Serena wouldn’t agree to it. She said she wanted me to be there to witness the natural birth, whatever that means.”
“Wasn’t there anything they could’ve done to save the baby?”
“She was born dead, Emilia. The doctors aren’t magicians. There was nothing they could’ve done.”
Emilia sighed. “That’s terrible. I don’t like Serena but nobody deserves to go through that kind of nightmare. How is she?”
“Asleep right now. She was a mess before, wouldn’t let go of the baby and kept screaming at the doctors to do something.”
“I’m so sorry, Kane.”
“Thank you. How’s Tiara?”
“As
“Serena is desperate to speak with you,” said ‘Lupe. Her eyes shone with unshed tears but Kane wasn’t moved.“I hope you are aware that both of you have overstayed your welcome in this house,” he said curtly. “Whatever needed to be said between me and Serena has been said already.”“Please, Mr Beaumont, hear her out. She’s been in a very terrible place since…”“I offered to pay for her to see a therapist but she refused. I even offered to buy her a house and she turned that down too. I have been more than generous to her already and I’m not making any more offers to her.”“I know your relationship started on the wrong foot but – ““Relationship? Serena and I don’t have any relationship. What are you talking about?”“I meant – ““You know what, it’s ok. I’ll go talk with her.
A week before the twins’ third birthday, Emilia and Kane had their first mediation meeting with their lawyers. As she’d expected, he was adamant about going through with the divorce despite her insistence.The meeting was happening in one of the conference rooms in Kane’s office building. Her appearance in the office had turned heads and caused whispers among the staff.“Why are you doing this?” She asked in exasperation. “You clearly don’t want me anymore. Not when that hardened criminal is still living under your roof.”“That’s not true, Emilia, and you know it. Serena is only there because Mother thinks it’s good for her recovery. Once she feels better, she’ll leave.”“You don’t believe that, do you? That’s just an excuse to keep her there so you can keep screwing her whenever you like!”“Ehem!” her lawyer cleared his throat dramatically. “Let’s get down to other aspects of this meeting, shall we?”“I agree,” said Kane’s lawyer. “Let’s talk about the children.”“They will remain wi
“How did you find me?”“That’s not important right now. May I come in?”“No. Leave right now before I call security.”Kane snorted. “What will you tell them? I’m sure you’re not aware that I co-own this hotel. You’re going to need a very convincing explanation to get them to throw me out.”“I don’t care if you own the entire city. I’m not talking to you and that’s final.”Matt tried to shut the door but Kane put his foot in the way and shouldered the door open instead. Matt instinctively stepped back warily, bracing himself for a fight with his billionaire rival.“I’m not here to fight with you, Matt. Instead, I came to make you an offer that you will find very beneficial to your life.”“I’m not interested.”“You haven’t even heard my offer.”“I don’t care
“Can we just put everything behind us, please? Let’s just move forward and leave the past in the past.”“Of course, Mother,” Emilia said to Elsie with a stiff smile. She didn’t want to say what was truly on her mind in the presence of her children.“Welcome home,” Lillian greeted her extra warmly.Emilia gave her a frosty look and ignored her greeting. Samuel was wise enough not to say anything to her but simply nodded curtly in her direction.“Hi, Crystabel. How are you?” She greeted the Adams’ daughter who was standing quietly beside her nanny and watching the twins intently.“Say hi, Crystabel,” Nanny said softly but the girl wouldn’t speak. Instead, she smiled at Travis before turning her face away.“We should start planning the children’s birthday right away,” said Elsie excitedly. “It’s only a few days away.”&
“Her vitals are stable for now. If it continues that way, we’ll have her discharged tomorrow.”“Thank you, doctor. Please, keep me informed. My office will handle the payments, of course.”“You’re welcome, Mr Beaumont,” said the doctor.As soon as he stepped out of the doctor’s office, he bumped into ‘Lupe who was glaring at him murderously.“The doctor says she’ll be fine,” he informed her dryly.“You do realize that Serena is in this situation because of you, don’t you?”“I don’t have time to play this blame game with you, ‘Lupe. If I had thrown your daughter in jail as I should have, you wouldn’t be here getting mouthy with me.”“Are you threatening me?”“Do you feel threatened?”“All she ever did was to love you.”“By kidnapping my daughter and
After much persuasion from her family and Elsie, Emilia decided to muster as much enthusiasm as she could and participate in the trip. To her surprise, Chloe agreed to go too.“Are you crazy? I’m not going to say no to a free vacay to Greece!” She laughed. “That’s where all my dream boyfriends live.”“Your dream boyfriends?” Emilia asked her.“Yes.”“Who are they?”“The Greek gods. I have a crush on all of them, especially Zeus.”Emilia laughed and for the first time since Elsie suggested this trip, she genuinely looked forward to it. Having her sister with her there would make it an enjoyable experience for sure.They flew in one of Kane’s private jets and when they reached the beautiful Mediterranean country, they boarded a luxurious cruise ship that Kane had rented for their 10-day holiday.“Do you remember our honeymoon trip to that exotic restaurant on the hills of Santorini?” He asked her on their first night on the ship.Emilia shrugged. “That was a long time ago. A lot has hap
“The tests show that she was sexually assaulted,” said Felicia, the head of the medical team on the cruise ship. “We also took samples of the attacker’s bodily fluid deposited in her body.”There was a collective gasp from all the women comprising Emilia, Lillian, Elsie and Lara. The men were all stone-faced except Samuel who was glaring at Chloe where she sat with her head down.“I’m not denying that I had sex with her, but all I’m saying is that it was consensual, not rape,” he insisted.“What about the bruising and her torn clothes?” Felicia countered him.“Haven’t you ever had rough sex before?” He fired back.“Stop lying!” Chloe yelled at him. “You raped me. You were coming on to me and I told you I wasn’t interested, and then you grabbed me by the waist and threw me on the roulette table.”“Shut up, liar!” He snarled at her.“You shut up!” Lara snapped at him. “We will press charges against you for this. Don’t think that you will get away with assaulting my daughter even if you’
“She’s calling your bluff,” said David Archer, Kane’s attorney who drafted the NDA that Serena signed when she came to live in the Beaumont mansion.“What is she saying?” Kane asked.“She said the NDA does not stop her from writing a book and it’s simply an attempt by you to silence her and take away her freedom of speech.”“Does she have a point?”“She does.”“How so?”“The agreement does not specifically say that she cannot write a book about her experience in the mansion, it simply restricts her from saying anything about her relationship with you.”“Damn! Why didn’t you foresee this?”“I apologize for the oversight but I never thought the situation would drag on this long, let alone become the subject of a tell-all book.”“So, are you saying that we can’t stop her from writin
Emilia’s road to recovery was a slow and painful one. After six weeks, she was moved to a regular private ward where she got around in a wheelchair.“The doctors believe that your spine injury has healed enough for you to begin physical therapy,” Kane announced to her one afternoon.“That’s good news,” she smiled.“Yes. Who knows, you might get back on your feet in time for the twin’s fourth birthday.”“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves, please.”Kane placed his hand on hers and squeezed it gently. “I am not afraid to hope, Emilia.”She shrugged. “Sometimes, hope ends up in disappointment.”“Don’t say that. I believe you’ll walk again.”His phone buzzed. He checked it and got on his feet. “Sorry, my love. This is an important business call.”“You don’t need my permission to answer your phone, Kane. Go ahead and take the call but do it outside. I think I’ll take a nap,” she said and yawned.He pecked her on the cheek and hurried out of the room. Emilia got comfortable on her bed and clo
Kane thought it was only possible to dodge bullets in movies but he’d done it in real life. When the old man showed up with the gun and yelled at him, Kane had preempted his opponent’s move and dropped to the ground before he pulled the trigger.He lunged at the man, knocking him to the ground. Hank fired another shot that went into the ceiling and Kane grabbed the rifle, trying to wrestle it from his grip.“Get off me, you bastard!” Hank yelled at him as he continued to maintain his hold on the gun.Kane headbutted him, destabilizing Hank for a few seconds. He finally snatched the gun from his hands and got up.“You bastard. You broke my nose,” Hank lamented and wiped the blood from his nostril.“Who the hell are you?” Kane asked him while aiming the rifler at its owner.“I’m Hank. This is my cabin and you’re a trespasser.”Kane glanced at Emilia and saw that she
Kane felt like smashing his fist into something. He was so angry he couldn’t think straight. He should never have left Emilia alone.He should have given his Qatari business partners an excuse for not showing up to the contract signing ceremony. Now, he would still miss the event and his wife’s life is in danger as well.“I am going to kill that guy when I see him again,” he muttered angrily.Emilia had suggested that Matt could be the stalker but he had written off that possibility because he was so certain that his wife’s ex-lover was safely tucked away in Wyoming. The bastard had waited for him to leave before finally making his move.His phone rang. It was his mother calling.“Yes, Mother?” He answered impatiently.“The police have found the kidnapper’s vehicle,” Elsie said shakily.Kane sighed with relief. “Has he been arrested?”“Well… that isn’t possible anymore.”“Why not?”“He’s dead. They said the vehicle was crushed completely. They’d have to cut it up to bring out the body
When Emilia regained consciousness, it was dark and she could smell the delicious aroma of beef stew. She was in so much pain that the only part of her body that she could move was her eyes.A slow scan around her surroundings showed her that she was inside a log cabin. She was in a small room, lying on a bed alone. There was one chair in the room beside the bed and a bookshelf with a lantern on top of it.She suddenly remembered that Matt had said he was taking her to a cabin before she jumped on him. Panic gripped her.Had he somehow managed to survive that terrible crash and brought her here after all? How was she going to escape now?She heard the footsteps coming towards the room and a male voice humming a tune. Who was that? Her saviour or her captor?The fear of the unknown made her nervous but she couldn’t get up from the bed to hide. She seemed pinned to the spot.A few seconds later, a strange man showed up at the doorway, ho
“Who is it?” Lara called out from the living room.“Don’t say a word,” Matt warned Emilia.“So, you’re the stalker.”“I hate that word. I wasn’t stalking you, by the way. I was just letting you know that I’ll come back for you and now, here I am.”“What do you think you’re doing, Matt?” She asked him softly. “How do you think this is going to end?”“It’s going to end with you following me quietly and going back to Wyoming with me. Or we could go to Connecticut together. Do you remember how much fun it was when we were together in that hotel, making love all night?”“That wasn’t a fun memory for me,” she replied flatly. “it was a painful time in my life when I was searching frantically for my missing child.”“Well, you’ve found her, haven’t you? Now, stop talking and com
“We will have the mansion under a one-week surveillance to see if the stalker will show up again,” said the police officer, Gary Wesley. “so, have no fear, Mrs Beaumont. If he shows up again, we will catch him and arrest him.”“That’s very reassuring, thank you.” Said Emilia.“If the stalker isn’t caught this week, will you extend your surveillance by another week?” Kane wanted to know.“Let’s see how this week goes first but I am confident that we will catch the stalker if he shows up again,” said officer Wesley.“Fair enough. Thank you for your time.”After the policeman left, Kane joined Emilia in the sunroom where she was brooding alone.“Don’t worry, my love. You’re safe with me,” he said softly. “and if the police can’t protect us, nobody else can.”“I’m just trying to figure out who could be playing this prank on me. What if it’s Matt?”“Who? The Wyoming guy?”“Yes.”“I don’t think so. Why would he leave his job and family to come here and leave dumb notes for you?”“I know, bu
“I really enjoyed our vacation but it does feel good to be back home,” Emilia sighed happily one week later as she relaxed in the family swimming pool with Lillian.Their children were in the kiddies' swimming pool nearby with their nannies and swimming instructors.“I can tell you had a great time. You’re glowing like a crystal ball.”“I am? Gee, thanks.”“I envy you. I wish I can go on a vacation too.”“Why not?”Lillian sighed heavily. “This divorce negotiation with Samuel is becoming a pain in the ass. We have another mediation scheduled for next week with our attornies.”“What’s going on?”“That greedy son-of-a-bitch wants spousal support and is demanding a piece of some of my properties.”“What!”“I can’t believe his audacity. What makes him think he’s entitled to anything
“That audio recording has done its magic,” Virgil informed Kane over the phone a few days after the TV interview. “the publishing company has cancelled their deal with Serena.”“As they should. She was going to write hundreds of pages filled with lies about me and my family. She should have taken the money I offered her.”“She might reach out to you for it.”“That offer is off the table. She missed her chance.”“Well, that’s that then. My work here is done but don’t hesitate to get in touch with me if you need my services again.”“Of course, thank you.”After the phone conversation, he went in search of Emilia and found her in the sunroom with Lillian and Elsie.“Hello, ladies. May I join you?”“Of course, darling,” said Elsie. “we were going over the details of your upcoming wedding anniversary party.&r
“Romeo and Juliet… I was wondering when both of you will finally show up here,” said Serena with a delighted grin.“Let’s cut to the chase then,” said Kane curtly. “my wife and I are ready to offer you twice the amount you’re getting from the publishing house to write your book.”Serena giggled. “Are you trying to silence me? I am an American citizen and I have the right to free speech.”“Not if your free speech is a bunch of lies targeted at destroying our reputation,” said Emilia.“You’re one to talk. Aren’t you the same woman that cheated on her husband with a random farmhand in Wyoming? And you’re here talking about your reputation. How ironic.”“How much do you want?” Kane asked her.“I’ve told you a billion times already, Kane. I don’t want your money, I want you.”“What’s that supposed to mean?”“Divorce this woman who is unworthy of you and then marry me. I will be devoted to you, I will be faithful to you and I will make you proud wherever I go.”“That will never happen,” Emi