KATERINAI held his gaze. I could not look away all of a sudden. It was like everything else had stopped, and we were only able to see each other.Well, until he decided to ruin it by shaking his head and then he looked away, focusing all his attention back to the crowd."Sorry, I got a bit distracted. So, as I was saying…" Simon trailed off, but I could no longer concentrate. What was that? I could not even look at Kelvin in that moment because I knew without a doubt that he would be staring at me with the most disappointed look in his eyes."I knew one of my sons would pick interest in you. I mean, did you notice the way he stared? I know that look too well.. I know my sons, and I know when they want something for themselves." Da'ana revealed to me.She was such a liar. If any mother could bag an award for not knowing a thing about her own offspring, it would certainly be Da'ana. She had been away from them for a while and only returned few years back, after her male sponsors abando
VINCENT"I do not understand, brother." Simon spoke with a confused expression on his face, wiping sweat off his face and neck areas. "What do you mean if I saw someone or anything familiar last night? I just returned for the first time in four years. I mean, everything looks a bit new to me, and granted there had been sone changes but of course, I recognize some things." I watched him keenly, disappointment visible in my tone as I asked, "Did you talk to her? Katerina Montego?"He nodded, his face lighting up in a smile at once as he went to get his bottle of water from one corner of the gym. "I did. Of course, I did. I walked in with her, remember?" He enquired.I nodded, waiting. At this point, I barely cared about the damn workout, but my brother was already checking out another workout machine.It was a private gym located in my house, and so no one could interrupt us here."She is a nice woman. Hot, too. I mean.. extremely hot. I am sure you have checked her out a couple of ti
KATERINAVincent looked the calmest I had ever seen him, but that was a very dangerous kind of calm. I mean, I had experienced it first hand. "Have you both been here long?" Mollie asked, immediately picking up the menu. I had only talked to Mollie on the phone… video calls, normal calls and texts… I had never seen her in person.In person, she was every inch of the princess she was made to be. Her skin was the first thing that anyone would notice, and when she took off her sunshades on getting here, I could not stop staring at her lash extension set. Clean, and perfect for her glowing face.I felt like dropping the whole business talk for a minute to ask, 'Girl, who is your lash technician? And what mapping is that?'Her body looked like it had been touched up in some areas and her doctor did an amazing job. A lot of people, mostly men would not be able to tell.. at all. She was extremely gorgeous, blond, and obviously in her early twenties.. having so much money to invest in busine
KATERINAAfter the incident, I began to make plans on how to start producing white wine just so we could be ahead of Vincent and his team on that… gain some upper hand.I passed by the Winery on a cool evening, watching as the grapes were harvested, pressed and fermented to make our first batch of white wine. The idea had come to me at first, but for some reason, I had chosen to simply make red wine and leave the white wine out. I had decided to just add beverages instead.. what was I thinking?I was too engrossed in the need to make him pay that I felt like I needed to copy exactly what he was doing and try to top it off in my own way.I walked up to one of the workers, returning the smoke she sent my way as I approached her. She looked like a mother. She had wrinkles prominent on her forehead, and she had a worn out dress on.A couple of other people who worked in my wineries dressed like this. They consisted of people from poor provinces who just wanted to make a living and were m
VINCENTI had just closed the deal with Mollie. I found her a white wine company—Vent Wines. The company was my possession as well, but not all of our investors needed to know that.James was in a good mood, reading the contract over and over with a grin on his face, "You are such a genius. She must have thought she would be getting away with a 50-50 contract. Glad you put her in her place." He gushed."I'll always put her in her place. I offered her a deal to leave this place before I ruined her, but she decided not to take it. It was a stupid choice to make on her part. She would soon realize just how stupid it is." I said, having a small smile on my face.Two knocks resounded on the door, and then a male figure walked in, his head bent. I could even hear his sniffing from where I sat. His hair was cleanly and completely shaven, bald… like he had gotten into a bad barber situation and had agreed to just shave it all off because of a silly mistake.James turned around and on seeing h
KATERINA"Shaving off his hair was a dick move, Kev. He was simply a messenger. All I asked was for you to deny him the job and send him off, telling him that you knew he was a spy and maybe threatening him a bit. Not this.." I kept eyeing the picture on the screen of my iPad, concerned about the whole thing.I heard Kelvin blow a breath, and I looked up to see him frowning deeply at me. "You are right. He was sent by your ex husband, which is why I sent him back to the messenger with a harmless warning. I did not even torture him or anything. I did not lay a hand on him other than while I was cutting his hair. It is just hair, Kat. It would grow back.""I am sensitive when it comes to hair, Kelvin. You of all people should know that. Everyday I wish I did not have to cut my hair or even dye it to a color that looks extremely foreign to me every time I look in the mirror. Do you know how depressed it gets sometimes? For this video in my phone, the man looks… dejected. It is not just h
KATERINA There was no way to press charges against Vincent as the whole thing was already too complicated. If there was, I would have pressed charges in a heartbeat, not that a man like Vincent could stay behind bars with how much influence he had. I sighed, turning off the engine of my car as I parked in front of his head company. Boldly written on the top of the magnificent skyscraper was a line, 'POWERS WINES'. I stared pointedly at the inscription for minutes until it turned to what I intended to see sometime from now. 'KAT WINES', inscribed on every single building that he currently owned. I allowed myself to dwell on that for some time before finally opening my car door and getting out. I reached the receptionist section and walked over to the young woman behind the desk. She looked really decent, nothing above 25. I bet she had an amazing love life too, one that I still could not boast of at my ripe age of 27. She smiled on seeing me approach her and it did not loo
VINCENT "What the hell do you mean you cannot let him go just yet? You have had your fun, brother. I got what I wanted. You tortured him for threatening me, and the girl could not pick him over her business here. That is all I need, now let the young man leave, Owen." I snapped, standing alone in the conference meeting where we had just finished a meeting. "Unfortunately, I am not done with him. I have unfinished business with the Montegos, and that includes that pretty heiress that you are up against. I have been stalking her for a hot minute. Only a matter of time before I get my hands on her, she looks like she would be a feisty one too, and I love me a good fighter." He laughed into the phone, and I could just hear James screaming into my ear repeatedly, an unhealthy amount of 'I told you so's,'. Maybe I should have been more upset about Owen hinting at keeping Katerina for himself, but somehow I could tell he was bluffing. He hated to show it, but my brother was a lover b
EPILOGUE KATERINA Forever and a long ass day; that was how long I wanted to be with Vincent. It was finally happening today, our wedding, and I was the happiest bride. Ava stepped into the suite where I was getting my makeup done, all dressed and looking every bit of the princess she was, and I could not help but fight back tears. Within the past few months since she got here, she had grown so much. She was so beautiful, looked happier now and more healthy. I loved this child so much… She had a single rose and a box in hand as she walked towards me and I shook my head, my smile refusing to leave my lips, "Vincent, right?" I questioned. She nodded with a wide smile, "Daddy asked me to give this to you, mommy." Yeah, she called out me ‘mommy’ not too long ago, and has not looked back ever since. With a grin on my face, I took the gifts off her hand and then tore the box open to reveal a blank cheque which read; THANK YOU FOR MARRYING ME… AGAIN. And I would do it o
VINCENTI could not believe what I was hearing. That fucking nanny had almost killed my wife-to-be, and her death was made that easy? I could not let my driver take the wheels on this one, I took hold of the steering myself, heading straight to the hospital I had been directed to.Katerina was not picking up any of my calls and I hated it. I wanted to know how she was doing, how my daughter was doing too. I wanted to make sure they had not ingested that fucking poison in any manner. If by any chance that poison had gone down any of my girls' throat, next believe I would be killing that bloody woman all over again.The drive to the hospital was long as hell, but I finally got there and practically jumped out of the front seat, heading straight inside the building.The moment I walked into the hospital room and saw Katerina sitting there, alive and well, I felt like I could breathe again. There she was, her face pale and tired, yet still the most beautiful thing I had ever laid my eye
KATERINAThe house was quieter than usual that night, and I was starting to get that uneasy feeling again.I sat in the living room, reading a book while waiting for Ava to finish kissing her nanny goodnight so we could go to bed together.Vincent was out for the night handling some business, and I was left alone with Ava and the domestic staff. That's when I heard it—hushed voices from down the hallway. I couldn't make out everything, but the tone caught my attention. It was sharp, scolding. The words became clearer as I stood and crept toward the kitchen. "How could you mess this up, Ava? I told you to make sure she ate the eggs, not the chicken!" Her nanny hissed. "I—I thought she ate everything. I saw her do. I didn't know." Ava's small voice quivered, her words barely audible through the door. I could not then laugh at her little grammatical blunder at that moment, as I froze where I stood, my stomach twisting into knots. The eggs? What was she talking about? "Your mommy
KATERINA "Can I speak to mommy on the phone?" Ava asked quietly, looking up at me with desperate eyes. This was not the first time she had asked it, and it broke my heart for her that I could not give in to her request. "Sweetheart, I told you many times… mommy is out of reach. You cannot speak to her yet, but you will, I will take you to see her one of these days. I promise." I did not care if Whitney wanted her to see her like that or not, they'd have to meet, I decided. "Alright, K. Thank you." She muttered. The nickname always filled my stomach with butterflies. Fun fact; she had come up with it herself. In fact, she had requested to call me that. Though I secretly hoped she would eventually call me mommy, I decided to make do with this. We sat there while she colored on a new drawing hook I had bought for a while, until the smell of roasted chicken wafted through the room, and I looked back, noticing the nanny walking towards us. I almost moaned in relief. Finally. "So
KATERINAWhitney refused to tell us anything more after that. We stood there, threatening her with all manner of things, but she never budged. She just sat there, smiling crookedly and laughing occasionally.I finally convinced Vincent to leave there and we both went home, hoping to figure out what exactly Whitney meant with everything she said about Ava ourselves.This morning, I woke up in his arms and peered up to see that he was awake already, focused on his phone. He had wrinkled lines in his forehead and dark circles around his eyes, and I could not help but feel a twinge of worry for him.The man had been working so hard these days and somehow, I knew that it had something to do with what Whitney had said about his child.Ava was acting… well, she was still detached from her father but she was every bit the bubbly child around me. Her nanny lived with us now, and continued to take care of her, in better living conditions… it was what she wanted, and she had been very grateful.
VINCENT I slammed my car door shut before I went over to the other side to open up for Katerina. "Thank you," she muttered, looking as eager to see Whitney as I was. She looked even more eager, but then again that was probably because the woman literally wore her emotions like a sleeve. We walked briskly inside the prison walls without really saying anything else to each other; we had talked enough on our way here. It was only when we were getting to her cell, that Katerina turned to face me, telling me, "I am going to let you talk to her. You are the one who is mostly affected by this, I would let you question her and whatnot without any interruptions but I also want to say stuff to her too, just so you know." She informed me, and I nodded, not wanting to say anything in response at first, except that nod, but after a quick glance at her face, I could see the desperation in her eyes for me to be okay and just like that, I just couldn’t keep to myself any longer. I threw m
KATERINA"Oh God, Ava!" I cried out as the little girl bolted away from the living room as we all had reacted too slowly because of course, no one had expected that from her.Vincent was the first to run after her, and also the first to recover from the shock. He was behind her in no time, and I was next, followed by the nanny.Luckily, the butler was quick enough to stop her. Ava was crying and kicking in his arms, demanding to be set free, but he was not having it."You aren't going out of here without adult supervision, woman!" He yelled, but she was not having it."Let me go! My mommy will hurt me, she says he's the bad guy, I cannot be around him, please…" She continued to cry. My heart broke in pieces for her. What kind of a mother was Whitney for crying out loud? "Your mother hurt you, and you still think your daddy is the bad man?" Vincent blurted out and I pinned him with a look, but he did not spare me a glance, his eyes were still transfixed in his daughter who refused to
VINCENT Katerina pulled the door open for me, mumbling to the butler, "Never mind. I got this." And then she smile widely at me after opening the door, wrapping her arms around my body in a tight hug. Her smile was nervous as fuck, as if she had something to tell me, and I knew that she did. A child was in here, at the living room. I had peeked through the surveillance, because my girl sounded nervous as fuck and I had to know what was making her like that. It was either that or me storming out of the meeting I was in. There was a nanny with the little girl too. She was claiming that the child was mine, and Whitney was her mother. But how the fuck did that even happen? Katerina pulled away from me, her face twisting in an offended frown, "You don't want to hug me back?" She started to step aside, but then my hand gripped her waist and I pulled her to me with force so her body collided with mine. Katerina gasped, then burst into a fit of giggles as I planted kisses al
KATERINA There was some commotion outside the front door. I had just heard it as I got out of the bathroom, trying to prepare to go shopping at the mall for a few essentials since I did not have work today. I ended up just throwing on Vincent’s T-shirt and a pair of shorts before heading downstairs to see what the noise was about. The noises grew louder as I approached the door and I pulled it open at once on reaching it. When my eyes met with a little girl's with her dark curls falling softly around her face, clutching a worn stuffed bunny, I almost thought she’d stopped at the wrong house. But then I noticed her eyes—a striking, familiar gray. The same piercing color that belonged to Vincent, with a touch of softness that reminded me of Whitney. Next to her stood a woman, exhausted, holding the little girl’s hand firmly, as if afraid she might lose her any moment. Our butler was asking questions, his gaze shifting between the woman and the little girl with polite suspicion.