(Lily’s POV) I had finally decided to go back to work after we moved into our new house. Alphonso and I had decided on a sophisticated apartment complex that needed an ID badge for you to get into the elevator and a code for you to enter the apartment. It also had security at the door and a panic room inside the apartment.Alphonso made sure that we would be safe and that nothing like what happened before could happen again. But between moving in and work, we barely had time to spend together.I had pushed Alphonso's meetings because I wanted us to be able to have time alone while Frank was in daycare.I walked into our bedroom, wearing only one of his button-down shirts.The smell of fresh coffee made him wake up. His eyes flattered open as he saw me standing there with the tray in hand.“Good morning.” I said it in a sultry tone.He smiled at me, “I could get used to waking up like this.”I carefully placed the tray on a coffee table beside the dresser.“I thought we would just spe
(Lily’s POV) We settled at our table in silence, except for the excited chirping of the children.“Thank you for inviting us for dinner.” Oscar broke the silence.I offered him a friendly smile, “Our children seem to like each other; I'm sure we can tolerate each other every now and then.” I joked, but we all knew, deep down, that I wasn't joking.At this point, I was sure they knew we were onto them but were just playing dumb. I didn't have anything to prove my suspicions, so for the time being, it was just a feeling. And I knew better than to go around spewing things I couldn't prove.I turned my attention to Alphonso, just as he turned to look at me.I smiled as I folded my leg, letting it intentionally rub against him. He gave me a small smile as he placed a hand on my lap.I turned to Oscar and Gemma and asked, “How long have you two been together?”Gemma's hand rested on top of Oscar's as she squeezed it. “I don't think I can say that we are together, together.”I held my brea
(Lily’s POV)“How long will you be gone?” I asked as I zipped up his suitcase.Alphonso smirked as he pulled me closer to him, his hands folding me there.“If I didn't know any better, I would have thought you missed me when I was gone.”I shrugged. “Not back then, but we have been having so much fun lately.”He chuckled, “Can’t disagree with that.” He kissed my forehead as he hugged me tightly and said, “This time I'll make sure to call you. No radio silence.”“You better.” I said as he let go of me and grabbed his suitcase.As he rolled it away, he stopped at the door and said, “Maybe next time I'll take you with me.”I gave him a small smile and said, “Maybe.”He smiled as he turned around and walked out.I was dreading having to spend time alone with Michael. He clearly had some so
(Alphonso’s POV)The meeting went smoothly. It turned out I had nothing to worry about.I got back to my hotel room, and I immediately called Lily. If things went well for me, then she was the one I was worried about.She picked up the phone after three rings.“Hey sweetie.”A smile came to my face when I heard her voice. I couldn't explain it, but I had fallen deeper in love with her.“How is my baby?” I asked as I loosened the tie.“Frank or me?” She joked.I smiled and said, “Both.”I was considering divorcing her before, but now I was madly in love with her, and I would do anything to make sure she was okay.“Well, Frank is in bed, and I am relaxing in the bath.”“I would have loved to join you.”“If you did, we would not be relaxing.”I was about to reply when there was a knock on my
(Lily’s POV)While Alphonso was deep in conversation with the old birthday boy, I offered to get them drinks.“How about a refill?” I asked with a smile.They smiled at me as they handed me their glasses with the name of what they were having.I dropped the glasses at a nearby table and went in the direction where I saw Chris drag Lola.“What are you doing here?” I asked as I entered the empty room, with the exception of Chris and Lola.Lola smirked, “I told you, I want my life back.”“And I told you, you don't get to decide how I live my life.” I replied, “You made this decision for me, and I'm not going to let you take away my chance of making another decision on my own.”“Lily,” Chris muttered breathlessly, as if he were star-struck.I wasn't exactly pleased to see him there either.“You two aren't going to pull
(Alphonso’s POV)I don't know why, but for some reason Gemma's words kept ringing in the back of my head.I was no longer in love with Gemma, but I was wondering whether the basis of my entire relationship leading to marriage with Lily was based on betrayal.My phone rang.I subconsciously answered it without looking at who was calling.“Hey Al,” Gemma’s voice came from the other end.“Hey, what's up?” I didn't bother asking her how she got the number because I knew she was well connected, and would do whatever she wanted.“I wanted to see if maybe I could prove what I said to you about Lily is true.” She stated this confidently.I sighed.I know I should trust my wife, but I found myself saying, “And what would that be?”I could hear the smile on her voice when I agreed to hear her out.“How about we all meet for lunch and you
(Lily's POV)I wasn't mad at Alphonso. He had every right to be suspicious; he was the one getting played, but I needed to know exactly what it was that Gemma had up her sleeve.I got the long-awaited message from Nine, giving me what I needed to know.Gemma was right; the real Lily had sabotaged her undercover mission by revealing her identity to the people she was trying to infiltrate.I was sure Gemma was not going to stop until she got the answer she needed.Alphonso's birthday was in a few days. I had considered throwing him a huge party so we could have a little fun just the two of us later.Hence, I was trying to act mad, but I wasn't sure how much longer I could keep up the charade.The next morning, Alphonso was in the kitchen, preparing breakfast.He saw me and smiled.“I thought I'd make an ‘I’m sorry’ breakfast for you.”I frowned when I saw his bruised hand. “What happened to you?”He looked at his hand and said, “Just an accident.”“It looks like you punched a rock; your
(Lola's POV)I hated my life as a mistress. I expected it to be all fun and games, but it wasn't.Daniel treated me more like a high-end escort. He would come to the apartment he had me living in, expect us to have sex, leave me some money and a gift I didn't ask for, and then just leave.The apartment wasn’t even something he had rented just for me. I kept finding a random earring when I went to look for something under the bed or the couch. He had clearly put some other women in this very apartment.He didn't want me going out, and God forbid he saw me with another man.There was an instance where I needed to get some plumbing fixed. So, I called a plumber, who turned out to be this young, handsome man.“Where is the problem?” He asked when I let him stand by the door a little too long.I never got to meet a lot of men, so the few I did, I would soak them in.It probably made me look weird but I didn’t care.I pointed to the bathroom.“I don
EPILOGUE.ONE YEAR LATER.Frank was playing with Sienna while Alphonso and Lily were in charge of the people planning a party for her one-year birthday.The door to their new house, a house Alphonso wanted to raise his kids in but Lola never allowed it, opened and in walked Oscar, Gemma and Abigail.“Hello sweetie,” Lily greeted Abigail who just waved as she rushed towards the back yard to find Frank and Sienna. They had formed such a close friendship, including Sienna too despite her young age, and so had their parents.Gemma couldn’t wait to share the news with Lily. And the first thing to show her was the engagement ring.“Oh my god that is so beautiful, I guess he finally popped the question?” Lily asked loud enough to capture Oscar’s attention.“Rushing it actually.” Oscar responds, and he turns to Alphonso, “and you’ll be my best man an
(Third Person’s POV)It was close to the day Lily was to give birth to her little baby girl, and Alphonso seemed to be the nervous one. He was walking around looking at whether he had everything that Lily was going to need at the hospital gathered together.“Should I bring the fluffy or comfy pillow?” Alphonso wondered out aloud as he weighed the options in front of him.He turned to Lily – who was casually lying on the couch in a dolphin onesie eating crisps covered in ice cream.“You know the due date is usually just an estimation by the doctor, right?” She stuffed a bunch of ice creamed covered crisps in her mouth.“The doctor said the due date is likely tomorrow, and I think it doesn’t hurt to be prepared.” Alphonso replied with shrug, “I will go with a comfy one. I think at that point you’ll value comfort above everything else.”Frank joined their p
(Noah’s POV)It had been almost two weeks, and the person I had assigned to watch Diana’s other apartment still had nothing to report to me.If Diana wasn’t staying there, then where the hell was she?!I kept trying to call her phone, but it kept going straight to voicemail. Was she listening to this?I left another message.This time leaving out all the threats and curses.“I just want us to talk about this, Diana. Come back home, and we can have a level-headed conversation about this. We don’t need to ruin our marriage.” I took a deep breath. “I even asked Lola to leave and told her I wanted nothing to do with the child. You are the one I want to have a family with, Diana. Now please call me back.”I hung up after leaving the message.It had taken me a while, but I noticed that I hadn’t seen Lola in a while. I looked around the house, and I was definitely
(Lola’s POV)It had been over a week since Diana left. The trip was supposed to be for a week, but Noah seemed oblivious to this. I knew that Diana was planning something.I had snuck into her room, and there was almost nothing in the closet. Her jewellery was gone. Most of her clothes, shoes and bags.I cursed under my breath; she was leaving this idiot, and he didn’t even worry about it. Or notice it.It was time I went back to my life, back to Alphonso.I started to scope out the apartment. It had been a long since I was there, and I wanted to know what to expect. But all I had seen so far was Frank and Catherine. Never Alphonso.I even tried to sneak into the apartment once, but the locks had been changed.I had lost all my leverage. But I was still Frank’s mother, and I was going to use that to my advantage.“Where did you go?” Noah asked as he came into the house from scoping
(Chris’ POV)Alphonso, Lily, and Frank definitely didn’t spend just an hour together. I was at the parking lot, staring down at Alphonso’s truck.In my mind, I was debating whether or not I wanted to break into the car and see what I could find.But his truck was parked in a place where people would definitely see me if I went and started snooping around his car.I decided to finally go and throw the hook at Denning to see if she would catch what I wanted her to.I handed her a cup of coffee—good coffee, not from the hospital.“I thought you could use some pampering.” I gave her a sweet smile, turning on my charm.“I have been on my feet the whole night.” She complained, but hugged the coffee gratefully. “I have just four more hours left in my shift, then I could go home.” She didn’t seem to even notice my charm, most women do and I don’t have to
(Alphonso’s POV)I closed the door to the bathroom after seeing the man in the shower.“Why did you bring him to where we live with Frank?!” I asked Gemma, shocked that after she gave me a lecture about being reckless, she would do this around my kid.She sighed, “About Frank. I have arranged for Catherine to pick him up at the private airstrip.”“Who will Frank be traveling with?” I inquired.“The pilot is a trusted friend of mine. I have communicated with Catherine, and she has agreed to pick him up. I spoke with Oscar, and he will be letting Abigail and Frank spend more time together; in the meantime, we will be cleaning stuff up here in Deadwood.” Gemma seemed to have thought of everything.I pointed to the door and said, “I think he is too doped up to even formulate a single word.”“I doubt he even knows that he is no longer at Chris’ h
(Diana’s POV)Time always seemed to fly by when I was with Sean. But this time I had my wits with me and didn’t try to sleep with him.He did, however, call me to make sure I got home alright, and it was the small gestures he made that Noah didn’t bother with that made me want to file for divorce even faster.The next morning, I was at the accountant’s office. I wanted to sort out the issues with my finances first, so that the divorce lawyer could have an entire picture of what we were dealing with.“Diana Adams?” An older woman called out my name.“Brett Hunter?” I asked in confusion.The woman chuckled. “You were under the impression that I was a man?”I shook my head, but I was sure my eyes betrayed me.She gestured for me to follow her, “Don’t worry about it. My father knew what he was doing, as my name is what got me here. And my super
(Chris’ POV)I decided to go home and pack; maybe find my way out of Deadwood. Lily didn’t seem to notice me with Alphonso around, and staying at this point was just doing more harm than good.All I needed now was to give Ben a bad batch of drugs; he overdoses, and I throw him in some corner as I leave Deadwood.I was back at the house to find Ben gone!I cursed under my breath as I ran around every room in the house, trying to find him.“Ben?! Where the fuck are you?!” I called out; I didn’t know if I thought he would respond back, but it didn’t hurt to try.He was too drugged up to be able to leave this house alone. But I wasn’t sure of his state; I had been spending most of my time at the hospital with Lily.I didn’t know why, but I felt this burst of anger towards her. How dare she?I took care of her after that crazy wife Alphonso has stabbed her and left her
(Diana’s POV)I didn’t want to go and meet up with Sean. I didn’t even know he had my number. Where did he get my number again?I was in the kitchen making myself some breakfast—glad I didn’t have to take care of Lola anymore—when my phone rang.Unknown caller.I was confused as to who it could be, but I ignored it.“Who was calling you?” Lola asked curiously.I shrugged, “unknown number. Probably a telemarketer or something along those lines.”“Are you sure it’s not the guy you spent the night with?” Lola continued to inquire. If I didn’t know any better, I would have thought Noah sent her to spy on me.Noah had been acting a bit weird too late. As if he wanted us to fix our marriage, but he would then turn around and go back to sleep on the same bed with Lola.I picked up my creamy coffee and my phone with the plate of