Caprice made a show of collapsing into Sherry’s arm and pretending to fall asleep. John and Sherry exchanged a weak smile. After driving for another half an hour, they arrived at a restaurant. It was one of Caprice’s favorite restaurants. They entered a box and had a wonderful dinner, stuffing their stomachs with delicious food. After the meal, they all went home together. On the way home, Caprice fell asleep halfway through the drive. A combination of her relaxed mood after finally being finished with work and her exhaustion made her sleep like a log. She was squeezed between Sherry and John and slumped against John's shoulder, using him as a pillow. Sherry gently brushed the side of her daughter’s cheeks with her fingers. After making sure that she had indeed fallen asleep, she smiled and turned to John, speaking in a low voice, "How was her performance at work?” “She did a great job.” John looked dotingly at her daughter’s sleeping expression and elaborated, “Sh
She was not in the mood to entertain Heather and briskly walked past her. “Hey, Caprice,” Heather called after her in a mocking friendly voice. The people gawking at Heather immediately directed their attention to Caprice. Caprice could no longer ignore her presence. She turned to greet her, imitating her cheap smile the entire while. “Hey, Heather, what brings you here?" Heather's mouth suddenly stiffened. She briskly approached Caprice and greeted her with an unnatural warmth, "I just figured I’d come to see you since I haven’t seen you in a while. I was beginning to miss you!” Caprice was struck speechless. How did she manage to say things like this without throwing up? Did she have amnesia? Did she already forget about what happened the last time they met when she shoved her into the pool? She answered crossly, without the least bit of friendliness, "That's too bad. I was just on my way to see Liam. I don’t have time to catch up with you.” She mentioned
Caprice did not linger. She walked out the gate and called a cab to take her to Carter Tech City. She completely discarded what Heather told her to the back of her mind. She could hardly be bothered; all she cared about was seeing Liam as soon as possible. Meanwhile, Heather sat inside her car and spied on the taxi Caprice just hailed. She never planned to make the trip herself to confront Caprice. This was all Moses’ fault. The buffoon of a man who did not know what was good for him and refused to cooperate with her. Fortunately, it seemed like she successfully riled Caprice up. She seemed to be in a rush to get to Carter Tech City. Was she going to Liam to beg him to take her with him to this weekend’s party? Heather snorted scornfully. If Liam refused, they would probably get into a fight. On the other hand, if he did bring her along, it would certainly spice things up. She chuckled to herself, impressed by her deviousness. She was already in cahoots with man
Caprice gulped, then she shifted her hands to Liam's shirt and slowly parted them. Parting the fabric like a curtain, his chiseled chest and abs came into view, all eight blocks of firm muscles above the belt line. Caprice felt her cheeks glowing with heat, and even her eyes began to shine. She excitedly placed her hand on his stomach. Before she had time to savor the wonderful texture of his toned muscles, she felt her wrist seized by a hand. She nearly jumped. Immediately after that, Liam’s hand tugged hard at her. Thump! She landed directly on top of him. She looked up and met his dark, penetrating gaze. He looked at her with remarkable calmness. The deep, ominous pool of blackness in his eyes made Caprice shiver. It was terrifying to look into those eyes. "When did you wake up?” “What were you going to do to me if I didn’t wake up in time?” he asked with a grin. She blushed and avoided his gaze. She stammered as she spoke, "I...I wasn’t going to do any
What??? Had he been awake since the moment she came into the office? He was awake when she was feeling up his collarbone and his abs all along? Flabbergasted, her cheeks reddened in a mix of embarrassment and humiliation. She frowned disapprovingly and shrieked his full name, “Liam Carter!!” Liam squinted playfully. “Hm?” Caprice made a show of grunting and pouting, expressing her disapproval. She was still slightly irked. Liam ruffled her hair and asked with a faint smile, “Do you still want to touch me?” His shirt was still open, his body in full view. Caprice’s eyes blazed at the prospect, and her anger dissipated instantly. "Can I?” she asked uncertainly. Liam broke into a chuckle. “Sure.” She obliged and began to feel his toned muscles. … After the two messed around for a while longer, Caprice’s stomach began growling. She cringed and immediately put a hand to her stomach to silence the hunger. Liam grinned. "Hungry?" She muttered shyly
Liam ignored her. This made her more irritable. “It’s all you guys’ fault! If one of you or Flinty would take up the family business, Dad wouldn’t have thrown it on my lap!” Liam expressed without interest, “It’s not like you have anything going on anyway.” He said it without any inflection in his voice. Isabel exploded, “What do you mean I have nothing going on?! Do you have any idea how busy I am?! I have a lot of films to shoot!” She raised her voice by several pitches, and it sounded like she was going to throw herself on Liam. Caprice was alarmed and immediately threw the door open. She noticed Isabel who seemed like she was about to pounce on Liam's desk and cried out, "Isabel, don't be angry! Uncle Carter probably let you take over because he trusts that you can handle it.” Isabel flipped a look at her. The infuriated expression on her face immediately vanished it. What took its place was a gentle and doting smile. "Caprice?" she said with a spring in her
The interior of the car was rather spacious. Isabel’s driver was driving, and her assistant was in the car as well. Caprice squeezed into the rear and sat next to Isabel. Isabel did not have her hair tied up and draped it elegantly over her back instead. She wore a classy black high-waisted dress and adorned herself with two pieces of minimal but luxurious necklace that must have cost a fortune. Caprice recalled how she always saw Isabel dressed casually. It was very rare for her to be dressed so formally. She asked in an intrigued voice, “Are you going to attend some kind of formal event?” “Not just me. We are going to attend a special event tonight,” Isabel said curtly while eyeing Caprice up and down. Then, she turned to the driver. "Let's make a quick stop at my place.” “Alright,” the driver said and stepped on the gas pedal. "Isabel, why are we going to your place?” Caprice asked in a puzzled voice. Isabel gently pinched her cheeks. “We’re going to get you
Isabel simply could not take her eyes off Caprice. It came to a point where Caprice was beginning to feel embarrassed having been stared at for so long. Her face glowed red as she dodged away from Isabel’s pointed stare. “Don’t look at me like that.” “Haha! Alright.” Isabel chuckled and stifled the urge to keep staring. She suddenly gestured at the window. "Caprice, stand over there by the window. Let me take a picture of you." “Why do you want to take my picture?” "I don't have any pictures of you on my phone, so let me have a nice picture of you at least,” Isabel said without giving away her true intentions. Caprice did not look too much into it. She obliged and stood next to the window as she was told, posing as Isabel instructed. After a while, when Isabel was finally satisfied with the pictures, so she turned to Caprice again. “Why don’t you take a short break? I need to use the bathroom, and we will leave in about an hour.” “Alright.” Isabel went to the ba
She was her usual self in every aspect. She put her heart into her job and never started trouble so long as nobody tried to start trouble with her. The crew cycled through their locations during their shoot. The constant travel made her skin break out slightly, but there were no other concerns otherwise. The shoot progressed very smoothly and within three months, they managed to wrap up everything at the mountainous region previously mentioned. It was nearly evening when they wrapped up the shoot. Holding a bouquet in hand, she took a group picture with the crew and celebrated with everyone. After that, she planned to hitch a ride with another crew member and leave for home. To their demise, some men in uniform who claimed to be the road maintenance technicians showed up to break the bad news to them. They mentioned that they had to repair some of the roads urgently and so the way home was temporarily obstructed. The director took his phone and called the city hotline fo
He remembered his first meeting with Isabel. She was sitting all by herself on the floor, in the middle of nowhere. Her vulnerable expression only made her more endearing. So, he managed to get her to go to his place and installed her in his home. He fell for her and paid careful attention to all her needs. It did not take long before Isabel caught feelings for him as well. The two of them got together in no time. Their days were plain and ordinary, but also very fulfilling, that was until he met Clarice. With the help of his father, his power struggle with Roland had reached a tipping point. It was at that opportune moment when Clarice’s father saw something in Roland and planned to wed his daughter Clarice to him to join up their families, which was a cause for alarm for Decker. He stressed over it for an entire night before approaching Clarice himself the very next day. Clarice quickly caught feelings for him as well. Furthermore, Roland had been foolish enough to reject
Decker was smiling quite earnestly at Isabel. Isabel threw a deeply suspicious look at him, then she glanced at the stack of documents laid out on top of the table in front of her. “Transferal of Shares.” She was dumbfounded. "I've gone through the contract, it’s safe to sign so go ahead.” Roland picked up a pen and handed it to her. "Roland, I..." "Sign it first, I’ll explain when we get home.” Isabel frowned and tried to protest. "I—" "Don't make me have to beg." Isabel did not know how to respond. Fine. She briefly scanned through the contract. The contract stated Decker’s agreement to transfer the remaining forty percent of his shares in Rockwell Corporation to her. Roland must have talked to the shareholders of Rockwell Corporation about this as well. They all regarded Isabel with polite smiles. Isabel had flipped through the final page of the document. She signed her name on one of the marked-out sections. She proceeded to sign all thr
They ended the call shortly after that. Isabel glanced at Martha and was hesitating if she should break the news right away. Martha seemed to have sensed her staring and suddenly turned to her with a flash of concern. "Isabel, what's wrong?" Isabel took a deep breath and broke the news. "Auntie, Master Rockwell just passed away." Martha's eyes widened. After a lengthy silence that lasted more than ten seconds, she started to break out in tears. She covered her face with her hands and expressed amid bouts of tears mixed with laughter, “Wonderful! About time! I hope he enjoys life in the underworld. God knows that someone like him will never deserve a spot in heaven!” Isabel did not know whether she should celebrate with Martha or console her. Soon, Martha began to collect herself. She briefly wiped away her tears and joyfully took Isabel's hand. "Isabel, let’s go shopping! I’m in such a good mood today, I’m going to go on a shopping spree!” "Okay. But Roland w
Isabel held onto Roland's hand firmly during the entire drive home after leaving the hospital. It was because Roland’s hands were cold and rigid. Isabel sat with him and tirelessly rubbed his hand to keep them warm. After one hand was warm, she would shift her attention to the other. By the time she managed to warm the other hand, the original hand would turn cold again. She decided it was easier to take both of his hands and caress them with the warmth of her palms. Roland looked at her with a gentle glow deep within his eyes. “Thank you, Isabel,” he said softly. Thank you for loving him, and for sticking by his side all this time despite circumstances. Isabel smiled. “I’m just warming your hands, it's no big deal. Still, you’re welcome." Roland smiled faintly and left it at that. Soon, his hands began to warm up off of the heat of Isabel’s palms. When Isabel felt that his hands were no longer freezing, she prepared to pull her hand away. That was when
Decker looked nothing like his usual self. The pompous, arrogant man who held himself far above others and who expected everyone around him to kiss up to him because he was superior to them all. It was as if he had been plunged not only to Earth but a pile of swamp. He had completely lost his usual grace. Isabel said crossly, "Decker, have you gone mental? Is everything going on too much for you?” “Yeah, could you help me?” he said with a coy smile, “Just one hug should be enough to take care of it all.” Isabel rolled her eyes. Without warning, he suddenly braced himself and lunged right at Isabel, stepping past Brandon who was caught off guard by this sudden attack. Isabel barely had time to react. Just when it seemed like his hand was about to graze Isabel, a long pair of arms seized Isabel from behind and jerked her backward. It was swiftly followed by a long, muscular leg shooting outward right next to Isabel. Thump! Decker was kicked to the ground.
"How did you and Roland meet?" Decker suddenly asked. Isabel turned away, fully intent on ignoring him. "Did you meet each other at Carter Corporation? Or did you meet him outside of work and gradually fell in love with him, then you decided to set him up with a position at Carter Corporation?” What did he mean by that? Was he insinuating that Roland was relying on her to snake his way into Carter Corporation? She threw a sideways, belittling look at him. "Do you think Roland is anything like you? He wouldn’t latch on another woman to further his goals.” Decker was not upset by this as he continued with a smug smile. "Oh? Then how did he get into Carter Corporation?" “He proved his worth.” Isabel realized that she had been roped in by Decker again. Nevertheless, she continued, “He passed the interviews himself. I was one of the interviewers and initially planned to dismiss him, but he managed to leave a very good impression on my father and the rest was history.” "
"I never meant to kill him! Roland, you have to believe me. Why would I still try to deceive you when I’m in this state?” “In that case, you can go ahead and explain things to him in the afterlife.” Master Rockwell was taken aback by this, his demeanor tightened. "You...you..." Roland looked at him calmly. "Don’t worry, I won’t hurt you. It was Grandma and my parents who raised me. They instilled morals and virtue into me and made sure I’d grow into a decent man.” Master Rockwell was briefly relieved to hear this, but before he could rid himself of his trepidation, Roland continued in a dark voice, "But I won’t forget about you and Decker bribing all those media outlets to defame Isabel. I know you manipulated the stock prices to try to kick me out of the corporation. I’ll make sure to settle our score through the legal system.” If convicted guilty, they would have to rot in prison. “Roland… listen to me, Roland. Decker is your uncle. If you want revenge, you can come
Master Rockwell must have heard their shifting movements and opened his eyes. When he recognized the faces of Roland and Isabel, there was a brief glow in his murky eyes. He motioned to the nurse to have her help him sit up from the bed. After he managed to position himself seated up against the head of the bed, he asked the nurse to leave. Then he cast a loving, tender smile on Roland and Isabel. “Roland, Isabel, please have a seat.” Roland said disinterestedly, "We have things to get to, just hurry up and tell us what you have to say." Isabel stayed silent. A look flashed in Master Rockwell's eyes. Then, he turned to Isabel and expressed regretfully, "Isabel, I’m a foolish old man, it was me who told Decker to leak pictures of you two. He had no choice because I forced him to do so. If you have to blame someone, blame me!” Isabel frowned. She was somewhat impressed by how smoothly the old man switched his mask from one to another. From a forlorn and sad state t