In the private room, both families exchanged warm greetings, polite words and subtle smiles as everyone settled into their seats. And just as I took a quiet breath, Tessa appeared next to me, beaming as she pulled me into her embrace. “Emily, you look incredible,” she whispered with a grin. And then pulled back with a sparkle of familiar warmth that eased my nerves a bit. “Thank you, Tess,” I murmured, returning her grin. Thanks to Mum and my nerves, I have to guard my reactions. As Tessa returned to her seat, my gaze drifted to Christopher. He was watching me with an expression that was soft yet unreadable, a slight curve to his lips that was barely there. He caught my eyes, and in that brief moment, he gave me a subtle smile. Though it was a simple gesture, I couldn’t help blushing. As the dinner began, I noticed with some relief that no one in Christopher’s family asked about Brenda. Not a single mention of her name. It was as though they’d erased any memory of her for ton
I took a shaky breath, feeling the weight of her gaze on me. Tessa was my rock, the person who’d been there through every high and low. And knowing she deserved the truth, I don’t hold back at all and reveal everything that transpired at the hospital. Her face hardened with every word. “Emily…” she whispered, her voice barely audible. “Are your parents humans or aliens? I can’t believe they would do that to you. Just when I thought I had heard worst stories from you, they go ahead to do an upgrade.” A deep sigh escaped my lips as her words sank deep. Tessa was right, the ill-treatment from my parents keep getting worse from each passing day. Regardless, I continued, recounting the overnight changes; the accessories, the stylists. “But I see through it, Tess,” I said, my voice low. “They’re only pretending to care because your cousin probably threatened them and for the benefits they will receive from your family.” Tessa’s hands clenched into fists at her sides. “Emily, this is
“Thank you,” I replied, still adjusting to the idea that all of this—the planning, the choices—was for me, and the fact that I was getting married, and that to, Christopher Moore. I bet Brenda will flip a hundred times when she realizes how much that has happened in her absence. She would probably wish she died. We went through pages of wedding gowns, each one more beautiful than the last. Lace, satin, intricate beadwork; they all blurred together until I focused on a style that felt true to me—simple yet elegant, with delicate lace sleeves. Mum sat beside me quietly, her usual authority softened as she allowed me to make my own choice which wasn’t a surprise as Christopher ‘s warnings still lingered fresh in her memory. When we moved on to discussing decor and colour schemes, I found myself leaning toward softer tones—a mix of ivory and sage green, with hints of gold for a subtle elegance. Mum offered a small nod of approval, mentioning that once I’d made my decisions, the M
“My family will be visiting yours this Thursday,” he said, his gaze warm yet focused. “It’ll be… a formal meeting to talk the wedding plans, so you can pick something from your wardrobe here to wear.” A small laugh escaped my lips. He really can’t wait to see me in the stuff he got for me. “I think my mother already has that covered. She will want me to wear something she picks herself, just to make a good impression on your family.” Christopher chuckled, his smile widening. “I should have known she would take care of that,” he said with a glimmer of amusement. Before I could respond, the sound of footsteps caught our attention, and to my surprise, Tessa appeared in front of us, a mischievous smile lighting up her face. “Well, well, well,” she teased, folding her arms and leaning forward with her eyes on us. “I didn’t know the two of you were having a cozy little dinner without me.” Her playful gaze shifted between us, and Christopher raised an eyebrow, clearly amused. “Tes
“Oh. My. Goodness, Emily! Are you serious?” she finally whispered, her voice rising slightly with each word. I nodded, biting back a smile. “Yes, Stella. I wouldn’t lie about this.” Her hands flew to her mouth, and she shook her head, blinking as if trying to process the information. “How could you just...drop that bomb on me like that?” She chuckled, slowly starting to regain her composure. “Alright, alright. But seriously, Emily, you have to give me a little more than that. How did this happen?” I settled into the chair beside her desk, smiling as I folded my hands in my lap. “It turns out that our families are acquainted, so they made they arrangement for us to meet, and the rest is history,” I said, refusing to give more information away. For a moment, Stella was silent, her eyes studying me as if seeing me for the first time. “Emily, if you hadn’t told me, I never would have known you came from a rich family” she finally said, almost to herself. “You’re so…down-to-earth.
“Oh...” I drawled, barely able to keep the strain out of my tone as I wonder the nerve my mother had to report that to me. It seemed to me that with her favourite daughter back at her side, she has forgotten what she did to me, and Christopher’s warnings as well. “See you soon then!” Mum chirped, oblivious as ever, and hung up without waiting for a response. I stood there, staring at my phone, the brief conversation echoing in my mind. My fingers tightened around the edges of the phone, the familiar bitterness rising up, tainting the sweetness of the day. Tessa noticed my change in mood immediately, her eyes narrowing. “What happened?” I took a shaky breath, glancing between her and Christopher, who was watching me with concern. “Brenda’s back home,” I said quietly. “And they want me to come over early to… celebrate,” I add with a strain in my tone. Tessa’s mouth twisted in annoyance and Christopher’s expression darkened. He took a step closer, his hand resting gently on my
Christopher is right, I need more energy to face my enemies, so I pick up my cutlery and continue eating, but who would have known that I would throw everything up after that? “Emily, are you that upset?” Tessa asked as she uncapped a bottle of water and passed it to me. I took it from her weakly and used some of it to rinse my mouth before handing it back to her. “Trust me, I’m trying to be strong here, but it looks my system recognizes that I can’t pretend anymore,” I said, looking Tessa in the eye. She noticed how tired I was and grasped my arm before helping me out of the washroom. “If you don’t want to go back home, you can follow me to my place. Emily, you know I hate to see you like this,” Tessa said to me with a tinge of bitterness in her tone. I can tell that she’s a little upset with me for exerting myself, but there isn’t much I can do. I don’t want to start staying away from the house once the situation is unfavourable for me because I don’t want to give B
Mum supported Brenda by wrapping one arm around her waist while the other hand held her by the arm. As I took in the scene before me, anger overwhelmed me. Brenda looked so frail, and I wonder the reason she chose not to stay in her bedroom and insisting on coming down for dinner. Maybe she was expecting to see me so she could show me how well she’s being taken care of. I know Brenda like the back of my hand, even if she was dying, she would always find a way to incur pity from others. She was very good at it. Brenda just got out of the hospital after undergoing a serious surgery. If it wasn’t for her insistence, she would have had to spend more time in the hospital. But now that she had forced her way back home, she was not supposed to make vigorous movements when her body wasn’t ready. Mum would never force her to come down for dinner, so that leaves Brenda on the spot for orchestrating all these. I feel very tempted to tell her to her face to stop incurring pity by ma
“What’s funny?” Christopher asked in genuine confusion as he met my gaze, but I quickly shook my head, refusing to answer that question. “Nothing,” I smiled at him. “I shall return to my desk. Have a good day, Mr. Moore, and see you at your lunch.” As soon as I made my statement clear, I opened the door and walked out, shutting it with a soft thud. Then it took me a few moments to recover and adjust my emotions before making my way back to my office. Stella was eagerly waiting for my return which was evident from the way she leaned out of her table as soon as she saw me walk back in. “What is Mr. Moore’s excuse this time around?” she inquired with her gaze on me and I told her the exact reason Christopher gave to me. “Oh…” Stella drawled. She had a mixed expression at the news. While she was happy that Barbara wasn’t promoted because she was deserving of that position, she was still a bit dissatisfied with her. Just like me, she must be wondering if there wasn’t any other w
“I just stepped into the office this morning and learned the worst news in recent times since I started work at Transcorp,” Stella started, turning her full attention to me. And I can tell by the way her jaw flexed that she was trying hard to control her emotions. I pretended not to have any idea of what she was talking about just to be on the safer side and probed, “What bad news did you hear?” “Barbara Collins was promoted and moved from the secretary’s desk to the Management department. Didn’t you hear about it when you clocked in this morning?” Stella inquired, narrowing her eyes. I could tell she was just mad at the situation, and not at me, so there wasn’t any need for me to lie to her, especially when she was being so honest with me. “I heard about it,” I admitted as my shoulders naturally slumped. I’ve been tensed all morning since finding out the news, and I still felt that Christopher owed me some answers. “And you have no idea why she was given a promotion she didn
Emily’s POV. As the warm water from the shower splashes on my head and pours down my body, I can’t help but think about Christopher and what he was doing now. We didn’t have much time to ourselves at work today and standing under the shower only made me miss him more. Thoughts of Christopher occupied my mind until I turned off the shower and stepped back into my bedroom dressed in my pyjamas. And in my bid to quickly check my phone to see if there has been any text from him yet, I discovered that one of my bags which I returned from work with, was missing. My brows creased in worry as I began to think of the place where I must have left it because I am quite sure that I took both bags with me while leaving my office. “Did I leave it my car or...?” My thoughts immediately come to a halt when I finally remembered the last possible place where I might have left it. Almost immediately, anger consumed me as I opened my door and stormed out of my bedroom. I can’t imagine that I w
“Honey, you should know my sister doesn’t care about how long she has known this Christopher before deciding to marry him,” I said to Oliver, my tone dripping with honey. “So, she only cares about taking revenge on me?” Oliver asked, meeting my gaze with a scowl sitting on his face. He looked very displeased as if Emily didn’t have any right to do as she pleased with her life. I smirked to myself and slowly nodded in response, as innocence contoured my face. I have to sow more discord why pretending to be oblivious to them. “I believe that’s what she is thinking about. Also, like I said, this Christopher Moore is from the famous prominent Moore family. Emily will definitely pick him as her partner as along as she feels he’s better than you.” As I made that striking statement of indirectly calling Oliver inferior, I laughed inwardly as I watched him gnash his teeth from the corner of my eyes. But then, I had to go into another coughing fit as my expression grew weary. Almost i
Brenda’s POV.I have been sitting in my bedroom, impatiently waiting for Oliver to come find me since I heard of his arrival, but I have no idea of what has been keeping him downstairs. If I didn’t have to pretend to be totally helpless, I would have already found my way to the living room long ago. But as if Oliver could sense my displeasure, he knocked softly on my door and came in when I weakly approved. “Babe,” Oliver called me softly as he quickly rushed over to my side with concern laced in his brows. “How are you?” My eyes turned teary as I attempted to sit up on the bed, but he quickly assisted me saying, “You don’t have to struggle to do this while I’m here,” While I enjoy this, I can’t help but actually hope that his mind is still divided. It would be futile for him not to be concerned about Emily and her impending wedding after my efforts last night. I won’t even let it happen.“I have been waiting for your visit. What took you so long?” I asked weakly, allowing m
Emily’s POV.Work was a lot tasking today. I felt so exhausted that I could use a full body massage to relax my tensed nerves. But this is something only a phone call from Christopher would have solved. Sadly, he is pretty occupied today.As soon as I finished the last document I had to review for the day, I shut my computer and left the company, expecting to get home and get some rest only for me return home and see Oliver and his parents sitting in the living room chatting with Mum and Dad.Honestly, I had no idea the Jones’ would be in our house today even though Mrs. Jones had phoned Mum last night. Although I had heard Mum’s happy voice from the door as I walked a minute ago, it never occured to me that there were only a handful of people she invited home and had this kind of reaction with while chatting, and that the Jones should be the more appropriate family.My stomach churned, especially at the sight of Oliver. I don’t know why he still affected me so badly even though
Barbara was a bit uncomfortable with my out-of-the-blue question. Her lashes fluttered lightly as she looked towards her father for help, but he either didn’t see her since he wasn’t looking her way, or he pretended not to have seen her subtle gesture.Whichever one it was, I am still waiting for Barbara’s response because I won’t let her get away with this. Her actions are annoying and the sight of her is irritating.Seeing that she couldn’t get away with my interrogation she smiled sheepishly and returned her gaze back to me.“I took a half-day off from work today.”“Why?” I probed, leaning out of my seat with all manner of curiosity as a deafening silence hit the room. And I’m glad that everyone apart from Barbara knew better but to be silent.Barbara looked anywhere but at me as she answered my question. “I wasn’t feeling too well, but I’m all good now.”A scoff escaped my lips before I could gauge my reaction. Nothing infuriated me more than this woman’s nonchalance at my
THURSDAY. Christopher’s POV. Thursday was a busy day for me and I barely had the time to check on Emily. But to make up for it, I invited her to have lunch with me during lunch break. Emily looked a bit stunned by the offer as she set my food down. “I have my lunch already. Also, while it’s true that Stella won’t say anything since she knows we are together, we can’t disrupt the work ethic” Emily said to me with slightly furrowed brows. If this had been any other day, I would have let her escape unfortunately for her, I’m not in that mood, so I pinned my gaze to her and ask, “Are you sure you don’t want to have lunch with me, and would prefer eating with others?” I asked her that question, I rubbed my jaw subtly with my fingers and licked my lower lips without doing as much as blinking. How could Emily resist this temptation? I am not always proud, but some special occasions calls for it, like today. Emily let out a deep sigh and plopped herself on the couch.
Emily’s POV. “I see that you are happy and satisfied with your best friend,” Christopher said with his gaze on me as he crossed his leg over the other while sitting on a chair as Tessa and I walked into the room and shut the door. From the shameless attitude he displayed back in the dining room, I thought that I would see him on my bed by now, but it turned out that he could be a gentleman when he wanted. “Of course, she’s always proud of me,” Tessa jumped in before words could form in my mouth. “Are you jealous that you don’t have any good friend like they way we do?” “Who said I don’t have good friends? What do you take me for?” Christopher retorted. Meanwhile, Tessa pretended to think for a moment before saying, “Oh... I remember now. All your friends are living abroad, so you are back here alone and lonely.” Tessa wriggled her eyebrows playfully after finishing her remark and I bet she’s very proud of herself while Christopher remained unaffected with her teasing until th