Scarlett’s POV“For a drink,” I shrug, leaving. I didn’t want to talk to him, but getting words out of my body finally got me to get back in control of my shaken body.Suddenly Sebastian grips my chin and raises my head in his direction, tilting his head at me with a frown: “You cut yourself.”“Let go,” I push his hand with a frown, but he won’t let go.I would be so happy before, if his attention could land on me like this. But not anymore. I don’t like him touching me at will as if I am still his belongings. I was. Not anymore.My hand might have shaken when I pressed the bottle under my jaw. I didn’t know it would be so sharp. But he fixes my head in that position more like to force me to look at him, rather than checking my wound.“Did you mention my wound to help, or you just want to watch me bleed to death?”Glaring at him, I claw his wrist. He clicks his tongue as he lets go.Taking a deep breath to calm down, I restrain myself from rolling my eyes. But again, Sebastian raises a
Scarlett’s POV“Will you lower your voice?!” Sebastian grunts at the knucklehead.When you are rich enough, you automatically become a celebrity. Celebrities like Sebastian, their marital status can make a huge impact on their business if it got out the wrong way. I did think about this, and I thought it wouldn’t be a problem, but I shouldn’t have told Adrian, not before Sebastian made the official announcement.Going to leave, but I stop and add to him: “Sorry I announced it before you could make it official. But you are on a clock now. So you might want to give your lawyer some homework for the night.”Adrian his nemesis, and Gabriel the knucklehead? They just might be the worst two people to know a secret Sebastian doesn’t want out.I don’t know if he was delaying out of distrust of the detailed clauses, or he just didn’t take it seriously. It can feel surreal to him, exactly because it has been something he has been longing for. Just like the baby’s news that I have been hiding beh
Scarlett’s POVI can’t help but glance at Sebastian, and surely enough, he is frowning at her. She HATES him! Why would she be here?! Why would she be here at THE moment I’m stuck with Sebastian? With my heart pounding hard, I turn around slowly.Then Aurora throws herself into me.“Scar! Are you alright?” Aurora grabs me and checks me head to toe, “I’m really really sorry! I was...caught up with somethin--What’s that smell on your hair-- OMG! You are bleeding!”I giggle, can barely breathe in Aurora’s attention in a machine-gun style.In that moment I feel like I traveled back in time. When Gabriel bullied me, Aurora would be the one attending to me while Lilith...I peek in Lilith’s direction sneakily, and her cold eyes catch mine like sharp knives. Those are the cold looks she gave me when she left my wedding with Sebastian. I lower my eyes quickly.Lilith is no longer in the picture.With the skills from her policeman of a big brother and the queen aura from ruling the kids on the
Sebastian’s POVI have never seen Scar so happy with her laughter reaching her eyes...when she left with her friends.She never laughs with me, she just smiles at me -- she used to smile at me, but not anymore. Not for months. But even before when she did, it was different from the laugh she had with her friends. Her smile at me was always timid and restrained, like a puppy scared of being hurt, but also desperately flatters people for food.She wasn’t happy with me. I made sure of that.I thought I was just “not loving” her. I didn’t. I don’t! And because of that, I never cared if I was hurting her. She forced my hand, and I used that to justify everything.The past three days were really rough for me.I couldn’t stop thinking about Scar’s accusation, of how horribly we have been treating her. I felt sick of myself every time I think of the phrase “blood vessel”. I kept searching in my memory for clues to justify my actions. Maybe she deserved it, maybe she brought that to herself, ma
Sebastian’s POV“Gab,” I pull his phone away, demanding, “I thought you want Scar to leave? Ava wants her gone.”“I want her to leave YOU, not the city!” Gabriel fights me for his phone, “What if Ava needs her again?!”My blood runs cold.Is this really the Gab that I know? The popular homecoming king? The nice big brother that Ava always shows off? The friend who I thought could have my back?When he sees a girl, his own baby sister, nothing but an emergency help for Ava?A... blood vessel?“Calm down,” I can’t help my tone dropping cold, handing him his phone, “it was three days ago. By the way, that actually was what the whole fuss was about.”“Huh?” Gabriel calms down and blinks, seemingly surprised, “Ava told me it was something about mom...?”Yeah. About how Anna lured Scar back.“She hasn’t been talking about leaving for a long time now, ever since...” Gabriel glances at me, and immediately I realize the words he didn’t say--Ever since I married her. I feel sick again.“She has
Sebastian’s POVAdrian Dunn is bad news.He inherited from his father not only the biggest newspaper in town, but also his cold dark view of the world from the last century. He believes not in law, but in power; not in just, but in narratives. He hurts people without a blink even if they are innocent, and he protects those whom he cares to no boundaries.I stand against everything he is, and that puts his target on my back.“What do you say, Seb-babe?” Adrian smirks. As if the bruises on his cheekbone doesn’t hurt at all.Right. I also hate his lousy low-taste nicknames.“Fuck off, Adrian,” Gabriel stands up, using his “intimidating walk” on Adrian -- pressing his bulky features into his face.Adrian is my height, but Gabriel is almost 6.5 feet, bulky no less. I think that’s why he got his bully name even though he doesn’t really do the bully shit. Also why Adrian calls him “bear”.Adrian is not flinching.“You don’t want to fight me, teddy bear,” Adrian doesn’t even put his icon fake
Scarlett’s POV“Ewww! That’s the truth???” Aurora exclaims, “You SLEPT with him?! Seriously?!”After running into Gabriel at Nightingale, we couldn’t stay there. Instead, we found a small, random bar down the street. A quiet, cozy small place, perfect for girls' talk.Lilith closes her eyes with a desperate look, dying under Aurora’s judgy looks, “Accidently, okay? The key word is accident!”Now that makes sense. Lilith used to be the one handling most of my “code reds”. I can’t imagine two enemies just suddenly fall in love. But then again, Gabriel looked deeply in love though...“But Gabriel?!” Aurora takes a deep breath to calm herself, only to burst out again, “It’s...Gabriel!”Lilith looks just as devastated as Aurora.“When was that?” I ask. If it’s recent, then we might need to buy another set of pregnant tests. A baby not born out of love is the last thing we want...again.Lilith glances at me before darting her eyes off to her glass.“What?” Aurora and I exchange a confused lo
Scarlett’s POVHer words are too shocking that I even forget to cry: “...what?”“You know how Damon was the constable of the Villa area at that time, right?” Lilith asks.Vaguely.“On that day, he was called to the Knight’s house. The neighbors called it in, or something like that. The point is, the Iron Lady made a huge fuss that day, and Ava was the fuss!”“...what?” I blink, not catching up at all.The Iron Lady is Sebastian’s grandma. She basically raised Sebastian after his parents died in a car accident, while protecting the family business against the sharks. Hence her nickname.“Let me,” Aurora pats me on my back, her tone patient and calm, unlike the anxious Lilith, “that day Sebastian took Ava back to meet with his grandma, because...he wanted to marry her, and he needed his grandma’s blessing.”Sebastian can hurt anyone for Ava, but not Granny. He loves her and respects her to the most.“That’s what you couldn’t tell me?” I frown in confusion. So he proposed to Ava. Not like
“I will divorce him for a price,” Ava adds with a pout, “He owed that marriage to me, and he never lived up to his responsibility as a husband to me.”“The blood we gave him was Scarlett’s to begin with. What did you expect when you forced his hand into a marriage?” Jack Fuller sighs, shaking his head slowly with disappointment in his eyes. He has done shitty things, for his wife and his daughter. He thought he was doing all he could to protect his family, but he never expected his daughter to only learn his dirty trick out of those.“You forced mom and it turned out fine,” Ava shrugs with an indifferent tone.“What did you say to me?!” Jack Fuller raises his hand, and Ava freezes in fearful tears. In the end, his hand didn’t land.Jack Fuller lets a deep, long sigh. He grips his fist to hide the shiver of his hand.Anna was in love with Johnny Vanderbilt when they got married. He has always loved Anna, so when Anna came to him for a proposal out of nowhere, he took it. He took it kno
“This is just going to piss Scarlett off!”Huffing at her father, Ava rolls her eyes as they pass the dim passageway with the bidders. Not like she is willing to give in to Scarlett on the necklace, but publicly selling off the necklace to her is only a declaration of war, something her cautious father would never do. But Jack Fuller seems determined to follow through.The auction allows masks, not that a simple mask could conceal one’s identity, especially at the level of people who can afford to be here. But still, Ava has a mask on. Not only that, she’s also in a sluttier dress with the back cutting all the way to her waist – to throw people off, as she says.But Jack Fuller knows these are just Ava’s ways of acting out. After the fallout with Sebastian. He knows his daughter better than anyone else, and for all the years of her playing the tamed angle for Sebastian, there is bound to be a blowout after she lost all hope of that man.Complying with Ava, Jack Fuller is also under a
“Do...do you know of the Vanderbilts?” Did you know that you just scolded the heir of one of the most powerful families in the country? This is the true question, the one that Scar dares not to ask.Scar glances in Silco’s direction, a shade of nervousness in her voice that she didn’t even notice herself.They picked up Lilith before calling it a day. Silco played with Alice the whole ride to Lilith’s place. Didn’t want to talk about Damian in front of Lilith or Alice, Scar just remained silent as guilt eats her up.Her deal with Silco is about the Fullers. Silco needs it exactly because he didn’t want a stain on his name, so she doesn’t imagine he would be too happy to get on the wrong side of a Vanderbilt.Silco looks over, his deep eyes lingering before he nods simply: “Yes, I do.”Scar swallows unconsciously.Should she tell him who Damian was? He stood up for her. It would be horrible of her to keep Damian’s identity from him, especially if Damian causes trouble for him because o
“Damian Vanderbilt!” Scar exclaims in anger, “I can’t believe this! This is a new low, even for you!”Behind the corner stands the man she called out, on his face are embarrassment, surprise and... a faint shade of anger -- anger at his dear brother-in-law who just threw him under the bus so his dear sister wouldn’t lose it seeing her ex abducting her friend’s daughter.Talking about how messed up your original family can be.“Lilith told you no, right?” Scar folds her arms in front of her chest, glaring at Damian like a pissed cat mama, “Is that why you are hiding out here?!”“Welll… not exactly…” The man rubs his hair with an apologetic smile. Lilith didn’t tell him “no”. She didn’t pick up his million phone calls at all, nor did Scar. “This is purely a coincidence, but I’m so happy to see you, Alice--”Scar narrows her eyes and he quickly apologizes: “I mean, Scarlett—”“It’s Scar, and I’m happier without you, thanks.” Scar snorts coldly, having no intention of continuing the conve
“Who told you to call her Scar mama?” Sebastian asks, watching Scar carefully to not let her see them, but also not lose sight of Scar. He didn’t know Scar was here, nor did he expect Alice to jump off the carousel when she saw him. He noticed that Lilith had taken Alice here, so he came. “She IS Scar mama…” Alice answers in a wronged tone, confused. “Does she know that I’m your papa?” Sebastian asks, knowing the answer — Scar doesn’t. Or she would have put two and two together. He needs to tell her, but he can’t. Not because of Silco. As hard as he tried to look into that man, he couldn’t find anything too odd. The guy seems clean. Adam Smith. That’s the name Sebastian found. So ordinary a name that it’s almost boring. He even found out why he hates the Fullers — Jack Fuller’s precious little company, the one he kept carefully for so many years, he bought it from a “Smith” with the price of one dollar — The kind of deal that always has a bloody story behind it. As much as he
“Alice?” Scar blinks, uncertain of her eyes, “Lilith, did you see Alice coming off? She was on the pony in the last turn…” Saying that, Scar is already running towards the spinning carousel, her breath held, and her eyes darting around frantically as panic grabs her. Alice is gone! She was so certain that Alice took the pink pony, which was now empty as it passed Scar innocently, as if Scar remembered it wrong. “Alice!” Scar shouts, turning around as her whole world spins. Did she just lose Alice? How?! Alice was just in front of her! She didn’t even take her eyes off! The fake wooden pony just goes behind the puller for a few seconds, and such a turn loses a whole person?! “Scar, breathe!” Lilith comes to Scar’s side, her voice stern and swift, “Do not move in case Alice comes back. I’ll find her! Scar!” Scar wants to cry. She wants to melt down and shout and burst out and blow up the whole entertainment park! But she can’t lose it, not right now. Lilith’s daughter is missing, an
“So…you really trust this…Silco?” Lilith asks Scar with her eyes still on Alice, who’s just a few inches away, laughing on the carousel as it runs around. Spent most of her life on a private island, entertainment parks are like miracle lands to Alice. And the bright smile on her chubby little face makes it so hard for Lilith to say no. Not that she wants to anyway: It’s the best chance to get Scar to spend time with Alice. Johnny Vanderbilt wanted to take Alice back to his city after Scar went to prison. Knowing how Scar felt about Damian, Lilith chose to help Sebastian and took Alice to hide on a private island Sebastian got under Granny’s maiden name. At least this way Alice gets to grow up with her father. The plan worked well at first. Sebastian narrows his work days to 2 in the office, moving most of his work online and spending all five days on the island with them. For quite a long time Alice thought Lilith was her mom, and Lilith didn’t put in a real effort to correct her
Driving for 20 minutes in the car, Scar’s eyes are still cold from the outburst earlier. She has loved that man, and hated that man. He is just to painful to keep in her heart. She wants him out of her life, but he just keep coming and stir things up! “So heartless about him, hmm?” Silco breaks the silence tauntingly, “Sure you won’t regret it? I know how much you loved him before.” “That’s none of your business!” Scar snorts coldly, her tone not at all like the sugar baby she shows others.
“Scar!” Scar left when Sebastian was dragged down by the Fullers. By the time he catches up, she’s already by a pure black luxury car waiting right outside of the Fuller’s gate. Scar wasn’t going to wait for him until Sebastian hurried up a few steps and put his fingers between the half-closed door. If he has to be honest, he is surprised that Scar didn’t close the door on his fingers anyway. But Scar turns visibly impatient at his way of stopping her. “You just never settle for what’s yours at the time, do you?” Scar says coldly, standing behind the door when Sebastian feels like the door is the furthest distance in the world. A cold snort lands quietly in the car. Sebastian hears. On the back seat sits that masked man, Silco. That name upsets him. That man is using Scar, if he is not playing her also, he knows. He looked into that guy, and found nothing. Nothing! That’s not normal, and it's not at the level of resources he has. Maybe that man doesn’t exist on papers, meaning a