Throughout that day at the office, people were either congratulating her or telling her how they were happy for her. Of course, there were some who gossiped about why she had to be the one that got Tom’s heart. “She is the closest to him, and she has always been a competent lady. Tom is also a brilliant man, so naturally, they think alike and that must have been what linked them together”, one of the ladies working on the CEO’s floor remarked. “Well, I cannot deny that fact, but it makes me mad”, another spat out from the corner and the lady scoffed. “Why are you pained over someone else’s relationship? It’s not like the CEO was ever in your league. It was never anyone’s fault that you have a crush on someone you can never have”, she slammed her and everyone burst into laughter, making the other lady pained. She stomped her leg on the floor in anger, but the lady was not fazed, she had only said the truth. ** * Amber finished her work for the day and went to tender the documents t
Amber was busy sorting out the orders that were brought to her by the mall staff when she felt the need to ask for permission over some certain brands. She went up to the office and didn’t know that Joseph was already inside the office with Tom. She knocked once before entering, as usual, but she was met with their scenes of pinning themselves to the wall. Taken aback by the sight in front of her, she wanted to run up to them and separate them when Joseph saw her coming. He decided to drop the bomb because he was sure Tom had never told her about his true identity. Tom had threatened to crush Joseph if he didn’t stop coming to him and bothering people around him. He was getting tired of his child's play and antics. “It’s not fun anymore”, he had said to him, but Joseph only scoffed. “You claim to love her, but have you even told her the truth? Does she know that we are stepbrothers? Is she aware of the fact that you are an illegitimate child who can lose his position at any time?” q
SIXTEEN YEARS AGO Anita was happily married to John, the father of Tom, who was a civil engineer in Ohio. He was an excellent man who was good at his job and also had a talent for painting even though he didn’t paint officially. When he discovered Tom also had the talent and was interested in painting, he decided to groom him himself, to the point where he would be able to make a decision about whether he wanted to be an artist or choose another path. He bought painting tools and all other art supplies for Tom’s ninth birthday and told him he was ready to support any dream he ended up choosing. Happily, Tom firmly assured him that he would like to paint, and he opened one of the rooms in the house which he turned into their painting studio. They had taken the lesson seriously, with the dad promising to enroll him in a painting class when he clocked twelve because by that time, he would have finished all the projects in front of him. That fateful day, they had just finished paintin
The day Amber’s mother went missing due to the poisonous gas that made her collapse thanks to Joseph’s evil plan, Tom had gotten all expenses paid as a form of care and love towards Amber. He got to find out that she was suffering from kidney problems and her name was still on the waiting list, so he pulled some strings to people he knew to help him find a compatible donor. He had gone back to the hospital when Amber went back to Paris to check up on her regularly. They had the chance to talk very well, and it was then he came out about his feelings for Amber. “Do you like my daughter? I mean no boss has the time to look after their secretary’s mom like this”, she asked the third time he came back, but he only scratched his head and that earned him a big scolding from her. She slammed her hand on the room’s wall and her eyeballs went up in anger as she glared at Tom, who was wondering what he did wrong. “If you plan to toil with my daughter and her emotions, then you should stop all
Never in her life had Anita thought she would hear Tom say he wanted to have a chat with her. The suddenness of his request hit her had so much coupled with the excitement. She quickly left what she was doing to attend to his needs without hesitation because if she pushed him off till she was done, then he might say she shouldn’t bother about it anymore and that would be her loss. “I have got myself a girlfriend”, he announced to her as they went to have their seat, and she jumped off the chair as soon as her butt touched them. With her hand covering her mouth, she almost screamed “You got yourself a what?” “A girlfriend”, he said again, this time with a proud smile. She was so happy beyond expression that the coldness in his heart was melting away, for him to have it opened up for love. Jumping back into her seat, she started her questioning session. “Who is she? Is she someone I know? When are you going to introduce her to me?”, she kept bombarding him that he didn’t even know the
Lawrence was in the hallway looking at the paintings that were exhibited not quite long ago when Elaine walked up to him. She had gone to check on him in his office, but he wasn’t there, so she decided to look around. Walking up to him, she was surprised at the extent at which he was staring hard at the particular painting without noticing that she was there already. “What are you staring at so bad? You look so serious about this”, she asked, standing beside him, finally getting his attention. He only smiled without breaking his gaze on the painting, and she gasped at the sight of the particular drawing he was staring at. “Isn’t that a painting that has no owner? You didn’t allow us to exhibit it no matter how much we begged”, she exclaimed, and he nodded. His hands slid into his pockets as his lips curved into a happy smile, “The painting has finally found its owner. I didn’t let us display it then because I couldn’t find the owner, but now I can put it up proudly”, he stated, and
Ever since the brawl happened between Joseph and Tom, Joseph has never gone home. He was sleeping at the company’s hotel, thinking very hard of his next plan, since everything seemed not to be working for him. Charles was out of town for a business event, so he could not call him out for a drink. He kept drinking alone in the room until his secretary came around with a bag of flasks. With a disgusted expression, he raised his eyes to question what it was and who it was from. “Your mother sent this to you, she told you not to starve and come home soon”, the secretary said to him, and he slapped the bag away in annoyance. A loud yell followed as he scattered everywhere, thanks to his drunkenness contributing to his madness. “Why is she so nosy? Why is she trying hard to make me her son? I can never be her son, so she should fuck off! I will make sure they both pay for trying to mess with me, so she had better stop sending trash like this, hoping I will change my mind”, he shouted on t
The surgery day drew closer and all the necessary tests were carried out to ensure that the surgery would be hitch free. Both Amber and Tom were following up with all the process till the surgery date was set. When she got the surgery date, she knew she would be at work, so she told the nurse in charge of her mother to call her when the time was drawing near. She had to turn in her proposal and handle some meetings, so she could not just skip work completely. She finished everything and went to brief the staff. She was about to go back to her desk when Anita came around, and she offered to take them around the mall, so she would catch up with her since it had been a while when they both saw each other. “Is it because you came back? My son has been bright for some time and I love it because he has always been cold for years. It feels so refreshing to see him this way and I want it to stay that way”, Anita said to her, full of cheerful smile as they went from one shopping session to t
Ever since Joseph became the president, he had been a big menace to the company. All of his decisions affected the company negatively, which led to the investors grumbling and so much loss occurred. When Chairman Holland couldn’t contain his disappointment and worry, he started to nag Joseph, who got angry at his nagging and when it became unbearable for him, he had him put on house arrest where he cut off his connections to everyone. He began his move to become the chairman and everything was set in place with the help of Charles. On the day of his announcement, he walked briskly into the company with the will he forced the Chairman to sign a few days ago, naming him as the next chairman by transferring all his shares to him. The meeting was ongoing when Tom marched in with the police, to their surprise. No one was expecting him to show up in that place and at that time. Eddy was also brought along to identify and confirm Joseph as the one who told him to hire a man who messed with
Over the months, Tom’s condition was increasing as he became vibrant and cheerful, unlike when the accident had just occurred. He enjoyed listening to stories of the past from his mother, so he knew some information about himself, and they were enough to know who he was. After seeing Amber in his articles over and over, she caught her attention and wondered who she was, but his mother only told him that she was his secretary without including the relationship they had because she was still angry about how she left abruptly. Anita had gone shopping that fateful day and one pretty lady shifted for her to tender her goods first even though she was not obligated to and in the process of thanking her, she saw that it was who she never expected. The shopping basket fell from Amber’s hand at the sight of Tom’s mother, but she was quickly helped by the stores employees who ran to gather the scattered goods. Anita wanted to ignore her, but she didn’t hesitate to tell her side of the story wh
Joseph called Charles, who had been released on bail out, for a party to celebrate his new position, and they laughed about Tom, who thought he was smart but ended up losing everything. Before the inauguration, Charles had learned that it was Tom who helped Joy break away from him, therefore making him and his father lose face in front of Chairman Kim. He was so furious about that and Joseph happened to call him at that time that Tom was on the verge of taking everything away from him. Charles and Joseph resolved to the option of causing him an accident on the inauguration day while making him feel he had the upper hand during the preparations. Joseph also pressured Eddy to make sure he blackmailed Amber to get rid of her from his side so that their plans would be perfect. Eddy was the one that provided them with the man whom they paid to mess with Tom’s car and everything went according to their plans without any hitch or trace to them. “Yo! I haven’t felt this elated in a while”,
Even though the video was doing so many things for her, she still tried to keep her cool and smiled at Tom, who was waiting to take her home. That very day, he decided to take her on a dinner date, which further complicated things for her because she was eager to get home before her anxiousness burst out in front of Tom. Throughout the dinner, he was laughing and smiling more than usual, maybe because he was anticipating the inauguration day, and she tried her best to match his smile while trying hard not to pick on the food in front of her. After a walk to the restroom, she decided to push the thoughts aside and just enjoy the time with him because there was a probability she would be resigning and fleeing to save his face on that day. He had worked hard for that day, and she wouldn’t allow her own past to ruin it for him. Since they have just a little time before the inauguration, she will have to use them wisely. She pressured him to go on dates with her every day, buy her things
At the sound of her mother’s footsteps approaching her room to check up on her, they split apart and bounced to the edge of the room where they both put on their clothes, and they took off in a flash. She placed the pictorial magazine on her dressing table in his hands as he pushed him into the chair and her mother came in at that instant. “You should open the door if you are inside instead of making me go through the stress of passcode. Why do you keep stressing me?” her mother ranted, and immediately her eyes landed on Tom, her lips folded themselves. She was not expecting to see anyone at home with her not to talk of Tom, because she knew they had been in an argument for weeks. Her feet retracted themselves as she went back to the door as quickly as she had come. “You said you won’t be coming until tomorrow, why are you here?”, Amber slammed her, and she had no choice but to stop and answer that the doctor attended to her quickly, so she just thought about coming home instead of
They both got into the car, and they rode for the first few minutes in silence before she tried sparking a conversation between them. “Wow! Did something change in your car? Something looks unfamiliar”, she said, but he only kept his face on the road in silence. “Is it the scent? The seat’s leather or the color of the belts? Something is weird. Has it been that long I got into your car?”, she blabbered, but as much as he wanted to give a response, he held himself back. She knew her tricks to make him talk were not working on him. It was then she realized the extent of the damage she had caused by her hard-headedness. She didn’t even give him any room for explanation, kept on assuming and believing things on her own accord. He also didn’t even make the effort to explain things which he didn’t blame him for because, at that moment, he had requested her trust which she failed in giving to him. The rest of the drive was in silence, and he finally pulled in front of her house after a tw
Even though Mr. Joe offered to drive her back. She declined flatly and told him she would find her way home. She ordered a taxi back home and the thoughts of how Tom could do something drastic at someone’s wedding overflowed her brain. As much as she wanted to laugh so hard at his priceless reaction when his karma came back to bite his ass, the despair the bride must be feeling wouldn’t allow her laugh as much as she wanted. For some reason, she knew within her that Tom only forced her to come, so she could witness the scenario as a payback for what happened back then at the company, but she was still not happy with him. His methods and approach were wrong to her. Nothing could justify the wickedness he had portrayed by ruining someone else’s wedding just for revenge. Time flew by, and she didn’t even know when the taxi would get to her house. The driver had to alert her that they were already at their destination before she jerked out of her deep thoughts. After making payment, she
Charles’ father, who is Chairman Henry, Chairman Holland Steve and Chairman Kim, who is Joy’s father, all gathered at Chairman Kim’s house to discuss the way further in both their politics and also the marriage that would take place between Charles and Joy, their children. The trio had been the first to start their various businesses in Chicago and had a very tight friendship as they grew up over the years. They all have their own successful and thriving businesses, which made them the top three richest in Chicago. They all planned to get their children married to each other in order to strengthen their bonds and also solidify their shares in the economy. Chairman Henry, who was planning to run for the mayor of Chicago, wanted the marriage to be held before the contest season so the support of the two families merging would be helpful in his mayoral race, so they decided to talk together and conclude on a date since the children had already agreed to get married and were already enga
That very day, Charles and Joseph were having that conversation. Tom had gone back to the kitchen to get himself some water when he heard them discussing Amber and what happened at the company. He wanted to burst in and punch Charles hard, but he restrained himself and thought this would be a perfect way to break his wings that he had been planning to get by getting married to a powerful family like Joy’s. He made sure to record everything that he had said without them knowing before moving back to his room. He had been thinking about how to use it since then and didn’t know until he remembered the wedding coming up. The thought of releasing it on their wedding day crept into his mind, but he also thought about how it would ruin the day of Joy, who is the bride. Kicking against the idea, he hid the recording in his safe at home until one fateful day he had to meet with one of the investors at a golf course. The investor received a call and took a twenty-minute excuse before leaving