There was a huge pile of papers in front of Alice, one more important than the other, but even so, she could only move her eyes every second towards the door to the back garden. On her cell phone, there were several messages from the administrators she had just hired to help her restructure the Dawsey companies and get them back into the spotlight they were in, when Lucas was still their CEO. However, absolutely nothing was able to make her concentrate as she should, and it wasn't just the recurring tiredness that she was feeling, now that her baby bump was becoming evident.
Finally, the sound of the door opening made her jump to her feet, more than attentive to watch Massimo and Millicent enter, the two in an atypical silence for that Sunday morning, when they usually played all day long.
“There you are.” she said in a gentle voice, as she ap
“This is the last document we need your signature on, Mr. Bianchi.” his assistant said, placing the paperwork on the table as if offering meat to a ferocious lion “It's about the profit shares of the Carnby's entertainment company. I called Mr. Carnby as you asked, but he's still away. However, his brother got in touch earlier and said he is more than interested in selling part of the company, as long as it does not exceed 50% of everything.”“Why aren’t this month’s financial reports here yet?” Massimo asked sharply, giving the papers a last careful read, before signing.“Uh… I’m sorry, Mr. Bianchi.” the woman swallowed “I don’t know. But, I'll get back to you right now, if you'll just give me a second…”“Contact
“Massimo?” Alice quickly tried to wipe her tears and pretend to be strong, just like he had learned she always did, when something really hurt her ""Millie and I came to visit my father, so she could play a little in the painting room that Dad made for her…”“I… I know I'm acting like an idiot…” Massimo forced the words out, feeling as if someone was turning his insides with a hot iron “All I wanted from that surgery was to feel complete again, to be the best father to Millicent and the best husband to you. I was on the way to resigning myself to the fact that I would spend the rest of my life just remembering what it was like to be able to get out of bed effortlessly, walk around the house without thinking about anything and not feel people's eyes looking down on me, as if I were a poor wretch… But, that shitty surgery made me dream of bringi
“Daddy, do you want more ice cream?” Millicent offered, raising the small plastic spoon to Massimo's lips, as the two of them approached the mall exit, with her on his lap.“No, piccola. I think I’ve had enough sweets for today.” Massimo chuckled, stroking her hair “Just remember to keep this a secret from your mother, okay? You know she won’t be happy to know that we didn’t just stop by the ice cream shop, but also the candy store and the bakery.” he winked, making her laugh.“Mommy will be happy that we bought her favorite ice cream, won’t she?” She turned her neck around, looking for one of her bodyguards, who was a few feet away, holding the package with the pistachio ice cream."Yes. Hopefully, this will help her get over her mourning sickn
“Listen…” Massimo forced himself to swallow his anger and remain calm, never letting go of Millicent’s coat “You want money, don’t you? I'll give you as much as you want. Just let my daughter go…”“Oh, you’re going to give me so much more than you think.” the bastard laughed “I promise it won't be long before you receive the ransom demand. Now…” he lowered the gun to Millicent’s knee “I’m going to count to three and, if you don’t let go of it, I’m going to…”“Daddy…!” Millicent whimpered, terrified, which only seemed to enrage the kidnapper.“Shut the fuck up!”“He won’t take you!” Massimo held
“Millicent?!” Alice practically threw herself from the moving car, when Josiah arrived at the entrance to the mall, full of police cars and ambulances “Massimo?!”“Hey, wait.” one of the police officers who were there approached her, not friendly at all “This is a crime scene! No one can approach…”“Please! I need to know where my daughter and husband are…!” she begged, but the police officer continued to block her path “They were almost kidnapped! I need to see them…”“Do you think you can stop the investigations without even showing your identity?” the man growled, pushing roughly by the shoulder “You better turn around right now, young lady, or I’ll…”“You better measure your words!” Henry, Massimo's head of security, appeared over the officer's shoulder, pushing him away so he could reach Alice “This is Mrs. Bianchi, Mr. Bianchi's wife, and she has every right to be here!” he growled, intimidatingly and, just when he turned to her, Alice realized he had a huge bandage that stretche
“I’m not going to keep wasting my time with you!” Kendra growled into the phone, pacing back and forth around the apartment “I already told you to keep repeating in these interrogations what we agreed on. And don't you dare change even a single word! One mistake and you’ll all go to prison at once!”“Are we going to prison?!” Jocette, the old bitch who used to be the head of the nurses in charge of Lucas, growled on the other end of the line “You assured us nothing like that would happen! You said you would cremate the body and perform a fake autopsy, so that not even a single piece of evidence would be left against us! But now, this investigation is trying to go deeper and deeper and I am being forced to spend all the money I received to pay a lawyer…!”“Oh, of course you want
“Okay, honey. Now, hold Daddy’s hand tight, will you?” Alice asked her daughter, smiling to calm Millicent, before spraying the antiseptic on her knee wound three times, making her whimper.“That hurts!” Millie complained, earning a kiss on her temple from Massimo.“I’m sorry, honey, but the medicine that doesn’t burn isn’t enough. We need something more powerful.” Alice blew on the cut skin for a moment, before holding out the two bandages she had gotten from the first aid kit “Now, do you want Elsa's or Cinderella's band-aid?”“Uh… Elsa.” she decided, with her eyes full of tears, but still not crying.“Good. Now, we put this here…” Alice placed the bandage over the biggest cut, kissing the area afterwards “And we’ll give you a little kiss so you can get better soon. See? That’s my brave little girl.” she praised, straightening up so she could hug her baby, rocking her a little “I told you your boo boo would hurt less after a nice hot bath and a new bandage.”“So… I really won’t need
Alice woke up with her bladder exploding. God, she had forgotten those little details about being pregnant that made her lose sleep, even before there was a little one crying in the middle of the night.She watched Millicent and Massimo's deeply asleep faces for a second, making sure they wouldn't be disturbed easily, before carefully getting out of bed and running to the bathroom, trying to be as silent as possible. However, even when she was relieved and her hands were clean, Alice remained leaning against the sink counter for a moment longer, picking up the cell phone she had brought with her on impulse.There weren't many new messages and unfortunately none of them were delivering the news she wanted to read about Kendra's arrest. Andrea had asked if Millicent and Massimo were okay, as well as informing her that several members of the medical team at Lucas' old hospital had finally come to her to confess their crimes, as long as Kendra could take most of the blame, now that she wa
“Look! Here comes our lovely bride!”At the sound of her aunt's cheerful and even slightly emotional voice, Millicent forced a smile, trying to look as light and happy as possible as she walked towards them, as any bride should be. Around her, the engagement party continued exactly as she had left it, flawless with drinks being served to smiling guests and the decor without a single flower petal out of place. Everything was perfect and she could see that everyone there, especially her family, also thought the same.And knowing that almost made her regret what they were about to witness.“You look so beautiful, Millie…” her Aunt Heidi was the first to come over, wrapping her in a warm hug “God, I can hardly believe that soon we will actually see you in a wedding dress and walking into a church...”“You look like you were a little girl just a few hours ago…” Thea, who had been her nanny throughout her childhood, took another tissue from the almost empty box on her lap “And now you are go
Today is officially the last day of publications and, for that, I have a lot to thank all of you for!This was my first story to get an official rating and also my first story to get over 30k (I hope it can reach 50k over time) and I owe it all to you. Thank you so much for commenting, sending gifts, gems and leaving reviews! A part of this story was written by you too, because I wouldn't have been able to get this far without all of your encouragement. I really hope to see you all in my next stories S2 S2 S2Thank you to Shelyn, Lhyn, Sabrina Philemon, Guille C, Rachel, Shantel Osgood and Penny Zagrafidis for always leaving comments. It was always wonderful to wait to read what you thought of the story, as well as all the other amazing people who left a comment.Many thanks to Abc Xyz, Lhyn, Irene Kibanya, Shanna-deen Knight, fizztae45, Arabella, Sarah, Lin Que, Kathrin Kähler, Moonlit tales, Shelyn, tina, Sabrina Philemon, Gabrielle, Blue_Hisbiscus, KayJay, Rachel, essstj, Guille C,
“You look so beautiful, Debbie... Isn't it amazing how that dress makes your hair color pop?” Evangeline hummed, and, even though she struggled, Deborah had her chin held and was forced to look at her own reflection in the mirror before them. “You… You really think so?” she swallowed nervously. “Of course! This will be perfect to shut up all those mean girls who are always talking about how this beautiful red is a mark of the God of Discord. Oh, I would give anything to have hair like that too...” Evangeline sighed, running her fingers through her perfectly straight, snow-white hair. "Do not say that. Your hair is perfect. How could it not be? It is a symbol of the Moon Goddess.” Deborah turned to face her cousin, intertwining their hands “And, don’t worry. I know that before I was always wetting your shoulder with my tears because of this, but... Iron is always saying that my hair is beautiful, so... I have no reason to cry anymore. Whenever he tells me I'm completely perfect...
“Okay, honey. Now… Open your eyes.” Alice asked and, when Millicent opened her eyes and looked at her reflection in the mirror, the smile that appeared on her face made her mother's heart more than happy. “That’s amazing, Mom!” Millie smiled to herself, moving closer to the reflection to observe in more detail the way Alice had painted her eyelids “I’m… I’m pretty, right?” she asked with a shy smile, as her hands nervously twisted the hem of the dark green dress, the same color as her eyes, that she was wearing. “You are the most beautiful girl I have ever seen, honey.” Alice sniffled, holding her daughter's face, unable to stop the tears from flowing. “Mom, please… Don’t cry again.” her daughter asked, hugging her. "Sorry. It’s just… One day you were my little girl, running around the house wanting to play with your dolls and now… You’re a 16 year old girl, almost as tall as me and getting ready for your first date.” she had to stop once again to stop herself from bursting int
“And this is the role of fibroblasts in the healing process.” Alice spoke on the phone, as she took her pie out of the oven, happy to see that the dough had turned golden and crispy, exactly how her husband liked it “You can read more about this in the Cell Biology book. Any other questions, Lindsey?”“No, Alice.” the freshman sighed on the other end of the line, clearly relieved “You saved my life. And thank you for letting me record our conversation, it will help me a lot to review all of this for the next test. I just hope it’s not as killer as the last one.” she lamented “Mrs. Doherty was right. You are the best monitor we could ask for.” “It’s just my job.” Alice laughed, opening the cabinet doors where the dishes were “Now, if you don't have any more questions, I'll hang up now, okay? And, if any of your friends comment they tried to contact me this weekend and couldn't, can you let them know that I'm busy? And also remind them that my work as a monitor can only take place dur
“I… I’m sorry if your father isn’t a good father.” Millicent said, feeling like it wasn't right to leave him alone there, even though he clearly wanted that "My mother also had very bad parents and they hurt her a lot, until she found out they had lied and were not her real parents…”“I don’t think I’ll be that lucky.” he grumbled, not looking at her.“Well, that's bad, but that's not what I was going to suggest. When I was very little, mommy… I mean, my Mom told me that bad parents make their children wonder what they did wrong to be treated badly. But the real question should be: how can a father or mother be so mean to their own child? Never let the bad words of your family get to you. Just because a person is your family, doesn't mean he or she is right about yoy.” Millicent recited, although the memories of her mother's words were a little blurry, coming from the time when they still lived in that small room in the Dawsey mansion and she didn't even know her father existed.“That
“Okay, class. We are already accommodating your parents in the main auditorium.” Mrs. Keeley, one of the 3rd grade teachers, clapped her hands as she entered the classroom full of children, quickly grabbing the basket full of cookies that was on the table "Everything is ready, so Miss Shepherd will be calling you any moment, okay? Don't forget the chorus of the song and much less the part reserved just for your father. I’m counting on you!” she said, her voice so fast it was almost difficult to understand, as she left the room once again, practically running towards the auditorium where the Father's Day performance would take place. “You shouldn’t have left putting those bows on the brownies at the last possible moment, Poppy!” Cassie grumbled, but still didn't stop applying the glue stick to the glittery paper bows. “It’s not my fault!” Poppy whimpered, desperately trying to glue the bows onto the cellophane of the brownies she was giving her father as a gift “Mom told me she would
“And, as a last question, Mrs. Bianchi, how do you feel, as the creator, seeing your social project come so far and reach so many people positively?” the reporter asked, turning the microphone towards her as the cameras were turned towards them. “It’s a wonderful feeling. Every day, we receive several families who are unable to even obtain a loan to pay their medical expenses and, here, we are able to serve them in the best possible way, often restoring the quality of life that they had lost a long time ago. It's teamwork from a fantastic team of not only nurses, but also doctors and other healthcare professionals, who I was very lucky to be able to bring together here to support this initiative. My expectations for the future are that we can further expand our capabilities and be able to serve oncology and kidney patients soon.” “That’s great to hear.” the reporter said, his excessively white teeth gleaming against the sun as he smiled at the camera. “And that was our interview with
“Elise?” His voice cracked, sounding almost as if all the air had been stolen from his lungs."Are you okay?" she murmured, moving even closer to him to caress his face, her hands feeling as soft as he remembered “Did you have a nightmare? You were talking in your sleep, but I couldn’t understand…”“Elise?! Is it really you?” Micah sat up with a start, but only managed to feel even more confused when he realized he was lying on a bed, in Elise's youthful room, with the same lilac wallpaper and one of the walls covered in sheet music, next to her grand piano. A few meters away from the bed was the balcony, with the glass doors ajar, where he used to sneak into her room after climbing the large empress tree that was right next to it.“Of course it's me…” her eyebrows furrowed more and more “Are you sure you're okay, Micah? I know you spent the whole day helping your father prune the trees in the garden. If you want to go home and get some rest, I don't mind. We can do it another night…”