•DARLA•After Anthony left my hotel room, I sat in the same spot for 30 minutes and thought of everything that he said and revealed to me. I felt so robbed of a mother who could've loved and cherished me. What made it worse was that Belinda was the one who denied me that opportunity to know my mother.Giving the paper a second glance, I decided to call and hire a car so that I could go to the address and see my mother's family. When I was done organizing for a car, I drove to West Virginia, Beckley. I hoped that seeing them was going to be comforting and that at least I had met my mother through them. When I got to West Virginia, I looked around the place as if I was seeing little fragments of my mother that she left behind. When I drove inside Beckley and found the address, I stopped outside the driveway and looked at the house for a moment longer. I felt like crying all over again, wishing that Belinda could've been caught and arrested for such a gruesome murder of a pregnant
•ETHAN•"Was that Mommy, Uncle Ethan?" William asked when I got off the phone and placed my cell phone on the table counter. "Yes, it was, buddy. She told me to tell you to stop running around the house before you fall and break all your teeth." "Oh," he sighed as he slowed down. "But I wasn't too fast. I'm trying to save the world here. Please don't snitch on me." He whined as he jumped slowly until he disappeared from my sight. I chuckled as I watched him. I felt sorry for him for not having a friend around, but at least he seemed to be doing okay without one. I turned to my laptop and continued searching for Noah Cole. But I just couldn't find his profile because all the ones I found were of much younger boys."Hey, Mom. Do you happen to know where Noah Cole stays?" I asked after I called her because it seemed like I was going nowhere with my search. "Honey, are you telling me that you still haven't let this go, even after Eva told you to?" "I can't let it go, Mom." I sighed
•DARLA•"Mommy, Mommy..." "Mmh..." "Mommy, wake up." "Mmh..." I gasped as I woke up and groaned when I felt a throbbing headache. When I tilted my head, I saw an IV drip inserted into my forearm vein. When I tried to sit up, a pair of arms held me back. I was so confused about where I was or what had happened. Even my memory was blurry. "Darla, you will hurt yourself. Please, lay back. You're in the hospital. The doctor will be here soon." When I lifted my eyes and saw Elijah, it made me even more confused. "Elijah, what happened? Why am I here?""You were involved in a car accident. I was here in the hospital when they brought you in last night. How are you feeling?" He asked. "My head," I groaned as I scratched my head. "It hurts. I don't know what happened when I was driving." "They found alcohol in your system." He answered. Then it dawned on me that I had been drinking while I was driving. When I remembered everything that happened last night, I felt my heart breaking al
•ELIJAH•"How is she doing? Is she going to be okay?" I asked the doctor after he informed me that Abigail lost her child. I felt so bad and wished that I could've stopped her the moment she came back from the kitchen with the knife. I hated the thought that I was the reason she had lost her child, even though it wasn't my baby. "She's out of surgery now and resting. I am also concerned that she might need special care after what she did. A mental institution might be our best option than getting a therapist for her. They will monitor her behavior and find the best way to stabilize her. She's not only a danger to herself but to everyone around her." "You think she has a mental condition?" I asked. I couldn't believe it. Well, she has always had a temper and the impulse to do crazy things, but I never thought that she had a mental condition. I loved her once, and she was perfect. She was the woman that I saw myself with. She had never lost her temper or did anything to endanger h
•ABIGAIL•"I'm not crazy! Let me go! Let me go!" I kept screaming and squirming as they took me from my hospital ward after a week. When we got inside a van in the parking lot, they shoved me into the backseat and closed the door. They didn't even say anything to me as they got inside and drove to the mental institution. If there wasn't any barrier between the back seats and front seats, I would've strangled them before they could get me to that place. I was so angry at Elijah for allowing something like this to happen to me when he knew very well that I wasn't crazy. My only sin was being in love with him. When we finally arrived outside the institution, the two guys hopped out of the van and opened the door to let me out. But I didn't want them to take me in, so I tried to kick their faces when they leaned over to grab me. "Does a crazy person look like me?!" I snapped as I angrily grabbed tight on the seat while just kicking when they tried to grab me. When they leaned back
•DARLA•"Hello?" "Hey, Darla. I heard about your accident, and I just wanna say I'm glad that you survived. Are you in a good space to talk?" Anthony asked on the phone. It had been a week and a half since the accident, but I was feeling much better. My broken ribs had also been healing, and so was the throbbing headache that kept coming and going. "Yeah, I'm fine. How are you?" "I'm good. I wanted to inform you about the autopsy report that I received of our father. I had his body dug up a week ago, and I just found out the name of the substance used to kill him." "Okay?" I got up from my chair in my home office and lit up for the information that he had for me. This was one step closer to bringing my parents the justice that they deserved. Especially my mother, who was killed without a cause."She used a poison hemlock. He offered him a few grams a day before she eventually used more than a hundred grams to kill him. The poison has been killing him slowly since she started fe
•ELIJAH•"We are looking forward to doing business with you, Mr. Houston. We've heard of your work ethic, and we are thrilled about starting this new project with you." "Thank you, Mr. Johnson." I shook his hand as we sealed our collaboration on his new estate-building project. We sat down and ordered the most expensive bottle of champagne in the restaurant to celebrate the new business project that we would be starting in a month. Even though I already had a project that I was working on in Detroit, I was grateful that I had a huge construction team who would take care of the other project that I had started with Mr. Johnson in Chicago. "Darling." When I tilted my head and looked where the voice was coming from, I met Abigail's gaze and a smile on her face that almost reached her ears. I was so shocked to see her because the last time I checked, she was admitted to a mental institution and was bound to be there for more than a month. "Abigail?" "Are you happy to see me?" She
•ABIGAIL•"Harper told me everything about you. And if she had told me sooner before I foolishly divorced my wife to be with you, I would've never wasted another second of my life to be with you."I kept thinking about what Elijah said to me when I went to my hotel room. I was panicking as I paced up and down in the small bedroom. 'That stupid whore betrayed me even after I warned her. I can't let her get away with this. She has to pay for ruining everything that I worked hard for. She has to pay for killing my child.' I thought as I took my cell phone and made a call. Even though Kathrine wasn't there when I needed her help, she was the only one who could help me find a way to deal with Harper and her stupid brother."Hey, Abi. I wanted to call you and apologize for what happened. I couldn't find a way to get you out of that place. I'm very sorry, sis." "It's alright, that's not why I called. I applied the teachings that Mama gave us and got myself out. But I have a problem and yo
•DARLA•"Well, thank you for keeping me informed, Anna. Please tell Charlotte that I'll come over and see her very soon, okay? I've just gotten the twins back and can't travel with them yet." "It's okay, I'll tell her, and thank you so much for everything that you did for us. Now that she's out of the hospital, you don't need to send us money anymore. We'll make do with what we have." "It's okay, Anna. I want to help, and until Charlotte has fully recovered, I'll keep sending you money to make sure that the kids are taken care of and that the bills are paid. You're my family, and I have to make sure that you're good." Anna sobbed on the phone as I went inside the house with Elijah behind me. "Thank you so much, Darla. I wish my sister was still alive to see how her daughter has been taking care of us. I hope she's looking down from heaven and is so happy and proud to have you as her daughter." "Yeah, I hope so too. Anyway, have a good night, and kiss the kids good night for me. I
•ELIJAH•"Elijah, can we talk?"I groaned when I heard my mother's voice behind me. I was on my way to work in the morning when she stopped me right in my footsteps in the hallway. "I just want to make sure that you and I are good. I can't bear the thought of being in a bad place with one of my kids after laying one of them to rest forever. I can't take it anymore, Elijah, please. I am very sorry for everything that happened. But you are my son, and what happened between me and your father was never meant to reach your ears." I scoffed as I turned around and looked at her. "I'm not mad at you because you had an affair when you were with my father and had Harper. What pisses me off more than anything is your affair with a man young enough to be your son. Actually, I don't think I would've had a problem if that man wasn't my children's uncle." "I know, baby. I know that I messed up," she leaned closer. "But what happened between Anthony and I was nothing, but something that was meant
•DARLA•Elijah kept snickering next to me in the car while I was trying to act all serious and avoid him. We were on our way to the airport, and I already didn't want to see him. I just wanted to be home with my kids and pretend for a moment that everything that happened didn't happen. "Are you really not going to say anything to me?" He broke the silence, and I rolled my eyes, folded my arms on my chest, and looked away from him. "Come on, I won't tell the kids until you're ready to tell them yourself. You know that I want what's best for them," he added.When we got to the airport, we boarded our plane and I was relieved when we didn't get seats next to each other. After a few hours on the plane, we finally arrived in Atlanta, and Elijah hurried to help me and the twins out. I then told the twins to go inside our car and wait for me while I had a word with Elijah. He just smirked when I pulled him to the side. "Listen, I don't like this tension between us, especially about my
•DARLA•"You can't take my kids from me, Elijah. I don't care that you feel as if I kept them from you for years, but you're the one who abandoned me when I was carrying them. Those kids are mine," I seethed as we got inside a taxi in Montana."It's because you kept them from me that I think I should stay with them for a while. They deserve to know their father and be close to him." I shook my head as I looked out of the window. "We are getting my kids, and until I'm sure that they're safe, I'm not letting them off my sight.""They're mine as well." God, I regretted ever telling him the truth. He was going to use that line against me every time he wanted to have his way and take my kids from me. I didn't say anything to him until we arrived at the station. I hopped out of the car and rushed inside the building, eager to see my kids and make sure that they weren't harmed. When an officer came to assist me, I told him about the twins, and he didn't hesitate as he took me straight t
•ABIGAIL•"Fuck," I cursed under my breath as I took a hoodie and covered my face. I stood in front of a tall building and released an exhausted sigh. I was in Chicago, and I was sure as hell that I would be caught soon. I hesitated to walk inside the building and find the person that Kathrine said would be able to help me until all the chaos had settled. I took a deep breath as I walked up the stairs and asked for Caleb from the receptionist. She gave me a stern look before she directed me to his office."Hold on for a minute," he suggested as he was on a phone call.I impatiently sat down on the chair in front of his desk and tapped my foot on the floor. I knew that Elijah wouldn't give up searching for me until he had found me. Now that it turned out that Harper survived, I had nowhere else to hide anymore. "Kathrine's sister?" Caleb asked after getting off his call. I took off the hoodie that covered my face and nodded. "Yes. She said you'll be able to help me with getting a
•ELIJAH•"I'm going to the house right now, Harper called and told me that she had arrived. I just wanted to pass by the restaurant and get something to eat and avoid my mother for a while." "You still mad at her about Harper's biological father?" Jason asked as I was heading back home. "And that she was sleeping with Darla's brother. I couldn't believe it when Abigail revealed it before she disappeared. My mother even had the guts to admit it to me without showing any remorse or shame." "Fuck. That's pretty messed up, bro. What is she going to do when she finds out that the twins are yours?" "She knows that. I told her. I wanted to see her reaction when I told her. What baffles me is that she was the one who kept pressuring me to get DNA tests after she met the twins. I don't know if she didn't think that her relationship with Anthony was going to be jeopardized." "It's okay, bro. I hope you and your Mom manage to find a common ground and fix things. The twins deserve a family r
•ETHAN•"Ethan, please tell me that the kids aren't with you. You're going to be in serious trouble if you're caught by the police with them on the road." Chris said on the phone when he called me again the following morning. I hung up his call yesterday because I was afraid that he was going to tell the police that I was the one who took the twins, especially since he was the one that I talked to. "Yes, Chris, the twins are with me. But you should know that they're perfectly safe with me. I've been their father since day one, and nothing has changed. I have the right to be with them now.""You just don't get it, do you?" He released a low growl on the phone. "The twins are everywhere on the news. The moment they see them with you, you'll be in trouble." "You and I know that you're the one who thought this would be a good idea to get Darla back to her senses. You don't think that's a good idea anymore?" "I never said you should kidnap the damn kids! Elijah's looking for them, and
•DARLA•"Elijah knows about the kids being his?" Daphne asked as I laid my head down on her lap as we were sitting in her living room. "I just found myself blurting it out because I was upset. I don't know, but my mind was all over the place, and maybe I felt guilty that the kids went missing, and he still didn't know they were his children." "How did he react?" I sighed. "I just left him there and went to my car. I couldn't even go home and decided to spend a night here. I didn't want him to come knocking outside my door." "So, you're avoiding him?" She asked as she looked down at me with a smirk. "That's not what I'm saying!" I defended myself as I straightened up from the couch and looked at her. "I just don't want us to talk about my pregnancy. Not while my kids are still out there and not found yet." "Are you sure that's why you're avoiding him? You told me that something happened between you two when you were suspecting that Ethan was cheating on you, remember?" I sighed
•SONIA• "Now that the boy is mourning his sister, I want you to be there for him. Be his shoulder to lean on and create a safe space for his vulnerability. It's time you show this family gratitude for everything that we've done for you." "Yes, Daddy." I bowed my head a little and nodded as a tear slipped down from my eye. "Are you crying?" "No!" I exclaimed as I quickly wiped the tear from my eye and looked up at him. "I'm sorry, Dad." My father sighed as he got up from the couch across from me and looked at me. "We'll talk when you come back home." He then walked out of the living room and went to his study. I closed my mouth and released the tears that I was holding behind my eyes. I was so scared of failing my father and our family. More than anything, I was scared of losing Philip, the only man who loved me for me. My father never approved of him because he didn't come from a good family background. His family was poor, and he earned an average salary. "Miss -"