NoraI got home by 11:50 a.m. after my little rendezvous with Grace. In my phone, I had Klaus' number stored. I picked my phone from my bag and unlocked it, staring at Klaus' number. I contemplated whether to call or text. Calling is definitely better than texting, so I decided to call him. Just as I was about to do so, my phone rang.Jessica. I remembered I had not spoken to her today; the last time I spoke with her was yesterday morning. I made it a ritual to call Jessica every morning and evening ever since she brought Justin home.Last night though, when I had called, her line was not reachable, but since I had spoken to her in the morning, I overlooked it.Seeing her call now made me realize how long it had been since we spoke."Hey, Jess," I said as soon as I answered the call."Hi, babe, how are you?" she asked, her voice tired."I am fine. Are you though?" My instinct immediately went to Justin, and I asked after him, "How is Justin? Hope he is fine.""That is why I called, N
KlausI could not believe what had just happened. Nora called? This was quite unbelievable. I pinched myself to make sure I wasn't dreaming.I stared at the number displayed on my screen, the number of the person I had just spoken to. That voice was unmistakably Nora's. How did she get my number, though? Why did she suddenly change her mind? The same person who never wanted to give me the time of day was now calling me to schedule a meet-up? This was absolutely ridiculous.I picked up my phone and dialed Justin's number.As soon as he picked up, I asked hastily, "Justin, where are you?""I am in the garden, Klaus. Why?""I need you to meet me right now in my office; it is urgent!"I put on my shirt and headed straight for my office to meet Justin. My mouth was itching to tell him the news. I just couldn't keep it to myself.A few minutes after I arrived in my office, Justin came in."What was so important that you couldn't wait until I was done with what I was doing?" he asked stubbo
KlausI woke up feeling very energetic and excited. I hummed to myself as I got into the shower to get ready for the day. As soon as I got out of the shower, my phone rang.Thinking it might be Nora, reminding me of our planned meeting today, I rushed to it with just my towel tied around my waist. In a bid to get to it before it stopped ringing, my leg hit against the foot of the stool in my room, but I didn't let that deter me from getting to the phone.As soon as I grabbed it, I heaved a sigh of relief and answered it without even bothering to look at the screen."Wakey wakey, sunshine," I heard Justin's irritating voice over the phone and gritted my teeth in anger."What the bloody hell, Justin!" I snapped."What?" he asked, sounding a bit annoyed. "Did I do anything wrong by deciding to wake you up so that you would tidy up in time to go for your little meeting with Nora?"I rolled my eyes. "If you saw what I had to go through just to get to this phone, you wouldn't be here spouti
NoraAs soon as I opened the door and saw Klaus standing in front of it, looking as charming and innocent as could be, I felt a mix of emotions: anger, irritation, and pain, with the most palpable being anger. Right then, the thought of the things he had done flashed like a movie in my mind.In a matter of seconds, I was about to let a swindler, rapist, betrayer, liar, and worst of all, murderer into my house. The thought of that alone made a cocktail of dread and anger cling to the walls of my stomach.“Be calm, Nora. Remember you need to put up the perfect act to look believable,” Kara warned.She was right; she was absolutely right. I stretched my lips into a false weak smile, making it appear as real as possible. I made sure the look of pain saturated my eyes just so that he knew I was still very hurt from the events of the past.His expression was soft; his blue eyes held an equal amount of uncertainty and pain. For some reason, staring into them for a few seconds made my heart f
NoraI felt my blood still at his words as a cold shiver ran down my spine. He wasn't there the night my family members died? Was this him trying to play a trick on me? There was something about the way he said it, the sincerity in his voice that made him sound almost believable.I frowned. He must think me a fool. He must have come with a cooked-up story hoping to serve it to me and watch as I eat it without spotting anything wrong. He must think I am still that naive girl from five years ago who would believe everything she was told.That girl who had gone to his house the night after her parents had died hoping he would say he had nothing to do with their deaths… If he had said that, I would have believed him and fought against the whole world with him. That was how much I had loved and trusted him. But right now, things are different. Right now, I am a grown woman who knows better.I leaned into my seat and scoffed, deciding to engage him in a conversation laced with sarcasm. “I
KlausIt has been a week since I visited Nora and poured out my heart to her, revealing secrets of the past. After she sent me out of her house in a fit of anger, I went home and sent her another apology through a text message, letting her know how sorry I was and how ready I was to make amends.I was surprised to receive a response from her; the text read:"I have forgiven you, Klaus... Actually, I was a bit mad at myself then, for blaming you for all that happened these past five years, only to find out that you were a victim too. Let's start off on a clean slate."Ever since then, my life has changed for the better. We have been texting and calling each other.Over here in my father's house, preparations for the wedding were still ongoing. I am yet to tell my father and Claudia that I am not interested in going on with the marriage. Every day when I talk to Nora, I find reasons why I should end things with Claudia. I know marriage with her won't work, but I just do not know how to
NoraBeta Ken and Grace came over to my house earlier today, and we all went to check out a project that had just started, all thanks to Frank making good on his promise of supporting us with $30 million.I got back home around 2 p.m., already very tired from all the sightseeing and supervision we had to do. I was quite famished and decided to fix myself a meal when a knock came at my door.I instantly felt elated. Why was I feeling this way, and why does it have to be towards him? I combed my hand through my hair to give it some volume and patted my face dry with my handkerchief.On getting to the door, I suppressed my excitement and took a deep breath as I didn't want to give anything away. As soon as I opened the door, the excitement that was still lingering in my eyes died a little. What the hell is wrong with you, Nora? You should be excited seeing your best friend standing outside the door… why did you suddenly become low-spirited?“You didn't tell me you were coming,” I said,
NoraI immediately opened the message with my trembling hands.“It has come to our knowledge that the preparation of the wedding is still ongoing, which means you have not been effective in getting Klaus to call it off. Remember, you have less than two weeks to pull this mission off. If that wedding holds, Jasmine dies.”My eyes widened in horror as I stared at my screen. I felt hot heat seep through my veins. Kill my daughter?I rose to my feet and paced around my room. I ran a trembling hand through my hair, pulling it hard. It is true that I have been going steady with Klaus, letting him know I am interested in him, but in light of this new message, I need to do more. Maybe I need to tell him clearly how I feel about him. Yes, I have said I like him before during one of our calls, but this time, I think I need to take things a notch higher.Should I go to his house and tell him I missed him so much that I had to come to see him? No. That might escalate things pretty quickly in the
NoraWe all arrived at Jessica’s house about three hours later with the help of Frank's contact, who created a barrier into the human world. As soon as Frank heard what happened, he left everything he was doing and rushed to Klaus’ pack immediately.“Where do we go from here? How do we even know where she has taken them?” Klaus asked, pacing around the front yard of Jessica's house, visibly frustrated.Grace and Beta Ken were standing by the doorstep, Aunt Kat and Frank were by my side. Everyone was quite troubled about what was going on.Aunt Kat turned to me, “Nora, I don't know where your children are, but one thing I do know is that you have the power to find them, especially now that you have the ancient relic…” At her words, Klaus’ head snapped quickly in my direction before he rushed towards me.“Nora… you heard what your aunt said, you can find them… please find our kids! Locate where she has taken them,” he urged. I could sense the fear in his voice. I was scared too. My hea
NoraSo this is what all this was about? The reason she was doing all this, causing so much havoc, was because she wanted her daughter to be with Klaus?Wait…if that was the case, then why did they want Klaus dead too? Unless…“Yes, Claudia is my daughter, and I initially wanted her to be with Klaus, but you were in the way!” she said the last part a little scornfully as she glared daggers at me.She sighed, her anger seemingly reducing as she glanced at Kristopher with admiration in her eyes. “When Kristopher came with me, all that changed. I decided to go along with the person I knew would provide my daughter with the kind of life she truly deserves rather than leave her to someone who cared nothing about her existence,” she glared at Klaus as she said her last words.Smiling at me, she added, “It was a good trade in the end, one brother for the other.”Kristopher stepped forward, looking as impatient as could be. “Now you have your answer…it is time to get down to the business of
KlausI could see my father in the corner of the room, crying his eyes out. I was still in shock at the fact that Kristopher, my twin brother who was supposed to be dead, was standing a few centimeters in front of me, in the flesh.“We had buried him. This makes no sense. How is he still alive?” I thought. My brain was processing a lot of thoughts at once until it finally settled on one.“Yes…that had to be it. The person standing before us isn’t Kristopher. He is fake! The witch had shapeshifted someone to look like my brother, maybe to manipulate my father.”The thought of that made bile rise to my throat as I saw my father crying.“Why, Kristopher? Why did you choose this path?” my visibly broken father asked amidst tears.Kristopher's laughter rumbled, filling the entire room. I could recognize that laughter anywhere. I had lived with the owner of it for more than twenty years until his demise. That definitely belonged to my brother.“How is he even still alive?” Justin mind-linke
KlausI really didn't know who my father had in mind, but the look on his face suggested he was most certainly sure the person he was going to mention was the culprit.“Aurora… I believe she is the one,” he said confidently.Nora looked at me in surprise, as though asking if my father expected them to know who Aurora was. Her Aunt Kat, on the other hand, gritted her teeth like she knew who was being spoken of.I was utterly confused, just like the rest of the people in the room, but before I could ask my father to explain further, Beta Ken asked, “Aurora the witch?”My father simply nodded, his gaze on him.“The same person that helped you kill Nora's family?” he asked again in disbelief.“That is correct… I had wondered what the person wanted with the relic in the first place and how they even knew I still had it.” He glanced at each of us and revealed, “Aurora is the only one who knows I secretly hid that ancient relic away over there behind this room.” He pointed at a small door
NoraBeta Ken and Grace refused to go back home. They both decided to stay at my place. I had told them I was just fine being with Aunt Kat, but they refused. In Beta Ken's words, “Don’t misunderstand us, Nora. We didn’t decide to stay because we feel you won’t be okay by yourself.” He wore a surprised look on his face as though he was asking what in God's name would make me think that. “I am pretty sure you are very excited right now. By that, I mean very happy and nervous at the same time because the moment we have all been waiting for is almost here.”He looked down at his daughter and then at me as he continued, “Grace and I would love to be here for every moment of it. Isn’t that right, sweetheart?”Grace tapped his side gently. “You are absolutely right, Dad. I would love to witness the release of my baby. I want to be here to soak in all the excitement that comes with finding out Nora is finally free from the clutches of this wicked kidnapper.” She turned her gaze to me as she
NoraThe long-awaited day has finally arrived. I got a text message a few days ago from an anonymous sender, commending me on how well I had done in rejecting Klaus while also reminding me that, to get my child, they were expecting to hear news of Klaus’ death. Well, that was going to happen today.Klaus ingested the contents of the potion a few hours ago and would soon drop dead for at least 24 hours, which was enough time for everything that needed to be done.A few hours later, I was with my aunt, Grace, and Beta Ken when Justin called. I immediately answered it.“Nora, Klaus has fallen into a deep slumber…he looks pale and very much dead,” I could detect some level of fright in his voice as he continued, “Hope this is just temporary as you have said,” he added.My eyes flew up to my aunt's face, and she rolled her eyes, “He wouldn't die if that is what you are asking,” she said almost indifferently.“Nothing will happen to Klaus, Justin…he will be fine in about 24 hours,” I reassu
Klaus“I warned you, Klaus! I told you that woman is no good! To think I even started believing in the idea of both of you being together… I must…!” my father had been ranting ever since we got inside.Justin was still gobsmacked. He couldn't believe what was going on. He was, in fact, looking at me suspiciously because the way I had acted outside was quite different from the way I was acting now.I knew it was time to tell them all that was happening, but I needed my father to calm down first. He was really agitated. I wouldn't be able to get a word in with the way he was moving.“This is the second time I am getting humiliated in front of my friends! All because of my child!” he snapped, banging his hand on the couch as he glared at me. “How did you not know this was going to happen, Klaus?”Finally, he was giving me a chance to talk.But before I could even get a word in, Justin added, “Yes, Klaus? How didn't you know this was going to happen?” He cocked a brow as if asking me to s
NoraNow at home with my aunt, Grace, and Beta Ken, I still can’t believe I had been the one who said all those things unflinchingly to Klaus.“You are a badass actress, Nora,” Grace lauded, biting down on an apple as she munched.“I know, right?” her father added, smiling at me. “For a moment, I thought you meant every single word you said.”“Well, she should have!” my aunt chipped in, her voice hard. I knew she had not fully come to terms with the fact that our revenge mission against Klaus's family was suddenly supposed to be over.She had only reluctantly agreed but still harbored resentment towards them, especially Alpha Raphael. I knew it was going to take time for her to heal from what happened.I decided to change the topic to something else as her bitter words had settled in the air, providing a weird tension no one knew how to diffuse.“Is anyone else hungry? I am starving,” I said, rising to my feet. It was already 12 am.As soon as I stormed out of the field, Grace, my chie
KlausI woke up feeling very edgy. Today is the day of my supposed marriage to Nora. My father has been rather too excited about it.I have seen him having several phone calls, inviting his friends from far and near, telling them his son was getting married for real this time and explaining the reason the previous one didn't work out, which according to him was because he wanted to force me into marrying a woman I didn't love.But things were different this time as I was getting married to the woman of my dreams.Everything has been put in place. Justin has been running helter-skelter, getting things ready for the big event. He even went to our friend's bar and contracted him to be the one to supply all the drinks that would be used for the ceremony.When I asked how much they had both agreed it would cost, he had looked at me as though I had grown two heads, “Bro, you really think I would let you pay for the drinks at your wedding?” he chuckled, “Chill bro, I got this one.”Again, I