•DARLA•
After a little while, things seemed to be going very well for Elijah and me. I was happy and praying that things remained the way they were. I found myself enjoying the little gestures he did to make up for what was wrong. We were spending time together and laughing together a little bit more than before. I found myself falling in love with him all over again. He was my dream guy, and I couldn't imagine a love greater than what I felt for him. Even though he had never expressed his love for me, I decided to be patient with him and wait for the day he would realize that he was in love with me. As for the baby part, I didn't allow it to ruin my mood every time his mother asked if I had my period or not. I decided to occupy my day with the study material that I received from Business College before my parents abruptly discouraged me from studying further for my business degree and told me that I had to marry Elijah and be a housewife. Although Elijah had no idea about my desire to be in business, I thrived in living my business career through him and was always happy whenever he was kind enough to share some of his triumphs at work. When I mentioned a few times about studying further, Elijah always ignored me and his mother, and my parents always told me that I had to focus on building my family, so, the study material was all that I had to keep my dream alive. While I was busy contemplating how I was going to get myself enrolled in a Business College without Elijah and our families knowing, my cell phone rang beside me, and I quickly answered it. "Amelia, hey!" I squealed in excitement, thinking that she might be the one to take me out of my misery. "Darla, are you home?" She asked, her voice a bit low. "Yes, I'm home. Is everything okay?" I asked as I started to get worried that she did not have good news. "I need you to come to the Houston's Construction building right now." I was so confused about what she was talking about because if something had happened to Elijah, we would've known about it at home. "What's going on, Amelia? You're scaring me," I said as I sat up straight on the couch. "You remember when I told you about the business conference that I had to attend here? Well, I just heard some things, and I need you to come down here, and I'll explain everything to you when you get here, okay? Just be quick," she answered before she hung up the call. My heart was racing as I got up from the couch and prepared myself to go to Elijah's company building. *** When I arrived outside the building, I got out of my car and called Amelia. "Hey, I'm outside," I informed her after she answered the call. "Just come inside. Go to Elijah's office," she replied. My heart started racing again. "Are you going to tell me what's going on?" "Just go to his office. I'll be behind you," she answered before she hung up the call on me again. I felt so confused and didn't know what to think of the whole thing. I knew one thing. That Elijah hated it when I showed up in his office unannounced. But if there was something that I needed to find out, then I wasn't going to waste the opportunity of finding out myself. "Oh, babe, you flatter me," a woman giggled inside his office. "You have no idea how much I've been craving to feel your lips again. Your body against mine..." Elijah answered, and I instantly lost it. I barged inside the door and found him with Abigail kissing. They leaned back from each other when they heard the door opening. "Is this what you do behind my back and then come back at night to sleep on the same bed with me?" I fumed as I walked toward them. "Is this what you do, Elijah? You sleep with your new secretary and come back and tell me that she's family to you? You're actually making me a fool while you have the guts to spread my legs and insert the same dick that you use with her?!" "What are you doing here, Darla?" He dared to ask that because we had company behind me, and they were all seeing what kind of a jerk he was. "Don't you dare ask me that question!" I shot back. "You're cheating on me and making me think as if I've been hallucinating the whole thing!" "Close the damn door, Amelia!" He commanded her behind me when he saw that someone was holding a phone and taking pictures. After Amelia closed the door, Abigail pointed her finger at me. “How dare you come here and cause havoc in front of our clients and colleagues?” “No,” I closed the small gap between us. “How dare you flirt with my husband?” I snarled. She scolded, “Before he was your husband, he was mine, and as far as I'm concerned, he's still mine.” Before I knew it, she gave me a hot slap on my face and when I wanted to slap her back, she grabbed my hair and when I tried to lose her hands from my hair, she tripped and I fell on top of her. When I got up from her, I realized that she had passed out. "Fuck, Darla! Do you see what you've done?!" Elijah growled as he pushed me from Abigail, and I lost balance and fell on the floor near his desk. My heart broke when I saw him trying to wake her up without a care in the world about me. Even when I tried to stay awake, my body started feeling weak from the excruciating stomach ache after falling on the floor, and it became all black. *** When I woke up and saw a drip machine next to my bed, I groaned as I closed my eyes and tried to recall how I got into the hospital. When I remembered the last image of Elijah trying to wake up Abigail when he had just pushed me out of the way, my heart broke again. "Mrs. Houston, you're awake!" A voice called out as I lifted my head and looked at the woman walking toward me. "I'm Dr. Criscilla Reeves. I've been your doctor for the past 8 hours you've been admitted to the hospital." "Oh, I see. Where's my husband, Mr. Houston?" "You were brought here by your friend, Amelia. Do you want me to call your husband for you because there are news here that I have for you?" Of course, Abigail was more important, and he didn't care what was happening with me. Even if I died, he wouldn't have cared. "No, there's no need for that. What's the news?" I asked, thinking that I probably had cancer and only had a few months to live. "We did blood tests, and you're 6 weeks pregnant. Congratulations, Mrs. Houston."•DARLA•"You're 6 weeks pregnant... Congratulations, you're 6 weeks pregnant..." The words kept replaying over and over in my mind as the doctor signed my discharge papers, and Amelia came to pick me up. I kept asking myself how I even got pregnant when I was on birth control, and Elijah was even making sure that we didn't have a child together yet. I wasn't sure if I had any slip-ups, especially now that Elijah wasn't hiding his unfaithfulness to me and was publicly displaying his affection for Abigail. I wasn't even sure that he would want me to keep the baby if I told him the news. He made it clear several times to me that he didn't want us to have a child. "I'm so sorry about yesterday, I didn't want to tell you on the phone about what I saw and heard." Amelia apologized as she pulled up outside the house. I looked at her and smiled. She was my best friend for 20 years now and I was happy that she always got my back. She and I had come a long way, and I trusted her more tha
•ELIJAH•"Hey," a voice greeted me at the door of my office, and when I lifted my eyes and saw Abigail, I straightened up with a smile on my face. "Hey," I smiled at her as she closed the door behind her and walked toward my desk. "We need to talk," she breathed as she sat down on the chair opposite mine. I tensed up at that because I knew that it wasn't something good. In my mind, I assumed that it had something to do with my wife. That bitch couldn't behave. I hoped that for her sake, Darla wasn't causing any trouble with Abigail and disturbing her peace. "What is it? Is everything okay?" I asked. "Yeah, but... There's something I have to tell you." She took out something from her handbag and placed it on the table contour in front of me. When I saw the positive pregnancy test, my heart raced, and I felt like I was sweating. 'Wait -' In my mind, I wasn't even sure that I nutted inside her, which explained the throbbing headache the following morning in our hotel room two m
•DARLA•One way or another, my life had to go on, and that meant that I had to let go of my breakup with Elijah. "Your husband called and told us about the divorce. Is it true?" My mother asked on the phone the following morning. I hesitated to answer because I knew how much she and my father wanted my marriage with Elijah to work. "Yes, Mom. Elijah filed for divorce, and we would be officially divorced very soon after his attorney finalizes it in court." "You can't get divorced from the Houston boy, Darla. Like the good girl that you are, I want you to go back to him and make things right. Apologize for whatever it is that you did to him and make sure that the divorce doesn't happen. Do you understand me?" I groaned as I got up from the couch in my hotel suite. "He divorced me, Mother, because he's having a baby with someone else. I can't possibly go back there and ask him to take me back after what he did!" "You can't go back just because he's having a child with someone else?
•DARLA•"Are you sure that you can do this?" "Yes, Ethan, and before I change my mind, I need you to run me over the whole thing again. I need all the details, including the business that you'll be doing with the Iraq men." "Of course, we can set up another lunch date, and I'll tell you everything that you need to know. And about leaving Atlanta," he paused for a moment. "I was going to suggest that we relocate to California. That's where I'll be working most of the time." I honestly didn't care about where we relocated to, as long as I was going to be very far away from Elijah. I was looking forward to finally living my life without being told what to do and when to do it."That sounds great to me. As long as we will be out of Atlanta," I said as I packed the pregnancy report inside my traveling bag. "I'm sorry about earlier, I should've -" "It's okay, Ethan," I sighed as I sat down on the edge of the bed. "I'm over that now. Once you and I leave this place, we won't talk about
•ELIJAH•"You're going to pay one hundred and fifty million dollars in alimony? Are you insane?" Shane asked, shocked as we were drawing up the alimony arrangement."She's been with me for two years. She deserves even more than that," I replied as I closed my work laptop and turned my attention to him. "I can't believe that you're willing to pay this much money to a woman that comes from a wealthy family as well, and you weren't in love with." "Okay," I rolled my eyes with a sigh. "I shouldn't tell you so much about my personal life if you're going to use it against me when you have to be my lawyer." "That's my job. To help you make rational and wise decisions when it comes to your personal life and money. I have to be your voice or reason." "That's the job for my PA and financial advisor. You just draw up documents to protect me legally. Nothing more," I emphasized. "Fine." He groaned as he wrote down the amount on the paper and looked at me. "So, are you going to marry this new
•DARLA•"You're leaving Atlanta? Are you serious?" Amelia gasped in shock and irritation. "You can't tell me that Elijah got under your skin, and now you're on the run!" "I'm not running, Amee." I rolled my eyes. "It seems so to me," she sighed. "If you leave town, he's going to know that you left because of your divorce. Besides that, Atlanta is all that you know, Dee." "I know, but I have to go. I made this deal with Ethan, and my terms were that we leave town. Elijah doesn't know about the baby, and I want to keep it that way." "You keep surprising me, honestly." She sipped her cocktail and groaned. "How does he not know about the pregnancy?" "Because I don't want him to know. It's mine. He's going to have his own family with Abigail, and I don't want it any other way." "So, you're leaving town and keeping his baby from him? Please tell me that this is not going to be the biggest mistake that you've ever made?" "I know what I'm doing, Amee. I have to do what's best for me an
•DARLA•The next morning, when I left Atlanta with Ethan, it finally hit me for the first time that Elijah would never belong to me.When the flight took off from the ground, my heart broke once again, and I couldn't believe that he had chosen someone else over me.Just a few days after we broke up and filed for divorce, the pain felt new like the night he brought me those divorce papers and told me that Abigail was pregnant with his child.I couldn't imagine any greater pain like that. Reality slapped me in the face when the last memory of him was with Abigail.I knew when I left that I would never be able to love another soul as much as I loved Elijah, even though he made it known to the world that there was no other woman in his heart, but Abigail. "Hey, are you okay?" Ethan asked, snapping me back to earth from the heartbreaking flashback."Yeah, of course." I smiled at him. "I'm looking forward to a new beginning in San Francisco.""We'll be there in an hour."I nodded at him wi
5 YEARS LATER •DARLA•"We are delighted to inform you that the board members liked the architect design copies that you sent and would like to offer you a project that will take place in Michigan. The allocated amount will range from one billion dollars to 10 billion, and you will have the privilege of hiring your own team of architects to work with. You will be in partnership with Elijah Houston, who will be assisting with construction men and all the needed materials. Thank you, Miss Sullivan, we hope to hear from you very soon.” My heart stopped for a second when my eyes lingered on Elijah's name in the email. I needed the project to add to my portfolio, especially since it was going to be big and spanning for quite some time. But seeing Elijah's name on the email filled me with doubts and hesitation. “A collaboration with Elijah Houston…” Ethan sighed as he looked at me as I sat down on the couch next to him after he received the same email. “I'm sure we will find something e
•ELIJAH•'Fuck,' I muttered under my breath as I inspected my swelled eye in the bathroom.That motherfucker punched me right in the eye and it was just starting to hurt. I quickly looked for first aid in the bathroom cabinet so that I could treat it myself. I took antihistamine eye drops to reduce the discomfort and then went back to my bed to lie down just a bit. I hoped that the swelling would be a bit reduced in the morning since I had to go to my office.I was about to fall asleep when my cell rang next to me, and I quickly picked it up when I saw that it was Billy. "Yes?" I answered the call as I sat up on the bed."The hand is not real. It doesn't belong to Miss Harper or anyone. Just a mannequin hand with realistic makeup. I don't even think that Abigail knew that." I stood up to my feet and was flabbergasted. Harper was alive, and that meant that someone else took her. Either to save her since Abigail had left her to die or was going to ask for ransom before they could b
•DARLA•"Am I interrupting something?" Ethan asked as he walked inside the cabin restaurant, and I froze in my steps for a moment. I was so shocked that I didn't know what to say. I wondered for a second how he even found me and came at the moment when I couldn't even make up a lie for what he saw. "Ethan, hey." Elijah greeted him and extended his hand for a handshake. But he just looked at it and walked toward me.He looked pissed and I had no idea what he would do when he looked like that. "You said Amelia called and asked for you to come over to her place because her man was giving her some trouble. So, where is she?" He asked as he looked down at me. "Ethan, this is not what you think. I can explain. You don't have to be irrational," I answered as I tried to grab his hand, but he wouldn't take it. "Irrational?!" He snapped. "Bitch, I'm not the one lying so that I can go and see my ex behind your back! You left the kids with me just so that you can come here and dine with him,
•ABIGAIL•"Hey, where are you? I went to your place just a while ago and couldn't find you." Kathrine asked on the phone when I arrived at my hotel suite with Diego. "I just went for a short vacation. Is everything okay?" I asked as I changed into comfortable clothing. I didn't want to tell my sister that I was in Detroit to sort out my problem with Harper because she was obviously going to tell me that she told me so. "Jason came here to my bar asking for you. I didn't know what to say to him. Is there anything I need to know, Abi? You know that I'm your sister and can help you with anything. I just hate that someone from the police is busy going around asking about you.""Did he tell you what he wanted with me?" I sighed as I leaned against the dressing table. "He didn't say anything, but I'm sure we both know what he wanted. Elijah could be the one who sent him. I hope you made sure that nothing could lead to you. They can't ever find Harper's body." "I know, Kat." I groaned a
•ELIJAH•"Sir?" "Yes, Billy?" "I think I found her." "You did? Where is she? Is she okay?" I was so happy when he told me that he had found her. "I found a body." "What?" "I found a hand. I think it belongs to Miss Harper. Abigail and her bodyguard just left, and I decided to inspect the place. I think they left her here after they killed her. I'm not sure if it's her hand, but I'll take whatever I can get and do DNA tests." My whole world shattered, and I didn't know what to say. I didn't know how I was going to tell my Mom the news. They were going to break her apart. But since Billy wasn't even sure that the hand belonged to Harper, I was going to wait until DNA tests proved otherwise. I hung up the call and turned to Darla at the bench. I didn't want to leave her just yet, but it seemed like I didn't have a choice. "Seems like I have to be on my way home now." She got up from the bench and looked at me. "It's alright, I hope they will find your sister." "I think they'v
•DARLA•"Lily..." I whispered under my breath when I arrived at the orphanage center that Elijah had kindly turned around and made it a more comfortable home for the kids who weren't lucky enough to find their happily ever after home."Miss Darla!" She squealed as she wrapped her arms around me and squeezed. "Did you come with Elijah? He told me that he'll be coming with you the next time he comes to visit."I sighed as we sat down on the grass at their park. It was easy to spot her since they were having a sports day. "You only got me, unfortunately," I chuckled as I pulled out a diary book for her from my handbag. "This is for you." "What is it?" She asked as she took the diary. "I had one when I was your age. It helps to write down the chaos in your head and keep them inside the book. That way, things don't get into you very easily. I know how chaotic things get when you're 15." She gave me a brief hug again. "Thank you, Miss Darla." I wrapped my arms around her and rested my
•DARLA•"Elijah, what are you doing here?" I closed my office door, and he walked to the table and sat down on the edge. "I didn't know where to go. I couldn't sleep or do anything. My mind is all over the place, Darla. I don't know what to think. I think I've lost my sense of direction in life." He vented as I walked toward him with my arms folded on my chest. "What's wrong?" I asked. I didn't want to throw him out. Not when he seemed like he needed to talk. He chuckled as he got up and walked toward me, and that's when I realized that he was fucking drunk. It was 10 in the morning, but his breath was reeking of alcohol. "Can you believe that my mother, the one person that I deemed to be perfect in everything that she does, cheated on my father and fell pregnant with my younger sister? The one who disappeared?" "Harper?" "She lied to us all our lives when she knew very well that my father died because of her. He died from a cardiac arrest because of her. I'm sure he couldn't ta
•ABIGAIL•"Who do you think you are?" I scolded. "You can't come here and threaten me in my house." "I just want to ask you a few questions, Abigail. You don't have to be so defensive." My goodness, I couldn't believe that Jason dared to come to my place and ask me useless things. Harper was probably dead wherever she was, but this guy was still bugging my ass about her. He texted and called me several times last night to ask me if I knew anything about Harper's disappearance, but despite telling him that I didn't know anything, he decided to come to my place and interrogate me.It was clear that he and Elijah were convinced that I was the one who kidnapped Harper. But fuck. I was the one who made him suspicious of me from the beginning when I threatened to hurt Harper because she ruined things for us and made me kill my child.But no, they weren't going to prove anything. "I'm not defensive." I scoffed. "How would you feel if I showed up at your house at this time of the day an
•ELIJAH•"I gave you an order to find my sister!" I punched Enzo in the face after Jason called me to his garage when he found him having a drink at the club and having fun. Jason had recommended him because he had good reviews about his competency in finding lost people. He was praised by many and had a lot of success cases. But when Jason found him slacking, we had to teach him a lesson. Every hour that he wasted by putting Harper's life at risk and anything could happen to her. It had been 4 days without any lead to her, and we were starting to be more worried and on edge. We couldn't afford any little mistake. "If you knew that you weren't capable of finding my sister, you would've declined the offer and stopped wasting time and my money!" I was angry and felt like beating him up just like they were beating up Harper on the video."I'm sorry, Sir, it will never happen again. I swear that I did my job and went to the club because I just wanted to clear my mind before resuming m
•ABIGAIL•"You will always belong to me, Elijah. No one is ever going to take you from me unless they want to deal with me." I looked at Sonia, who rolled her eyes at me."That's never going to happen." "Alright, if you say so." I looked at her and scoffed because she clearly had no idea what I was capable of, but she was about to find out."Listen here, and listen very carefully, Abigail," Sonia scolded as she closed the small gap between us. "If you know what's best for you, I would advise you to stay away from my business with Elijah. If he wanted to be with you, he would've made that clear by marrying you instead of breaking off your engagement." "Bitch, I still have his ring on my finger," I cocked my head to the side and smirked as I showed her the diamond ring. "So, as far as this is concerned," I pointed to the ring. "He's still mine." "Leave my house, you two, right now!" Elijah escorted us out of the house, and I didn't have a problem.When I got inside the car, Diego roa