Maggie was looking at the diamond on her finger, flabbergasted. What happened? How did they come to this so fast? Ok, they agreed to try to be a couple despite all the circumstances, and they were doing pretty well. More than well, actually, they were doing fantastic, but she never thought, even for a second, they will come to this.
Two months ago, she was exhausted from work, drowning in debts, and today she was engaged to one of the most successful businessmen in the country. On top of that, he loved her. Her. Crazy, ha?She chuckled at her own disbelieve."What?" Jack wanted to know what she was laughing at. He wanted to know every single thought that passed through her head."Nothing… it's just I still can't believe this is true. I don't understand…""M, I thought we have a deal." He interrupted her, and she directed her gaze towards him. "You won't try to understand something that cannot be understood. Who can ever understand love?" he ask"No! You are not getting out of it again. We're going shopping today, and that's final." Eight months pregnant Emma wasn't giving up. She barged in one morning demanding from Maggie to accompany her to the mall. "No, Emma, you look like you swallowed a watermelon, and it's not safe for you to just simply go through the stores. Plus, you know very well that your feet will start to hurt before you even make it to the exit of the first shop. Like it did last time…"Maggie and Emma hanged out together often, both going shopping for baby things. Emma was buying things for the newcomer, and Maggie everything she thought was cute, and that reminded her of baby Eric. But lately, Emma was getting tired easily, so they would stay in most of the time. The driver would drop Emma off and would come to pick her up after the two of them would spend hours talking, eating whatever Emma was craving for, or doing some online shopping, which
Jack had the busiest day at the office. Between two meetings with the potential clients and one conference call with Korea, Robert came by with Hiram to discuss the new theory that Maggie came up with. The more he thought about it, the more it made sense. "Actually, I was chasing the same lead," Hiram admitted, somewhat reluctantly. "I found police reports from Nebraska, involving Natasha Bright, which was one of her aliases, and some guy, Kevin Lens, about some petty thefts and gas station robbery. The last one was armed, and that's when the two of them were apprehended. According to the same report, they lived together for a couple of months, and she testified against him to get a reduced sentence. After she was released from the prison, every trace of Natasha Bright disappeared until, well, two months ago.I contacted a colleague of mine from there, and he confirmed that nobody in town has seen Kevin for more than a year, I have already alerted some o
"Will this day ever end?" Maggie mumbled the moment she stepped inside the house. First, her suspicions about who Denis Wade was to her were confirmed. Then, she found out that her fiancé knew about it all along. In fact, Rebecca, her own mother, told him before she told her. After that, she found that same fiancé making some kind of deal with her newly discovered father. And now she comes to the place she started to see as her home to find another unpleasant surprise.Maggie noticed an unfamiliar black limo in front of the gate on her way to the garage, and she was wondering who it might be. To her utter surprise, she found Jack's mother sitting in the living room."What was that?" Annabel asked, not sure if she heard Maggie right."Nothing." Maggie had no desire to explain anything to this woman. "Good afternoon," she greeted Annabel, smiling with one of her most polite smiles, the one she mastered in her early days working as a waitress. "If you
The next morning, Maggie woke up just as moody as she was yesterday. She had an urge to just go and leave everything behind, to be alone for a while. But she had a lot of questions that demanded answers, and she was never the type to run away from problems. Maggie believed that problems were like rabid dogs. You can try to run from them and hide, but in the end, the dog will find you and bite you in the ass. So you're better off standing where you are and face the problem. Then you just might have a chance. Till now, this always worked, and she knew it wouldn't be possible to ignore everything that happened yesterday.When she went down to the kitchen, she found Jack making breakfast for the two of them."Morning," Maggie said in a hoarse voice. She was still in her night-slip."Good morning. How are you feeling?" Jack pecked her lips and returned to whatever he was frying in the pan.Maggie reached for the coffee and poured it into her favorite mug.
In the next couple of days, things in Maggie's and Jack's life returned to normal. He would spend his mornings in the office, taking care of his business and the afternoons and nights with Maggie and his son. Maggie, on the other hand, spent her morning at home with Eric, whom she really got close to. She also got herself busy with sawing since she liked the feeling of creating something new and wearable out of a piece of fabric, though Emma swore her dresses and skirts were attention-worthy. Speaking of Emma, she barged in less often. She was too big now to simply go wherever she wanted. Her delivery date was close, so she stayed home a lot, and Maggie took on herself to visit as much as she could.After that deal she made with Jack, Maggie noticed him being extra clingy towards her. He used every possible chance to touch her and to kiss her, and their heated make-out sessions were starting to get unbearable for Maggie. What started to worry her was that Jack never even insi
Long after midnight, just before dawn started to show its face, Jack sneaked out of the bed, careful not to wake Maggie, to tend to his son's needs. Little later, he was back in the warm bed next to Maggie. She didn't wake when the bed dipped behind her, but she moved towards him, seeking his body's warmth. Jack didn't hesitate; he pulled her even closer and wrapped his arms tightly around her soft body, but he couldn't fall back asleep. His mind was working a hundred miles per hour, and it kept the sleep away.He was thinking about the previous night with Maggie. How she made him feel when she surrendered herself to him completely, without hesitation. She was the one to initiate the step they made. It surprised him for sure since he had a plan to restrain himself and his urges for some time more, to give her enough time, but he also welcomed what she wanted with open arms.Maggie was everything. Everything he didn't believe existed in the first place, everything he ne
"So, I guess you have something to share with me?" Maggie was trying her best to keep her face straight. After she showed the living room seating, Maggie brought coffee for all three of them, and now she was sitting across from her mother and her father that were sharing a sofa. "Well, honey, you see… Den and I have talked, and to cut it short, we've settled our differences and decided that we don't want to lose more time." Rebecca declared, leaving Maggie completely flabbergasted. She suspected something happened since Rebecca didn't call her last night, but she did not expect her parents to get back together after two decades. Maggie blinked a couple of times, trying to comprehend what she just heard. "I don't understand," she mumbled. "But I guess I don't have to… I just need you to be safe and happy, ok, mom?" she said looking at her mother, ignoring the man that was sitting
"Let's see if I got everything correctly… first, you two had an affair, and when mom got pregnant with me, you almost made her abort me, but she ran away, and you haven't seen each other ever since. In the meantime, you got divorced and she had cancer, and now we are a little happy family?" Maggie was sarcastic, but she couldn't keep a smile hidden too well. It crept on her face and lifted the corners of her lips a little. Rebecca knew this expression too well, but Denis was unfamiliar with it."Maggie, I know I have no right to ask this from you but I will dare too I… I've spent the better half of my life regretting what I've done. My actions and my words haunted me for all the time Rebecca wasn't by my side, and now that I have her again,… Maggie, you have to trust me when I say that there is not a thing in this world I wouldn't do for your mother." Maggie had to give it to him, he did appear to be honest. She could not spot a speck of lie in him. "Rebe
A week after Maggie came back to Chicago, her parents organized a modest wedding with only a dozen people present, including themselves and the minister. Maggie was ecstatic for them. How many grown-up women had a chance to attend their parents' wedding… She loved them so much and wanted nothing but happiness for them. A small reception was held in their manor, and the present guests enjoyed the celebration with discreet music, food, drinks, and a lot of laughter. That day, Maggie met one of her uncles and his wife, one of Wade's brothers. He was a nice man, and he was genuinely glad to meet her. His wife seemed decent too. The rest of the family she was yet to meet, and Denis had plans for family dinner so that everyone could gather and get to know what a wonderful daughter he has. Why did he wait for so long? Simply, he didn't want to overwhelm Maggie before she accepted him as her father. And it looked like she did. She would come by his house every so often for dinner, a
"Hi." Jack's voice trembled while he was taking in the sight in front of him.Maggie was standing there in the middle of the kitchen, holding Eric on her hip, supporting him with one arm and mashing the carrots with the other.Maggie raised her gaze from the bowl and looked at him. Their eyes met, and they told what they needed to tell, a story of love and anticipation, need and desire."Hi," Maggie said back quietly.Jack made a few steps towards them, but he didn't get close enough to touch her, afraid that he had finally crossed the line of missing her, and he was hallucinating at full speed. And if that was the case… if he touched her, and she disappeared again… burst like the soap bubble… no, he better not risk it. He needed her here, even as a wraith, she was here…When his eyes slipped from her face, the face he loved so much, he saw his son clinging to Maggie like she was his lifebelt. He didn't even raise his he
It's been a crazy few months in Jack's life since Maggie left. He did his best to not let it affect him much, but he couldn't help it. Her leaving him reflected on every single aspect of his life. It was easy for him to get irritated and to snap at anyone in close vicinity, so much that his subordinates started to avoid him.It didn't help that Eric was much more irritable than ever, he cried more and smiled less. He missed her, it was obvious. Just like Jack did. It was his fault, it was all his fault… if he didn't have that stupid idea that he needed her, that he wanted her… maybe if he had stuck to his original plan and paid her off to sign the divorce papers when he first met her… maybe, just maybe, he and his son wouldn't be brokenhearted now.On the other hand, he got to know love and the feeling of belonging to a family, something his own always busy and overachieving parents failed to give him even when he was a child.Jack tri
It's been a whole month since Maggie left Chicago and returned to her home town. That day, when she took off, she managed to get a ticket for a midnight flight, and she was back home before the sun was up. For a couple of days, she didn't even leave the house except for the short trip to the nearest supermarket to stock up on food and other necessities. She also started ordering in food, something she never did before here in Charleston, but now she had no desire to cook at all.At first, Maggie spent her days crying and missing Jack like crazy, so much that she contemplated with herself to go back to him and beg him to never manipulate her like that again and to promise her to always be like he was for the last 6 months, but she managed to hold herself back and stay where she was.She needed to try, she needed to give herself a chance to live without him, to try to move on and go back to her life… or to get over what he had done and forgive him.Maggie wasn't
"I've been meaning to tell you…" Jack came into the living room to see Maggie sitting in an armchair with papers spread in front of her.As he saw her, Jack broke into a cold sweat. He knew exactly what she was looking at. Stupid, stupid, stupid. He forgot that he left the folder right on the desk when he called her earlier to get the one he needed and sent for. He should have destroyed them long ago, but nooo, he was too stupid for something like that. He enjoyed torturing himself with those…"Tell me what?" her voice was cold like he never heard it before. She was capable of sounding like this?"Everything.""Everything... like why there are dates from July on the divorce forms or those for full custody? From before we even met..." Maggie finally rose her head looked at him."Yes." Jack didn't move from where he was standing, at the entrance to the living room."So, you want to explain how I ended up here, with you, instead of you giving
"You know, when we first met Denis Wade at that Gala, I thought he was scary. But now I think he's actually quite decent." Emma commented while standing in Maggie's new kitchen. Maggie came in to get some refreshments for the guests, and Emma followed.Jack and Maggie moved into their new home a week ago, and on the first following Saturday, they organized a small party to celebrate the event with their closest friends and family. Robert and Emma came with Aurora, and now both babies were sleeping upstairs in Eric's nursery, while their parents were downstairs catching up.Mary came to congratulate them, happy about how things turned out between the two of them, but she almost had a stroke when they told her about everything that happened since the last time she visited.Jack's friends from college and their better halves were invited too. Maggie met them at Evans' couple of months ago, right after she came to Chicago, and she actually liked them. She felt like
The next day Maggie was forced to spend in bed, even though there was no particular need for that. She did have a couple of stitches on her waist, and it could get uncomfortable if she tired herself too much, but other than that, she felt good. More than good if she was honest… Jack was pampering her like never before. He brought her breakfast to bed the first morning when she woke up in her father's house, he didn't let her walk around and insisted on carrying her around in his arms even when she needed to go to the bathroom.Even though Maggie enjoyed all the things Jack was doing for her by the evening, it started to annoy her, so she snapped at him and ordered him to stop because she wasn't invalid, and she didn't like to act like one.The good thing about the whole arrangement of the three of them living at Wade's was she could enjoy her mother's cooking after so long. Rebecca tried to compensate for all the years she was absent with excessive cooking and b
A note for those that are reading this story as I upload it: I made a mistake in uploading the previous chapter, 46. I uploaded only half of it and additionally added the rest. Please, delete this book from your library, clear your cache memory and then add it again, so that the glitch that is caused by me being stupidly clumsy is fixed. Sorry for the inconvenience, and thank you for understanding. Sending you my love <3"Can you talk now? I am seriously starting to lose my patience," Rebecca said in a threatening way. Jack and Maggie sat on the sofa in the living room in Wade's home with Rebecca and Wade sitting opposite of them. Eric was in the room that their hosts equipped as a nursery before they came, and there was a room upstairs prepared for the two of them too.It was so like Rebecca to take care of every possible need of her guests, and the fact that she already prepared everything for her daughter told Maggie that her mother already felt com
A couple of hours earlierAfter the loud shot echoed through the room, Maggie froze. She felt like the time stopped and the space around her ceased to exist. The gun she was trying to get a hold of was now burning hot, and she had to release it. The smell of burning gunpowder filled the room.Maggie gulped once and raised her gaze to meet Kevin's, but what she saw there was the sight she will never be able to forget… it will haunt her for the rest of her life. For a moment that seemed like an eternity, Maggie watched the light of Kevin's life diminishing until it was no more. Kevin, too let the gun from his hands, and it fell on th