Stephanie walked in the meeting room and started the meeting immediately. She wanted to end it in the afternoon before she and her twins headed to Iceland, meeting Martin there. Martin is having a week-long meeting in London, while she has a meeting in New York. The twins, Mia and Sophia, they’re missing their daddy so badly and Stephanie came up with a short holiday idea, which Martin agreed and decided to go to Iceland. He thinks it is good to bring them closer to nature and Iceland is located in the right place between London and New York.
In 2 and half hours, they stopped for lunch time. Liam was about to ask Luke to get lunch together but Luke's eyes stared at him, telling he had other things. Liam glanced at Stephanie and he suddenly understood. Luke smiled and as soon as his best friend left, he walked toward Stephanie, who just finished talking with Nathan. Stephanie smiled when Luke approached her but then her phone rang.
“Yes!”
“Oh, you guys came back? Okay! I will go upstairs soon,” She said as she ended the call
“Luke” She greeted him
“Rei…..” His voice was deep, then he added, “Lunch with me?”
“Ahmmm, I’d love to but I can’t. My babies are upstairs and I plan to get room service, you know, we have no time with our tight schedule. I really want to end it around 4 so I can head to the airport after that,” She explained
“The twins here? I’d love to see them!” Luke said
“You can come with me to the suite. How about having lunch together there?” Stephanie offered
“What do you like to eat?” She added
“Well, good idea. But, Martin……Will he be….” Luke was little worried but the Stephanie cut him
“He is in London. We will meet later, I’ll bring Mia and Sophia to Iceland for holiday with him,” Stephanie explained
“Don’t worry too much about him. He has changed. He knew we’re good friends now. Let’s go upstairs!” Stephanie smiled and walked in front of him
“No need to order room service, I’ll ask James to order. What do you like to eat? Also the twins, what is their favorite food?” Luke said as he walked next to her
“Seafood, just like their mommy,” Stephanie laughed and Luke smiled immediately. He really loves seeing her smiling and it still gives him butterflies.
He took his phone and texted James, ‘Get the best seafood in the area. Make the chef and his staff deliver it to Stephanie suite. I want it in 30 minutes!’
Stephanie and Luke arrived at the 4015 suite and she opened the door. Luke saw two girls smiling happily seeing their mommy.
“Mommy……” They said together
Stephanie smiled and said, “How’s the sightseeing?”
“We saw a big statue. It was sooo big, mommy!” Mia answered her
“What is it called?” Mia asked Sophia
“The Statue of Liberty, right?” Sophia turned to Dana, her babysitter and Dana nodded
“Who is he?” Sophia then asked Stephanie as her small finger pointed out Luke
“Uhhh, uncle is so handsome!” Mia left Stephanie, walking toward Luke
“Yeah but still, daddy is more handsome! Daddy is the most handsome man in the world, right mommy?” Sophia said loudly
Stephanie smiled hearing it, she turned to Luke and saw Luke smiled as he shaked his head, showing disbelief. Luke then squatted, making him closer to Mia.
“Hey, beautiful girl!” Luke greeted Mia
“Uncle don’t listen to Sophia, she is so mean. She is more like daddy, uncle Nathan told me,” Mia whispered to Luke, making Luke smiled and glanced at Stephanie
“And you, like your mommy?” Luke asked
“I am,” Mia made a cute smile
“What are you talking about?” Stephanie asked Mia and Luke
“Hmmm nothing! It is our secret, right uncle?” Mia turned to Luke and Luke nodded
Stephanie smiled, then she said, “So, Mia and Sophia, this is uncle Luke. He is a mommy friend, mommy has work to do with uncle Luke.”
“Like uncle Nathan?” Sophia asked
“Yes!” Stephanie answered shortly
“Uncle, which one you’ll choose, me or Sophia?” Mia suddenly asked Luke
“What?” Luke asked as he didn’t understand
Stephanie laughed. She added, “So, both of them are competing, who's on their side!”
“Yes, uncle Nathan likes me, he is supporting me, but uncle Jacob likes Sophia more,” Mia explained
“You like me more, right?” Mia winked her right eye at Luke
“Eh, I don’t care! I have daddy on my side! He likes me for sure,” Sophia said arrogantly
Luke smiled after hearing that, ‘She is the copy of Martin!’
“How about I choose your mommy’s side instead of both of you?” Luke teased them
“No way!” Mia shouted
“No, mommy is daddy’s. You can’t do that!” Sophia told Luke
“Alright, stop it! Both of you aren’t hungry?” Stephanie ended the argument and tried to change the topic
“I am! Let’s eat lunch, mommy!” Mia
“I am hungry too!” Sophia murmured
“So, uncle Luke already ordered us lunch, we will eat here, okay?” Stephanie told both of them
“I want to eat out, not here!” Sophia protested
“Baby, mommy has a tight schedule, and needs to go back to the meeting in an hour,” Stephanie tried to explain
“Yeah me too! We spent lunch at the hotel all the time. The whole year….ughhh!” Mia added
“But, at least you guys eat it with mommy or daddy right? Better than eat alone at home, I guess!” Luke said as he sat on the sofa
“Yeah….” Sophia answered shortly
“Come here! Tell me what do you want to eat? Do you have a favorite food?” Luke called Mia and Sophia who were sitting next to Stephanie
It didn’t take long for Luke to be close to both of them. Sophia sat next to him while Mia comfortably sat on his lap. It was around 15 minutes later, someone knocked the door and it was James with the chef and some restaurant staff delivering the lunch. They brought three trolleys inside and the staff quickly moved the dishes from the trolley to the dining table. Stephanie booked a big suite which consists of 3 separate bedrooms complete with living room and dining table. Mia and Sophia became cheerful as soon as they smelled the food.
“Mmmm, seafood…..I love it!” Mia said with happy face
“Uncle, how do you know our favorite food before we answer your question? Did mommy tell you?” Sophia asked Luke
Luke smiled, then said, “I knew your mom very well, so I guess both of you shared her favorite food!”
Stephanie smiled hearing what Luke had said. Then, she gave a code to the babysitters, Dana and Julia, to help Mia and Sophia seated on the dining table. She sat in front of Luke and she told Luke that it is okay if the chef and the staff left, give the four of them privacy. Luke glanced at James and soon, James and the rest of them left.
It warmed his heart, seeing Stephanie and her kids looked happy eating the food. He secretly happy seeing them enjoy the food. Dana and Julia helped the twins to eat and Stephanie and Luke had a light conversation during the lunch. It was half an hour later they finished and Luke called James to tell the restaurant staff to clean up the dining table.
“Babies, are you happy with the food?” Stephanie asked her child
“It is delicious mommy,” Mia answered
“Good! Say thank you to uncle Luke then,” Stephanie asked
“Thank you uncle Luke! You’re the best!” Mia said with a big smile on her face
“Thanks uncle!” Sophia said shortly
Luke smiled at them, his mind went away, ‘These two kids….’
“It won’t be the first and last time. Next time, we will get something more, okay!” Luke finally spoke up
“Yayyyy!!” Mia looked happy
“Alright! Mom needs to go back to meeting with uncle Luke, both of you stay here okay, play with Dana and Julia!” Stephanie told the twins
“Mommy…..” Sophia protested
Stephanie squatted and touched Sophia’s face, saying “baby, we need to leave this afternoon. If the two of you went out, then Dana and Julia can’t pack our things, then we will be late to the airport.”
“Where are we going later? Another business trip, right?” Sophia looked sad
“Hmmmm NO! We’ll go on holiday with daddy. Short holiday, you will like it!” Stephanie told Sophia
“WHAT? I miss daddy! Mommy, you’re not lying right?” Sophia’s face suddenly changed. She looked happy and excited
“I miss daddy too, mommy!!!” Mia added as she came closer to hug her mommy
“We will meet daddy soon! So, be nice, okay! Do whatever Dana and Julia said,” Stephanie asked them
“Okay mommy!” Mia smiled brightly
Stephanie hugged her child and then got up, leaving the suite with Luke.
“Luke, thanks for the lunch!” She said as both of them entering the elevator
“Don’t mention it! I love seeing the three of you smiling,” Luke said to her. However, deep down in his heart, he couldn’t help but feel sad for himself. Seeing Stephanie and the twins love Martin like that, somehow he is jealous.
‘How it looked like if Rei ended up with me and the twins are mine?’
‘Life isn’t fair….’
Martin’s eyes stared blankly at his private blue lagoon pool at The Retreat Hotel. He arrived at the hotel with Jacob hours ago and needed to wait for Stephanie and the twins which will arrive later. He flew to Reykjavik right after his business meeting ended in London. However, before he went to the airport, he stopped by at the hospital after previously he experienced a bad headache lately. Jacob succeeds in making him stop by at the hospital since Martin is stubborn enough and tends to ignore his headache. However, what the Doctor said later stated in his mind.‘Mr Clark, you have serious brain damage. This usually occurs after experiencing a long coma from your previous accident. You need to be careful next time, one wrong accident again, it will bring worse consequences.’‘Can this be cured?’ Martin asked
“William!!!!” Lilian said out of loud, quickly hugged him“I miss you,” She added as she kissed him“I miss you too baby!” William replied her“Let’s go!” Lilian dragged his hand and they left the prison“I want to go to the cemetery first!” William said to Lilian“Sure! We can go there first then to the penthouse later,” Lilian replied quickly and they drove the car to the cemetery to see Willian’s dad who was laid down there last yearThey spent less than an hour there, Lilian stayed next to him, looking at William’s face. His face was cold and expressionless. She understood, he is sa
2 months laterMartin sat in his office worrily, waiting for Jacob to get information about his treatment. It was around 10 minutes later, Jacob walked in and quickly spoked up.“Mr Clark, sorry for making you wait. I made a call to all the references and scheduled a meeting online with all of them. I believe Rochester could be the right place to go. We can drive from Chicago to make it less obvious,” Jacob explained“And the doctor?”“The best doctor in the states will handle this directly. He will travel back and forth from Boston and I got two other good doctors from Rochester too to help him to handle the treatment.”“All the facilities are completed and you supp
New YorkIt’s been months since Luke and Cleo were together. Their relations went slow, Luke slowly tried to open his heart to Cleo, while Cleo fell for him day by day. She is heavily in love with him, especially when Luke treats her sweetly.One night, Luke stood near the window in his bedroom. Cleo slowly moved from the bed and walked toward him, hugging him from behind. Minutes ago, they had sex and it really bother him, no matter how many times he have sex with her, he didn’t really feel something with her. It is so different from Patricia and Stephanie. ‘Maybe it takes time….’ He told himselfSeeing Luke staying silent, Cleo suddenly said, “We spent day by day together here, I wonder if you think it is better for me to move in?”
During her car ride back to her condo, Cleo was busy thinking about Luke and the woman. ‘Luke said she is his business partner, it means Lily knew about her. I’ll ask her!’ She thought As soon as she arrived at her condo, she went to her bedroom and put her belongings. She took her phone and made a call to Lilian.“Hi Lily,”“I wonder if you want to grab lunch with me tomorrow? There’s something I wanna talk about,”“Alright! I’ll see you at Nobu Downtown. Night!”Cleo went silent, she regretted not asking directly, why need to wait till tomorrow. She tried her luck by going to Google, typed ‘Lucas Miller business’. After going into one to another article, she retyped it
“How’s the meeting?” Lily quickly asked as soon as William opened their bedroom doorWilliam smiled, he walked to the bed where Lily laid on, he sat on the edge of the bed. “It went well! In a short period, I got many new contracts. Thanks to Luke for helping me with this!”“But, more importantly, thanks to you honey. You help my family. I am so grateful to have you!” William added as he landed a kiss on Lily’s forehead“I’m happy! This is good for us, hopefully your new business goes well, so we don’t need to depend on Luke anymore.”‘No way! I’ll make Luke pour, pour and pour all his wealth to you, to us! With that I’ll be back stronger and people won’t mock the
‘Luke, I’m pregnant!’‘Luke, I’m pregnant!’‘Luke, I’m pregnant!’That’s words keep playing on Luke’s head.‘How come she got pregnant?’‘She was on birth control. I always use condoms too. Except one night, the night that I don’t even remember clearly’‘Is she trying to trap me?’‘Oh no! What I’ve thought…..’ Luke quickly got rid of his thoughtsIt’s been weeks since he heard those words for the first time from Cleo. He was
‘Honey, I love you!’ Stephanie saw Martin’s message on the phone. It was sent half an hour ago. She was spending time with the twins in the garden and didn’t notice Martin sent a message.‘Why did he send me a text like this?’ She was wonderingShe decided to press a call button and waited for Martin to answer her call. However, Martin didn’t pick up. She suddenly felt uneasy. She tried to call him again and he didn’t pick up. Then, she decided to call Jacob and strange, he also didn’t pick it up.‘What happened?’She tried again to call them and still no answer, then she decided to call Nathan and ask for help to track them. Hours had passed and Stephanie became more worried. She was abo
5 months later San Francisco - Clark Transcontinental Corporation got back on the track after months of struggle since Martin Clark passed away. The investor and market were pessimistic earlier with the new CEO, Stephanie Clark, but she overthrew the doubt and brought the company back to the top business list in the States. Stephanie Clark, who has been active on the business since months ago after giving birth to Maison Clark, spotted by the camera seemed to be pregnant. The media speculated she has the baby with Lucas Miller but no confirmation from both. If Stephanie Clark and Lucas Miller get married and combine their companies, it is predicted they will be one of the top five biggest companies in the world with market capitalization around 1,000 billion USD. Stephanie sighed, “Why can't they sti
10 PMStephanie was about to sleep when she heard someone knock on the door. She walked out and checked on Barbara, and found she already slept. She walked lazily to the door and she found a hotel staff member standing there with a trolley.“Excuse me, I came to deliver your food,” She said as she pushed the trolley inside. She lowered her head so Stephanie didn’t see her clearly“I’m sorry I didn’t order any. I think you….” Stephanie hadn't finished her words when she was shocked by the staff's next move, she took a knife and directed it to Stephanie. However, Stephanie succeeded to avoid it and used her self defense to hit the staff. Little that Cleo knew that Stephanie had learned about self defense since young in Japan. Stephanie took a look clos
James decided to make a call to Yoan, asking about Stephanie and surprised him when Yoan told him about Stephanie in New York with Maison to meet Luke. After getting the information from Yoan about her hotel, James decided to come to see her in the early morning.7 AMJames knocked on the door and Barbara opened the door since Stephanie was still sleeping.“Hello,” He smiled at Barbara, then continued speaking “I’m Mr Miller PA. I’m here to see madam.”“She is still sleeping,” Barbara told him“Please, could you wake her up? This is important,” James tried to push his luckBarbara nodded and let James in
“Rei, is it Luke’s?” Yoan spoke to her after the doctor leftStephanie smiled bitterly, she tried to hold her tears, she nodded at Yoan.“You should tell him!”“For what?” Her voice was deep“Rei….don’t be stubborn!” Yoan took her hand and rubbed it“He divorce me, Yoan!” She looked him with sad eyes“I believe he did it for you. He put your happiness first than himself. I can see his sadness when he saw you run toward Martin, hugged and kissed Martin,”Stephanie went silent. It knocked her deeply when Yoan mentioned it. &
A week laterYoan did his job on handling William’s case. He brought down Addison’s family and destroyed everything that related to William. After he let William saw how his mom died under Yoan’s hand, Yoan moved forward to bring hell to Addison and he made William saw with his own eyes that his woman went through bad rape and turture under Yoan. Before Yoan ends Addison and William, he succeeds in extracting information about Luke and his instinct was right, William only slandered Luke in this case.Lily got depressed when she found out that William had died and worse she blamed Luke for letting it happen. She was mad at Luke and her health condition was getting worse day by day.“Mr Miller….” James was about to ask but Luke cut him
Yoan paid attention closely to what had happened. His eyes scanned from Stephanie to Luke and lastly on William. He felt something wasn't right. He then turned to Jacob“You have his file, right? I want to check!” He said to JacobAfter Jacob handed William’s file, Yoan checked on it and he smiled. “So, you only have your mom, your wife, Luke’s sister and who is this Addison Carter?”“Oh, your mistress!” Yoan answered to himself, then Jacob added, “She is in jail. Lucas Miller put her there after she tried to hurt his sister.”‘Yes, something is wrong here!’ Yoan thought, then he turned to William, smiled, “Jacob, let’s leave Luke and his sister first, but take his mom a
Luke walked out from the bathroom and found Stephanie leaned on bed, relaxing after putting Maison on bed. She smiled, then Luke climbed the bed and sat next to her.“You spent more time in your office today!” She said to him“Yeah, there’s something that needs to be taken care of,” Luke lied to her. He actually was busy thinking how to tell her about Martin and JacobLuke stayed silent after it, busy with his own thoughts. However, Stephanie noticed it, she moved closer to him and touched his face gently.“Baby, is there something on your mind?” She askedLuke turned to look her in the eyes, he smiled, “Nothing!” He answered her shortly
RochesterI opened my eyes slowly and what I saw was a white ceiling. I scanned around and found myself in the hospital room. The room was like a private bedroom, it was so big and there was a sofa not far from my bed. I am alone in the room, but it wasn’t long enough when I saw the door open, Jacob walked in.“Mr Clark, you’re awake!” He said and he looked happy, I can see from his expression. Then, he pressed the call button and minutes later the doctor came in to check me“How long have I been here?” I asked after the doctor left“Couple months,”“Stephanie?”“I did as you said, she didn’t know,
A month laterStephanie woke up and saw Luke sleeping soundly next to her. She raised her head to check on Maison and she smiled when she saw her baby still sleeping. She moved a bit and Luke, who felt she was moving, pulled her to his embrace. He hugged her and continued to sleep. She smiled, then suddenly an idea crossed her mind. She turned around and brought her face closer to Luke, kissing him.“Hmmmmm,” Luke mumbledShe continued to kiss him and he slowly opened his eyes. When Stephanie saw Luke was awake, she said quietly, “Did I wake you up?”Luke didn’t answer her but he kissed her, then he lifted his head to check on Maison. Stephanie told him, “He is still asleep. We have time!”