KATERINAI got down from the car after Simon, my eyes on his ever as I shut the door.Vincent looked as perfect as ever, filling out his suit pants and jacket. He had cut down his beard that had started to grow out to a stubble, causing him to look even more mature now, with his hair cut down a bit too and tamed carefully on his head. He almost looked completely clean, well until I noticed the cigar on his right hand. I frowned at the sight. Did he ever go anywhere without a stick of that?Simon came to stand beside me, pulling me out of my thoughts. He had both hands in his pockets as he greeted in a nervous tone,"Hello brother. Sorry for coming a bit late. Had to pick her up." He pointed at me, taking out one hand."I leave town for one month and you become my rival's designated driver. Interesting." Vincent replied and I rolled my eyes, already expecting his sassiness.He stepped closer before Simon could say anything else, obviously catching the eye roll. I swallowed. "Give is a
VINCENTI watched her laugh with my brother, and I struggled to keep still in my seat. I had chosen to sit differently from them, with James, so I watched from a distance.I heard James speak beside me, "Surprising how they quickly became friends in such a short while.""They have been friends before now, or at least, acquaintances. The surprising thing here is the level of closeness. I do not trust her. She might try to use my brother against me. As we speak, he probably works as a spy for her. The fool and my mother are alike in one way; the manner in which they are easily manipulated. I would not be surprised in the least if he is planning my downfall along with her. I only wonder why." I spoke, with my eyes still focused on them.James hummed, "Do you plan on confronting him about it?""Definitely." I sat up, arranging my suit, "Right after I give my welcome speech." I tapped James on his shoulder twice, then stood up to my feet and started towards the stage.I climbed the stage a
KATERINAWhen Simon returned from his 'meeting' with Vincent, I was too impatient to wait for until we were on the way home, so I took out my phone from my clutch and I texted,ME: ~ Hey, what's up? What was that all about? ~I turned to glance at him right after sending, seeing that he picked up his phone after it had lit up, only to place it right back after a sigh, looking back up at the stage. Confused, I turned to his mom to see if she was paying any attention to us, and when I confirmed that she was not, I elbowed him.He turned to me with his face still set in a straight expression and I asked in a hushed tone, "Is there a problem?"He shook his head, "We'll talk later. And I'm sorry, I cannot drop you off anymore. Don't worry, I would explain everything when we talk later."There was a moment of hesitation but I eventually nodded and sat there uneasily, glaring at Vincent who no longer paid me any attention as he passed from time to time."My driver is here. He'll take you ho
KATERINAI eventually walked out on him after a dirty glare, even if my heart was racing fast.The driver was already in the front seat, pretending to be oblivious to everything that had happened outside. What if he had choked me to death? He was just going to sit here and pretend he did not see anything happen?The thought caused a lot of a flashbacks to re-emerge in my mind and I fought to stay in the present but lost. Tears rolled down my cheeks as I thought about history repeating itself again. This just showed how much of a devil Vincent was, and I swore, I was going to bring him down with my own hands.He thought he had reinforced, and he was one or two steps ahead of me. Oh, only if he knew… I thought to myself.I stayed at the backseat, crying silently until I got home. And here I thought he was the only one who could not trigger my trauma; it was always okay with him. But I guess I had hard limits.At home, it was lonely. I really needed to talk to someone, so after retiring
VINCENT "We have been following your brother—by we, I mean.. the investigators have been following him and I just take the reports. His calls and texts are being tracked as well. There has been contact between him and Katerina. Okay, well, there has been some contact, but only from Katerina's end, he has never replied.." James updated me as I pounded my fists into the punching bag in front of me over and over. Beads of sweat trickled down my naked upper body to the hem of my shorts and I blinked as a single one trailed down, into my left eye. "And has he met her once in the last week? It's been almost two weeks since the party. There must have been a couple of meetings. I asked to know the details of those meetings." I informed him and he replied, "They have not met." There was a moment of silence where we looked at each other with the look in my eyes simply saying, 'Be fucking for real..' without words. He sighed and went on, "I know. It was hard for me to believe at
KATERINAThe words had left my lips before I had the chance to take them back. I left them hanging in the air as he stared at me with no emotion on his face, so I could not even tell what he was thinking.At a point, he just answered into the phone, "Yes. I think she said her favorite flowers were tulips. She’s allergic to the smell of roses. Do not get her that."I thought of walking past him, but I did not trust myself to stably walk away, so I stood there and waited for him to finally get his call over with."Attach a nice card to it too. She likes flashy things. Get her something good. I trust you to get that right. Alright. Goodbye." He ended the call with that and flashed me one of his deadly, egoistic smirks.I fought the urge to roll my eyes at him, considering I did that almost all the time with him now. What was he even doing right outside the venue of my shoot? My mind kept telling me something but I pushed the thought away, rebuking it even, whenever it surfaced."How are
VINCENTShe stared at me in silence from across the table. We had been like that since she asked the director to postpone the shoot and dragged me off to a nearby cafe to talk.My fingers rapped against the table and then with a sigh, I broke the silence, "As much as I would love to keep staring at your face, I am a busy man, firecracker. I would love to get back to work. What is your decision?"She blinked, then swallowed, "I'm.. uh.. I'm ready for your conditions."I gave her a single nod, then started, "First. I need you to tell me what is going on between you and my brother. If I do not believe you, I would simply post the video." He said with a shrug."Nothing is going on. Simon stopped talking to me because of you, for God's sake!" She whisper-screamed.I carried on, "Secondly, you talked about achieving personal goals. These goals you are achieving now, they are not personal? Do you have some kind of vendetta against me? If yes, how do you know me? Or, are you working for someo
KATERINAI drove home furiously, parked in my garage and began to storm into the house when I noticed someone in front of the door. I stopped in my tracks because the person had his back facing me. It looked like Kevin. I hoped to the heavens that it was not him. I mean, I had missed him so much and all I did these past few days was pray for his return. But not now of all times, not when all I wanted to do at the moment was lock myself in all day and sulk.Probably just sleep, but I just knew it would not be possible with Kelvin here. He would definitely notice that something was off about me, and there was no way in hell I could tell him that I had mistakenly sent my nude video to Vincent who in turn was threatening me with them and I had to do as he said, so I would not risk being sexualized every single time I stepped out, and the many more consequences that came with your nudes leaking to the public.I was still deep in thoughts, rooted at a spot, when the figure suddenly turned
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.