~ HAMES HENDRIX ~
"Can I leave now?" Miss Mark asked, obviously looking so stressed out from the day's work.
I glanced at the wall clock. It was 2 hours past working hours. It wasn't my fault I had tons of things to do than close so early.
"Have you planned my schedule for next week?" I raised an eyebrow at her.
"Uh— I'm almost done with it. I'll submit it tomorrow." She said, scratching the back of her neck and avoiding my gaze. I was glad she adjusted to my style of working, else it was going to be a huge problem if she still continued arguing with me.
"Okay. You've postponed my appointments for tomorrow, right? It has to be a free day for me."
"Yes, sir." She nodded, gripping onto her bag impatiently.
"Good, you can leave. Ensure you're very early tomorrow. You won't like how things would turn out to be if you come late, again." I warned.
She swallowed audibly and nodded. "Yes, sir."
I paused to think of anything else she needed to do but there was nothing left. She had done a lot of things today and her hard work definitely amused me. She didn't seem like she could do the job of a secretary correctly but a stripper. No offence.
"Is there anything else you'd like me to do before I leave?" She asked through gritted teeth, forcing a smile.
"No." I shook my head at her. "You can leave."
"Okay." A wide grin appeared on her lips. "Goodnight."
I didn't bother to say 'Goodnight' to her because it was clearly not necessary. She turned around and left the office.
Everywhere went silent after that. I finalized my work on my laptop then shut it. A heavy sigh left me. Gosh, I needed a break at least once in a while.
I rested my head against the headrest and shut my eyes to take a nap but my dumb phone decided to ring.
Groaning and cussing, I opened my eyes and reached for my phone, answering it angrily without bothering to know who the caller was.
"Hello?" I spoke crankily.
"Hames," Mom's voice swayed into my ear. "What's with the cold tone, as always?" She hissed.
"Oh, it's you." I sat straight and rose to my feet, arranging important files.
"Did you forget? You said you'll pay me a visit tonight."
"Oh, yeah." I totally forgot. I was going to tell Miss Mark to include that in my schedule today but I had forgotten. "Of course I didn't forget." I lied.
"Great! So you're coming when?"
"Uh— I'm just leaving the office so I'll be there in half an hour."
"Okay. Love you. I'll be expecting your stubborn-head." She giggled.
"Yeah, yeah, whatever." I rolled my eyes, ending the call.
I was going to resume work in two days. Free day tomorrow (not exactly). After arranging important files accordingly, I grabbed my car keys and left the office.
The elevator transported me to the ground floor.
"You're leaving now?" Sarah asked rhetorically, getting to her feet, picked her bag from a chair.
I ignored her, left the building, and to my car. A random man opened the car door for me and I got into it. He shut the door then my driver started driving the car after I threw the car to him.
"Take me to Trisha's Mansion." I instructed and he nodded politely.
In a few minutes, I felt myself being called into sleep so I decided to take a nap.
……….
I felt continuous tapping against my shoulder. It was very discomforting and annoying. With my face rumpled, I finally opened my eyes. My Driver was tapping me. I was going to yell at him but I noticed we had arrived at Mom's mansion and he had to wake me up.
"We're here, sir." He informed me.
"I'm not blind, gentleman." I replied frigidly and waved him off, stepping out of the car. My eyes felt so heavy due to inadequate sleep.
I sauntered into the house and used my spare key to open the door, entered the house then locked the door.
"Hames!" Mom squealed in excitement as she saw me. "My baby!" Ew! What the hell was that?
I walked up to her. She pulled me into a bone-crushing hug. I was used to that already so I didn't bother to complain.
"Hey, Mom." I smiled at her. "Wow, you look hot. If you weren't my mother, I'd surely flirt with you." I teased her, earning a smack on my face. "Ow! I'm just kidding."
We both burst into laughter.
"Gosh, you finally paid a visit. I missed you so much. You can't imagine how lonely I've been."
"Really? Why don't you hire an extremely personal Maid or a friend to talk to?" I smirked on saying the next words, "or a man to have a one-night stand with." I waggled my eyebrows at her, earning another slap from her.
"You're so silly." She pouted. "What's up with the good mood today?"
I ignored her question. "You're such a baby. Common, you don't deserve to be so lonely." We had our seats.
"Well, your father is dead." She folded her arms across her chest. "Billionaires like you think you can buy everything with money."
"I'm not a Billionaire." I added, "yet."
"Really? I thought you already were." She looked genuinely surprised. "I mean, you're always busy and working, I thought you own multiple billions now."
"Are you mocking me? I just need a few more Millions of dollars to become a Billionaire and I'll achieve it very soon."
"Aw, I'm so proud of you. I'm glad I left my company to you. You made it grow better than I had ever imagined." She blushed.
"Duh. I'm your only son, who else would you have given it to?" I rolled my eyes at her.
A maid strolled in with a tray in her hands. She lowered the tray to me and I picked a glass of chilled juice from it, taking a long sip.
"You're my only son but not my only child. I could've also given a portion of it to your sister, Anna." She rolled her eyes.
"Mom, we're both aware of the fact that Anna can't handle the company." I burst into laughter.
"Why not?" A frown etched on her face. "Because she's a girl?"
"No! Because she's a dog!" I laughed again.
It seemed to piss her off further. "At least she's more sensible than you."
"How is that?" I drew my eyes in askance.
"She's my cute daughter and she's married, but here you're UNMARRIED." She spelt it to my face.
The atmosphere changed at that. My usually cold face returned and I dropped my glass on the table, crossing one of my legs over the other. "Mom, you know I don't like talking about this with anyone."
"I'm not just anyone, I'm your Mom, you dimwit." She rested her palm on her forehead. "You're 26 already, yet you don't have a damn girlfriend. You've worked for 3 years and boosted the company above my expectation but you don't seem to be interested in a serious relationship with a responsible woman. I also stalked you and noticed that you've stopped having one-night stands with random Women. What is wrong with you?"
"I don't feel the need to be with anyone and stop stalking me! If she comes, then she will. If she doesn't, she won't." I replied gruffly.
"Are you crazy?!" Her eyes became glassy, piercing into my soul. I hated seeing her cry. She had cried too much when I was little so I couldn't bear to make her cry again.
"Mom, don't cry." I softened.
"You don't understand. I need grandchildren. What if I'll die soon?"
"Mom!" I exclaimed. "You're not dying soon, okay?"
"Hames, if you need me to arrange your marriage, I swear I'll do it." Tears were already rolling down her cheeks.
"Are you kidding me? What?" I couldn't believe my ears.
"I'm desperate." She wiped the tears with her fingers. "Please consider marriage."
"Fine, fine, I will."
"You will?! Do you have someone in mind already?" Her face lit up with excitement.
A smirk played on my lips. "Definitely, I do." Oh, I do.
***
A/N: Sorry for the late Update. I'll try to update this book at least 4 times a week. Thanks to @Ruth for always reminding me to update it.
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~ IMOGEN MARK ~I had woken up this morning as early as I could. I couldn't bear to get into trouble with that asshole of a boss.I had worn a knee-length grey pencil skirt with a black shirt tucked into it and a grey blazer, with a pair of matching white stiletto heels and a white handbag which had fake diamond designs around it. My shoulder-length blonde hair had been dyed into black last night with hair extension to make it fall all the way down to just above my butt. My thin lips were covered in thick wine lipstick, making my electric blue eyes seem like they were shining brighter than ever.I didn't bother to depend on Nikita for a ride to work but hired a taxi driver to pick me up every morning.With a grin on,
"You've been so busy with work since you started working for that asshole. Now it's Saturday, get your lazy ass up!" Nikita yelled into my ear, pulling me up by my shirt."Kita, I've got to sleep." I groaned, flipping over to bury my face in my fluffy pillow."Girl, you're crazy. You've done nothing but sleep all day long. It's 2pm!" She shouted and slugged me.My eyes popped open at that. I turned to her. "Seriously? How's that even possible?" Not believing her, I shifted to reach for my phone on the nightstand. I checked the time and it was indeed 2:14pm."I've missed you, bitch. Let's party or do something fun!" She squealed, hopping off the bed. "Be ready in half an hour. I already made b
"Miss Mark," Hames called. "The Manager of 'Friz and co.' will be here in a few minutes. I hope everything is ready?""Uh— yeah, sure." I scratched my arm, dropping the files on his table. "I'll send the remaining part of it to your email."He hummed a response. His fingers drummed on his laptop keys really fast, forming the beat of a song.Seriously? He hadn't said a thing about last Saturday. He was really going to ignore it? I felt his gaze on me so I raised my head to stare at him."What do you want?" He questioned crankily."Nothing." I shook my head."If it
"You can leave now, Miss Mark." Hames said with a dismissive wave of his hand.I glanced at my wristwatch and it was three hours past my closing hour, if I even had one. "Thank you so much, Mr Hendrix, for releasing me at such an early hour of the day." I said sarcastically with a fake smile.He raised his head from his laptop, leaned back in his chair and intertwined his fingers. "Oh, really?" He scoffed. "Why don't you wait till it's not so early and do some more work."My eyes widened at that. I wore a grin at him, shaking my head. "No, thank you. I'll be leaving now." I nodded then turned around and took my leave. A frown returned on my face as I shut the door. "Stupid man." I hissed.A young m
"Wow, you're leaving for work so early?" Lila teased. "Your new boss has done more good than bad to you."A small smile tugged at the corner of my lips. I was in no mood to argue with her. "Silly." I stood in front of the oval-shaped dressing mirror, adjusting the collar of my pink button down shirt."Gosh, you're also dressing like you're going to work and not a club." She looked truly dazzled, buttoning her shirt."Silly." I chortled, brushing my hair and tied it into a ponytail."Why did you change the color of your hair? I liked it blonde and shoulder-length." She walked to the nightstand and poured herself a glass of water, pulling its brim to her lips.
I blinked multiple times with my jaw gaped. "Your girlfriend?" A frown appeared on my face."Yes, Imogen." He said through a fake smile. "This is my Mom and she has been dying to meet you."I frowned at him. "But—""It's so nice to finally meet you. I never believed Hames already had a girlfriend. I didn't believe him a bit, not to mention believing she's a really beautiful one like you. I'm Trisha Hendrix." She smiled with the small of her teeth in view.When it was patent that his Mom wasn't looking, Hames glared at me; a glare that warned me to go along with the flow. That didn't stop me from feeling pissed off b
Hames ignored my glare, focusing his gaze to Trisha. "Mom, we have to go now. We've had enough of your pestering self." He rolled his eyes, rising to his feet. "Miss Ma—" he cleared his throat, wearing a smile that showed off his one-sided dimple on his left cheek. "Imogen." Gosh, he looked way angelic when he smiled than the stern-faced demon he always portrayed."No, don't leave so soon." Trisha pouted. I found that cute though it wasn't exactly cute. I liked this woman's demeanor. She didn't give off the impression of a mean-ass rich son's mother like I mostly saw in movies, and probably books."We have to, Trisha." I also wore an angelic smile, blinking slower than usual for no good reason.Hames extended his hand towards me. I raised a questionin
Hames' driver drove us back to the company. As magical is it may seem, Hames made the accountant give me a $10,000 check.I couldn't stop staring at the check, counting the number of zeros over and over again. Excitement bubbled in my stomach. If he wasn't present, I would've surely jumped on the table and screamed my lungs out in exhilaration."If you're done swooning over the check, you can get your things ready and let's leave." He said gruffly, hanging his suit jacket over on his shoulder, holding it with his hand, with his other hand shoved into his pocket. What was he trying to do? Pose for a photo shoot?I pursed my lips, regaining my composure and shoved the check into my handbag. "Wait, leave?" I only heard him well enough.
EPILOGUE~ 10 YEARS LATER ~~ IMOGEN ~"Mom, I feel like a really big boy now." Tristan said, flexing his biceps.I burst into laughter. "I guess you should.""When are we going to Aunt Lila's, I miss Indy so much.""Didn't you see Indy last week?""Yes, to give her a pre-birthday gift but today is her birthday, I can't wait to give her her original birthday gift. And did you know she's now in the first grade?""Yes, I know that, Tristan.""Can you believe that? She's such a child." He shook his head while I laughed again. "When are we leaving?""Very soon, after your father returns.""Okay, I'll start getting ready. I love you, Mom."
~ HAMES ~"My baby," Imogen dropped to the floor, breaking into tears. "Nothing must happen to my Tristan.""Don't worry, nothing will happen to our son." I crouched beside her."If anything terrible happens to him, I swear I'll kill myself." She cried."Stop saying nonsense! Nothing will happen to him and you're not going to kill yourself.""I will," she buried her head in her palm. "Do you know how hard it was to survive through those months to have him?""Daisy, please take her to her room. I'll try to find Tristan.""Don't you dare touc
~ IMOGEN ~"Isn't it weird that they are getting married so soon?" I asked Hames as he helped me with the zipper of my gown."So it wasn't weird to you that we got married a week after we announced our wedding?""Oh yeah, that's true. I almost forgot how my husband forced me to marry him when I didn't love him yet.""You know that's not true." He hugged me from behind, kissing my cheeks. "I didn't force you to, you could've backed out of it and paid the forty million dollars on your own.""You made it seem like I was helpless." I held his hands."You weren't helpless, you could've also gone to court
~ 5 MONTHS LATER ~~ HAMES ~My poor heart was beating really fast as Imogen was struggling to get Tristan's head out of her tiny hole, groaning and sweating. I felt helpless. I wanted to help her with the pain but all I could do was hold her hand really tight, muttering soothing words to her.Her fingernails were digging into my skin. It was hurting but I knew the pain was nothing compared to hers. It felt like I could feel her pain, my heart was aching, I was very sweaty."Don't worry, baby. Please stay calm." I continued to comfort her"Hames," she cried, breathing heavily.
~ HAMES ~Though we won against Sam and Dash in court today and they were all, including the head maid and everyone else involved in their criminal activities, going to receive their respective punishments, Imogen still didn't look happy.We had decided to head for my cabin which was romantically designed to brighten her mood. There were candles with amazing scents, roses, a nice view of outside the cabin, a nice bathtub in the bathroom with flowers for scents, a king-sized bed, snacks and food or anything that she could start craving for, and a large television to enjoy ourselves over movie time.She was still in the bathroom so I decided to join her.She still looked as sad as ever over Faith's death, and it was ma
I rushed beside Faith's stretcher as she was being pushed. She was coughing out blood and it was evident in her eyes that she was struggling to breathe, struggling for life. I was still able to run beside her stretcher till the door to the emergency room was opened and I wasn't permitted to go in."Faith, please God save her. She can't die." I prayed. My entire body was vibrating and my head was pounding.Who could've wanted to kill me? The crazy person in the balaclava, who the heck was it? Faith just saved me. I prayed she survived, she couldn't die this way. "She's also pregnant, two lives can't just go like that." I was very sweaty and more than scared right now.After a few minutes of me pacing around the door of her emergency room, Hames came running
~ NIKITA ~My phone started ringing from my purse.Like the depressed bitch I was, I frustratedly slipped it out of my purse and answered the incoming group video call from Imogen."Hey, Nik. Hey, Lil." Imogen's cherry voice made a smile finally appear on my face."Hi, babe." I waved, taking a seat on a chair."Hi. What's up?" Annoying Lila spoke, sipping from a juice box."I'm really cool. It's been a while since we've had a group video call so I decided to do it now." She was clearly walking as she spoke. "Faith is here too." She moved the camera to Faith's face.
"Hi, Faith. We should go on a walk together, don't you think?""Yes, please. I'm so bored of staying at home.""You're not as bored as I am." I sighed, sitting on one of the dining chairs. "Since I stopped working, I think I've become more lazy and I feel fatter. I'm more than bored whenever Hames is away.""You shouldn't be so bored, I'm here for you." She winked at me."You don't understand, you can't be my husband. Whenever he's around me, there's a different feeling, a different mood, more happiness, relief." I sighed again."Ouch, that hurts a little. If you miss him so much, why don't you pay him a surprise visit?" She asked, reachin
"Can we just get going already?" Hames groaned, adjusting his tie. "I'll be late for work.""I know, but I can't find my wedding ring." I said, raising a pillow from the bed."You can look for it later. Right now, we have to leave early so I don't miss my meeting.""If you're really so eager to go for your dumb meeting, you can leave. I'll find my ring then go with Faith.""It's just a ring, I'll buy you a new one." He rolled his eyes."Just a ring," I scoffed. "I can't believe you're giving such low importance to our wedding ring, the symbol of our wedding vows. I'll buy another one? That's insane, how will it be the same as the original weddin