Vivian’s POV“Well, you would have to get there to find out,” had been Leo’s wife’s response to my question.As I got dressed to leave the room that day for my antenatal registration, I reminisced on her response. She gave me a note to her cousin, so that it be easier for me when I got there, and she also promised to call him on my behalf and inform him that I was coming. “I just hope and pray that they are not as strict and formal as the last hospital I used,” I said to myself. “Otherwise, you would be toast, Vivian,” I told myself.The last thing I needed right now was to get there and be told that Syrus needed to be present in order to be able to register or carryout my antenatal process. I strongly did not want Syrus to be involved in the process. I didn’t want him to be in the first place, and if the first hospital hadn’t insisted, I would have done it successfully without him, but their protocols would not be broken.“Damn hospitals and their bloody protocols,” I spat.It was po
Vivian’s POVI got scanned and registered for antenatal procedure right after my answer that Syrus was dead. A part of me began to feel guilty and uncomfortable about such a huge lie. This was the first time I was doing something as outrageous as this, and I felt almost terribly sick, but after I was able to successfully register, I felt less guilty and bad.After one of the nurses was done with attending to me and registering me, I went back to Ken’s office, because they had been asked to redirect me back to him after I was done.“How did it go?” He asked me after I entered into his office and sat down across from him.“It went well, thank you,” I responded.Then I noticed that he was staring at me with sympathetic and sad eyes. He did not have this look on his face before I went for the antenatal registration, and I suddenly began to feel uncomfortable.“How do you feel doing this alone?” Ken asked. “Um…” I cleared my throat and shift uncomfortably on my seat. I had no idea that h
Vivian’s POVI woke up a little later than usual. It wasn’t my off day, so that means I would have to go and wait tables. It was a good thing that Jane hadn’t shown up at my door. It was a huge relief.Also, Dan’s text message left me worried, even though I had turned off my phone right after without texting him back, or calling.“What could he have wanted to tell me?” I asked myself as I got dressed for work. There was absolutely nothing I wanted from my former place of work. He fired me without explanations and at the worst time of my life, so I wasn’t even interested in hearing what he had to say. There were a lot of wrong things happening at the moment, and now that I had found a place that felt discreet, safe and secure to me, I just did not want to deal with anything else in my life for now. Besides, talking to Dan might put me in the spot where I didn’t want to be; seen.I grabbed my new pair of Jean trousers, baggy t-shirt, tied my hair into a rough ponytail and hurried out of
Vivian’s POVAll through the day’s work, I kept thinking that Jane would show up, but she didn’t, which really got me worried and concerned, but I didn’t come to work with my phone; I never do, otherwise I would have called her to find out why she was absent.After the day’s work, I packed up all the tables and chairs, changed the sign to ‘close’, and sat down waiting for Lori and Leo. Both of them had been worried about Jane’s absence, but by late afternoon, they had gone somewhere together, and I didn’t want to retire to bed without seeing them.While I waited, a young giggling and happy couple sauntered into the coffee shop.“Hi, you work here, right?” The man, who seemed to be in his late twenties asked me.“Yes, but we are closed for the day,” I said.He then turned to his girlfriend who poured her lips in disappointment. “I told you they were closed, but you insisted on checking even after seeing the sign,” he teased her.“It’s your fault! If you hadn’t kept me up, we would’ve be
Vivian’s POV“I wasn’t thinking about anyone,” I insisted weakly.“And that is okay,” Leo said, nudging his wife. “We were just messing with you?” He assured me with a smile. The atmosphere became better all of a sudden. “Jane didn’t show up today?” Leo asked, worried.“No, she didn’t,” I told them. It was such a worrisome thing, coming from Jane.Leo and Lori were equally very worried. “I know she is a wild girl who doesn’t care much about anything else, but this is so unlike her. Jane has never missed a day before,” Lori said worriedly.I stood there staring at them, speechless, because I did not know what to say. Her absence had bugged me all day. In truth, the thing I missed about Jane was having someone else who shared the work with me rather than doing it all alone, because I never enjoyed being disturbed by her, especially during work hours.“Did she speak to you about not coming today?” Leo asked me.I shook my head. “No, she didn’t,” I answered.“Did you see her again afte
Vivian’s POVI definitely freaked out!I opened my mouth to scream; it was obvious that Jane had been murdered, and my first instinct had been to scream, but the picture on her made me stop. Ted’s face was there. Manny’s face was there. My face was there. The picture was taken a few months before I chose Syrus over my family, so we were all easily recognizable. If I screamed now, and the cops arrived, it would definitely put me in a more complicated situation. I stood there, scared, speechless, stunned, clueless.I should have acted faster, I know, but this was the absolute first time I was being in this situation and space. I was so dazed that I did not even realize that Ken had entered the room.“Heck!” He almost yelled.I turned to him with pleading eyes, asking him not to scream.“What happened here?” He asked.“I don’t know. I walked in and saw her this way,” I told Ken.“This is incriminating, Vivian. Is she still alive?” Ken asked. He could not exactly tell because I was block
Vivian’s POVKen did not have the chance to respond before the cops barged into Jane’s room, so I did not know if he agreed to what I had pleaded with him for or not.“We are from the police department, and we got a call from Doctor Ken about a murder crime,” one of the cops said.I looked at Ken briefly, shocked. I didn’t know that he had placed a call through eventually. This very well shows that I cannot trust him at all. My heart began to thump rapidly.I was done for.The other cops began to wrap up Jane’s body in a big leather bag. I looked at them, and I began to shiver. Jane was dead. The same person with whom I had waited tables at the coffee shop for days, spent time together at a club, and shared a night at my room was dead and gone, just like that. Then I began to feel horribly bad and guilty for pushing her away after her several attempts to get close to me. It dawned on me that she could have been murdered by the drug lord, although I wasn’t certain, because I did not kn
Vivian’s POVThe interrogative officer stared long and hard at me, fishing for fault. He still hadn’t talked about Ken’s statement, which even got me really scared and worried, but I tried to maintain composure so that I would not be easily roped in.I even began to think of a possible convincing lie I could come up with even if Ken had decided to sell me out just to save his name and reputation.“What is your relationship with Jane?” He broke the ice after a couple of minutes and asked. I almost suffocated out of relief, if that was even possible, because I hadn’t expected to be asked that question. He thought he was begin to prod me about what I had found when I entered Jane’s room, or even inform me whether Ken’s account on the incident checks mine as well. I itched to find out what Ken told them, but asking would also draw suspicions, and I wasn’t ready for that. I wouldn’t even get out of it if I dragged myself into it.Anyway, I thought about my response deeply, because every r
Georgia’s POVGeorgia was just a young girl when she was miraculously granted admission into their city’s college. She had been ecstatic and joyous, because she never thought she would get it, especially without any help.Her mother was struggling with the heartbreak of being abandoned by Georgia’s father whom Georgia never got to meet, her failures as a model simply because she had a child, Georgia, and so she had become embittered, and a complete shadow of herself.Georgia had applied into college all by herself with the hopes of getting a degree, but her hope had dwindled when she didn’t get it initially, and she overheard that if she had someone, maybe a responsible parent to stand in for her, she might have gotten in. Georgia had been devastated, because she was desperate to leave her mother; her mother kept unleashing her anger and bitterness on Georgia, and she kept blaming her for being jilted by her lover and getting kicked off the modeling world.Georgia had almost screamed
Georgia’s POV“What are you doing here?” Belinda, shocked to see Georgia, asked worriedly.This was her work hour, and when she was told that someone important wanted to see her, she hadn’t known what to expect at all, but certainly not Georgia.Georgia smiled coyly, glad that she could still get this reaction out of Belinda. She was always happy to know that she always had an edge over Vivian and Belinda…always.“That is not a polite way to speak to an old enemy,” Georgia said.Belinda looked around, worried that anyone would hear them, even though they were speaking at a private corner in her office.“You shouldn’t have come here, Georgia,” Belinda said angrily. “You have done enough damage, and the least you could do is simply leave me alone. Do you know what would happen if I lost my job?” Belinda asked, deeply worried and irritated.She had always hated Georgia, but Belinda never knew that she could hate Georgia the way she did right now, especially after the havoc that Georgia h
Syrus’s POVSyrus had paid Anderson’s family a visit after the heartbreaking news of his passing. He had been thoroughly devastated by the news, especially because he didn’t get enough time with Anderson to tell him what he needed to know.“You died without explaining to me the issue with my parents, and what exactly to do with Ken,” Syrus said, as though Anderson was right in front of him. Syrus didn’t tell his mum, because he knew that she never liked the man, but he had stayed in his room and wept. That was the closest thing to a father that Syrus ever had, and it pained him deeply that he didn’t even give Anderson enough of his time. After Anderson fell ill and couldn’t continue working at the company, Syrus had simply never paid him a visit. Yes, he had been completely financially responsible for Anderson, but that had been it, and now, Syrus regretted it deeply. He wished his only time of visiting Anderson was the only time. He wished he had actually taken out time to visit And
Georgia’s POV“…your contract with this TV show is over.”Georgia kept hearing those words in her head as she headed out of the venue. She could not believe her ears. It was as though she was hearing a weird sound in her ears.“Just like that, they have kicked me out,” Georgia asked as she booked a cab. “I seriously need to get Syrus to buy me a bloody car, and fast!” Georgia said in between.She felt used and tossed like a piece of trash. She never knew about this policy about TV shows and their stars. All along, Georgia had simply thought that a contract was all she needed, but it was obvious that that wasn’t the case. “I should have done everything possible to keep Brenda there,” Georgia said to herself angrily.More realization began to dawn on her; as a star, one of the things about her career is that once one TV show drops a star, the others who had already signed a contract might likely also drop the star. Being in the business for this long had made Georgia realize that most
Georgia’s POVAfter Georgia managed to get Nancy out of her apartment by lying, as usual, she pondered on a lot of things.Somehow, deep inside, Georgia knew that if she did not take hold of things, Syrus and his family would find a way to get out of her hook. Regardless of what Georgia now knew about Syrus, she also could not neglect the fact that Syrus held some power and influence in the country. If it had been easy, Ken would have come out with the truth already. Georgia wasn’t stupid; she had been in the streets and playing this game for as long as she could possibly remember, and she knew that if one wasn’t careful, even she and Ken would not be able to take down Syrus.Besides, Georgia had no motive to run Syrus down; if she did, how would she get the life she had envisioned? Georgia was too invested in the family of Vale to begin her strategy all over again with another wealthy and influential family. She knew how the system worked, and if Georgia wasn’t careful, if she wasn’
Georgia’s POVThis was the first time that Georgia was standing right in front of Nancy and she was not just speechless, but she was also feeling uncomfortable. “Can I come in?” Nancy asked in an icy cold voice.Georgia cleared her throat and said, “Yes, of course.”Then she moved out of the way for Nancy to come in. Georgia could not stop wondering how Nancy managed to know where she now lived. She remembered that the last time they spoke, she hadn’t made mention of any house, and the fact that Nancy was right here, uninvited by Georgia and her look of displeasure was a clear enough indication that this wasn’t a case of peaceful visitation. Georgia watched Nancy enter slowly into the living room and looked around, and because Nancy’s back was back facing Georgia, she could not exactly tell Nancy’s reaction or emotions. Was she upset? Was she enraged? Was she aggravated? Georgia could not tell.“This is quite a lot,” Nancy said, her voice sounding bland.Georgia was almost tempted t
Georgia’s POV“Things are always just effortlessly working out for me!” Georgia said in excitement.She didn’t even need to find a doctor that would do what she wanted to do; Ken had promised to help her through it, unlike her former doctor who was preaching honesty.“Well, maybe it is because I have labored too hard to get to where I am now, and everything is just falling into place now,” Georgia continued.She and Ken had spent about two extra hours making plans, and she could hardly believe that she was getting everything sorted out. All she needed to do now was find a way to fix the pregnancy test thing with Syrus, and then she would be able to get him to make things official with Syrus.Georgia couldn’t wait!The pregnancy solution wasn’t the only thing that kept Georgia in cloud nine since Ken left. The fact that she had his secret in her palm now made her very gleeful. Now, she could very well twist Syrus’s hand into doing her bidding, because from what she gathered with her co
Syrus’s POVSyrus got home, more exhausted than he had been. He was able to get Davis out of his hair. He already knew that he would not be able to tell anyone about what he was going through, and at the same time, he still hadn’t been able to come up with how to get the truth about what happened years ago with the Frenchman.“If only Anderson was kind enough to just tell me how to go about it easily without the hassles,” Syrus said to himself. He knew that Anderson would tell him if it was in his right to do so, but that did not change the fact that he wished Anderson had the solution to his problem, because there was no one else who knew about his past except Anderson, and of course, the slimy, sneaky Ken.Syrus got into the living room, and he was reminded of how he left the house and the issue with his mother. The living room seemed quiet and serene, and Syrus was hoping that he could just sneak into his bedroom and hide until the next day when he would leave for work, because h
Georgia’s POV“Tell me everything I need to know,” Georgia said to Ken.She could barely contain her glee for this useful information. Before now, Georgia had wished that she knew something ugly and dirty about Syrus, his family, or the family’s company, so that should Syrus make an attempt to leave her after his family had publicly paraded her as their chosen daughter-in-law, she would have something to hold them by. She had tried to find something, but nothing was forthcoming. Albeit, Georgia just knew that there had to be something. She had been in this game long enough to know the ways of wealthy and powerful men, and she just knew…“At what cost?” Ken asked.Georgia was taken aback. He came to her willingly with information and claims that they had something in common, and now he was seeking something in return?Georgia scoffed. “So it’s now scratching my back, I scratch yours now? I never asked for this, Doctor Ken. You showed up at my house unannounced demanding for something i