Olivia ~•~Sandra hesitated for a while before speaking, her voice cracking slightly. “Alexander discovered the truth!” My heart skipped a bit and my mind raced with different thoughts. But when I realized I had no shared secret with Sandra that I was scared of getting out, I let out a relieved sigh and straightened my posture. “Alexander discovered what truth?” I asked with a confused expression registered on my face. “What are you talking about and how does it concern me?” There was a long pause on Sandra’s end before she finally continued speaking. “He found out the truth about Jason.” She added, her voice shaking. I was still confused. I had no idea what she was even talking about. She sounded so scared and guilty. “Calm down, Sandra,” I spoke in a soft voice. “Explain to me what you mean.” There was a long pause, and I could hear her breathing, shallow and uneven. When she spoke again, her voice was even shakier. “Jason isn’t Alexander’s son.” For a moment, I couldn’t sp
Alexander Burke ~•~I stared at Jason while he was lying on the hospital bed. I felt so devastated but I felt worse for him. How could he have a liar as a mother? I was so aggravated and my mind raced with a million questions. Why did she do something as deceptive as this? Why did she always make bad decisions? Why did she choose me to lie to and manipulate? A surge of anger coursed through my veins but I decided to stay calm for Jason’s sake. Even though I turned out not to be his biological father, I was already attached to him and still cared for him. But Sandra, on the other hand, I despised her. She lied to me for many years and was still going to keep up with her lie until eternity if I didn’t have to donate my blood to Jason. The nurse who did the DNA analysis during the blood testing was a lifesaver. When Sandra accused me of being Jason’s father, I shouldn’t have trusted her. Instead, I could have conducted a DNA test. All these years, I have been deceived and lied to.
Alexander Burke ~•~“What do you want? Why are you calling me?” I asked as I pressed the phone closer to my ear. She hesitated for a while before responding. “I have some information for you but I need something in return.” Her tone was desperate. I contemplated for a while. Should I trust her or hang up the call? What kind of information did she have and what impact was it going to have on my life?I already had an idea of what she would want in return and at this point, I didn’t care about giving it to her. But she had to have a good reason for me to consider doing it. After a long silence, I finally spoke. “What information do you have?” From the way she sounded, it seemed like she had something important to say. “You have to promise to agree to my terms first.” I closed my eyes momentarily, taking a calming breath before speaking again. “What are your terms?” I asked, anticipating to hear what she had to say. “Reduce my prison time.” Diana’s desperate voice echoed again fro
Alexander Burke~•~The sound of my ringing phone made me jolt out of my sleep. I picked up my phone and looked to see who was calling me. As I was about to answer the call from Arthur, my eyes darted to the top of my phone and saw the time was 5:00 A.M. I gasped in disbelief when I realized that I had spent the night in the hospital. I answered the call before it would end and brought the phone up to my ear. “Arthur, what’s going on?” I asked in a slightly groggy voice. I was still feeling sleepy. “I should be asking you. Why didn’t you tell me about what was going on? I’ve been trying to reach you throughout the night.” Arthur replied, his voice laced with a mixture of concern and frustration. I sat upright and scratched my eyes. “I’m sorry, maybe the service was bad. I wanted to fill you in but you were at a meeting.” I reminded him about the text he sent to me. “What kind of meeting did you attend by that time of the night?” Curious, I asked. Arthur sniffed. “Don’t worry abou
Alexander Burke~•~I nodded and took a sip from the glass of water on the table. Just as I was about to stand up from the chair, I got a text from Sandra. [ You have to come to the hospital right now.] Arthur noticed the worried look on my face and gently nudged me. “What is going on? What did you see on your phone?”I gave him the phone because I was still trying to figure out why Sandra would send me such an urgent message. Was Jason in danger or something? I guess I didn’t have time to rest anymore. Even if there wasn’t an emergency, I still needed to have a conversation with Sandra. “I’ll go upstairs and change,” I said as Arthur returned the phone to me. “Yeah, I’ll be waiting here. We’ll go to the hospital together.” Arthur gave me a reassuring look and I responded with a sigh. I was really exhausted from everything that was going on. I hadn’t even been to the office in two days. When I went upstairs, I ran into Tricia in the hallway. “Hey, what is going on?” She asked, r
Alexander Burke ~•~Arthur was shocked when I told him the entire story about what Sandra did. Initially, I didn’t tell him about what happened with Diana. But as we ate breakfast at a nearby restaurant, I filled him in on everything. “They really got some balls,” Arthur responded with an unbelievable scoff. “So how do you plan on dealing with them?” I sighed, leaning back into the chair. “I’ll speak to the doctors before pressing charges against the nurse,” I replied, my voice barely above a whisper. “As for Sandra, as soon as Jason is fully recovered, I’m reporting her to the police.” Sandra had caused a lot of problems but she somehow managed to get away with it. It was going to be different this time because I wasn’t planning to let her go freely. Did she think I was that gullible? I caught her lie and she went ahead to lie about it again, trying to manipulate me. Even if Diana hadn’t called me to inform me about Sandra’s plans, I still wouldn’t have believed this story she c
Olivia ~•~I couldn’t help but feel like my love life was damaged. I couldn’t bring myself to trust anybody again. I loved the time I spent with Maxim. I loved how he made me feel beautiful and seen. I loved the attention he gave me. I loved how effortlessly our conversation flowed but I couldn’t agree to having a second date with him. He was disappointed but grateful that I reached out to him. The person he was meant to be grateful to was Maya. It was Maya who literally forced me to give him a chance and go out on a date with him. Everything turned out nice but I couldn’t picture myself falling in love with another person. I had my fair share of romantic relationships with Ethan and Alexander. And both of them didn’t end well. I didn’t think I had it in me to be involved in another romantic relationship. However, Maxim promised to wait for me until I was ready and suggested that we could be friends. Throughout the time we spent together, I didn’t even ask him anything about hi
Olivia ~•~“The driver is here already. Are you ready to leave?” I asked Maya who was washing her hands inside the bathroom. “The luggage is already in the car.” “I’ll be out in five,” Maya yelled loud enough for me to hear. As I waited for her to come out of the bathroom, I started reminiscing about our trip. I was a little bit sad that it had to come to an end. But I was glad because I was going to see my babies. One week felt like an eternity without them. It was a good thing Maya had planned a lot of activities to make the trip interesting. A few minutes later, Maya walked out of the bathroom. “I’m ready to leave.” She said with a huge grin registered on her face. “Shall we?” She picked up her bag and gestured to the door. I nodded my head, offering her a small smile. “Sure.” I trailed behind her as we made our way to the elevator. I was going to miss Maya so much. Sometimes, I wish we lived in the same city. Soon enough, we were settled in the car and were on our way to t
Chapter 269Riley Burke ~•~I wanted everything to be perfect! For the past two weeks, I’ve been looking forward to this day. Mason and I were finally going on our date. I had no idea why I was nervous. It wasn’t like it was the first time I was going out with him. Maybe I was just having PTSD from our last date. But I knew I had nothing to be worried about. My father had assured me that he was okay with me being with Mason. He wanted me to be happy, even if my happiness included being with someone who had hurt us in the past. It wasn’t Mason who hurt us but I just didn’t focus on that part. As long as he was ready to move past the whole situation, I didn’t care to correct him anymore. “The makeup artist is here!” Rowan yelled loud enough for me to hear after knocking on my room door. Yes, I had to ask for a professional makeup artist because I was hellbent on making everything perfect. “I’ll be downstairs soon,” I replied as I wore my hair bonnet to protect my hair while getti
Chapter 268Mason Craig ~•~Ever since Riley’s father picked her up from the restaurant and interrupted our date, I had this lingering feeling of sadness inside me. But I acted like everything was fine and normal. I didn’t want to put too much pressure on her. I felt hurt because every day I woke up, I was reminded that she wasn’t my girl and could easily give another boy a chance. I didn’t want that to happen but at the same time, I didn’t have any control over it. Every day felt like torture but I was glad that it had finally come to an end. Riley’s father had finally approved of our relationship. A wave of excitement surged through me but I tried my best to remain calm when she told me about it. I would finally be able to be with the girl of my dreams. I had a feeling that he changed his mind because my father agreed to help when Riley had gone missing. I also had my father to thank. He finally fixed the mess he had caused earlier. Everything was finally going smoothly. I h
Chapter 267Olivia ~•~“Are you sure you don’t mind seeing them together?” I asked Alexander for the umpteenth time when he said he wanted to tell Riley that she could be with Mason. I didn’t want a situation where he would second guess his choice and regret his decision. Or a situation where he wouldn’t be nice to the boy later in the future. It wouldn’t be fair on Riley. Alexander nodded his head as he parked the car in the driveway. “Yes, I’m sure.” He assured me. “I shouldn’t be the one to take away my daughter’s chance at teenage love.” He added, smiling at me. I shrugged. “Okay, if you say so,” I replied as I loosened my seatbelt. “I hope you don’t have any secret animosity towards him that will reveal itself later.” Alexander laughed. “Don’t you trust me?” He asked, raising a brow at me. “I’m not holding anything against the boy. Not even his parents.” “Fine.” We stepped out of the car and made our way into the house. On our way back home, we stopped at the mall to get
Chapter 266Riley Burke ~•~It was fun having my friends over for the weekend. And it was a total flop trying to pretend like I was surprised when they first arrived. They saw right through my pretense. Even if we hadn’t been friends for so long, they knew me well enough. I barely even thought about what I had gone through while they were around. Having them around was a good distraction. I was sad that they had to leave. But I couldn’t do anything about it as I walked them to the car. During their stay, I realized that it was actually my mother’s idea to invite them over. Now it made sense why she was so welcoming. My mother didn’t usually like it when I had my friends over. I mean, my friends from high school. Our family was always under scrutiny, so she didn’t trust anybody. It was nice to see her giving my new friends a chance. The weekend was over and it was a new school week. I hadn’t completely healed but even when I assured my parents that I would be okay, they claime
Chapter 265Riley Burke ~•~As soon as my dad handed me a new phone, I found my friend's phone number and called them immediately. It was already noon and on the weekend, so I was confused about why none of them answered their phones. I mean, those girls were literally always with their phones. I really wanted to speak to them, but I guess I had to wait until later to try calling them again. Maybe they were busy with something. I spent most of my time inside my room and I was getting bored. Normally, my mother didn’t like it when l took my food upstairs but this time, she brought the food to my room by herself. I hadn’t gotten any reason to go downstairs. I needed a change of environment, so I decided to freshen up and head downstairs. I was pretty sure Rowan and Jason were playing video games in the living room. After spending about thirty minutes in the bathroom, I dressed up in my comfortable sweatshirt and shorts before making my way downstairs. “Hey,” Jason said as soon a
Chapter 264Olivia ~•~I wanted to accompany Alexander when he was going to see Maxim, but he refused. I knew that he didn’t want me to see him, but still, he said I was going to see him later. After helping Riley with dinner and giving her medication, I went back to the room to meet Alexander. I hadn’t talked to him since he came back from the station. “Hey, what happened at the station?” I asked him as I walked into the room. He was standing in front of the closet and searching through it. “I have something to tell you,” Alexander muttered under his breath. My interest became piqued. “I’m listening,” I responded as different thoughts ran through my head. Alexander sounded so serious and I couldn’t help but wonder what he wanted to say to me. He took a deep breath and turned around. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you earlier.” He cleared his throat and continued. “You remember when you found out that Maxim was a fraud?” He asked and I nodded, anticipating what he had to say next. “Y
Chapter 263Riley Burke~•~When we finished at the restaurant, my father asked my mother to drive me back home. He wanted to go to the station to see Maxim and the other men who kept me hostage. My mother wanted to accompany him but he refused, saying she would see him later. As soon as my father left, I followed my mother to the car. I couldn’t wait to go back home and see my brothers. I was so excited to see everyone. Being free felt so good. “Riley, I’m inviting the doctor over, so she can do a checkup and give you the necessary treatments you need.” My mother said as I settled down on the passenger’s seat. I hated anything related to hospitals or medical care, but I couldn’t protest against it. I actually needed medication because I was still in pain. My legs and my head were still hurting and I needed the pain to stop. “Sure,” I responded with a smile and my mother nodded. A few minutes later, we arrived at the house. My heart leaped for joy as the security guards open
Chapter 262 Rowan Burke ~•~I loved my sister but I had no idea that her absence would affect me so badly. Ever since I realized she was missing, I couldn’t even focus on anything else. My mind was always racing with different thoughts. What if something bad had happened to her and my parents took so long to search for her? Everyone thought Riley had willingly disappeared but that wasn’t the case. My sister was missing. I couldn’t even talk to anyone or go anywhere. I shut everyone out, including my girlfriend, Belle. Until Riley was found, I was certain that I would be restless. While my parents were at the station, I kept on blowing their phones with constant calls. Most of the time, they didn’t respond. A part of me felt bad because I wanted to be kept in the loop, I wanted to know what was going on, or even if they had gotten a lead. But I knew that they were busy and my calls were distracting them from doing their work. When my mother finally answered her phone, she a
Chapter 261Olivia ~•~Different waves of emotions rushed through me as I saw Riley running in our direction. Relief, joy, and gratitude swirled together, overwhelming me.I was so happy to see her. For a moment, I thought we were at a dead end. I thought she had left the house or the men they caught were probably lying about her whereabouts. She looked so scared but also excited to see us. Before I could even move, Alexander rushed and pulled her in a tight hug. I was still in shock as I watched them reunite. After a few moments, I joined them, turning the hug into a group hug. “Oh my baby, um happy to see you.” I smiled at Riley as we broke the hug. Riley looked like she was struggling to hold back her tears. I could only imagine what she had gone through at the hands of those people. Alexander stepped aside to call the detectives. He wanted them to know that we had seen Riley. While he made the call, I led Riley to the car. As soon as we got into the car, I began asking her