“Jaxon, before you claim to be a father, you have to bear the responsibility it carries. The basic ones…at least. When you let that woman come in between you and Scottie, you already lost the qualification to be a father.”Ashley pulled away her hand from his, never feeling any nostalgia from its warmth. Her eyes were biting cold as she stared straight into his deep eyes. Her hot breath fanned over his chin with their hairbreadth distance before she took a step away from him the next second.“As a mother, I am also responsible for this. I let my self-interest came first, not fully understanding Scottie, forgetting he is just a small kid. I, as a mother, am not qualified either to call you names.” Ashley smiled bitterly at Jaxon. “But with this incident as an example, I am willing to put up with this broken marriage for my son. I admit…I pushed and pushed the divorce because I can’t wait to be
“Mommy?”Ashley, who was arranging her son’s little cabinet, looked back and smiled. “Good morning, sleepyhead.” She stood up, scooped him up from his favorite blanket, and rained kisses on him, eliciting a fit of laughter from Scottie that sounded like an angel’s lullaby for Ashley.“Good morning, Mommy!”Seeing him energetic again, as if what happened yesterday was nothing but a cruel illusion, Ashley could not help but cherish this moment event more.A child’s memory was not as strong as an adult. With him being slight feverish yesterday, Scottie almost forgot his heartbreaking meltdown until he saw his familiar suitcase, clothes, gadgets, and toys around the room. Suddenly, the subconsciously hidden memories flooded his mind.Ashley felt him stiffen in her arms. Seeing his gaze fixated on the shelf she just finished arrang
Vulcan Elijah looked deeply into Ashley’s eyes. Indeed. She was dead serious. She was one of those people who would die for their children—like his late wife. He was a businessman all his life but he only had one fear—desperate mothers.He once had an argument with his wife. It was because his son was admonished pretty badly by him to the point that the pressure the next few weeks caused him to be hospitalized. His son—Jaxon’s father—was raised by his late wife. Hence, he grew up a romantic who pursued happiness over trivial things and simplicity over power. For him, his son was not the perfect helmsman of his legacy. So, he made sure to sculpt Jaxon as someone who would be perfect to lead Elijah Consortium—he was so perfect that it eliminated all of Vulcan’s imperfections.Through Jaxon, his grandson, he created a better version of himself—the best businessman with only profits and contr
Unmasked crew set off to D City for their first stop in their tour for road show promotions. They booked a flight individually in which they would only meet up at the lobby of Orion Hotel three hours before the road show would start.Inside the apartment of Ashley, she just put down her phone after booking the flight ticket of her team. This was the first time that Ashley would travel with more than one person for work. With Ashley Studio quietly registered, Momo finally signed to the studio as Ashley’s makeup artist.Simultaneously, Dylan found Ashley a cook, a lawyer, and a bodyguard.The cook, who could not become a head chef in any restaurant because he did not have any certificates, was found by Dylan through online job hunting. Ashley already stated that she only wanted three things from her cook: cooks delicious foods preferably with a lot of knowledge of different cuisines, hardworking, and honest.&
Ashley kissed Scottie’s head before she left and made sure that Dylan would not bring her son out of the apartment. Though the press people knew about Scottie, she still did not like it when her son gets photographed.Clad in a cardigan and a skinny jeans, she wore a mask and cap—as always—when she went out. Noting the private restaurant’s location, she arrived after thirty minutes.The place offered was known in the capital as the hub where famous and influential people usually went for private dealings and meals due to its very tight security. As soon as she parked her car, she went straight into the place which screamed elegance at first sight. She usually did not dine here since Jaxon hated places like this and she was busy running around chasing a man that she could never move.A smiling waitress welcomed her with a slight bow and clasped hands. “Welcome to Quezona! Do you have a reserv
Ashley dismissed Nexus and started talking business with Wolf.On the other hand, Wolf was also understanding the woman before him. Hearing that she would entrust her son to a killer’s hands than a retired soldier, he was dumbfounded. What he did not know was that Elijah Family had a deep tie of interest in the country’s military side and business side—making them the uncrowned royal family of the country.After setting the time to meet for the contract signing which would be left to Dylan, Wolf left the private room.Looking at her watch, she took her back and head straight to the door. “I am leaving. Scottie will worry if I am late. We plan to buy stuff for the apartment’s Christmas decoration so I have to leave first.” She glanced at the untouched food. “These foods will be able to help those kids in the orphanage.”Ashley was about to open the door
Ashley left with her team one day before the other members of the Unmasked crew would. With her son tagging alone, she did not have any qualms on booking the first class to ensure safety and privacy.After settling Scottie, who asked her earlier why they did not take his father’s private jet or the jet gifted by his grandfather to him, Ashley finally breathed a sigh in relief. She neededDylan, on the other hand, poked her arms. He was pouting like a wronged child all the time.“What?” Ashley rolled her eyes at him. He was seated to her right with the aisle in between them.“You did not tell me that my good godson has a private plane! I want to ride it too!” Dylan half-yelled and half-whispered which did not matter because they were the only ones in the area.“It doesn’t matter anyway; I already booked all the seats in first class.”
"This is negotiable," Mark Gerald said, but he knows that it is already late."You wanna discuss it now after we signed it? Dude! We protested for a few days and we didn't see you so willing to pay a penny to us. You just want to take everything by force! If there is no other real estate company to step forward you would continue playing as if we owe you that your company is willing to buy our area!." – Resident A"There are only interests in their eyes, what face is there to come and negotiate to us!" – Resident B"Yes······" – Resident C and more residents echoed.Mark Gerald was a sensible person. He knew that there was a big probability that there was a backer behind Rosemary Real Estate, so he did not say anything more.If Rosemary Real Estate did not signed a contract with these people, they could still fight for i
“Scottie?” Ashley murmured incredulously under her breath. She looked away from the lens for a minute, took a deep breath, and looked into it again—only to see her son clinging for whatever reason to that huge man in black mask.Nexus, who was back and who was holding his binoculars, could not help but frown as well. “Hold on.” He called Wolf in which the latter immediately answered. “What’s going on?”Wolf, who successfully went out of the Cadillac without being noticed by the men in the SUV, was now hiding in a blind angle. He was crouching and looking over what was happening near the kid. Of course, he had seen Scottie’s reaction. But compared to Ashley and Nexus, he had a better view. He saw the look of reluctance in the child’s face.This was something that Wolf first noticed after seeing Scottie clinging to the big masked man’s neck as if he did not
Ashley did not know she missed the feeling of holding this baby until she held it once more. In her last life, it was due to sheer brokenhearted-ness that pushed her to look for something thrilling from Nexus. Then he took her to his basement and introduced her to the other side of him.He generously let her choose any guns. To think he let her take anything inside his basement filled with murder weapons—she even doubted if he had something that could destroy buildings or potentially destroy cities. She did ask him jokingly and he also answered ‘yes’ jokingly. To this day, Ashley did not really know if it was indeed a joke. Probably not.Now, Ashley still circled back. The quick ‘addiction’ she had with this baby, she thought it would remain a beautiful memory for her—something she would keep in her heart but would never be looked back.Oh, how wrong she was!In th
Jaxon never felt this way ever since he was young.Standing twenty meters away from the SUV, he did not wear any bulletproof vests or helmets in which his bodyguards were against to begin with yet they could not do anything about it. Jaxon did not want to set off these criminals since he did not know what they were after for.Was it for money? Was it a revenge scheme from his business rivals?Jaxon did not know.So, he waited. As soon as he received his Grandfather’s call that gave him the go, the city was immediately under martial law.With the help of the young lad provided by Nexus, his team was able to lock down the SUV where his son was taken and kept hostage by these unknown people. From land to the air, the police and the military locked it down.Computing its possible route, his team locked the roads, stopped the flow of traffic, and forced the
The moment the north bridge shut down; half of the city was immediately paralyzed. Traffic jams could be seen every corner of the city. From green to red then from orange to red, everyone was put to a halt as if the city became still as water.Curses from all the people stuck in the traffic intertwined with the symphony of car honks. The sirens from the local police started to spread like wild fire across the city. These traffic police officers mobilized their one hundred percent in order to keep peace and order despite the sudden ruckus.The lower-ranked policemen wondered if something big happened to push the city mayor to leave a very important investment meeting. Was it a terrorist attack? Was it something that involved the dark side of the society? No one in the lower command level knew. They could only follow the chain of command silently.With the way the entire city was mobilized, they still had the common sense
Ashley never thought she would be able to drive like this again—as if she discarded her life.She once learned how to drive as if being chased by the devil. In the last life, Nexus once brought her to his racetrack. The cold wind against her face woke her up from her drunkenness that time and she fell in love with cars almost instantly.Who would have thought that she would be using this skill—the skill that she thought she would never touch in this life—once more?As Ashley maneuvered the car’s steering wheel, she just took from the monitoring room guard, her mind wandered. She remembered how she dashed to the nearest parking lot and saw the tail of the car. One of these two cars was clearly chasing the SUV in the front—it should belong to Wolf.While speeding up, she looked for a cellphone on the dashboard or in the small compartments that she could reach while letting
Nexus was at the rooftop of Orion Hotel when all shit went downhill on Ashley’s side.He was just done with the meeting with all the gang leaders of V City. Nexus changed into simple homely clothes, bought all the things from the nearest shopping mall, and readied everything from the finest detail to the other.He was planning to have a picnic under the starry night with the mother and son. It was not leaning on the romantic way but Nexus wanted to introduce himself formally to Scottie.According to his men working in the weather center of the city, tonight, a phenomenon in which the fog that veiled the city for many years would be swept away by the monsoon near the northern area of the city. With this monsoon, the wind would chase away the fog—even the clouds—giving way for the stars to show off its luster in its once in a blue moon opportunity! After all, a monsoon would not happen every other day.
Ashley closed the door behind her in a very gentle way, too scared to wake up the exhausted child inside the hospital’s VVIP room. Her eyes quickly met Jaxon who was the only one who remained after an exhausting night. Although they were the only ones in the hallway, she could still see the patrolling soldiers, policemen, and their k-nine dogs outside the glass wall of the hallway.Jaxon handed Ashley a warm knitted blanket and a cup of steaming coffee which she took before she sat on the chair right outside her son’s private ward. “Did they answer?”Jaxon was in a dilemma. His team found out from the leader’s phone that his son was photographed secretly during the premiere night. They used this as a lead and found out about an actress named Atasha who had a beef with Ashley. His team focused on this motive and found out about another connection—Talia. The team had Atasha’s manager surrender Atasha’s phone as soon as possible. There, they found more traces of Talia. The same picture w
Flashes of blue and red entered the right-wing entrance of the Peninsula Hotel. Located at the most secluded area of the Peninsula Hotel, this entrance was only used by the VVIP. Mostly, it was used when Jaxon Elijah came to visit V City and he would stay in the hotel for a night rest or a quick nap.No one ever envisioned that the 9-1-1 firetruck along with its paramedics would use this very special entrance this day.Notified by the general manager in advance to open the right-wing entrance, the firetruck and the paramedic car arrived which was immediately welcomed by the two monitoring room security guards.At the same time, at the highest floor of the Peninsula Hotel, Jaxon Elijah just received the news from Harold who also just got the urgent report from the general hotel.Jaxon dropped his pen. Blood drained from his face as he opened the interface that connected him to all of the monitoring of
The premiere night was in full swing.The movie started with all the lights off except the screen in front of them. The bustling cinema quickly became silent as they focused on the movie that was about to start.The entire time, Scottie was seated between Wolf and Ashley. She held her son’s hand the entire time, observing his every reaction the entire time. Ashley watched him got excited especially when she first appeared on screen. She also saw how his expressions kept on changing as the movie progressed.Scottie’s little mouth pouted when he saw his mother crying silently on screen. He showed fear when the police was about to take his mother away. And he showed unprecedented need to destroy everything around him when he watched them hurt his mother in the prison cell.Scottie knew that it was all a drama. But his young mind was influenced by his mother’s amazing acting skills and