VINCENTWe had begun to get threats, and at first, I did not want to leave the country. I planned to stay and get everything fixed while I was still around, but James would not hear it.He booked us flight tickets to Spain, saying that we had business to finish up there after all.I sent the same text message which I had sent to Katerina to her side kick, Kelvin, and I hoped that for their own good, they did as I had asked.The cops frequented my office and house, but they never locked me up, only asking questions whenever they dropped by. They had taken James away once, because he had stood up for me when they insisted to take me for questioning in their custody.James would not have it. According to him, I did not belong behind bars, so he worked it out with the cops and ended up there, in my stead.If there was anyone who I owed my life to, it would be James. He was not only my assistant and best friend, he was family.The day before we were supposed to travel, we had already left
KATERINAI rescheduled the meeting with Simon, even if I was still super embarrassed on how exactly to face him after what had happened in Vincent's room.Not only did I enjoy Vincent's touch, I realized that I craved it.The moment he threw me on that bed, all I could think of was the possibility of him touching me. And here I'd thought that the part of me that craved physical touch like that was dead. For the past four years, whenever a man tried to touch me in a sexual manner, I developed a sudden panic attack and ran for the hills.With Vincent I had begged for more. Kelvin would have my head if he ever heard of what was going on between Vincent and I; something that needed to stop.Good thing he was going to be away for sometime; in that time I was going to figure out my way around this whole thing. Definitely.Simon and I would be meeting at an open park—not the one that Kev and I initiated our big fight, of course—it was where he would be telling me how he found out and all.
KATERINAAfter telling him everything, we decided to part ways so he could make his decision on what he wanted to do with the information.The next day, I decided to tell Kelvin about what had happened, and of course, the first thing he suggested was 'taking care of Simon.'"We are not hurting Simon, Kelvin." I stated matter-of-factly, and he groaned."In less than three days, it would finally be a week since Vincent left the country. I do not know how but the news about the wine poisoning has gradually begun to die down. This must have taken a lot of damage control. It just goes to show how much power Vincent has. I mean, how did he get those wealthy people that were affected to just throw the whole thing under the bus?" He asked, sounding scared. He had every right to be. I was scared too.Everyone was just sweeping the matter under the carpet like it had not even happened in the first place.It just went to show how much power Vincent had in the society; we needed to do more than t
VINCENTWe had just returned from Spain; James and I, and we were already on our way to our first press conference after the incident, eager to make things right.The scandal had started to die down, and for a reason. I had spent so much money compensating the affected families. A loss that ran into billions of dollars. I had not come up with a means to make Katerina and her sidekick pay yet, but I just knew that my clap back would cause drastic issues for them.In the moving car, James filled me in on what had been happening while we were away, "She had another wine tasting event. It went well. According to blogs, she salvaged herself."He turned to me, looking as confused as I felt."But you said Maggie did not touch the wine supply. You said she had nothing to do with that?" I shot at him and he nodded."Yes! She had nothing to do with the white wine being bad. I interrogated her many times on this and she confirmed every time, that she knew nothing about the whole wine issue." Jam
KATERINAEverything was going according to plan. With Vincent, Da'ana, even with Whitney.We were getting along more and more, to the extent that she had started to tell me about her everyday activities. I just needed some more trust and then I would strike.Without blowing my cover, still.With Whitney, what I wanted to do was simple. The exact same thing she did to me. Get her kidnapped and beaten within an inch of her life, after which I would dump her in the middle of nowhere to her fate. The only difference with this plan and what she actually did to me was that I had no intentions of killing her. I had no intention of having blood on my hands.Whitney had no idea what was coming at her.Currently, while I typed away at my laptop's keyboard, I had to admit that Whitney was not exactly who my mind was stuck on lately.It was none other than the exact person whom I should absolutely not have on my mind, not when he was the same person I had an ongoing vendetta against.Groaning, I
VINCENT Once again, my mother had proven to be a liability in my life. As I watched one of the videos circulating the net, gulping down my second drink for the day at 10am, I wondered why I had allowed her back into my life and publicized her to the world, even. The headlines were terrible, it was like they had been constructed by the most unfeeling journalists in the field. One minute, the world adored you and the next, everyone treated you like shit. One of the blogs had even written their caption like thus; THE POWERS FAMILY INVOLVED IN YET ANOTHER SCANDAL. HOW MUCH MORE SCANDALS UNTIL THEY ARE COMPLETELY CANCELLED? "Canceled," I scoffed, getting up on my feet so I could walk to the tall window in my home office and look out of it. "Like hell, I can be canceled." This was all happening because of one woman. She entered my life and bad luck followed suit. It was like I was paying for my sins, but if there was any sin I could think of paying for, it was one that involve
KATERINA The front doors opened to reveal Kelvin standing inches away from it in the hallway, looking confused at first as my bodyguards dragged Vincent inside.I stopped in my tracks behind them, holding his gaze for a while before finally taking a deep breath and walking inside, returning my butler's welcome with a thank you."Take him upstairs, to any of the free guest rooms. Thank you." I instructed the guards and they went away promptly.Turning to Kelvin who held a Starbucks cup in one hand, I asked with a raised brow, "You're having a Starbucks drink this late at night? Odd."He tipped his head towards me, "You brought an archenemy to the house. Even odder." I sighed, rolling my eyes, "He would have gotten beaten up to death if I left him there, or gotten himself into something worse. He was completely wasted, Kev.""Well, good for us!" He stressed, walking towards me. Oh God… I really wasn't looking forward to an argument with Kelvin right now. The guards came back downstai
VINCENTBig, brown eyes stared back at me, foreign compared to the jet black ones I was used to seeing on her face.And from the way her eyes moved as I studied her quietly, I confirmed that these were her real eyes. The realization left me with mixed feelings; on one hand I fucking loved her real eyes and thought that they complimented her face more than the fake ones, on the other hand, I could not help but wonder what the fuck she was truly hiding.Katerina eventually pushed me off her, my hands falling from her mouth and waist at the same time. She moved back a few inches, breathing a bit faster as she stared back at me.I have her a once over that lasted longer than a usual one should have. Maybe because she was wearing some red, skimpy night dress that had a dangerous V-neckline and stopped way above her knees. The color of the clothing complimented her pale skin and eyes so well.. she looked so fucking gorgeous. She had no business being here, dressed like this. Not with her ni
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.