VICTORIA’S POV “I don’t see you as my sister.” His voice echoed in my head, and I covered my ears tightly with my hands; it felt like I could still hear my own screams that came afterwards. What did I do to deserve this kind of treatment? Why wouldn’t he just treat me as his sister? I sat in my bathtub; the water felt warm and flowed in such a reassuring manner around me. My knees were pulled to my chest, my arms wrapped around them tightly, as I rocked myself slowly. If only that could help to ward off the chaos that was swirling in my mind. The sound of rushing but yet familiar footsteps echoed in my head, a constant reminder of the terror I experienced. “Why didn’t you just make a run for it when all of these started, Victoria?” I asked, with a throat dry. “You could have saved yourself the trauma; you’re the author of your own problems. Aren’t you?” I continued, but the woman in the full-length mirror resting on the bathroom wall just stared at me in silence. “Look at
LEXIE’S POV “This is E-Gossip, and we’re back with the latest celebrity gossip. Pictures circulating of the billionaire CEO, Damian Valour, and the millionaire heiress, Victoria Hayes, have got fans in a chokehold.” I stared at my phone; the screen glowed with the faces of the ones making my emotional state even more miserable. My heart sank as I heard the familiar buzz of the latest scandal; the blogs had been eating Victoria’s return back like hot cheetos. “The two love birds were spotted taking a romantic walk in the city yesterday. Which leaves fans wondering, are they officially back together? Should we be expecting a wedding?…… “The more challenging question was, What happened to his other woman? Was she a side piece, a potential scandal we could look into, or did they have a fal……” Before I could digest the rest of what was bad for me, Jenny snatched the phone from my hands and threw it across the room. It landed on the opposite couch with a soft thud. “Do you wan
CONTINUATION: LEXIE’S POV My eyes fluttered open; the ray of sunlight that penetrated into the room irritated my pupils, and I struggled to keep them open. Immediately I was hit with a crazy throbbing headache, a reminder that I had drank to stupor last night—a hangover. My body felt like it had been run over by a truck, and I’m not talking about the white ones that always appear in Korean dramas; every muscle ached, and I could barely move. As I tried to sit up, I noticed something different; at least my brain was starting to work. I was wearing a different shirt than the one I had on at the club, then I remembered taking off my shirt and flashing my neon-painted boobs to the crowd. Fuck, I face-palmed myself, such an embarrassment. But I had more pressing issues at hand, like the unfamiliar environment around me. I was lying in a king-sized bed, surrounded by soft pillows and a pristine white duvet. The room was almost too spotless. And there was a strong, masculine
The courage I thought I had crumbled under the weight of his authority, and that was my issue. I always became a mess the minutes he started showcasing his dominance, almost like that was what I craved from him. I found myself getting in the car with no further questions asked, talking about a “yes, daddy” moment. He slammed the door shut with anger, and by the time I turned, he was already in the driver’s seat. The drive home was awkwardly silent; he wasn’t ready to say a word to me, and I didn’t want to talk to him either. I didn’t owe him any explanations, the same way he didn’t feel he had to explain anything to me when it came to Victoria. I sat there tensed and upset, while Damian’s jaw clenched in his reflection in the window. His anger was like a thick and suffocating atmosphere. We arrived home, and he swerved angrily into the compound. I almost hit my head on his dashboard, and I closed my eyes in anticipation, but as I opened them, I felt a hand hold down my ch
DAMIAN’s POV “No! Don’t hurt my son, please.” “Take me… Don’t hurt my boy. Leave him alone, please." The desperate, anguish cries of a woman echoed. My hands and legs were tied tightly as I lay on the cold, unforgiving floor. The ropes were biting into my young skin; the room seemed immense and oppressing as shadows overwhelmed me. I shivered in fear. My breaths were shallow; each gasp was a struggle against the heavy weight of my restraints. A man’s silhouette emerged from the shadows, moving closer with deliberate, dangerous steps. His face was a blur; the wide wicked grin on his face couldn’t be missed. “Don’t touch him! Don’t touch my son, please.” My eyes darted to where my mother lay, crying in anguish as she was in ropes. She struggled to crawl and wiggle her way towards where I was, cowering in fear but she got no where. The man’s grin widened, a glint of metal catching the dim light. With not enough time to make sense of anything, the sharp object sliced
DAMIAN’S POV “Fucking 500 million dollars, that’s the amount I lost today!” I roared, as I slammed my fist aggressively on the dashboard. My eyes had been glued to Aiden’s tablet, as I monitored my company stats obsessively, and just today alone, look how much I lost My hand clenched into a tight fist, I was fighting so much anger, that my knuckles turned white from the force, my breaths came in heavy and ragged bursts. “Damian, I need you to please calm down…” Aiden begged, as he kept his eyes on the road. This would be the first time in a while that I had let anyone else drive me apart from myself, I didn’t trust anyone else to drive me. The thought of it terrified me, it was one of my major fears that no one knew the reason why… But I trusted Aiden, I didn’t have that level of trust for anyone except him…. I didn’t take Aiden as my half-brother, instead I saw and treated him like we came from the same womb, my mother’s. I turned to the window, as I tried to calm the
DAMIAN’S POV “Victoria, fucking Victoria!” I sent my liquor glass crashing on the wall, and it shattered into a million pieces. It had been two days since the shocking revelation. My so-called fiancée, Victoria, was the mastermind behind my near downfall. Unbelievable! I still couldn’t wrap my head around it—Victoria? The CEO of Meridian High Tech Industries? The woman who had been so close to me, who had stolen kisses from my lips, who had claimed to love me, who was starting to get irritated by her jealousy over Lexie? How could I have been so blind? She had been working to bring me down all along, and I had been a fool to fall for it. Why? Was it the stupid title of fiancée that she attached to me? or the fact that we knew each other when we were younger. Apparently all that didn’t matter to her; she was using it to mask her true intentions. I mean, if I were being brutally honest, the whole fiancée thing was her idea; she proposed to me. So why the hell did I keep
LEXIE’S POV I groaned at the multiple ads that kept playing over and over on this website I stumbled on… “Are you having bad breath? Do you need a quick solution…” the voice over said God know, and of course I don’t a need new freaking toothpaste. What was it with website and ads? First they tell you accept all cookies, which I did because I had no idea what they were talking about, but if they could literally shove their ads into your throat then they would. I had been up all night, as I scrolled mindlessly through the job listings on my phone. It wasn’t like I couldn’t get a laptop now that I had little money, but use it for what? The past few days had left me reeling, and I needed to find a way out-away from Damian, away from Victoria, away from all the drama and just back to the normal life I knew before. But if I was going to leave, I had to secure a job first. How else would I take care of my mother? Or get a roofs over our heads? Jenny wouldn’t mind housing my m