"Mrs. Smith!”Crystal stopped in her tracks; she turned back to Laurie who seemed to have been following her for quite sometimes now. She had been hearing the voice in the distance, but she was too deep in thoughts to realize they were calling for her. Crystal had an unsure look on her face as Laurie walked towards her; she wondered why Laurie was calling her. “Mrs. Smith.” Her breathing was labored, she bent slightly to hold her knees, and her chest was heaving dangerously. “Laurie, are you okay?”She asked her eyes narrowing in concern, “I am sorry I didn’t notice you were calling me.”“No, its okay, you have been so absent minded recently.” She said as she straightened her back. “Are you okay?” “Yes, I am, is anything the problem?” She asked curiously as she proceeded to walk back towards her office, Laurie looked out vacantly to be sure no one was in sight, it has been two days since the incident in Kayden’s office and ever since then she hadn’t gotten the opportunity to tal
“Mr. Smith, I would like to speak to you.” Kayden looked up from the computer screen and his eyes narrowed from the irritation, he just didn’t like to see Paige, she was even more unbearable than Crystal. “And what are you doing here? Where is Laurie?” “Hum... She wasn’t outside so I thought I could just talk to you really quick.” She said with an idiotic smile plastered on her face; she was too cheerful for his liking; she was the complete opposite of Crystal. He was glad, she didn’t have Paige’s personality, and he might have died from the cringe already. “It is about Crystal and I am standing here, as a representative of the entire design team.” He withheld his finger and fall back to support his back into the seat; now he was fully interested in the news she brought. “What is it? There is only little I can do about her.” “We got our paycheck for the month today.” She announced again with another heavy smile and Kayden fought the urge to roll his eyes. “We noticed there is
“Is that you, Father?” Crystal asked and the man paused slightly before turning towards her direction. From the way he narrowed his eyes, she could tell he doesn’t recognize her. “Who are you?” He asked cautiously and her eyebrows raised immediately, he had forgotten her, but had it been that long? Yes, it has… after all it had been twelve years already, twelve years has passed since he woke up one morning and left them, never to return. “You don’t recognize me anymore? Father?” She asked again, discerning that he might just be his lookalike and not her real father, she was about to tell him she made a mistake when he snapped his fingers. “I think—” “Cassandra?” His eyes softens and he smiled. “Look how tall you are now, the last time I saw you, you were about like this.” He gestured with his hands; he was smiling but she could feel the force in his smile; everything about his energy was forced, she wasn’t sure maybe he knew who she was from the start and he was just pretendi
Crystal woke up in a good mood, she rarely woke up feeling like she was the queen of sunshine, but it was different today even though she had a terrible night. She sat up in bed and clipped her toenails first since she had never modeled shoes before; she was starting to feel conscious about her toes, she wanted everything to be in perfect order. She heard a knock on the door and she froze for a while, she glanced at the time, it was just some minutes past six am the morning; it would probably be Petra or Sheryl; they had a habit of waking up early to worry her, she picked her clipped nails in her hands and walked towards the door. She opened the door, but instead of being met by Petra or Sheryl, her eyes met with Kayden’s silver eyes. The soft glow of light filtering through the half-opened door cast an illumination on his form, highlighting the chiseled contours of his body. His broad shoulders and well-defined chest were bare and bathed in the golden light. The soft fab
“Jake you won’t believe this.” Martinez shouted running towards Jake with his phone in his hands, Jake pushed himself up from the couch he was laid. “You need to see this.” “What are you shouting for?” Jake said with a slight frown on his face, he was hoping to get some sleep; he was unable to get some rest during the previous night, as he couldn’t stop thinking about Crystal. She had gotten even more beautiful than she was four years ago; he was unable to sleep knowing full well she was in the embrace of another man... It was hard to admit it but he was jealous. She had no right to be happy after everything she had done to him; it would be unfair if she lived so happily with her husband while he suffers miserably.“I want to take some rest.” “Its crystal,” He said handing him the phone, Jake sat up properly and collected the phone from Martinez; and scrolled through the pictures on Hi-Tweet and it was indeed Crystal. “There are a lot of her pictures trending on the inter
The continuous beeping of some sort of machine woke Crystal up, and as soon as she opened her eyes; they absorb the bright white lights of the room. She shut her eyes slightly, wincing in pain, she opened them again and noticed that she seemed to be in a hospital, the pungent smell of drugs made her even more sick than she already is. She groaned the only thing she felt in her body was pain; a body ripping pain She groaned as she tried to get up, when I felt something heavy against her neck and one of her leg was casted and hanged in the air. She hissed in frustration, when she noticed she was handicap.What the hell happened? Yes, she received an anonymous text that told her to come to the rooftop and she was pushed down the stairs. She could not even move her head to the side that was when she noticed that there was a heavy cast around her neck. Suddenly, the door opened and Kayden came in his brow furrowed in a long frown, he looked in her direction with an irri
“Madam Smith, you need to let us wash you. Mr. Smith said, you had not taken your bath in two weeks and you stink.” her eyes widened in embarrassment, was that what he said? That bastard… “I don't stink, I only smell like drugs.” She defended herself, she held the top of her dress together, they had tried to force her to take the dress off, but because she was struggling too much they left her alone and tried to convince her with words. She clutched the dress even closer to her chest, preventing Petra, Sheryl, or anyone else from touching her. “Come on, you have to wash up.” Petra said with a small frown on her forehead, her worry increasing as the time passes. “I can do that myself.” She insisted. “No, you can't.” Petra yelled again, now very frustrated by her attitude, there was literally nothing to be embarrassed about, because they were all women. “Mr. Smith carefully gave us order to make you clean.” Petra moved closer to her again and as she reached for Crystal again,
“Can I speak to you for a minute, Paige?” Kayden asked as soon as Paige left Crystal's room, she jolted in surprise, because she wasn’t expecting to see him right in front of the bedroom door. She let out a sigh from relief when she noticed that it was just Kayden and not some ghost that she had imagined in her head. “It’s pretty late right now and I don’t think you can go home. So, I suggest you just stay in the guest room.” He said as he folded his arms across his chest, he stared down at her, a mischievous glint in his eyes; he noticed her initial surprise and felt it was comical, he didn’t laugh obviously but his expression was equally mockingly. She was exactly like Crystal in so many ways. “No, I’m fine.” Paige said with steel like expressions, she didn’t know how long he had been silently waiting in front of the door like a predator, and she wasn’t so sure if he had heard anything they discussed. “I need to go home, I still live with my parents and they must be so worr
Alright! *drops pen* This is a special shoutout to everyone who turned the pages over, this is my first book (the first one I ever took seriously lol) and I'm glad it's not that bad. *hehe* Thank you so much for reading, commenting, venting your concerns, voting, and supporting "My Contract Marriage." Your opinions were appreciated and valued and it was just enough for me to go on as a writer. Y'all are my special babies and I won't forget this beautiful ride. Will it have a sequel? Probably. I hope to write more books in the future, so please stay tuned. My favorite character in the book is Sebastian, hehe, you should see more of him in the sequel (If I ever take my life seriously *hehe*). Thanks once again for supporting this book and staying with me through its rough times. xoxo
“Would it be a surprise if I told you?” He teased, pulling some stubborn strands of her hair away from her face and feeling up the soft skin of her face with his long thin fingers.“Don’t you think this is too much?” She asked, staring in the distance, her feelings overwhelming her. “It’s too much for me.”“I don’t think it’s enough.” He answered, and Crystal looked around once more. “Not enough?” she asked herself internally, what did he mean by it isn’t enough? She pinched the insides of her palms, hoping she would wake up from the unreal dream.“You deserve to have this and more. This is not enough for someone like you.”“But why?” it was still unbelievable. This building was worth millions, yet she couldn’t understand why Kayden thought she was worthy to have something of the sort. “I don’t know how to pay Mrs. Darling back, nor do I know how did I ever deserve to get such a gift?”“You don’t have to pay her back, however, you can also pay her back by doing exceptionally good in
Kayden glanced at Crystal who was staring outside the window with a rather unhappy look on her face, he was concerned because she had not spoken a word to him since the beginning of the ride, and he couldn’t help but feel that she was either angry or sad.“What’s making the birthday girl so sad?” He quizzed with a teasing smile as he controlled the steering wheel professionally, but Crystal didn’t glance back at him as much, which was even more suspicious.“It’s nothing.” She muttered and even after some seconds passed, she was still staring outside, yeah, she was mad at him, but what did he do? He had no clue what he had done wrong. Is she mad he was celebrating her birthday?That didn’t seem to be the case, she was just fine a few seconds ago, what could be the problem? He glanced back at her worriedly. “Did I do something wrong?” He guessed but she didn’t reply to him. “Crystal?”“No, you didn’t,” her response resembled that of a doll with missing batteries and Kayden’s eyebrows
"Are we not going to work?" Crystal asked as she climbed the stairs and headed towards the dining area. She noticed that Kayden, who was usually dressed by this time, was sitting at the dining table in his pajamas, drinking his morning coffee. Crystal glanced at her wristwatch and realized that it was way past their usual resumption time. She quickly opened her calendar app to confirm that today was not a weekend or a public holiday.They were already late, because even though she tried to get him out of bed, he wanted to cuddle a bit more, and she also couldn’t resist his charms.Instead of their usual breakfast foods, Petra and the other maids arranged the table with sweets, scones, and a baked turkey.“What?” she asked curiously. “Is this for Thanksgiving or something?”Crystal sat down on the chair next to Kayden. “Do you not know what day today is?” Petra asked, taking the words right out of Kayden’s mouth.“No, is something going on today?” She asked him curiously, and Kayden c
The sounds of birds chirping filled Crystal’s ears, she turned to the other side of the bed, her hands instinctively reaching for the pillows to block her ears; she turned away again, and this time it was the sunlight that was in her sight, she picked the other pillow to shield her eyes.Suddenly, she was pulled against a sturdy chest, the skin of which was smooth and enticing. She snuggled closer to him, relishing in the comfort from the heat his body radiated.It felt like she was floating on a cloud, she opened one of her eyes to observe his beautiful face, Kayden’s eyes were closed as he slept peacefully, and for a moment she wished time stopped so she could remain like this forever.It was peaceful.“I can’t sleep properly if you keep fiddling about the bed.” He murmured against her ears, smoldering her cheeks with kisses even though he was still half asleep.“I think it's morning though.” She noticed returning the small kisses to him as well, placing her head against his chest a
“I told you I am fine.” Sebastian scolded Lorenza, his mother because she had been complaining about his health ever since she got to the hospital. She cried about thirty minutes before he was able to convince her that he wasn’t going to die.“What do you think I am going to do if you had died?” The door opened and Crystal ambled inside with a tray of food in her hands, for the three days he had been here, Crystal hadn’t left the hospital. “How do you think I will survive?”“Mom, I told you that I wouldn’t die from such a shallow stab wound… It would be laughable.” Sebastian muttered and Crystal scrunched up her nose in disgust, as she neared the bed.“I told you not to speak like that again.” Crystal scolded glaring down at him, he used the same words Kayden used when she was worried about him. “What part of your death would be comical to us?”“I am pretty sure some people would find it funny, especially Kayden.” Sebastian pouted “That’s no way a man should die.” Lorenza rolle
Crystal’s eyes fluttered open when she heard a pained growl that came from Jake, when her eyes opened, he was on the ground, with Sebastian’s heavy boots placed against Jake’s head.“Crystal!” She turned in the other direction, and she saw Kayden heading toward her in fast strides, he pulled her as he got down on one knee and his silver eyes narrowed when he noticed her busted lips and swollen eyes. He reached for her face and caressed her in his palms, she felt fresh tears well up in her eyes, and his frown deepened when he noticed the narrow cut on her neck, it was terrible, even though shallow.Kayden didn’t want to imagine what would have happened to her if they got there any second later, the bastard had a knife to her delicate throat, as though she was a piece of vegetable, why would someone be so evil?“I-I’m sorry,” she whispered and his frown deepened, for what reason is she apologizing? “Kayden…” She reached for him and pulled him into a hug, he noticed that she was tre
Trigger WarningThis chapter contains some violence, please read it at your discretion.Crystal thought to herself, she had to clarify the misunderstanding, probably this anonymous sender was planning to send those gifts to someone else and there must have been a mix-up in the addresses… She wasn’t close with any middle-aged man, so why did he keep sending her letters and gifts? She was only lucky Kayden had moved her out of his office, he would be so worried by now, that’s why she would meet with this old man and tell him to stop. She was able to get out of the company and proceed to the parking lot without being noticed by anyone; at least not anyone close enough to follow her.She stood out in the open, her eyes met by the very bright lights of the underground parking lots, that almost blinded her. She stood there rigidly in one spot for about a minute or two, unsure of what to do or where to go, and there was no one in sight too.The letter didn’t give much details, it simpl
Sunlight creeps into the bedroom from the slightly opened blinds in the room, warming up Crystal’s face, she stirred being disturbed by the light. She felt something heavy on her waist and she glanced up to be met by a pair of silver eyes staring intently at her.“Hic…” she gasped softly when she realized she had been sleeping against Kayden’s chest, she could hear his heart beating in slow steady rhythms, he pulled her closer with a smug satisfaction on his face, his heavy arms on her back.“Good morning,” He murmured his voice still husky with sleep, Crystal flushed red from his seductive bedroom voice, and unable to form words, she nodded at him. “Did you sleep well?”“Y-yes,” she answered with a slight tremble in her voice, it was unbelievable, who would have thought that one day she and Kayden; would be lying down in her bed, naked and tangled underneath the sheets? “How long have you been awake?”“For a while now,” He confessed and he reached to feel the soft skin of her fac