Over five years I’ve lived a bittersweet lie as David Hargrove’s kept woman, Maria Bell. David’s shown no interest in me beyond what he wants. Love’s a bitter pill to love when it's not returned. I'm bought and paid for. Kept in a gilded cage. David suspects nothing of the secrets I hold. Tonight, David announced he’s marrying my stepsister. He doesn’t know. The level of betrayal I’ve experienced is unbelievable. Everything becomes complicated as the lies surface. Leaving and facing it alone are my only choices. I’m living in fear as I pick up pieces of a life, I believed lost. Blackmail, sabotage, and intrigue dog my steps. I don’t know who I can trust or how to win. I won’t surrender without a fight this time. They don’t recognize me. They won’t see me coming. My name is David Hargrove, and someone is trying to destroy my family. I must marry my rival’s daughter. His stepdaughter signed the contract. Before we learned, she couldn’t deliver the Belgrave empire to me. She can help me secure my family’s empire as my fiancée. I need the ugly biological daughter, Maria Belgrave, who’s hiding. Things get confusing. Maria Belgrave sent two women to represent her. One is my Maria. My missing woman. The betrayal and conflict of interest still stand. I will say when our contract has ended. How can I work with her? I know nothing about her. She owes me answers and loyalty. Perhaps I’ll use this to my advantage. When David learns of Maria’s past life. Will he help her? Or use her and take over the business himself? It starts with an engagement and the death of a patriarch.
View MoreHer head was hurting so bad that all she wanted to do was scream out loud but she found out that her voice wasn’t coming out. What was happening to her?
She looked at herself and shock took over her. What had really happened to her? Wasn’t she supposed to be dead now? M looked at herself and she couldn’t help but laugh out loud when she realized that she was still alive. This time she could hear her hoarse voice and that was better than being dead right.
M lifted herself from the coarse bed with all the strength that this current body had. She pinched herself multiple times as she made her way to the bathroom where she looked at herself at the mirror.
She was currently in a body of a young girl who looked to be around seventeen and she looked malnourished.
“Hahahahahahaha, it seems God really exists and this old lady had been given another chance to live,” M laughed happily as she looked at herself in the mirror.
Her happiness however didn’t last long as she was hit by a wave of strange memories that made her shriek with so much pain that she fell on the floor and began to writhe with pain as she rolled all over.
This torment lasted her an hour and when it was done, she was filled with so many emotions and she didn’t know how to react.
The original host of the body she had been stash into was named Krystal Everett and she was nineteen years old. Her life was truly more pitiful than hers in her previous life.
Krystal was abandoned by her parents when she was just one month old, she was adopted by her mother’s cousin Portia Everett who couldn’t have children.
Portia raised her well and gave her all the love that a child could ever asked for. Portia spoiled her a lot and that was something she was grateful for.
Krystal didn’t know about her birth parents or the fact that she was adopted until Portia fell sick to the extent that there was no way back for her. She was fifteen at that time when Portia passed away and she had to go and live with her biological parents who had given birth to two more children.
Krystal was really affected by that because she saw how her parents loved her younger siblings and yet when it comes to her, they just brushed her away.
Because the young girl wanted recognition from them, she worked so hard so that one day she could hear her biological parents praise her but that never came even after toiling so hard at school. She didn’t even ask for a lot of allowance or for luxurious clothes and yet they never bothered to buy her some.
She got used to it even though the pain was a lot for her. When the young girl was seventeen an awful accident occurred which made the young lady of a certain noble family end hospitalized. Because of this accident, Krystal was sent to juvenile where she served two years.
Her family didn’t fight the sentence or try to settle the issue. Krystal life in juvenile was so hard and painful but she kept on being strong hoping to reach the day where she can see her family once more.
What the young lady never expected was for her to return and find out that her family had discarded her. They didn’t want to live with someone who had a record. They never believed her and at the time that she need them the most, her mother threw her out of the house with nothing but a satchel with just a few clothes.
They didn’t even give her any money to spend. She was so desperate that she ended up selling some jewelry that Portia had left behind. If she didn’t hide them before, she would have lost them when she first arrived at the house to her younger sister who wanted everything that she had.
The money sold from those piece of jewelry made her last for three weeks but after that she was struggling again. She couldn’t even get a part time job, she seemed to have been blacklisted and she was on the verge of starving.
So Krystal decided to try just one more time and visited her mother to ask for some money. Little did she know that she will be humiliated and thrown out once again? To think that her own mother could laugh while she watched those guards hit her in the stomach till she coughed blood without making them stop, she knew at that point that her life had really reached an end.
She couldn’t sell herself, her foster mother had taught her well. Since the world wasn’t accepting her, Krystal chose one ending and that was to commit suicide.
Krystal swallowed all various types of pills she could get her hands on and that led to her demise.
M luckily ended up in the body of the former Krystal and now she became her. This was hilarious and what she wanted to do was to skin some people alive but when she looked at her body she couldn’t help but sigh.
This body was too weak that even climbing twenty stairs will be a struggle.
“Since I have taken over your body then I will make sure that family of yours will regret treating you the way they did. I will make both men and women bow to you,” M promised the former host. Since she had taken over the body then she was going to live well.
After organizing the memories of Krystal, M returned to the small bedroom and sat down on the single bed. This was surely going to be troublesome, M lamented.
M was going to be called Krystal Everett from now on since she had taken the body of the former host.
Krystal began to think of her own miserable life, she couldn’t help but laugh when she thought of how she was given a second chance on life. Those bastards must be celebrating that she was dead but how will they react if they were to know that she was alive and kicking?
This was probably a good thing for her, with this new body she could now live an ordinary life she had always dreamt of when she was young. With this body perhaps she could get a chance to see her brother and his family closely.
She couldn’t do that in her previous life because of the life she lived but now, she was just an ordinary girl who had been abandoned by the world but the difference with the current her and previous her was the fact that she didn’t have to worry about taking care of another human being except herself.
Setting aside the problematic things, her stomach rumbled and she frowned. From the memories she retrieved from the former host, she only had around E$1000 which was only enough to pay for an extra day at the motel and two more meals.
Thinking of this she felt very frustrated but who was she? She smiled when she thought of all the money she had stashed away before she got imprisoned in her previous life. She still had a way to survive.
“Hahahahahahaha, this is so good,” Krystal laughed as she rolled on the single bed happily.
~ MARIA HARGROVE ~SEVEN MONTHS LATER I had a month, maybe six weeks, until I would give birth to a baby boy. The Hargrove family members were beside themselves, keeping David and me happy because of the baby. The baby impressed them when they learned of it. But their traditional attitudes found satisfaction when they learned our baby was a boy. I would be faultless in their eyes. The collaboration project wasn’t a collaboration as it started. Now, it spanned three divisions of Hargrove Tech. We would use it as a headquarters for all three divisions where we could share research and resources between divisions. With the ground broken and construction started, we were working with the division as they were right now. I’ve settled my business in preparation to hand it over for a time to Josy. So, I could give birth without worrying about the business. Then I could spend my time settling my baby into life at home, bonding with him, healing, an
~ MARIA HARGROVE ~ “Maria, welcome home. You arrived at the perfect time. I can’t believe I’m saying this. Jake has bought out Chris Skylar’s company! What is the world coming to?” Josy came rushing forward to meet us. “Oh, hi. I hope your honeymoon’s good, and you better have some pictures or video. No, I don’t mean naughty stuff either. Did you bring back any souvenirs?” “If you mean a baby? Yes, we did.” I smiled and waited for that to hit through Josy’s rambling. “No, I don’t mean a baby. I mean a new purse for me. Wait. You’re pregnant?!” Josy squealed. “David, you couldn’t keep it wrapped long enough to do a little tourist type thing?” “Josy. Honeymoon. I did what normal men do. I got busy.” David said with a smile on his face as Jake clapped him on his back as he congratulated us. “Let’s get you all home. I guess I can’t say two anymore. Now, can I?” Jake asked with a humorous half smile. He let the sec
~ MARIA HARGROVE ~ David was true to his word, and we did land in London, England. Not some other London. He’d teased me most of the way there in the most affection ways. But he wouldn’t touch me on the plane. When I asked him why? David said, “You were Maria Bell then. But now you’re Maria Hargrove. I expect others to respect you, and I must lead by example, don’t I? Isn’t that what all leaders are supposed to do?” He said this in a light tone, but I heard how serious he felt about it. There’s no way I could prepare myself for his words. It’s like a man uttering that he loved you without warning. Or proposing marriage. If David didn’t now have a track record of doing things like this, I would panic. “David, you would’ve not have that long ago. I’ve not changed. It’s you that’s changed and I appreciate it. No, I love it and you all the better for it. Just don’t let it slide back.” “I don’t won’t. But tonight, I want us to forget about the
~ DAVID HARGROVE ~ Maria didn’t waste time and that kept everything going with a smooth grace I found enjoyable. Other than my uncle’s outburst, it went well in my perspective. Maria’s smile hadn’t left her face all day, and I loved seeing it. Now, with dinner is over, speeches are over, cake cut, marriage documents signed, and first dances done. I’m more than ready to leave. We should head to the airport. I’m not thrilled to maneuver through the airport.I knew my private plane was ready this morning. We’d processed our documentation and flight plan days ago. Jake and Josy stored our luggage on the plane for us this morning. The wedding planner would take care of the clothing we used today and return it to our home. She’d have Maria’s wedding gown cleaned and packed into protective archivist clothing packaging. “Are you ready David?” Maria said from behind me. I turned around when I heard her question behind me. There she was, standing beh
~ MARIA BELGRAVE ~ The wedding ceremony was over. We’d exchanged rings, signed documents before witnesses, and all that. David was all smiles. It’s unexpected, but there it’s. His arm didn’t leave my back. He was true to his promise, and he didn’t leave my side. He gave me attention, as a person and as an object. David’s uncle glared at me after I told the wedding planner it’s fine to go on to the next stage. Which was removing everyone from the church and moving them to the reception hall for dinner and reception. I thought everything was fine. Everyone’s happy. “Are you insane, woman? It’s far too early. The hotel preparations won’t be finished for your guests, and everyone who arrives there will find themselves turned away. How embarrassing. Are you looking to embarrass your guests? How uncouth? David, I can’t believe you think she’s Belgrave. See her,” David’s uncle loudly exclaimed, stomping towards us. His cane banging hard on the har
~ MARIA BELGRAVE ~ Some may say spending the night before the wedding together is bad luck. But David didn’t want to leave me alone. He didn’t want to leave my side. His words were something about not trusting people and their double standards. David promised me that he’d stay beside me as long as he could, and he’d determined to do that. Along with the flood of attention he’d been including presents and surprises for me. It wasn’t the first time; he’d given me so many presents. But it’s the first time that the presents and attention were personalized. The personalization all had a theme though. They all faced the future and things she’d need to use in her life with him as his wife. Not just as a piece of jewelry along side his cufflinks. But his partner at work, social events, and at play. From a platinum fountain pen with her name engraved with her name and crystal encrusted, to a tennis dress that matched an outfit for him so they could
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