Amanda's POVVanessa and I stayed on the call for about thirty more minutes before she had to leave for work. It was a weekday after all, and she had to be in the office in about an hour. I sighed and bade her goodbye, missing her already. I did not fully realize how much I'd missed her. I sighed and concentrated on the food in front of me. I'd been picking at it since I was so engrossed with talking to Vanessa. I felt too light and giddy to eat much, so I just stuffed some hash browns into my mouth before pushing the tray away. As I prepared my morning routine, I read through the note Quinn had sent me. I still wasn't over that gesture. And to think that he had even apologized for leaving before I woke up. It was satisfying. I sighed again and took another glance before I kept the note back on the table. I proceeded to straighten out the bed and arrange the suite. What was the point in leaving it for room service when I could do it myself? Plus I was bored and had nothing to do. A
Amanda's POVAs I walked back to wait in the car, I felt a myriad of emotions hit me. It was obvious that Quinn was in a bad mood. He had acted very cold towards me. My first instinct was to feel slighted, but I knew he wouldn't purposely be mean. I sighed as I climbed into the backseat of the car and rested my head against the seat. From the window I could see Quinn discussing with a man, who I assumed was the potential client he had gone to meet. My stomach churned with worry as I stared at them. Was Quinn in a bad mood because the meeting didn't go as planned? Maybe he didn't get the contract. I felt a little sad at that thought, and immediately wished I had awakened much earlier so I could go with him. Maybe things would have been better. That was not to say that Quinn could not stand his ground. He could, better than any other businessman I knew. I had just become so accustomed to accompanying him to meeting that it felt like some kind of goodluck charm. I sighed again and wai
Amanda's POVI scoffed in disbelief as I watched Quinn get into another car and drive off after ordering his driver to take me back to the mansion. My initial confusion was slowly turning to anger. I couldn't believe him. I felt played. I wanted to slap myself for even believing for one second that I could build something good with Quinn. I'd misread the signs. His default mode was just being an asshole, and that was infinitely clear. I had temporarily forgotten about that because of how nice he'd been to me for a while now. I shook my head. I can't believe I'd surrendered my body to him, only for him to turn around and treat me like a stranger. It was more hurtful than I ever would have expected. I was deep in thought en route to the mansion, wondering if I should just turn around and head to my mother's house instead. This was a mistake, Quinn was right about that part. This whole arrangement. I never should have agreed to that contract. I just wanted an escape so I wouldn't have
Amanda's POVOh no. Not this again. The one week I'd spent away from this house had made me forget about how uncomfortable it was. Mrs Rosalina obviously disliked me, there was no two ways about it. And she never failed to show it and make it clear to me. Even when I was still dating Logan, she never thought I was good enough for her son, or for her family. I knew she saw me as a gold-digger, and my marriage to Quinn only made it worse. No matter how much I tried to make peace, be respectful, be nice…it never made a difference to her. She didn't care. All she knew was that I was a pest. "Hello ma'am," I greeted again. She scoffed and let her eyes trail me from head to toe. She was looking at me as though I was nothing but dirt under her shoe. It was humiliating, but I kept my face blank, refusing to give her the satisfaction of knowing she was getting to me. I just wanted to leave. She ignored my greeting for the second time so I didn't even bother anymore. I just turned to my ro
Quinn's POVAll day, I had tried to shake off the strange feelings of disappointment I'd been having ever since I learned the truth about Amanda's past. I had no idea why I was so affected by it, but it haunted me the entire day, putting me in a foul mood. I still had to meet with the other private investigator regarding the assassination attempts on my life. This was the third time now since I'd moved back to Italy. I already had a strong hunch of who was behind these attacks, but I needed concrete proof to tie them to the assassins before pointing fingers. My meeting with the investigator did not take very long since it was just a brief discussion, not to mention that he didn't have any leads yet. I was growing impatient with each passing day. If all failed, I would take the initiative of carrying out the investigation myself. The reason why I hadn't done this already was because, since I was the target, I would obviously be recognized quickly. I couldn't let myself be mixed up in
Quinn's POV“Excuse me? W-What do you mean by that?” Rosalina immediately shot up, her eyes narrowed on me. “Yes, Quinn, what do you mean?” Granny Maria asked. Even Amanda was staring at me in confusion. I waited for the tension to grip every single one of them before I spoke again. “Why don't you ask Rosalina what she thinks about the situation, Granny? Isn't it strange? Who do you think is trying to kill me?”They all visibly relaxed. Rosalina still looked flushed. “How am I supposed to know that, Quinn?” She chuckled. “Perhaps you made a few enemies while you were in Italy for all those years.”“Perhaps,” I agreed. “But these attacks began before I even left New York. I get the feeling that the person behind it might be closer than I think.”She stared at me for a few seconds and then shrugged. “That might be true. But what's important is that you are alive and well. You were lucky to escape with your life.”“Mm, lucky.”The table went silent after that. I could sense the awkward
Amanda's POVWith nothing left to do, I headed back upstairs. The thought of the digging I'd decided to do regarding this family issue was still on my mind, so I made a note on my phone of the things I wanted to check out. But for now I needed proper rest and sleep. As soon as I got to the room, I pushed it open and walked in, only to be met with the unexpected sight of a shirtless Quinn. He was drying his hair with a smaller towel while the other one wrapped firmly around his waist. My entire body seemed to come alive at the sight of him in all his glory. I could not tear my eyes away from him, making my point again that I was still so affected by him. This was more triggering than I'd expected. What was he doing in here anyway? I'd heard him say he would be in his study while we were at dinner. That was why I'd even headed up now, with hopes that I would not have to see him. But that had been dashed away already. Tearing my eyes away from him and managing to not focus on his wet b
Quinn's POVAmanda was not stirring. She lay lifeless in my arms as I ran out of the room and headed down the stairs. All the servants in the hallway froze when they saw what was going on. “Open the doors. Now!” I growled at the closest maid. She obeyed and raced to the door. By now, the others had begun to run out as well. “Quinn, what’s going on?” Granny Maria asked, her eyes wide. When she saw the state Amanda was in, she gasped. “Oh my god, what happened!” “I don’t know. I woke up and found her like this. I’m taking her to the hospital right now.”“Okay, hurry! I’ll be right behind you!” I rushed outside to the car, my heart racing as I silently prayed that she would be fine, that everything would be okay. I couldn't lose her, I just couldn't. As I put her in the backseat and headed to the front to drive out, the reality of this situation hit me. If anything happened to Amanda, I wouldn't be able to forgive myself. The last feelings she felt toward me was anger. Was that really
Amanda’s POV I arrived at home later in the evening, tired and defeated from thoughts. There was nothing I could do. I’d spent the entire ride pondering and thinking of a way out but found none.I would get sacked, I would lose everything. I would be back to square one. Hell, I’ll be back to zero, at least I had a job at square one, this time I would be left with completely nothing. Nothing.My head was spamming with these troubles when I pushed the door open to Candace and Miranda. I was too tired to snort at the sight. It wasn’t surprising seeing them together. Birds of the same feather they said flocked together. They were talking about me. “I knew she was incompetent, I pity who allowed her to attain such a position.” Miranda snorted, casting a brief glance at me.What would I call this, gossip? No. With gossip one usually changed the topic when the subject matter stepped in, but not this, they were casually talking like I wasn’t there, or if I was there they didn’t care.“No,
Quinn’s POV With everything already blown on our faces, I was left with one choice; going to see our biggest investors. She had sent her message. Currently she was in her private mansion and her secretary was leading me to her.The mansion was big, everything in the hallway was made white with fluorescent lights and chandeliers. She was our biggest investor for a reason.A double lidded door, white in colour stood at the end of the white fluorescent hall. Her secretary stepped aside and pushed the door open. As she ushered me in, she bowed and shut the door behind me.This was her office I supposed. Her back was to me as I stepped inside. She swirled on the chair———my mouth fell open at the woman….no, the lady on the chair. I struggled to blink, then looked around for the woman that had always appeared on screen. A woman in her late thirties or forties. But now as I stared at the woman, all I saw was a young lady, Quickly, I schooled my expressionWhy did she hide her identity behi
Amanda’s POV With cold feet and jelly legs, I walked to the room which seemed faster than it usually was. Sweat dribbled down the small of my back. Dread pooling in the deep of my stomach.I stood outside the large double lidded door, contemplating and hesitating opening the door. I imagined all their faces, red hot with anger. Especially Quinn.Slowly, with stiff fingers, I took the door knob and pulled it open with eyes shut.It was like stepping into a new world where you revealed everyone’s secret and they hated you. They were angry, not in a theoretical or any fancy way, they were red horn angry.I wanted the ground to open up and swallow me in that instant, but instead I clenched my fist and swallowed hard on my saliva.“Good morning, everyone.” I bowed and hurried over to a seat, avoiding everyone’s gaze. Seating down, I merely made myself comfortable, when Mrs. Rosaline started, making me jerk up back to stand. “What the hell did you do by sending a wrong file to our bigges
Quinn’s POV She probed his face, staring at the damage on his bruised lips, black eyes and many more I’d destroyed on his face. She cursed again, tutting at the wounds and cuts. He was barely holding up right, eyes swollen and black.“Who did this to my son?” She demanded more persistently this time. I watched her as her face grew pensive inspecting every new cut with a horror struck face.“Logan… Logan.” She held his chin, delicately not to cause any more pain, but the smallest touch made him wince. “Who did this to you, tell me, who did this?”Logan of course didn’t answer, but his eyes were trained on me. Mrs. Rosaline whipped around to hold my form in deliberate questioning. “Did…did you do this to my son?” It was a great fit that she tried to tamp down the rage boiling in her throat. Her eyes were sharp like a newly crafted dagger.She held Logan’s face to me, “did you do this to my son? Your brother?” I made no indication to answer, she left him and was stomping towards me, s
Quinn’s POV I knew Amanda wouldn’t like my answer, but I had to just do it. I didn’t love Miranda anymore but it would be cruel to know that she had a problem and I wouldn’t help her out. “You can stay,” I said to her. I couldn’t look at Amanda’s face as I said those words to her. She fixed me with a steely gaze.Guilt ate at me. After everything I’d put her through, the last thing I wanted was to make her angry or make her feel bad. Left for only me alone I’d go out of my way to make sure she saw and believed that I was sorry and in regrets.The look on her face confirmed my fear. She was dead mad. She didn’t like the decision, but there was nothing I could do. I just couldn’t Miranda away. Miranda smiled, “thank you, Quinn. This means a lot to me.” She said, If Amanda could, she’d shoot lasers at her using her eyes. She observed her lips in a paused and thin line, eyes trained on Miranda’s form.With the hassle from yesterday, I believed we’d already made the covers of every ne
Amanda’s POV I woke up with the afterthought of my actions lingering in my head like a bomb ticking, ready to go off. When I rolled on my back I was welcomed by an empty bed. Quinn was not in bed. I looked out through the curtains and saw that it was still very early, the sky still had the pink and blue stripes mottle of colours and the moon was still visible, faintly.Somehow I was happy I woke up with him out already, doing what? I wondered. But his absence would make it easier for me to put up my walls and confront him why he was such a jerk to me, even without confirming from me that I was an escort as the idiot said.But then thinking about how much of a jerk he was, my mind reared back to last night how he’d come to my room. My lips stretched into a smile and the tingles from his touch thrummed in my skin like it just happened and then there was a fluttery feeling in the pit of my stomach.I stifled a scream and planted my face back into the pillow. My cheeks warmed up, sprea
Quinn’s POV “What?”Those words were like a bucket of ice emptied on me. She didn’t say anything after that, just stared at me with a sultry gaze.I was dumbfounded and starstruck. What could I possibly say at that moment? I just turned around and walked out with knees about to buckle. Everything was too much, the information was a lot to take in. It was as if I’d run a marathon on a completely different track.So many things scared me as her words replayed in my head. If I was her first that meant I’d been an asshole for nothing. More so I’d treated her so wrongly and jumped to conclusions. I had also been a coward, I never addressed her directly about it, just acting like a maniac with no reason.I hadn’t even confirmed what she said and I was already cringing and feeling all shitty. So many things were wrong with how I reacted, first and foremost I’d been a total jackass, even though it ended up being true, I never should have treated her that way, called her names, it was all i
Amanda’s POV As Candace threw a tantrum, I fumed silently. That bastard! After everything I said to him he had the nerve not to go ahead with his wedding?What the fuck was wrong with him? He set the date for the wedding, all through the engagement party and till this day he didn’t think that he was not ready, up until the wedding day with a guest and a pregnant bride.What sort of humiliation was this? I darted my eyes to Candace who was throwing a tantrum, believing that I was behind this. That it was my fault. I couldn’t even blame her, I’d react the same if I was her.Her face was tear stained and people were beginning to come for the wedding and now the groom was having a mental breakdown that he couldn’t go ahead for the wedding. If this didn’t make the news, I wonder what would. Granny Mariah would be so pissed after all she put into the engagement party and wedding. Especially when she specifically told us to not make the news. I guess we would be on the cover of every ma
Amanda’s POV Since I outrightly confessed my feelings to Quinn, I’d been avoiding him. Not because I confessed the way I felt about him, but because he’d had this dark, grim picture of me in his head.Now as I thought back to it I could understand why he was mean, cold, cruel and rude to me all the time. And like the coward he was he couldn’t ask me. One would think he had more balls as he was cruel but it was so fucking balless.Putting Quinn and his thoughts behind me, I stood before the long length mirror in my closet and ran a hand down the red dress I had on.It was finally the day. Logan and Candace’s wedding. Thinking about it, I felt bad for her. I mean she was a bitch, but Logan wasn’t a man I’d wished on my worst enemy.Imagine getting married to a man like that.I grimaced and a shudder snaked down my spine in horror.Just when I was curling my hair my phone vibrated on the table next to my makeup tools. Flipping the phone over I saw Logan as the caller.I frowned, staring