Raine raises her eyes and it's red, and she's crying.Ivy pinches Ashton slightly under the table and then gives him an I told you to stop look.He shrugs guiltily. "Are you crying? Did I make you cry? I didn't know it would hurt so much since you had been doing it so much to me but I'm sorry. I really didn't mean it."Raine raises her hand and wipes her eyes. "I told you someone is stalking and you had to ask me if I slapped him or insulted him. Is it the same thing? My stalker is not my step brother or elder brother that I can talk to so casually.""Ah, so it's only me you can talk to that way? Am I supposed to feel... I don't know, special or something?""Yes! You're supposed to feel special that you're the only one I can insult so freely."Ahsotn suddenly bursts into laughter. "Come on, big girls don't cry. You're a professor at that. Imagine if your students saw you right now."Raine laughs as well. "Well, by tomorrow morning, I'll be a trending meme all over the school. I'll be
All it takes is one outstreched leg of Grant's to bring Roger to the floor, almost landing on Andrew who's still fighting to stand up. He rolls out of his way just in time and Roger hits the ground hard.He winces out loud as he had fallen on his forearm.Grant raises him up with one hand, grabbing his collar. "You? You asked him to kill me?"Roger shakes his head vehemently, indicating no. Grant looks over at Andrew who's clutching his face. Andrew goes defensive. "That bastard is lying. He specifically told me Grant Hall, elder brother of Ivy Hall, red head like her and the name of your company. I couldn't have found you without his help with descriptions. He's nuts, telling a dirty lie like that."Grant cocks his head to the side. "Who should I believe now? I think I should tear both your faces until your stories match up!"Andrew who had been too in pain to stand up from the ground before scrambles up and runs to where his men stand. He pushes one of them forward. "Tell him you i
Ashton lets up all of his pent up anger on Tyler, the kind he had shown to Roger and Mike weeks before. Before everyone knows it, Tyler has a bursted lip and ruined nose.It takes the joint effort of Hank and one of his men to pull him off of Ashton. "Stop it man!" Hank yells as he drag him off.Ashton recomposes himself and adjusts his long coat. "Fine. I'll leave him."Ivy throws Raine a furtive smile, raising her eyebrows while telling her that she said it before.Even though, they all know that Tyler deserved all of it. Stalking an helpless woman is like harming a stray cat with poisoned food. Just as disgusting and lowly for a person to do.Hank pulls Tyler to his feet and holds him by the scruff of his neck before pushing him to one of the officers who manages to catch him before he hits the ground once again. The pain really hits him and he winces out loud before trying to wriggle of the officer's grip."Who the hell are you people and why are you beating me?" He yells and looks
Grant swears softly under his breath and walks towards the body that has stopped spasming. He touches the pulse point on the neck and on his wrists but there's nothing. He kneels on the floor and puts his head on Roger's chest to check for even the slightest beat but there's nothing there as well.He looks out through the door at the guy who's in complete black, standing with the gun on his shoulder. Grant puts his pointer to his middle finger and raises it up.Immediately the guy sees the sign, he packs his equipments into the long black bag beside him and in fifteen seconds, he's gone, no trace of him ever being there left behind.Grant stands up and closes his eyes for a moment and then opens them right back. He sneers. "You don't even deserve a one minute silence, douchebag." He turns around anf reaches for his phone. He dials shortly and places the phone to his ear. "Hello?""This is an emergency service. What's your emergency?"Grant looks down at the body, wondering if he should
About twenty minutes after Grant's car had driven away from the spot it had been parked in, the loud sirens of the ambulance sounded very crisply and nearby. It stopped right in front of the garage and two EMT's descend from it, a stretcher in their hands. They carry it into the garage and barely manage to roll Roger's stiffened up body on the gurney. They carry it to the ambulance with a lot of strength but they make it and cover the body with a while cloth to signify that he's dead already. Well, he's been dead since the one bullet hit him in the head. The ambulance starts and drives off with a police car arriving right after the ambulance closes it's doors. Two officers descend from it and walk into the garage, heading straight for the blood spattering on the floor and the half outline that the blood has caused while flowing around Roger's fallen and lifeless body. "Hm. It was pretty obvious he was shot in the head." The younger officer observes, looking at his senior subordinat
In about twenty minutes, the first five vans arrive with their photographers and reporters prepping up.Hank throws a wide smile and rare thumbs up to the officer who he had put in charge of reaching the reporters. Apparently, he did his job quite well... Hank stands up from the chair in the car, stretching slightly just as two more vans pull into the garage lot.As they see him, they crowd around him, all their questions on the top of their tongues.He immediately holds out his palms, stopping them from speaking before he does. "Thanks for coming. What I want to share with you all now is pretty important. So, is there any channel here that's going to be doing it live?" He asks, managing to keep the pompousity out of his voice.Two reporters raise their hands. He motions them forward, pushing the other back with a wave of his hand. "So, you're going to be having me live?""Yes sir..." The first one responds, pushing ahead. "The late morning news has started and this will be the third
Hank yanks off the lapel microphone from his shirt and returns it back to the director of the news he just featured live on."Fantastic Mr Williams. I'm sure we are allowed to take some outline pictures right? I mean, the white chalked outline of the body so we can at least that?"Hank nods and waves them in the direction. They all grab their cameras and all that stuff and run for the garage. From outside, Hank can hear all of the click click click of pictures being taken.He shakes his head and walks towards the car, waiting for something to come... It will be one or the other. It'll either be Mike Drumlin calling for whatever he will be calling for, the bait that Hank had dropped, or it will be a Wright calling to know why he would do that, why he would lie on national television.Just as he's rounding off on his thoughts, his phone rings and it's an unknown number... So not Ivy Wright at least. He picks the call and raises his phone to his ear. "Hello? Who's this?""Forgotten me al
All day at work, Ivy has been feeling disconcerted and in discomfort. When she finally takes a seat after a series of meetings, she has Anita book her an appointment at the hospital and she dials Ashton."Hello love." His voice comes through softer than usual. She would have blushed or even smiled on a regular day but this day isn't exactly regular. What's wrong is not exactly a pain it's just a massive discomfort. She keeps shifting, trying to make her comfortable on the swiveling chair. Then she stands up since it seems to be better that way. "I'm at work now but I just booked an appointment at the hospital."She can hear the clattering of some things over in his side, and his voice comes back somewhat sharper. "What's wrong? Where are you now?""I'm still at work. Can you please come pick me up? I scheduled it for the next thirty minutes but I don't think I'm in the place to drive right now.""Of course. I'll be over in the next ten minutes. I'll come pick you up from your workpla
"Calm down, she'll be fine." "How can I be calm when I can hear her screaming her lungs out here!" Ashton half yells at Grant and then composes himself. "Sorry but I can't help feeling like this when her screams seem to be pushing at my heart right now." Grant smiles and puts a hand on his shoulder. "You'll be fine." In a little bit, the agonizing screams stop and there's calm. Ashton springs to his feet the third time in a minute. A nurse comes out. "She delivered safely. It's a baby girl. She's been dressed now. You can..." She hears her name being called again and goes back inside, not finishing her sentence and the look she gave to Ashton makes him three times more scared. Ivy is in the labour room, her contractions had suddenly started while on a road trip so Ashton had drove like his life depended on it. Well, maybe because his wife's life depended on it and so did his. The baby had come two weeks earlier than the date she's supposed to arrive which has got all of them
She hugs him gently on the bed and presses a blue button above his head.In about a minute, the doctor with his levy of nurses open the door and come inside. Ivy leaves them to it and steps out for the moment. As soon as she steps out, everyone crowds around her."What's wrong?""Why are the doctors rushing in like that?"Ivy smiles and motions them to calm down. "He woke up just now. I called the doctors for their routine check. We may be able to see him after his checkup."They all sigh in relief and some even hug in relief.She waits with them outside and after a little while, the doctors and nurses finally come out of the room."He's fine now. You all can go in to see him."Without waiting for any other confirmation of any sort, they all push past them like the really big family they are portraying and go inside the room, Ivy goes in last but Veronica gives her the chair so she won't stay standing, tired because of the life growing in her belly.At first, there's nothing but then
The next three hours is a flurry of activities as their families begins to troop in, Grant joining them at a point."Where is he?" Judith asks as soon as she arrives, talking Ivy's in his."They just wheeled him out of the surgery room. I was told to wait outside while they set him up or something."Judith nods. "Oh thank goodness. How did you find him?"She glances at Grant who shrugs right back at her. "I had help from a police officer. He helped me locate him.""Don't tell me it was that one on the news?" Veronica chips in as she comes by, coming into the discussion."Yes, it was him. He just wanted Trust Financials as a reward but I knew he was going to betray me anyway so I didn't really give him.""But the news didn't say you were there?" Judith quips this time."Well, I left there with Ashton and came to the hospital so I wasn't really there. Just popped in and out." She smiles, turning slightly red as she covers one lie with another.Grant laughs and then quickly masks it with
"Grant! Watch out!" Ivy yells as she grabs the gun laying closest to her.Grant whips around and stares right into the barrel of a Beretta '94 that had been left behind by one of Mike's own men.Mike chuckles painfully. He glances momentarily at Ivy who's fiddling with the gun in her hand and scoffs. "You can't even handle it, how can you use it?" He takes his eyes off of her and focuses it on Grant. "So you killed my little brother because he raised the gun at you first? Why am I not dead yet?"Grant rolls his eyes. "Is this one of those villain long talks? I'm sick of them, come on. Just drop the gun and accept your fate. Is that so hard? You lost the fight. Well, leave then." Grant mutters disinterestedly even though he's looking right at a loaded gun.Mike shakes his head. "A fight isn't over until it's really over. Do you know why I took that man? Her husband? After she passed out, I was determined to make him a widower who lost his baby by not letting her to go the hospital on t
Recovering from the gunshot and sudden appearance of Grant, Ivy runs for Ashton's who's very weak and his pulse is irregular. She looks around and her eyes land on a bunch of keys on one of Mike's men's trousers.He smirks at her when he sees her eyeing the keys. "Come get them darling."There's a second gunshot and a glaring hole appears right in the middle of his forehead and he falls to the ground. Wordlessly, Ivy runs for his body and removes the key. Mike's men all flee seeing that one dead. They all drop their weapons and run away, leaving Hank and Mike.The fact that her brother just murdered someone doesn't count at in the current circumstances. She loses the chains that he's been tied down with and he falls limply down into her arms. She holds him up with her strength, not letting him hit the ground, the same way he had cushioned her head that night Mike had hit her in the stomach.He moves ever so slightly and his hand come to rest on her legs before he closes his eyes, a ve
True to his words, Hank calls her in thirty minutes. Reminding her that she has thirty minutes to get there. "Where am I meet you?" She asks him on the call."Grey Street Garage..."She immediately springs up from her chair, grabs all the documents from the table and hisses, remembering that place. She had been locked in a warehouse on the same compound for two nights. She inhales sharply and she's sure she's ready to go there.Not like she has a choice anyway.Anita sees her breeze right by but she doesn't say anything, guessing it's about the call that brought back her appetite momentarily. She sighs, wishing her boss well. If everyone in the whole wide world has to go through such thing, she'd never wish it on Ivy. She's basically the best boss she's ever had.The best of the best.Which is why she wishes her luck silently as the elevator doors close with Ivy inside.As soon as she's on the ground floor, she dashes for her car, checking the time every few seconds. It takes about t
The first day went by...So does the second.On the third day, it has Ivy in a bind, pacing in her office.Anita comes in with a plate of vegetable salad and mashed potatoes, and steak in another plate along with another takeout cheeseburger and fries, even chicken nuggets as well, hoping she would eat one of the many dishes.She hardly acknowledges her entrance as she sets all of them down on the table and looks at Ivy as she paces around her table, her eyes not leaving her phone.Even Anita has no idea what she's waiting for but it seems to have so much importance to her so she can't interfere but she can eat while waiting... Right?"Ma'am, you won't eat lunch again? This is the third day you're skipping your breakfast and lunch."Nobody knows about the baby except her family, his family and himself.She looks askance at Anita and then looks away again. "I'm fine. I ate a lot last night.""Really? I was the one who threw the dishes away this morning."Anita has been the one bringing
"Ma'am!" The officer yells as he bangs his palms flatly on the table. "This place is no joking area. There are conclusive evidence against you, all of this interrogations are simply formalities! Do you accept the fact that you did kill Tiara or not?"Yale scoffs. "Technically, Richard killed her not me."In the interrogation room directly upstairs, Richard scoffs. "That bitch said so? She's just trying to shift blames. She was the one who absolutely killed Tiara. As Ivy said in the press conference, I only aided and abetted. I am well aware of that and I am not denying it. But I really didn't kill Tiara."Downstairs. "He aided and abetted? That rat. He was the one who dragged her body to the car and suggested we dump her in the ocean!"Upstairs. "That whore. She said I suggested it? She hit Tiara over the head and make her pass out which I totally witnessed. Then we thought she had died. Thinking of it now, she had not even seemed any scared at all, she just said we should throw the b
A murmur ripples through the whole crowd.Time seems to stand still.The point exactly was that nobody was expecting that was what she had come to say. Nobody, not even Anita who plugs in the flash drive and the presentation begins.Almost soulless and robot-like, Ivy turns around to the projector behind her that has a picture of cars. Not very specific car but a lot of them.Then she begins her presentation, using the laser pointer to point at the things that matter. "We all know Tiara died and her body had been fished out of the sea. Well, she didn't drown, she was murdered so that means she had been carried or somehow transported to where her body had been dumped. There are things called dash cams..." She uses the laser to point just as the image changes into a car's close up view.There is a small device with a blinking red light and she points to it. "That's called a dash cam and not every car has it but every two of five does. Which is why, from the place she had been killed, I