JACE's POVI could see the look on her face when she stared at herself in the mirror after she wore the dress I had gotten for her. As I had suspected, the dress had fitted nicely. It wasn't a tight or short dress but she still managed to pull off the hot look in it. Caila was beautiful and she needed to hear that more but today wasn't for that. I had been postponing the meeting with Darius for several days all because I wanted him to be emotional and under an environment I had control over. So when I had finally given him a location and a time, he had been more than eager to be there. That was the effect Caila had on him. Immediately Caila said his name I could see the look on his face. He was impressed that she remembered him. Even Caila did not know the degree of hold she had over him.Caila turned to look at me with an accusatory stare but I pulled her close. “Be a good girl,” I whispered and kiss her cheek. Darius led us back to where he was sitting. “This place is empty,” C
ARIA'S POVIt was just another Saturday. Another Saturday for me and my friends to hang out at Ristorante Mare e Vino.I had missed seeing them because of this - they couldn't stop assaulting me with questions about Jace and my sister. Rita wasn't helping. Ever since she knew about how Jace had broken Lucas nose with his fist, she had concluded he was a great guy so when I told him about how we rarely spoke to each other, she was nearly pulling out her hair. “Chill Rita,” Jessica cautioned. “She can't beg the man to speak to her.”“Come on! Hear me out!” Rita shouted before bringing her voice to a whisper. “He is literally her husband, they should do more than speak to each other.”“Well… if Aaron stopped speaking to me, I don't know what I'd do,” Lydia stated. “You're in love, your opinions don't matter.” Jessica said as she gave her a side eye and rolled her eyes. “How's your sister taking the whole thing, I know Caila, she's probably suffering in silence,” Jessica added sadly.
JACE's POVI had been so focused on Darius and his AI driven quantum computing project that I had almost forgotten about the unresolved issue of Lucas' and Maya's threat. I was on my way to getting the code through Caila and on my way to making Sharpe Tech the number one company in the tech industry. But first I had to deal with Maya. I was in her office waiting for her. It was on the third floor of a brilliant building. Her father had spent several years building the company, till it was one of the most popular fashion brand in Italy - El Vistoria and when he had died, he had given her everything as she was the only child he had. She was a smart woman and had built on the works of her father and had led to expanding the brand to other parts of Europe and the UK. I knew all investors who had invested in the company or were planning to invest in the company. I knew how she had been evading heavy taxes. That was one thing I prided in. When I found an enemy, I made sure I knew every
ARIA's POVI had finally returned to work after a few days of staying away even though I was taking care of issues from home. I would have said it was fun while it lasted but was anything but fun. It was just a disaster. Jace was making my life hell and Caila was still ignoring me at every chance she got. He had probably told her about Lucas, just to make me look like the hypocrite I was. I had told her to be careful around Jace but I had fallen for Lucas stupid trick. Tricks that were too obvious. I had tried to talk to her but she was making it hard and I was already tired of trying.The office was the only place that had given me some kind of peace. I was replying to some important emails when the door to my office opened. At first I thought it was Jace coming in to ruin my day like he did the last time but it was someone worse - my father. Just when I thought I was going to have a few hours of peace he was coming.I had forgotten the last time I had seen him and I was more than
ARIA'S POVThe house was quiet when I arrived which was perfect for me. All I needed now was to get into my room, have a bath and sleep for several hours. Caila was probably in her studio or she had gone out with Jace again. The talk I had with my father had affected me in several ways, making me doubt myself and my actions. He had gotten a better side of the deal and I just had to live with the bad side. I hadn't seen Jace for a while and I was grateful for that because he wasn't around to speak down on me to feel worse. After I had gotten out of the bathroom, I heard a knock on my door. I had not heard any car arrive and when I passed through Caila's room, the light was turned off. Had someone gone come into the house?The knock continued and my heart raced. “Who's there?” I shouted and waited to get a reply but I got nothing. I rushed to check my bag to call 911 but then I remembered I had left my phone in the kitchen when I went to take water. What was I going to do? I had st
CAILA'S POVI laid in my bed thinking about how easily I had just gotten a trip to Paris and yes, I should have felt bad about how I had just handed the Darius project to Jace. When Jace first introduced me to Darius, I knew something was up, I just didn't know exactly what was up. Then when Darius had gone mad with excitement while explaining some AI driven related concepts, I knew that Jace wasn't introducing me to him for no reason. Jace didn't seem like the type to do things without reason and I had just confirmed it.When we had gotten back from the first dinner we had with Darius, Jace was so happy about what I had done that he fulfilled my dirty wishes because I was his little good girl. Then he had explained everything to me. How he planned to take over the project from Darius company - Dynamo Tech.At that point, I felt bad for Darius. Then I had gone to Darius' company to get as much information about the project as possible.10AM THAT SAME DAYI stood outside in front of
JACE'S POVI have always prided in my ability to be smart, focused and fast. I didn't waste time because I knew that was one important resource I could have in my hands. That was why when Caila handed over the flash drive to me, I sent it to my engineers and developers and even employed new ones and we had everything we needed. That was a week ago. Right now, I was standing on the podium of Sharpe Tech's event hall. My eyes surveyed the crowd as they waited for my speech. Even though speeches wasn't my thing and getting things done was what I did. I could still see the anticipation on their faces. “Today, we celebrate a huge milestone for Sharpe Tech,” I began, my voice booming through the speakers as they listened. “Our new AI driven quantum computing program is unlike anything you have ever seen. In just a few days of using it, we've seen a 300% boost in efficiency, 25% cost reduction and an 80% increase in revenue.” The room erupted into applause as I smiled down at them. “This
CAILA'S POVParis wasn't as great as I thought it was going to be. The first night was great, Jace had taken me to a very nice restaurant. I had ordered for a meal and Jason told them not to bring that and he sent for the chef. When the chef arrived, Jace began sputtering for several minutes in french, words that I couldn't even pronounce and when he was done, the chef gave him a huge smile and walked excitedly to the kitchen.Chef smiling? Wow. I never trusted a smiling chef. When I asked Jace about what he had ordered, he just smiled and told me it wasn't on the menu. After talking for several minutes our order was ready. But when the chef was done several minutes later, he served it himself. An array of several dishes arrived later, several plates that looked nothing like anything I had ever had before.I had been reluctant to taste them at first but when I did, there tasted like heaven on my tongue. The chef couldn't stop smiling when I told him I liked it. But that was where
THREE YEARS LATERSilent nightHoly night…… Was playing from the hidden speakers but the estate was anything but silent. The air outside was freezing cold with several inches of snow but the house was warm and cozy. The scent of pine from the Christmas trees and the sweet aroma of freshly baked gingerbread cookies filled the air. It was a perfect winter afternoon at the Sharpe estate. Bright twinkling lights surrounded the whole estate and snow was gently falling outside. Caila and Liam stood hand in hand at the entrance of the large room, looking at the scene before them. The warmth of the gathering reached them even from across the room, it was the sound of family chatter and laughter. Their son, Ronan, tugged at Caila's coat urging her to come with him."Momma, is Cacacia not ready yet?" he asked, his eyes wide with excitement which was amazing because had not seen her before. He had just heard his parents talk about her, telling him that he had a cousin.Caila smiled softly, b
CAILA'S POVI was finally going out on a real date with Liam after he had asked me out. It was also the first time that we would be a couple in the eyes of the public and not go out on dates in private places. I didn't want to feel nervous, I actually had no reason to be nervous but I was probably because it felt too official. He was downstairs talking to Jace about things I didn't care about and I was just here, delaying. Even though Jace never wanted me to “rush” out of the house, I still needed to give him and Aria that privacy now that they were becoming serious. But as he said, he wasn't pushing me out so I still had time to think about it and make proper plans.Well… let's do it. I brushed my hands over the evening dress that I wore and stepped out into the sitting room were he was waiting. When he saw me, he stood up and his eyes immediately looked onto mine and a small smile spread across his face, the kind that made my stomach do flips. “Hey,” he greeted, walking toward me
ARIA'S POVI loved Jace to the moon and back. I couldn't even imagine that there was a time when I hated him. He had also been very supportive of my plans. Soliel Vineyard was beginning to grow faster and the public assault on our image because of the video of Mr. Sleighman had stopped. He had also helped me in providing a means to help the people around the site of the company.Then he had stood in front of national TV to confirm how much he loved me. Now we were going to our first public event together. After the statement Jace had made in front of the court some days back, several investors had reached out to him to be a part of Sharpe Tech's success because he was now seen as trustworthy. The company's shares had also increased rapidly, and the clients they handled were now bigger and better than ever before because of this. So in less than a few weeks, Sharpe Tech was known as the greatest tech company in Europe.Seeing this as an achievement for his years of suffering and har
JACE'S POVAfter several weeks of waiting, Caila and I had finally signed off on the divorce papers, the finalization of our one-year arranged marriage contract, and just to make it official, I and Aria had also signed it off.The weight of keeping my love for Aria away from public eyes had been heavy for so long, but now, with marriage officially over, there was a strange sense of relief I was having. One thing was clear though, it was the realization that the moment the door to that chapter closed, my love for Aria was just beginning.I couldn’t imagine my life without Aria, it was just going to be incomplete. In the last few months, she’d become an essential part of my world, I did not even notice it at first but she was like a light I couldn’t ignore. Now, I was committed to making up for the past, for all the time that I had treated her and her sister lightly, now I wanted to give her everything I could. Because she deserved everything good.But I wasn’t entirely free from my pas
ARIA'S POV Now that everything was settling down and we were counting down to days to when we could finally take our relationship public, I and Jace were mostly indoors in each other's arms. I thought that my father's action was going to affect me for longer but it had not, and I knew it was as a result of Jace's consistent presence around me. I didn't have the spare time to think about Mr. Sleighman. Caila had Liam and she had been flashing the brightest of smiles and it was safe to say that she was okay.It was a Saturday morning and I was lying on Jace's chest and we had been like that since we woke up and Jace had not even complained. The only thing he did was place a kiss on my forehead, cheeks and lips from time to time. The change between this Jace and the one I met some months back was different, it was almost like there were two different people.“There has been a lot of change with you,” I said. “In what way exactly?” he asked.“The Jace I know wouldn't be lying on the b
CAILA'S POVWhen Liam stopped by the road side and came to open my side of the car door I was shocked. He had said we were going on a date, so my mind couldn't process the reason why we were stopping in the woods. But he told me to trust him, then held my hand and led me down the path. It wasn't long before he stopped in front of a lake where a boat was waiting. He turned it on and drove us to a lake house that was at the center of the lake. I couldn’t stop the smile that spread across my face when Liam took my hand and led me inside the cozy lake house. It was just the two of us… no distractions, no noise, no one else, just us. It was the kind of privacy we both needed at that point. I loved the atmosphere of the place already. “Watch your steps before you fall into the lake. There are crocodiles waiting,” Liam cautioned. “What?!” I screamed as I ran away from the side of the lake house and towards him. The last thing I needed was to get eaten by a crocodile. But when I held on
CAILA'S POVWe sat down in the dinning to eat breakfast together for the first time in a long while. It was two weeks after everything that happened. The men that Victor had dealings with were beginning to get caught and some of the victims of the trafficking were reconnecting back with their families. As I ate, I couldn't help but notice the tension in the air. Jace was eating slowly while Aria was flipping things around on her plate. She had been doing that since we began eating and I knew her too well to let it pass. “Do you want to keep doing that or do you want to tell me?” I asked her.“There's nothing really,” Aria mumbled. “Right!”“Okay, I didn't want to tell you about this earlier because I didn't want to affect our relationship again and I know how you Jace have been and...”“Just say it,”“Me and Jace have been having sex,” she replied. I stared at her, expecting her to continue to elaborate but it seemed like that was the only thing she wanted to say. For a moment, I
ARIA'S POV“Yes, I did it,” My father said immediately as I narrated what Jace told us to him. The way he even said it, with an air of authority like he didn't do anything wrong. “You know when I saw you walk in, I thought that you have finally seen that no one else but me should be CEO. And then you come and start talking about an old issue?”Jace, who had been leaning on the wall, grunted with disgust. “You would never be CEO again, you don't deserve it,” Jace said. My father turned and stared angrily at Jace. “You think you can come into my home and...” my father started to say but I cut him off.“Why?” I asked calmly. I could already see that he was gone past redemption at this point but I needed to be sure that he had some reasons. Some good reason that I was too blind to see. “You'd never understand,” he replied. “You'd never understand how sacrifices work. When you have to give things you love just to get what you need.” he said sadly. “Sacrifices? Love?” I scoffed as I got
CAILA'S POVI was happy when Victor was caught and sent to prison. It meant that my budding career was going to begin to progress more rapidly now that I had no one trying to bring me down. But then he had told me about how my father had decided to give me out to Victor Hayes. Victor Hayes! Someone that was known for human trafficking and other forms of violent crimes? It wasn't loud that Victor had been into all those things before but before agreeing to give me off like that, the least he would have done was to make sure he wasn't giving me to the wrong person. I was so pissed I didn't know how to react. Aria was quiet but I knew she was just as pissed off as I was. We wanted to go to his house immediately but Jace said we should go the next day when we were calmer, but I knew nothing was going to change even when we got calmer. Just then, my phone rang. The worry disappeared from my head for a second and my heart did a little flip when I saw that it was Liam. He had not called a