ZANELooking at the woman apologizing sincerely in front of me, I felt close to nothing in my heart. My only concern at the moment was questioning if I had been too rash in making the decision to marry Valeria Hale. True, she might have saved my life a year ago but there are many ways to repay her apart from marriage, no?While I might have no feelings for her nor plan to do so in the future, I however have no intention of being cheated on as long as she still held the title of my wife. And judging from how she had lost her composure just by how I supposedly reminded of whoever she meant, that person definitely held a special place in her heart.For some reason, I couldn't help but think back to a line in the document that recorded the information on her investigated by my men....has been in the relationship only once.Therefore, a good guess was that the person she was referring to was most likely that ex-boyfriend of hers.I was deep in thought when a hesitant 'sir?' entered my ears
VALERIABefore today or rather before meeting the man before me, I had no idea that I even had a special fetish for voices or that it would even affect me that much. The only thing I knew was that after I heard him speak, my insides literally turned into mush and I had to use a hundred percent of my willpower while biting my lips to keep myself from making a funny sound. While I do feel some regret at the fact that he and I had happened to meet at the wrong time, I also felt fortunate at the same time. Fortunate that all I was feeling towards him at the moment was nothing more than pure attraction and not love at first sight.The former I knew would fade over time because although he was my ideal type come true, I hadn't really gotten to know him that well so except for feeling some regret every now and then whenever I remember him, nothing would really change. However, the latter would definitely have been a huge problem.From the time I stepped forward to apologize to the time I fel
VALERIAThe morning sun shine through the glass windows and curtains to land on me. It was my cue to know that a new day had come.Roused from my sleep, I rolled from one side of the bed to another a few times before sitting up on the bed. I then stretched my body lazily for a few minutes before finally getting off the bed and head to the bathroom.In the bathroom, I stood in front of the mirror looking at the reflection of myself while brushing my teeth and before I knew it my thoughts drifted away.Three days. It has been three days since I arrived in Mr Devil's house yet I haven't got to meet this mysterious husband of mine and at least confirmed what he actually looked like. What I was told was that he was on a business trip with no definite time of return but ironically enough, we are already legally married.All I had to do was hand over some documentation to Mr Devil's exclusive assistant, Assistant Michaels whose first name I had come to know was Zane and the next thing I knew
ZANE(In my study)Valeria and I sat facing each other. I saw her look around the room and then exclaim. "Woah. Your boss treats his employees a little bit too good, ain't it?""Who would have thought that in addition to having your own room, you would also have your personal study INSIDE your boss's own house! That's too good of a treatment even for an exclusive assistant."Her words made me involuntarily raise my eyebrows as I thought inwardly to myself.'Did she really not suspect my true Identity at all or was she just pretending not to?'Not to mention the fact that the lies I told her about myself were full of obvious loopholes, the truth was that I never really planned to hide my true Identity from her (of course I meant the one on the surface here) since she would sooner or later know of it after we leave Meteor City for the Capital.Yes, you got that right. I am not a native of Meteor City. I only came here about a year ago which also happened to be the time when I got betra
ZANEOn digesting everything written on the folder, one question had occurred to me.'Was there still a need to continue with this marriage?'Objectively speaking, I had made the decision to marry Valeria because I thought that in the end, we would both just be taking what we both need. However, the current problem was that she apparently never even needed my help in the first place.The obvious choice to make next was no doubt to let her go on her way by divorcing her and at the same time, compensate her with money and real estate just like I planned to do or would have done in the course of the marriage being over after the three years I intended. Yet, for some reason I feel reluctant to do so. I wouldn't be naive to think that it was because I had fallen in love with her because I knew that I definitely hadn't. If there should be reason for that feeling of reluctance, I would probably attribute it to the fact that getting along with her in the past three days had been quite comfor
ZANEThe moment I heard her first condition, I knew without doubt that I would definitely not be able to fulfill it since I still had to confirm if she could really help with my condition. However, the thing was I couldn't reject her outright after all I was the one who asked to raise conditions.But there was one thing I could use to my advantage... A loophole I had caught in her words."What if you were the one to initiate the intimacy?" I deliberately asked.The minute I finished saying those words, I saw her face stiffen before she then looked at me with an expression of "Are you fr**king kidding me?"At first, I didn't understand what she meant by looking at me with that expression but when she spoke after, I immediately understood even though that left me even more speechless."Me? Take the initiative to initiate the intimacy? Between me and a old man? Are you pulling on my legs right now?"Wait... An old man? She just called me an old man?For the first time since a long time,
VALERIAEven though I said that, I couldn't help but feel relieved deep inside when I heard his words after all, even with my initial plan itself, I had no intention of being intimate with my 'old' husband. In fact, just the thought of it sent chills straight down my spine and even had goosebumps popping out of every single pore on my body. "If it's like that, then I have no qualms about signing the agreement. However, I hope we can also put those conditions of mine in writing as well." I really had no choice but to agree because I had taken fancy to the generous after-divorce compensation. This was because Treasure Media had been faintly showing a trend of funds shortage and in the coming years, it would become more and more apparent and I urgently needed some funds to remedy that.Honestly speaking, when I had first offered that one precent shares, the intention behind it had not been as simple as I said. I had my own considerations for doing that - I felt that if the owner of Bla
VALERIA"Ugh!"After trying for the umpteenth time to write the perfect musical score and failing, I let out a grunt of frustration before roughening up the paper in my hand and throwing it to the side to join many of its companions.Sitting on the soft woolen rug, I grabbed a handful of my hair and leaned my head against the bed before staring without focus at the ceiling. This has been my state for the past few days - staying cooped up in the room and continuously trying to put the inspiration I had for my new song into writing. In fact, even my meals had to be personally delivered into the room by a helpless Zane.But quite unfortunately for me, my creative process wasn't going as smoothly as I would like.The familiar sound of a guitar strumming - the default ringtone of my phone brought me out of my depressing thoughts. I gave the phone which was carelessly placed a hand stretch away from me a dismissive glance, not really feeling like picking up the call however, when I caught
VALERIA“So is the Jenna you two talking about really that bandmate of yours?” Sarah once again interrupted my thoughts.“Yes, that’s her. She’s no longer a member of the band though. Or rather, our band is now disbanded; we’ll make an official announcement on our page later.”“That explains it then.”It was yet another enigmatic statement, which made me unable to help but wonder when Sarah developed a habit of speaking in circles.“That explains what? Can you explain more clearly?” I asked, my tone laced with no small amount of helplessness.In response, she scooted closer to me and then said in a conspiratorial tone, “Before I say anything, let me make this clear first—I’m definitely not trying to speak badly of her, since this is practically basic knowledge to those in the know.”“Note taken. Go ahead.”“So the thing is...,” she scooted even closer, “Jenna has always been jealous of you.”Noticing the dubious look I threw her, she didn’t panic and continued speaking, “I know you wo
VALERIALost in thought, I was startled back to reality by a light tap on my shoulder. I blinked and turned around, just in time to hear the person call my name.“Hey, Val.”It was one of my former roommates from freshman year. We had been the only ones in the dorm studying the same major, so we naturally became the closest. That hasn’t changed,, at least for me—she was still the closest female friend I had on campus.Seeing her, I couldn’t help but smile, “Sarah.”“Welcome to the final stretch,” I added as an afterthought.“I know, right?! it’s crazy to think we’ll be graduating soon. Time’s gone by so fast,” Sarah said with a nostalgic, yet excited smile on her face as she took the seat next to me on the right.“Crazy indeed—it feels like just yesterday that we were freshmen. It’s honestly such a bittersweet feeling.”Silence ensued between us after this, only to be broken by Sarah’s abrupt question.“You haven’t logged onto the school forum today, have you?”“The school forum?” I d
VALERIALater, in the car.Yes, I wasn’t able to win against him in the end. Or to be more specific, he didn’t even give me a chance to.From the corner of my eyes, I could see him wearing a serious expression as he scrolled through his tablet.‘He looks really good in glasses…’Before my thoughts could drift further along that path, I snapped back to reality with an inward yelp.‘For goodness sake, Valeria! Is now really the time for your nymphomania to act up?’Regardless of the suffocating awkwardness in here that was getting increasingly impossible to ignore?Seriously!?After giving myself a good scolding, I sat upright and thought, ‘No, I can’t let this go on.’I have to do or say something! Anything!So, without fully processing the thought that suddenly popped into my mind, I found myself blurting out, “I plan to move closer to school—I have an apartment there.”‘What the h*ll was I saying?!’ I screamed internally after a belated reaction.However, after calming down, I realize
VALERIAAfter a good night’s sleep, I got up from bed early, washed up in preparation to start my first day as a college senior—yes, the seemingly never-ending summer break became officially over yesterday.Speaking of which, I would have forgotten all about it if Chris and Andy hadn’t given me a call and sent a message one after the other to remind me yesterday’s morning.I tend to forget about stuff like that, they said, and that, if I were to be honest with myself, was nothing but the truth.I, indeed, have always had trouble keeping track of events, holidays and even my own birthday--like I know and keep the date at the back of my mind, but on that particular day or the day before, I always manage to forget about it for some reason. Thinking of how the duo had made a tease bet on our gc to see whether I’ll still remember by today, I shook my head and smiled to myself.Following after, I gathered my thoughts, looked at the items spread out on the bed and tried to see if I had miss
ZANEValeria was avoiding me.If I had only been suspicious before, now I was certain.Today marks the third day of which I have seen neither hide nor hair of her. Of course, this wasn’t that unusual in her case considering how I have been witness to her staying cooped up in her room for days, neglecting to eat while working on her music.Eventually, I had to step in and personally deliver her meals to her room.However, when I asked Arlo about her yesterday, I was told she usually comes down to eat breakfast after I leave for work.If that doesn’t make it glaringly obvious that she was avoiding me—especially when it had become the norm for us to eat breakfast together—I don’t know what will.But let’s say that the first and second day were nothing but coincidences; today happens to be the third day, so I will verify in person whether it's indeed a coincidence or a deliberate avoidance, like I suspect!With this in mind, I gave my chauffeur a call, instructing him to drive-off and ret
VALERIAIn the days that followed, Madeline did as she promised and came to me multiple times to ‘continue’ from where we left off our prematurely interrupted conversation.She was a persistent one, honestly.One time, I remember asking why it had to be me or rather, our group of mavericks.Her answer was, “You guys seem really cool to me, and it made me want to get to know you better.”To the adult me, such words would barely have made an impact, but for teenagers obsessed with the word ‘cool,’ it was everything!It doesn’t matter how mature a teenager was, being called or known as one of the cool guys was simply the ultimate compliment.So it was hardly surprising that I quickly threw caution to the wind and allowed her into our small circle of friends. Of course, the annoyance from Jack’s constant threats/demeaning words, in addition to my twin sister, Vanessa’s passive-aggressive ‘persuasion’ couldn’t be omitted as contributing factors.When I came back to my senses later on, I di
VALERIAUntil a little over a decade ago, the Hales weren't exactly considered a top-tier aristocratic family in Meteor City because then, the prominent and well-known ones were just three — the Baltimores, the Astors and the Roosevelts — in no particular order.In short, we call them “THE BAR.”On the other hand, we could, at best, be considered the unofficial fourth along with the Morgans — Andy's family.Of course, this was just my dad's personal thoughts.Thoughts that I have come to understand were nothing but a product of his inflated pride considering how wide the gap between our families and THE BAR was at the time.That being said, whether it was due to coincidence or not, each of these five families had children in Grade 6 Class A, and just like every other aristocratic school, hierarchy existed among the students.The children of THE BAR, for example, were an exclusive and close-knit clique while the rest of the students had only two options; either become their sidekicks w
VALERIANot knowing when I finally fell asleep, I woke up to find myself in total darkness and immediately panicked.As someone who suffered from fear of the dark, I always made sure to leave the nightlight on regardless of whether I was yet to fall asleep or not.‘So how could it possibly be this dark?!!!’ I thought to myself in agitation as I groped around trying to find the direction where the bedside table was.As I did this, I also wondered if the nightlight might have gone out due to a dead battery but this possibility was instantly ruled out by me. For no other reason that I might forget any other thing, but the one thing I would never do is charging my nightlight — that was just how important it was to me.All of a sudden, I stopped groping all around as I realized something strangeI seemed to be standing?And that was not all, I no longer seemed to be in my bedroom either because if I was, how was it possible that I haven’t bumped into anything except empty air after all th
ZANESurprisingly, the faces of the two men showed visible signs of struggle the moment they heard the question but upon thinking of the fact that they were likely ex-military men who had been through rigorous training, it became a matter of course.However, if it was that easy to overcome the effects of the serum, it wouldn’t be as rare and pricey as it currently was. Sure enough, their pitiful struggle only lasted a few seconds following which the drug took control and made them answer mechanically.“We actually have no idea who the other party is since he placed the order through the dark web, but judging from how inexperienced and easily led around he was during our chat, we guessed that he was likely a newbie to the platform.”“At first, we really had no plans to take the order because not to mention that the commission he offered was laughable, the fact that even top-tier mercs steered clear of any mission related to Mr. Harrison had long made us at the bottom rungs wary.”“But