Dahlia’s pov This is it. It's all happening. The day I finally have my revenge. Stewart's Foods Co. are holding their launch party today, where they'll be releasing their new product to the public. And Tristian and I will be attending. Everything was coming into play. Taking one last glance at myself, I carefully put on the venetian style mask, adorned with feathers, lace and gemstones that compliment my dress. I walk into the living room where Tristian is already waiting for me. As I prudently walk down the stairs my heart begins to pound against my chest from the way Tristan stared at me. That intensive gaze of his which sends chills down my spine, never turn a moment away from me until I reach the bay of the stairs. He lazily drops his eyes down the length of my body, tracing the elegant lines of my dress. His gaze is soft yet intense, as he travels up my body, lingering in certain places, causing my heart to beat more rapidly. He meets my eyes again and what I
DAHLIA'S POV “So, How did you get access to their production center?” I asked Tristian while the commotion in the hall still went on. Thankfully my kids were at a safe distance. “I planted spies in the company. They were losing customers and employees because of the rumors that they couldn't keep up with employee salaries. And that was the moment they needed more employees since their product launch was around the corner. So I sent in spies to pretend they were seeking a job, we faked their qualifications and other necessary documents. They were given the job and hence access to all production units. The rest of the plan was child's play after that. They could easily sneak in anything into the production unit without getting caught or questioned” As I listen attentively to Tristan, I am completely marveled by how well crafted his plan is. I can't help shaking my head at him and smiling. “Who would have known you'd be so good at getting revenge?” “I like to think I have a
DAHLIA'S POV I slowly turn around, my chest heaving, as I stare wide-eyed at the woman in front of me. “Sunny?” “Dahlia, I knew it was you” “You look amazing girl, where have you been?” My lips curve into a wide grin as I stare at my high school friend. Sunny and I used to be close friends in high school and we were still in touch after high school. But at some point, we couldn't keep up with each other's lives because of how busy our schedules in college were. She still has that mischievous look in her eyes, and it reminds me of the times she would pressure me into sneaking out to parties, pranking some of our mutual friends or even skipping classes. I rarely succumbed to her requests, knowing how strict my parents were. Marigold had freedom to do anything she wanted, but I couldn't. I was barely allowed to go to social events let alone parties and I always had to put in twice as much effort into school. My grades were good and that was the only recognition I could
Next morning - In TExas. DAHLIA'S POV The kids are seated at the table discussing the class presentation that they have as I set down their breakfast in front of them. They are having scrambled eggs, toast and a glass of milk each. They begin digging into their food, while talking with their mouths full. I set down my cup of coffee on the table after serving my food. Bringing the cup to my lips I continue staring at them, mouths full with food, as they converse. “Okay, I'm happy you all are talking about school but not with your mouths full, we still have some time left before we leave for school, so you can talk about this after breakfast.” Griffin pouts and continues stuffing his mouth, as he was enjoying the conversation being the center of it. His siblings had been asking him questions and seeking pointers on how they should go about their presentation. And Griffin as always was ready to help, he never made his siblings feel less because he was smarter and I feel t
CARLTON “You have ruined the company!” My dad paced around, his anger shimmering as he yelled at me. “Dad, let me explain myself”, I scratch the scruff on my chin in frustration. “Explain yourself, I've given you a lot of chances boy and you keep messing up. You've damaged the company beyond return,” he continued seething. “It can be fixed, just…” “I don't want to hear it. I blame you for the downfall of this company, your nonchalant behavior, you ignored the company to the point where your product was sabotaged right under your nose,” he angrily throws files off my desk and I have to get up and maintain my distance before the next thing he throws is me. “What the hell is wrong with you?”, he yells stomping angrily as he sits on the chair I had offered him earlier when he first walked into my office. “Nothing Dad, I'm doing my best.” “Are you? Because it doesn't look like you are”, he doesn't even look at me as he speaks anymore. “I'm the CEO of this company, an
DAHLIA'S POV Relocating to Texas is supposed to feel homely and enthralling but the feeling I got as soon as I landed in the city made me sick to the stomach. I immediately hated it here. And the urge to deal with Carlton Stewart suddenly increased as everything he did to me came rushing back. But I was hating Texas my kids were the exact opposite. Their joy as we moved down to Texas had known no bounds. They’ve been commenting on every single thing we came across till we arrived at our destination. Sunny’s place. Actually, ever since the Stewarts product launch, me and sunny had kept in touch. She knew about what Carlton did to me aside from Carlton asking me to abort his child though. I intentionally left out the pregnancy part though cause I can’t risk Carlton finding out about my kids. Sunny is a chatterbox and she works for the Stewarts. I couldn’t hide my kids from her of course, she saw them on VC but I Made sure she didn’t know they belonged to Carlton. “Dahlia!!!!” Su
CARLTON’S POV It’s been two days since my P.A informed me about the proposal from Tristan Delight. He was able to schedule a meeting date, and that is today. Right now, We are in the conference room discussing the future of my company. I take a seat at the edge of the table along side of members of the board. He sits on the other end with his team. And by he, I mean the CEO of Tristan Delight, Tristan Martinez. He has so much charisma and aura and if I wasn't the man I am, I would have fumbled immediately he entered the room, just like my P.A did. His long legs are crossed, arms folded across his broad chest as he listens acutely to my P.A explain the terms and conditions of investing in our company, nodding his head when he finishes each sentence. At some point during the presentation, he looks at me and everything about his gaze screams run. Seating across the table from him, I can tell he is a very powerful man who is set out to annihilate his competition, if he even ha
DAHLIA'S POV I walked into the office and my eyes subconsciously search for Carlton. He is seated at the far end of the office but even with the distance and space between us, I suddenly feel nauseated as anger seeps through me. I clench my fist tightly glaring at him, like if we were left alone in the room, I would kill him immediately. I stare at the face that had brought so much pain and anguish to my life. The face of a betrayer. Left to me, if this was truly a business endeavor, for the purpose of generating income, I would never partner with someone like Carlton. Not only is he a traitor, but he is a manipulator and a self-centered person, who doesn't care if people around him are hurt. I came to the conclusion of this, the day he told me to my face that I should abort my babies. And the rest of the foreplay from then was just icing on the cake. As I glare at him, I remember how much his face had tormented me in prison. How it kept recurring in my dream and I would w
Tristian POV, Standing at the top of my penthouse, I’m skimming through the blog post of Carlton finally divorcing his wife. Took the bastard long enough to get his brain cells working. Now he just pave way for dahlia to finally achieve her revenge. Tired of skimming, I shove the phone in my pocket and lit up my cigarette. While I observe the large city of LA from the top, I relaxes my nerves with the cigarette. The past few days been like shit for me. Aside from my suden health challenge, I hate the impression I’m giving dahlia. I’m pretty sure she must be thinking the worst of me now because of that bitch Cassandra and even Benjamin. Yesterday morning when my heart attack set in, I had called Benjamin to help me through to the hospital but the idiot was having an emergency with his family. And instead of him to best leave me to die, the idiot decided to call Cassandra to my Aid. Cassandra is starting to be a real leech that I need to get rid of and soon. Already working towards t
Dahlia pov I walk away from Carlton and when at a safe distance, I answers Tristian’s call. Carlton’s eyes follows me, his eyes not peeling away from me for a single moment. “”Dahlia.” Tristian baritone protrudes from the other end of the line. Completely turning away from Carlton, I speaks into the phone. “Yeah, Tristian. How are you doing?” Tristian probably reads meanings to my dull tone of voice and he begin to apologize about what happened this morning. Somehow, I had honestly forgotten about it if not that he brought it up. “But what’s going Tristian? Who is that girl with you?” I blurts out the minute he’s done apologizing. And the way his breath stiffen proves that the topic is sort of sensitive to him. “She’s…” he sighs, and his voice becomes firm. “She’s no one dahlia.” “No one?” I can’t help the annoyance that courses through me. “Tristian? What do you mean no one? She’s all over your calls. Do you really have to be so hideous about her?” Excerpt that Tristian is up
Chapter 3Its 4pm and everyone has gotten settled in their different lodges then those who decided to come out for the evening tour, are all scampering all over the extra spacious arena. Camping up in different spots. Some couples throwing kites up with their kids at the beach area. Some just walking about. Some feeding animals at the zoo area and some trying out grilled foods at the Carter’s area. Everywhere super lively and bubbling. Then some like me, Carlton and the kids are touring through the landscape. It’s spacious enough to have different families at different spots. Like most of the parents are doing, i and Carlton has been educating the kids on everything we comes across. Our hands pointing all directions like some tour guards. The kids keeps marveling at everything and squealing happily, making me and Carlton to laugh together. The kids manages to make the touring so lively that I and Carlton keeps laughing at intervals, I have been so engrossed in the moment that I l
Its 4pm and everyone has gotten settled in their different lodges then those who decided to come out for the evening tour, are all scampering all over the extra spacious arena. Camping up in different spots. Some couples throwing kites up with their kids at the beach area. Some just walking about. Some feeding animals at the zoo area and some trying out grilled foods at the Carteen. Everywhere super lively and bustling. Since it’s evening, electric lights is illuminating everywhere. Then some like me, Carlton and the kids are touring through the landscape. It’s spacious enough to have different families at different spots. Like most of the parents are doing, i and Carlton has been educating the kids on everything we comes across. Our hands pointing all directions like some tour guards. The kids keeps marveling at everything and squealing happily, making me and Carlton to laugh together. The kids manages to make the touring so lively that I and Carlton keeps laughing at intervals,
Dahlia “Mummy were you really married to uncle Carlton?” That question pierces through me like a newly filed sword. No, it’s just the question but the innocent eyes of my all four kids as they are bearing through me. I’m feeling different emotions all at that same time. Anger. Guilt. Fear. They were never supposed to find out about this at all. How dare that woman? Words can’t express the amount of anger I’m feeling towards her right now. Towards everything. Right now we are all in the plane as the BOOTCAMP was said to be holding in Los Angeles. Every family are occupying different rows of seat as we are all flying in the plane. Carlton and Andre are somewhere at the back and after settling in, Gavin decided to throw the cold question at me. For the very first time, I’m unable to formulate any words to say to my kids. I don’t want to lie to them but at the same time, I don’t want this discussion. Especially with them. It’ll trigger a whole lot of other questions likeWhat happened
Carlton POV, Most of the parents who came for the Bootcamp seems to know each other. When I and dahlia walked together into the hall, we long splits up as friends who knows us came to greet us. While I leave dahlia with her old friend, I walk off with a business associate of mine leaving Andre behind to mingle with his peers. But I actually regrets doing that because Andre got involved in a fight with some kids right inside the hall. Dahlia’s kids were also involved too. The table quickly turn. Me and the other parents of the kids have to separate the fight while everyone in the hall has their attention towards us. “What the hell happened?” Dahlia yells, glaring at both her kids and the all other kids. “They started it!” Gianna snap, pointing at the other kids they fought with. “They were making fun of Andre.” She divulged and I frown. A girl among the other kids retorts Gianna. “She’s lying. I and my friends just said sick kids can’t survive boot camps.” The kid said wi
Carlton’s pov, Most of the parents who came for the Bootcamp seems to know each other. After our encounter at the car park, dahlia and I proceeds into the hall along with the kids. As Expected we walks into a rowdy scene. Parents who probably knows each other are scampering around greeting each other. Kids are buzzing around mingling with their peers. Some staffs are engaging in different activities, some walking around and others prepping up speakers for the camping speech. “Dahlia!” Right at the entrance, some woman comes rushing dahlia with a smile on her face. She seems to know dahlia and at the sight of her, dahlia’s face lits up. “Omg, Carolina. Look at you!” They begin to talk when one of my business Associates Alfred hijacks me from no where. “Hey Carlton…” he acknowledges me with a warm smile on his face. “Alfred…” We begin to greet each other and I don’t realize Andre has walk off my sight. Along with Dahlia's kids. until a ruckus suddenly exudes in the hall tha
Dahlia POV, The morning has been a whole new vigor of excitement as today is their BOOTCAMP. But me? I don’t really know. I’m not so thrilled about Bootcamp due to my past traumatic experiences but that Aside, I’m also worried that Tristian isn’t here yet. It’s already 9 Am and my kids are all dressed up already, including me. In fact they are already waiting in the car while I’m just in my room packing up relevant stuffs for the camping. Sunny had really been of great help all morning. And right now, she’s still helping me. “Do you really need these much mattresses?” Sunny asks I’m stuffing several mattresses into a bag while she had been passing them to me. “Of course, I wouldn’t want my kids catching a cold.” I said and she groan then roll her eyes. “And Tristian,” she suddenly hollers. “You said he would be here this morning. What’s keeping him?” She asks with a scoff, feigning her usual annoyance over Tristian. Well, even me would like to know what’s keeping him. If he
CARLTON’s POV, After the marigold sex tape shenanigans has been eradicated, I decided to finally face my father. More he called few moments ago after I just parted ways with dahlia and I drove straight ti the mansion and I found him at the living room standing and facing the glassed wall. Even as an old man, he still bears that intimidating Aura around him and I hated the way my body reacted to him. Especially when he twirls to face me, his stern dark eyed unnerves every inch of me. I just pulls up a firm, unbothered facade as I wait for him to speak. And I’ve been waiting since like the past ten seconds. “Finally, you decided to show up.” He finally speak with a calm voice then he walks away from his position. My eyes follows him keenly and the next thing he does actually stuns me. He walks towards the wine rank. Bring out a red wine and two glasses. He fetches some quantity each glasses and pass one over to me. I hesitate for a second before collecting it then he walks back to